The Janskerkhof, or St John's church square, in Utrecht is my favourite square.

Not only for the plants market held there on saturdays, but also because it seems to have slightly too many trees, that also turn a lovely bright yellow at this time of year.

I have made prints picturing this place before, and was tempted again now.

It is a template print, where you cut the image from strong paper, like a jigsaw.

The pieces are then inked in their seperate colours, and printed on an etching press.

John Ruskin (1819-1900) was a man who could do anything (and did): he was an art critic, he wrote essays and poetry, and he painted watercolours.

It is this last thing that interests me most.

Ruskin painted landscapes and portraits, but I love his nature studies best. 

It can be almost meditative to look at something this close, and try to capture it. 

Ruskin was an absolute master in it.

I have written about the Brittish artist Kurt Jackson before, about his still life paintings then.

This time I want to show some of his landscape paintings.

Jackson is an environmental activist as well as a painter, and I'm not sure if I can see that in his work, or if it's just that I know.

He has done some beautiful projects anyhow, like following the river Dart, and painting along the way.

Jackson often writes in his paintings, nature observations that become the title of the work as well.

I'm not sure what I think about these scribbly additions, are they maybe a bit of a gimmick? On the other hand they seem to fit..

This weekend I accompanied Koos (Meinderts) to the Kinder- und Jugendbuch Messe in Saarbrücken, Germany.

The title of the bookfair was friendship, and they chose the illustration top left, by Józef Wilkon as their logo.

It is from the book Leopanther, which I bought immediately.

Józef Wilkon (1930) is a Polish illustrator. His work has a beautiful atmosphere, and great textures.

Something for me to drool over and learn from!

For the Grand Finale of my mini-series on small print, there can only be one star: the humble postage stamp!

It is such a pity it is rapidly becoming extinct before I have ever made one myself.

You can order stamps with your own image here in Holland, but it is not the same thing,

I always ask for nice stamps when I need some, and not the boring regular ones.

And now we're here I want to champion real mail as well!

There is nothing like getting an envelope, handwritten ofcourse, with a nice stamp, and inside a beautiful card or even (prehistoric!) a letter..

My love for small printed matter includes packaging.

I have been known to buy one orange at every stall in an Italian market, for the different wrappers,

and I like the paper bags you get stuff in. Also I love matchboxes.

Don't worry, I throw away old newspapers and am not a hoarder!

I love small printed matter, and have quite a collection of for instance fruit wrappers.

Old ones are the most beautiful, but abroad I sometimes still find beauties.

Italian lemons and blood oranges are often gorgeous little presents!

When I visited the beautiful gardens at Great Dixter some years ago, I bought a teatowel with the print above left in the unavoidable shop. 

If the image had been a drawing, I would already have been jealous of the person who had had the patience to make it, but it turned out to be a wood engraving by the Kent-based artist Sue Scullard.

After graduating in lithography and drypoint etching, I rapidly sought out the quickest way to produce prints! I am always impatient to see the end result.

Although I can be blissfully in the zone when at work, this wood engraving would drive me crazy!

(PS: I suspect the print at the right is for sale as a teatowel at Sissinghurst)

New design for a hand-painted and -stamped baby T-shirt.

Baby T-shirts can be ordered for €19,50 plus postage via the email adress on this website.

I know, I know: I have written before about both Peter Vos and the recently published book Mussenlust, but there is no-one who can draw sparrows (mussen in Dutch) like Vos did.

And in this book you can see different stages of his work, as his wife used to make scans of his sketches before he colored them in!

Vos aspired to draw the perfect sparrow, and I as a fan haven't found an imperfect one yet.