Meeting Holly Becker

 Holly signs for a happy Franca of Villa d"Esta

 Bloggers Unite!

 Karine Candice Kong with Kelly Hoppen's social

media representative Jadis Tillery of Dot Talent

With  Kate Baxter (Fabric of my Life) and 

Arianna Trapani (Ariana Interiors)

 All smiles with Holly

 

having fun with Franca

 

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On Saturday I attended a fabulous event: Meet The Blogger Amsterdam, organized by Lise of Urban Style Vibes and Holly Becker of Decor8. Over 120 bloggers attended the event. It was great to finally meet so many colleagues face to face, including Karine Candance Kong of Bodie and Fou, Danielle de Lange of The Style Files, Carole King of Dear Designer's blog and Franca de Jonge of Villa d'Esta.
Holly gave an inspirational talk about how she changed drastically changed her life and dropped a corporate career to pursue her dreams. A girl after my own heart! After her talk she did a signing session for her book "Decorate" a must have style bible for the home which she wrote together with the lovely Joanna Copestick. The book is filled with beautiful pictures, great decorating advice and wonderful quotes and insights from some of the world's best designers, including Jonathan Adler and Betsy Burnham.
Decorate is amongst others available through Amazon.

Painting away....

Believe it or not but YES I still find time to create "free" work. It is something I actually need, painting in total freedom. No time pressure, no instructions, no rules, just paint, following my instinct, boosting my creativity. I am showing you one of the paintings I am working on at the moment. It is not quite finished. I am still missing something, but I haven't quite figured it out yet. In order to find out what it is missing I have hung it on my wall in stead of leaving it on the easel. It is a great little trick that helps me to see my work from a different angle. What also helps is photographing the painting frequently while in progress. A photograph enables me to distance myself from my work and helps me to finally dare to take the decision that a works is finished (I can be my most brutal critic)!

Morning Coffee (a New York International Gift Fair sneak peek)!

 working on the original design

finished design

I am an addict. I have to admit that when I don't have my latte in the morning I don't function properly. I just love that moment when I switch on my Nespresso machine, foaming some milk and then accompanied with a slice of "peperkoek" (a typical Dutch breakfast cake) hit my desk, sipping coffee while doing my mail.
Especially for that moment I designed a small tray measuring 20x27cm. Just big enough for a nice cup (or two) and a treat. The tray is handmade out of birchwood in Scandinavia and eco-friendly. It will be making its debut at the New York International Gift Fair in August (13-18) as part of my new Abstract collection of trays and pillows. Soon available through various retailers worldwide or alternatively my webstore. (pssssst and mum you know the even better part of this functional little work of art.... no more stains on my antique desk! :)).

For wholesale enquiries kindly send and e-mail to info@mariskameijers.com.

Happy Father's Day!

with my dad (April 2011)

Love you dad! xox

Painting For Charity

 

 
I receive regular requests to donate artwork for charity auctions, but a few weeks back I got an unusual request from The Orange Babies Foundation .... if I could paint some ostrich eggs. I reluctantly said yes, not because I did not want to support the cause, but simply because I had no clue how to tackle the eggs. I have no experience when it comes to painting 3 dimensional objects. I love my canvases, and I love them big. My favourite medium is oils but because of the time pressure I needed to work with acrylics. The eggs were staring at me and I was staring back. Yesterday the foundation came to pick up the result: 3 ikat inspired eggs. Off they went to join the other art eggs by, amongst others, fashion illustrator Piet Paris, tattoo artist Hollywood Mark and painters Ans Markus and Menno Schenk that have participated in this project. The eggs will be sold during the Orange Babies Gala on June 25 and one of my favourites is Hollywood Mark's tattood egg!

* The Orange Babies Foundation was established to help HIV infected women and their babies in Africa. Orange Babies also supports children infected with the virus or otherwise directly affected.

Wonderful mention in ELLE Decor's Design Insiders' Weekly Finds!

 

Lily and Molly modelling an Ada and Darcy  sea blue dog bed 

(and in the corner a glimpse of my Painted Ikat pillow also available through Ada and Darcy)

ELLE Decor Design Insiders' Weekly Finds

Where would I be without great clients and fans! To quote Kellie Collis of stylish blog and webstore Ada and Darcy in ELLE Decor's Design Insiders' weekly finds:
“Being a lover of all things colorful, I adore artist Mariska Meijers' home. I have absolutely no talent with a paint brush, so it's wonderful to see Mariska work her magic around her house.”
As you may guess this quote made me silent, especially as I was having one of those days feeling totally insecure, juggling too many things at the same time, feeling that I am not getting anywhere, totally unhappy with my own work.....
So thank you Kellie for this warm encouragement, for your support both in words and in action!
Wishing everyone a lovely weekend. The sun is out here in Amsterdam, my bike is ready to roll to a nice outdoor restaurant along one of the canals. xxx