Owl with a jabot

For the promotion of the art historian Andréa A. Kroon I made a box based on historical Japanese lacquer boxes with Masonic symbols.
Andréa A. Kroon was promoted on the thesis 'Masonic networks, material culture & international trade. The participation of Dutch freemasons in the cultural & commercial exchange with Southeast Asia, 1735-1853'.
This is the formal title of the book. This describes in some 900 pages, the creation of Masonic lodges along the trade route to India, Ceylon, Dutch East Indies, Japan and China. These lodges had many VOC personnel and later traders as members. They have created a special material culture of lodge buildings on Java to Japanese lacquer with Masonic symbols.
On the box I painted Masonic symbols, flowers and an owl with a jabot, in reference to the professorship.
The box contains a ceramic Dodo sculpture (Andréa is a huge Dodo fan) and a porcelain bowl, on which I painted Masonic symbols and "Chinese clouds".

More information about the work of art historian Andréa A. Kroon you can find here:

http://www.kroonwagtberghansen.nl/
http://www.kwh-nieuws.blogspot.nl/

Size of the box 37 x 25 x 9 cm oil on wood, 2015

The bowl is made from porcelain, with underglaze cobalt painting

The Dodo is made of ceramics with Majolica painting

And the winner is.....

On 25th of October the awards ceremony for the Piket Kunstprijzen took place at Theater Diligentia in The Hague. Before I spent busy months sculpting, glazing and making wooden boxes for the ceramic awards.
In the photo down below you see the winner in the category painting, Lennart Lahuis.

More information about the Piket Kunstprijzen (Piket Art prizes), and especially the winners:
http://www.piketkunstprijzen.nl/winnaars-2015 (only in Dutch)

A family gathering on a day in early spring

The last few months I worked quietly on this painting. I could not show anything of it as it was commissioned by the client as a present for his daughter's graduation at the University of Leiden. It is loosely based on a large family portrait from the 1860's.

Een familiebijeenkomst op een vroege lentedag
A family gathering on a day in early spring
60 x 40 cm oil on canvas 2015

Piket Art prizes, the first award

These are new pictures of the first of three awards that I am working on for the Piket Kunstprijzen.
http://www.piketkunstprijzen.nl/

It's not all gold that glitters

This is what kept me busy this summer.
Last two months I have mainly been working on four awards for the Piket Art Prizes. The first one has just came out of the kiln (three firings, bisquit, glaze and goldluster).
The basic shapes of the awards are thrown by potter/designer Norman Trapman and I am decorating and sculpting the award.
The first one will be presented at Museum Mesdag during the Den Haag Museumnacht (Museumnight) on September 5th 2015, on that evening the nominees will be presented as well.
An interview with me about this project, with even more work in progress pictures you can find here: http://www.piketkunstprijzen.nl/het-kunstwerk-van-2015-het-fantastische-circus-van-pepijn-van-den-nieuwendijk

A conversation about circus, ceramics, dragons and Felicien Rops

Let the trumpets blare! I'm on Youtube! I am featured in the August 2015 episode of ‘De kleine K’, the Independent Digital Ceramic Magazine. http://www.dekleinek.nl/ and they made a video documentary/interview about me and my work.
Below you can watch the interview, especially made for ‘De kleine K’.

  

Building a lady

Assembling of my 'Lady and her dwarf' sculpture at Diederiks Fine Art in Den Haag.