Clotheslines are one of my great loves.

What can be more beautiful than these lines of -preferably white- billowing shapes amongst the green? Like temporary architecture almost.

I've been planning to make a print or painting about it, but thus far have only used it in our picturebook De vuurtoren (The lighthouse).

Above just a small part of the clean laundry I came across.

Away with the dryer!

As I have recently been making plant still lifes myself, I stick with it for this Monday hero with the work of the British painter Olwyn Bowey (1936)

She also makes landscapes, but I fell for these beautiful still life paintings.

They have gone from the garden by now, but here are some snowdrops still.

The last little print is one I made myself a few weeks ago, in template print.

(Ofcourse you can see who made the other ones by clicking on the images)

Last thursday was the presentation of the Woutertje Pieterse Prize, Dutch literary prize for children's books.

Lepelsnijder, a book by Marjolijn Hof, illustrated by me, was one of six nominees.

The prize went to the  book Alles komt goed, altijd by Flemish writer Kathleen Vereecken and illustrator Charlotte Peys.

So we didn't win, but it was a very nice presentation, and a great day.

On our way from sunny Bologna to Basel, when the train came out of the Gotthard tunnel, the landscape suddenly looked like the painting on the top left.

It is a work by the Swiss painter Ernest Biéler (1863-1948). Top right is a self portrait.

Biéler's work is very attractive.

He paints with clear outlines which, together with the beautiful costumes of the figures, makes his work look similar to that of the Swedish painter Carl Larsson. 

It must be because it is really truly spring now: I want to get out in the garden!

And I also want a hothouse for when it is too cold still.

The print in the top right hand corner is one I did some years ago of the greenhouse at the old botanical garden in Utrecht.

And then there's greenhouses by Ravilious and Bawden, amongst others.

Yesterday at the Kunstmuseum Basel, we saw lovely landscapes again by the painter Ferdinand Hodler.

Flowers are a universal subject.

I found paintings and drawings of the stately-flamboyant Amaryllis by many artists.

And rightly so.

The first and last images are by me.

After writing about still life paintings with chairs, we stay with still lifes for a bit.

These paintings by Nathalie du Pasquier (France 1957) attract me hugely, although I can't tell you exactly why.

I'll try anyway: I love the way she uses very everyday, modern objects in her work; a bottle of glue,

an orange plastic bowl, a coffee cup.

Her work has the same calm as Morandi's.

Du Pasquier worked first as a designer and was one of the founders of the Milan based Memphis group.

Some time ago I made a still life of a plate of pears that I put on a chair.

I put it there, so I could look down on the plate, and because a chair has a nicer shape than a flat table.

Well, there were more people who thought so! The more I looked, the more chairs I came across that were not sat on.

Sometimes a plate or vase is put on them, or just an apple, and sometimes you can hardly see the chair.