I finally had time to scan the papers of my marbling session in May (link to previous blogpost here). Some of these are lighter than most of my previous marbles, particularly the yellow ones, which I'm really happy about: light marbled papers are better as backgrounds. I'm looking forward to using these for cover designs and as backdrops to my illustrations. 

During the scanning process I rediscovered old marblings in an art folder, made back in 2016-2018. I've scanned those as well, which can be viewed below. Several of these would make great bookmarks.

Three of my drawings were used as illustrations for surreal poems by Mhiera den Blanken and Wouter Dalem on the website of Dutch digital cultural magazine De Optimist. Thank you to the editors of the magazine and in particular to Zep de Bruyn (instagram.com/zepdebruyn) who personally got me involved.

I was impressed by the poetry of both Mhiera and Wouter. Two poems in particular struck a chord with me: "Wildernistrek" by Mhiera, which reminded me of the atmosphere in my drawing "Roots" (above, middle), and "Bd" by Wouter for which I chose my drawing "Drie tongen" (above, right).

Mhiera den Blanken's poetry can be read by clicking here.
Wouter Dalem's poetry can be read by clicking here. 

Yesterday, on 4th of June, Justyna and I gave our first workshop on paper marbling, also known as Turkish marbling (ebru) and suminagashi. It took place in Galerie de Stoker at Witte de Withstraat 124 in Amsterdam, as part of the art expo “Colourful Art on Paper” by Philo Ouweleen.

It was a great success. We were fully booked with seven people that signed up. They all showed up, and an extra participant even walked in to ask if we still had another spot left. Since we brought eight trays to marble in, one extra tray to do a small demonstration in at the start of the workshop, we gladly let her take part. After a short introduction, all participants were eager to get their hands dirty and immersed themselves in the marbling arts. Justyna and I assisted where necessary and gave some tips on techniques and how to smoothly print the designs on paper. We saw so many smiles and excited faces. Everyone genuinely seemed to enjoy it and some people even said that they'd like to do it again. All our preparation paid off. It was a good day. We might have to do it again.

Below some more photos of the workshop and the marbled papers of the participants: