Plants are wonderful models...

Plants at home and at my work are very obvious. My mother had many plants at home. And I too. I cannot imagine a house without plants, it is in my opinion, no home. It is incomplete. My own plants are often used as models for my drawings, paintings and linocuts. Even plants that I meet in nature, in zoos and botanic gardens. It is for me relax to study and sketch plants at home, anywhere outdoors or in greenhouses. And they are perfect models because they do not move!
It is wonderful in the greenhouses of Zoo Blijdorp where birds fly freely and walk around. If I’m drawing there, it is nice to hear their sounds and to enjoy their presence. And the plants usually smell very nice at the end of the day.

For plants in  some of my paintings see my Flickr: monkeys, Night walk and Summer.

A few examples of sketches made between 2004 and 2011:

In the Botanic Garden in Leiden:

Linocut of my Succulent plants (leporello book): Watching the clouds on the windowsill. At Flickr is also a linocut with my Monstera deliciosa in the foregrong.

In Zoo Blidorp, Rotterdam

In Zoo Artis, Amsterdam

Trees in my work

Trees are fascinating in their diversity. They are symbol of strength and steadfastness. A tree with strong roots in the earth can against winds. But a tree is also protection: birds make their nests in the tasks and different animals live in the cavities of the trunk  In the summer trees provide cooling for everyone. De flowers and fruit of fruit trees are not only beautiful but also important for animals and men.
Here are a small selection of sketches, watercolors and woodcuts of trees that I made between 1988 (one of my first woodcuts) and 2011 (sketches). For paintings see also my flickr: summer, red pandas, owl, lemur, night and end of autumn.

Polder van Biesland (near Delft)

Elsenburger Bos

Along the canal in Delft, with my dog Ping-Aan.

"Perseverance", woodcut, 1988

"Tranquility" (near the house of my parents), woodcut in two colors, 1989

"Recognition", linocut in three colors, 1992

Hortus Leiden

Rotterdam Zoo (Diergaarde Blijdorp)

Also Rotterdam Zoo (Diergaarde Blijdorp)

"Autumn", watercolor, 1992

When I walked with my dog Ping-Aan, I  gathered these beautiful autumn leaves.
Watercolor, 2004

Also watercolor of 2004.

Rosemarijn van Limburg Stirum (site and blog) is working on a new project on fruits of Indonesia (she was born there). We were in Xodus, an exotic plant shop in Delft, to draw banana trees and other plants. Photo of Rosemarijn making a watercolor.

Photo of Angela, making a sketch.

Sketch of a banana tree from Xodus.

Also a sketch of a banana tree from Xodus.