Chased...

It's never safe in the woods...

Merry Christmas

At the drawing and paint classes I give we made an illustration with watercolour, inkpen and pastel. You can read the little story here.


I wish you a very nice Christmas and hope new windows and doors will open up for you in the new year - opportunities to see dreams fulfilled!

Saint Nicolas

A couple of weeks ago we welcomed Saint Nicolas in Ommen. Today I found some old photo's of myself 'celebrating' the Dutch festivity. (I was very sad because my teacher was going to be taken to Spain in a bag by St Nicolas' helpers(I realise it sounds terrible if you're not Dutch...))


This year I was suprised by a feeling I got when Saint Nicolas shouted "Hello, mr. de Bruin" to me while going through the streets! I knew the actor, but felt so happy and exited that he KNEW MY NAME... It was such a funny experience - suddenly I was that little boy again!! Ha ha ha

Leaving the path

Some weeks ago I spent a couple of days in Germany. The sight and smell of the trees and hills invited me to enter their world of beauty. One thing I always do when I go for a walk in an unknown area is to ‘leave the path’, and discover my own… I can’t resist the adventure of entering and discovering the unknown.


One of the books I am reading at the moment is ‘Maps of the imagination: the writer as cartographer’ by Peter Turchi – an inspiring book about mapmaking, creative processes, and the different ways of observing and visualising the real or imaginary world around us. It seems that no matter how many discoveries we make as human beings, we keep on telling ourselves we’ve reached the end of the knowable world. At page 226 its about developments in science and the limitations of current technology.
- The genome map and tools like the Hubble telescope don’t merely allow us to see what we know more clearly; they give us a sense of all we don’t know. “Whenever we couldn’t conceive of what’s out there,” writes Richard Panek, “it was because we didn’t yet understand what the preconceptions might be that were restricting our view.” Which is to say, Seeing is an art which must be learned and relearned.-

While I say “I can’t resist the adventure of entering and discovering the unkown” I realise at the same time that I am terrified to do that with planning my daily life and imagining my future… While being encouraged by some positive experiences, I am also overwhelmed by the limitations and the fear I had with gaining them.
I long to discover new worlds; the possibilities of my life, but to do so I have to encourage myself to leave the path which I restrict myself to...

Joie de vivre

Last Thursday night I went to the citycentre of Breda on my own. With the purpose to enjoy the special shops my eye caught the other day and to wander around.
I saw quite some shops with cooking utensils, but also with books, and other specific things. I bought a 2nd hand book about Chagall and 2 sketchbooks (but couldn't find a book about combining flavours and herbs where I was looking for too).
It was such a beautiful night... I sat at a cafe with a coffee, felt the soft rain, a breeze, watched the few people on the streets, enjoyed the colours of the lights, and the shops. While sitting down with my coffee the moment made me think about a piece of mixed art or music. The combination of lots of different elements playing together; colours, shapes, lines, everything together. Also the combination of hearing, sight, touch, smell and taste.
To 'be aware' of them opens a door to a whole new world...

Sipping sun and beauty on a few summer days

Beautiful summerdays in Brabant, the Southern part of the Netherlands where I grew up. This is a short impression of beauty I enjoyed:
pic 1 - Some hours spend on a sand-drift. Fine sand, little toy cars, a bright sun, a soft breeze and a beautiful and inspiring book (My name is Asjer Lev - Chaim Potok (Thanks for lending it out to me A, only a few pages left...)
pic 2 - I tasted these little blackberries and the flavour made me remember a time about 27 years ago, walking in a forest with my grand mother and enjoying these little berries.
pic 3 - I was surrounded with lots of wild flowers. I wasn't the only one who enjoyed them!

Cats and dogs

In English there is a saying which we don't have in Dutch: "It's raining cats and dogs". Today it was another day of this weather type... Worth an illustration!

Opening a window

Beside the disappointment of discovering a parking ticket on my window and quit a lot of wind and rain (which actually can be very beautiful), I wandered and sat the biggest chunk of the day in a enchanting utopian world. A very beautiful day with a great friend.





I remember the excitement I had as a child when opening up the little windows on an advent calendar. Every morning I couldn’t wait to open a new one! (this old postcard I bought made me think of that joy as a child)
Some moments in life have a very similar effect. Suddenly I discover little windows all around me...
This day had lot's of little chocolates in it!

Boat trip

Last weekend we went for a little boat trip; my father, my boys and I. What a beautiful day to be on the water. I love the joyfull moment of standing still, feeling the waves playing with the boat, the sun touching my skin and the sound of my children having fun.
They were playing with their little boats - catching gigantic waves. Great fun!





(last picture by Dick Bruna)

The zoo and a special picknick

A couple of weeks ago I visited the zoo with my boys. A great day with a special end; we had a pancake picknick with a number of friends - great friends... with small appetite;-). Pancakes for everyone!! Hmmmmm...

Unfinished projects

I tend to hide my work from the public till it's perfect... Such a pitty! Because most of the time it ends on the pile of unfinished work. I started with this short (unfinished!) story a while ago, but I decided I had to break with the habit.
Hope you enjoy reading, listening and watching this story!


Little bird
Sef decided to close his eyes for a couple of minutes and he took a deep breath. While he was standing on one of the paths in ‘his’ big forest, he felt the warm sun touching his face. He could stand here forever!
Beside the sound of the soft wind blowing through the leaves, he heard an orchestra of birds singing. One of them sang very special. She wasn’t as loud as others but he could hear her very clearly.
Sef could recognise a lot of birds by their song, but he couldn’t identify this one. It sounded a little bit like the song of the Red pimpled green beak, but was much more intriguing. The more he was aware of her voice, the more it stirred his soul. He was tempted to believe that the bird was singing especially for him. It even looked like… hey… he knew that song. Sef kept his eyes closed, slowly took his violin from his back, and while the song of the bird danced through his head, his notes gently joined.
He played note after note, verse after verse. The music played in his head and flew through his fingers and violin into the sky where it melted together with the warm sunlight, the fragrance of the trees and flowers and the enchanting songs of the birds. Everything in the forest danced. He didn’t see it, but he felt it. Everything was spinning around him. And as he opened his eyes, he saw that all his friends had joined him. Bear, Fox, the twin rabbits and all the others. What a beautiful day!

The little things...

When I looked up into the sky I stood still for a couple of seconds. A spring sky and the sound of a little bird came my way. So incredibly beautiful! I almost missed it!