"Stay positive, no matter what..."

"... but I don't always practice what I priest, but I try." - Astrid van Dien

Astrid, the mother of a good friend of mine, has a colorful appearance and is full of creativity. She paints and does all sorts of hand-craft: dolls, postcards, jewelries, mandalas, shawls, you name it!
When I'm visiting her, I'm bound to find a wet oil-painting standing in the room to dry or a partly finished crochet creation. The cozy little living room is as an art gallery in itself. In combination with the hospitality, friendliness and great food, a visit to Astrid is a real pleasure!

Astrid really enjoys giving, to me and many others.
She has been a real stimulance for me to continue creating art. She always has a compliment ready and even given me professional art-materials. Her support and trust have made me to take creating art more serious. Which translated in the creation of this website.

In honor of her I've made a portrait, which she accepted in great gratitude and emotion...

Thank you Astrid!

Hopefully soon I am able to add a link where to find the beautiful art-work of this hidden pearl from The Hague.

Find out more about the creation of this portrait at: The making of - Astrid van Dien

Feel free to drop me a line or two! :-)

Wed, 13 Apr '16personMelissa

Dear Sabine,

First of all, I apologise for making you wait so long for a post from me. I feel like such a bad friend. So what better way to make up for my mistake then to wait for your birthday. This way it will be extra sentimental (still have five minutes left, don’t think I can make it but I’ll try to post it at 00:00)
I remember, when you were in the proces of making my mother, that you made this remark about the fact that you were just copying an image from a photo . Like you were saying that you can only be a true artist with talent if you were able to draw someone with just an image that you had in your mind. So without a reference so to speak.
Well I centainly hope that you’ve changed that perspective about yourself (and I mean your raw talent ofcourse) by now because otherwise you wouldn’t have made this beautiful website and call it your own.

Wed, 13 Apr '16Sabine

Dear Melissa, haha thank you for your sweet comment . Too bad there is no time showed in the comment.. But I do believe you! You are such a great friend...

Wed, 13 Apr '16personMelissa

And to make someone come alive ON PAPER requires talent! And that is what I see when I look at my mother in this drawing. It not just a copy. When I look at this portret I don’t see just any woman….I see my mom. Unmistakable.

Wed, 13 Apr '16Sabine

Thank you! That is such a big compliment from her very own daughter!

Wed, 13 Apr '16personMelissa

Ok....this is really crappy because I was able to post this message at exactly 00:00 hours....but noooo of course not.....this pop up stated that I had more than 1000 characters. So I had to post it in several messages instead of just one. Please tell Sander to look into this!!! This is unacceptable

Wed, 13 Apr '16Sabine

I believe you!

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