Exhibition, mice and face painting

Next weekend will be the opening night of my latest exhibition! I'm very excited about it as it is the largest collection of my paintings that I have ever shown. Anyone who finds themselves in the neighborhood of Amsterdam is most welcome to come and see it. I will be there from 18.00 to 19.00; I will also be celebrating my birthday that night!

I also managed to find time to make some new mice for my shop! Cpt. Jack Sparrow mouse, Photographer Mouse female and Mother & Baby Mouse. I'm so pleased with how they all came out. If you want more info or more to see them from other angles go to www.thehouseofmouse.etsy.com.

One of the other things I do to earn some extra money is work as a children’s face painter. Since I have over 15 years of experience with painting, the transition to painting faces was pretty simple. The only differences are that my new canvas is three dimensional and often likes to wriggle around while I try to paint it!

I love face painting, it is fun and I get to work with kids all day! I also get to paint the odd adult too sometimes. I work one regular shift a week at the Hard Rock cafe in Amsterdam every Sunday afternoon. It's only for four hours and I get a free meal out of it too. I little regular income is always a good thing for an artist, since we regularly don't know where the next paycheck is coming from.

Today I not only had my Hard Rock booking but also an earlier booking with a private party as well. Private children’s parties are great! Although today’s one was a bit hair-raising. The lady who made the booking would have loved for me to be able to stay longer, but since I have a longstanding agreement with the Hard Rock I could only stay for one and a half hours. It was a big party, with an equal number of parents who wanted to get their faces painted as children! When I was finished there was a large selection of boys and girls with princess, tiger, cheater, dinosaur and Spiderman faces. And to add to this mix there where also a few 30-something women with sparkly pink butterflies on their faces, and several 30-something men with puppy dog faces - complete with pink tongue hanging out! Once I was done I had to race off on my bike to the Hard Rock for my other shift.

One party on its own is more than manageable, but I always find myself drained after 2 in a row! But was worth it though for the extra money, which can go towards all the new frames I needed for my exhibition paintings!