05 May 2026
Drop by at my stand this weekend and you can take one of these handprinted little greeting cards for your best mother in the whole world. Hope to see you at the Spring Art Fair in the Johanneskerk in Laren. Of course there will be all kinds of beautiful art presents to see and available to buy.
Hope to see you there!
25 April 2026
The grumpiest waterfowl on every canal and pond.
Territorially very intolerant with a fiery red eye. Not interested in building a nest. The one on our neighbourhood pond was probably deaf, too. The nest was built right next to the fountain’s nozzle. The constant clatter of the falling water apparently didn’t interest them one bit.
And such sweet little chicks, eh? Would the red on their little heads be the same as the red in the eye of the adult coot?
Technically speaking, this print is a textbook example of ‘white is the hardest color’. The paper already is white, so that white forehead and beak would blend right in with the light color of the paper. That’s why this coot is looking back, so that the white parts would contrast against the black plumage.
Another characteristic is, of course, those very long, lobed toes. Here too, I had to find a solution to show two legs without getting bogged down in a tangle of toes, or making it look like it was roller skating.
23 April 2026
What does it mean to do creative work, when many of the parameters for the work are, by design, as yet undefined?
One useful approach is to timebox the work. Allow for around two and a half hours of dedicated work on The Thing. You’ll often need at least an hour just to activate enough of the necessary ingredients before you can start cooking.
When I’m making prints that means it takes a good hour for there to be ink on a large enough number of printable elements that allow for interesting combinations to emerge.
Then from that point on there’s another hour or so of energy and attention available in which the new thing may happen, the work can be teased to the surface.
Go on longer and mistakes of the kind you don’t want will start to happen, possibly ruining that piece that was quite good already.
A session is two and a half hours long, and that takes about three hours. Work through that first hour to activate the materials and ideas, then go with the flow for another hour or so. Then wrap up.
The unit of creative work is a session.
21 April 2026
European Herring Gull number fifteen is about to fly out. Only five remaining. Bonne voyage!
21 April 2026
Operational. Maybe not quite finished yet, but operational. Compare this with two weeks ago.
Saturday 30 May will be open house at VONK 3. You’re invited to drop by and check the state of things in real life!
20 April 2026
Look at it, studiously not watching you :)
Every print in the 50 Birds series comes mounted in a 24 x 30 cm matte. This is a standard size for frames so you can find the exact right one.
Here you see it framed in a brushed aluminium frame with non-reflective glass. Once I had seen the difference between regular glass and this type of museum glass, there was no way back. It is so much easier on the eyes. Makes all the difference in actually being able to see and enjoy the work it protects.
I’ll go into a bit more detail about the origins and process for this print. Subscribe here to get that delivered to your inbox: https://blog.royscholten.nl/newsletter/
18 April 2026
A design study for the Little Owl print. The overall posture and shape are allmost in place here, but as you can see, I was still figuring out the right approach for the eyes and beak. The frontal view made it hard to style the beak and that’s why I eventually ended up designing a three-quarter view.
16 April 2026
2026 is the year of the Little Owl in The Netherlands. This means more attention and research for the smallest owl in the country.
I made this Little Owl print in 2019, as part of the 50 birds series. I printed a limited edition of twenty, of which now only two remain. Unique: this is the only print in the series in which both eyes are shown.
Buy art, support owl: When you buy one of these last prints I will make a donation to the supporting organisations.
If you’re interested, contact me.
07 April 2026
This was the personal studio space since the start of the year. A cozy setup in the attic at home. Always meant to be temporary and indeed, the end of this is in sight as my new space in VONK 3 is now ready to be furnished.
So far I have removed all the carpet tiles, moved in some tables and chairs and put some white paint on the walls.
Very much looking forward to be able to work there.
Update: two weeks later.
29 March 2026
Printing to clean the forme gets interesting results at times.