Publishers link up with techies to ‘renew the book’

 1st October 2015

E-readers, tablets, blogs and even online video have shaken up book publishing over the past decade.

Esther O’Toole has been finding out about a Dutch competition that seeks to drive innovation in the industry and is backed by publishers themselves.

It seems almost unthinkable that it was less than 10 years ago that the first effective e-readers came on the market, followed swiftly by the first iPhone and other smart phones with e-reader capacities. Now, reading on your phone, tablet or laptop comes as naturally to many people as picking up a book.

However, the question of whether digital books and magazines mean the end is nigh for traditional print media has still to resolve itself. As smart phones have become bigger and better, e-reader sales have begun to slow. The number of e-book sales in comparison to hard copy sales is still steadily increasing though, with 7% of the Dutch consumer market being in e-books at the end of 2014.

Traditional publishers are aware of the need for innovation in their industry and have now teamed up with the start-up gurus of Rockstart to stimulate further change.

‘Everywhere in the world publishers, whether in news, music or books, struggle with the internet,’ says Wiet de Bruijn, chairman of the Dutch publishers’ association GAU. ‘With the Renew the Book project we say we want to stimulate change and we are not afraid to admit that the best ideas might come from outside the publishing industry.’

Challenges

Digitised reading has affected the business models of publishers, book marketeers, libraries and book shops. The global book market is worth in the region of €89m  annually, so there is plenty at stake and a big incentive for rejuvenation.

‘The first big wave of disruption has hit its peak, so this is a good time for Renew the Book and to start looking for new, long term, sustainable methodologies in publishing,’ says Rockstart’s Christoph Auer-Welsbach, who is running the competition. ‘It’s clear from changes in the music industry that a lot can go wrong if you’re not prepared to innovate.’

‘Publishers need to re-examine their value proposition and think where they can improve upon it for the industry, authors and readers. The experience of reading a book needs to shift. I want different reading experiences for different times in my day, in my life,’ says Auer-Welsbach.

Rockstart is putting its very best publishing gurus and years of experience in the hands of the Renew the Book winners. In turn, the publishers are providing a €15k non-refundable grant to allow the winning team to build a solid and sustainable foundation for their new business.

So, what are they looking for?

Renew the Book aims to be low risk for entrants and thereby as accessible as possible. The aim is to find ‘revolutionary ideas’ so the scope is wide open.

Ideas might range from new forms of marketing that help book stores reinvent themselves and encourage in-store purchases, alternative ways to manage the publication process from start to finish or how gaming could be used to encourage children to keep reading.

‘While the ways we publish and consume books are changing due to technology, the stories themselves help us understand the world we live in,’ says Auer-Welsbach. ‘We strongly believe books have been and will stay important for us as human beings.

For more information, visit www.renewthebook.com

Deadline for applications October 12.

Read more at DutchNews.nl: Publishers link up with techies to ‘renew the book’ http://www.dutchnews.nl/features/2015/10/publishers-link-up-with-techies-to-renew-the-book/

Dutch company launches plan for recycled

plastic roads 

BusinessLife & Culture September 17, 2015    

An artist's impression of how the plastic roads would work.

Dutch company KWS Infra is developing a new sort of road made from recycled plastic. This, the company says, will not only cut down on plastic waste but reduce CO2 output from road building and usage, and make roads more sustainable and safer. Esther O’Toole reports. 

An estimated eight billion tons of plastic is floating around in the oceans and 55% of our plastic waste is still incinerated. Innovative Dutch companies have been busy looking at feasible ways of fishing the plastic out of the sea and shipping it to shore. Now KWS Infra, part of the VolkerWessels construction group and the biggest road builder in the Netherlands, has come up with a plan to turn that kind of plastic waste into roads. 

The roads themselves would be made from prefab sections prepared offsite from 100% recycled plastic and brought en masse to the building site, with road markings and guard rails already in place. Being light weight and easy to transport they could take months off construction times. 

The fabric is thought to be more durable than asphalt and needs little or no maintenance, being weather proof and impervious to weeds. The other major advantage is that they are hollow allowing space for piping, electric cables and – another hot topic for VolkerWessels – internet connections. 

Internet 

VolkerWessels is now investing in multiple projects for urban renewal and connected city innovation, including placing internet receivers along roads, be they antennas and masts or embedded in street lights and wind turbines. Plastic roads fit into this picture perfectly. If the space inside the decking could also be used to house net connectors, losing reception in a tunnel would become a thing of the past. 

Driverless cars, cheap and affordable ones too, will be on the open market as early as next year. What benefits will be reaped from these innovative technologies when they begin to converge? With uninterrupted mobile internet connections along all main highways, a long commute could be set to become the most productive part of the day. 

No wonder then that VolkerWessels is not having trouble garnering interest for their projects. Rotterdam city council was the first to show interest in piloting the PlasticRoad, in early July. 

Interest 

Since then the company has had interest from cities all over the world and are looking to finalise partnerships with plastics and recycling experts soon, spokesman Anne Koudstaal told DutchNews.nl. The aim is to have a team in place by December and to run a feasibility pilot within three years. 

‘We are feeling very positive about it,’ he said. ‘All the good reactions [to July’s announcement] are a huge boost for us and the idea. It makes it all seem so much more realisable.’ 

If all goes to plan, the roads themselves may in turn be recyclable. This would bring PlasticRoad completely in line with the ‘cradle to cradle’ notions of the circular economy being implemented by other innovative ideas such as The Ocean Clean Up Project and the Plastic Madonna art project. 

The Netherlands, despite being one of the smallest countries in the developed world by land mass, has one of the highest carbon footprints per capita; especially in relation to fossil fuel use and cement production. Cutting emissions related to road usage and building would seriously reduce that footprint. Especially when one considers that the road network in the country covers approximately 135,470 km and most of it is tarmacked.

Read more at DutchNews.nl: Dutch company launches plan for recycled plastic roads http://www.dutchnews.nl/features/2015/09/dutch-company-launched-plan-for-recycled-plastic-roads/

A Super Seaweed Supper

Pioneering Dutch enterprise sets out to put seaweed on the table.

By Esther O’Toole

Do you eat seaweed? No? Are you sure? Only around sushi? Well, think again.  Seaweed is found in many consumer products from ice cream and processed foods, to vitamin supplements, toothpaste, mascara and biofuel.

What is more, being a sustainable crop, it reduces fresh water, land, and fertilizer usage. This versatile and tasty resource is drawing a lot of interest in international agricultural circles, including one prominent Dutch enterprise, The North Sea Farm Foundation (Stichting Noordzee Boerderij). North Sea Farm have been testing the nutrient rich waters north of Texel, with a view to getting seaweed on more Dutch plates in the very near future.

Initially set up by Marcel Schuttelaar, of Schuttelaar & Partners, the foundation launched a proof of concept mission last November. Using two different growing platforms (one static, one flexible) and two varieties of edible kelp, they set out with the purpose of discovering whether the rough North Sea was suitable for this kind of offshore agriculture.

This month’s first successful harvest seems to indicate that it does. Having laid 10 m of line in the hopes of growing 1 kg of usable product, they ended up with 15 kg!

Koen van Swam, of North Sea Farm, told Dutch News that the partly crowdfunded project was now heading towards scaling up. The June crop is being independently tested for nutritional value and consumer safety and a second harvest is planned for October.

Harmony and Collaboration

Seaweed cultivation can work in harmony with both nature and existing offshore industries like fisheries, sea energy and conservation. It is a challenging spot to cultivate with waves that vary in size from 1m to a whopping 6m, which can sometimes make access to the platforms difficult. However, unlike more sheltered European growing areas (for instance in Norway and The Shetlands) the North Sea offers real space to spread out.

‘This is really pioneering’ said, van Swam. ‘If we can grow it here, we can grow it anywhere!’

He went on to explain that this industry offers the chance for entrepreneurs from many traditionally strong Dutch trades, such as maritime transport, fishing, mussel farming and agrofood, to collaborate. North Sea Farm expects to help create jobs and offer fantastic growth potential for all partners across the supply chain.

This year the global seaweed market for human consumption was estimated at nearly $ 6 million (USD). The Dutch Government are conducting research of their own and have estimated that there is scope for up to 400 km2 of seaweed fields off the Dutch North coast by 2050, with no discernible negative impact. Seaweed is regularly used by fish as a nursery, so the impact could in fact be a positive one.

North Sea Farm is equally ambitious as they set out to raise in the region of € 400,000 for expansion, hoping the green initiative’s early success will encourage new investors. That amount would allow them to grow 5,000-10,000 kg of seaweed by next season. If they’re successful then you will be needing a copy of the seaweed cook book they’re working on, as it seems highly likely that this nutritious new superfood could be coming to a Dutch dining room near you, very soon.

http://www.noordzeeboerderij.nl/

Science and technology still fail to attract Dutch female students

August 7^th, 2015

Photo: jvanderwolf via Depositphotos

For all its innovative work in tech, engineering and the sciences, the Netherlands lags behind in encouraging women into these fields. Esther O’Toole talks to some of the women working to right the balance.

Last month there was uproar in the international science community when Nobel Prize winning biochemist Tim Hunt stood up in front of a conference of science journalists in Seoul, South Korea and said:

‘Let me tell you about my trouble with girls … three things happen when they are in the lab … You fall in love with them, they fall in love with you and when you criticise them, they cry.’

In the ensuing media storm, Dutch newspaper the Volkskrant said: ‘One thing is certain: Hunt’s remarks…touch on something bigger than himself. He unleashed a worldwide discussion over sexism and gender…in the sciences.’

Scientists

In 2010, figures from Unesco showed the Netherlands had fewer female science graduates than any other country in the world.

Though the representation varies across the different specialities and in some fields there are undoubtedly more women than in others, for a country that considers itself generally open-minded, egalitarian and educationally advanced, last place seems pretty damning.

Dutch government figures show that since 2007, the number of girls opting for technical courses at havo secondary schools has risen from 15% to 26% and at pre-university vwo secondary schools from 20% to 38%.

Around one in five girls now study technical subjects at vocational or hbo colleges. However, the number of female students taking technical courses at university has remained the same, at 26%. So progress is being made in the Netherlands but very slowly. There is a desperate need for more science and engineering graduates to fill the growing number of jobs in the science and technological fields, so why are girls and young women so reluctant to take up these subjects?

Role models

A study published by Northwestern University in the US at the beginning of May found that the Dutch were the most likely to associate the sciences with men and masculinity. The report concluded that this kind of ‘explicit’ stereotyping is an indicator of biased hiring and a lack of encouragement for girls towards engineering and the sciences.

VHTO, a Dutch expert advocacy group for women in science, says self-confidence, fertility/lifestyle issues and the necessity to opt for specific study paths early in Dutch education are contributing factors to the problem.

In addition, ‘it is hard to find female role models to guest lecture,’ VHTO spokeswoman Masja Gielstra, said.

The VHTO has now developed a database of nearly 2,000 female role models they can call upon. Together they conduct research, consult and organise programmes and events and work closely with the education ministry.

The flagship programme is Girlsday which takes place nationwide every April. Female experts, coached by VHTO to effectively deal with different age groups, visit schools; specifically to introduce strong role models to girls.

‘We find it really important that they start at an early age,’ Gielstra added.

Not only schools participate in Girlsday. This year over 10,000 girls aged 10-15 years visited a company or science centre and 310 companies threw open their doors for experiental workshops, giving girls an opportunity to see for themselves what working in these industries is like.

‘Companies know that more diversity in their teams is good for productivity,’ Gielstra said.

Real Chances

One Dutch company which took part in Girlsday this year is engineering group Royal HaskoningDHV.  While women account for 47% of HR, communications and IT jobs, just 11% of technical staff are female.

Environmental consultant Coco Smits studied environmental science at university and is keen to get more girls onto science and industrial engineering pathways. Assertiveness is essential in a company with multiple projects going on, she says,  but after a time your work will speak for itself.

‘‘Take the chances that come by, be visible and have a clear story of who you are and what you want to do,’ Smit says.

That position is echoed by Annemarie Kin, an experienced Royal HaskoningDHV asset management advisor, who has worked there for 12 years and has four children. ‘It’s important to assess yourself again and again against development points,’ she said. ‘Where can I improve? What can I do for the company…there are real chances here.’

The VHTO does see the fruits of these kinds of partnerships between businesses, themselves, government bodies and educational establishments. Nevertheless, ‘we’re not there yet,’ Gielstra says.

‘It is vitally important that education and businesses keep working together in public-private partnership in the future, so that…the chances for girls in technology and IT remain clearly visible.’

Read more at DutchNews.nl: Science and technology still fail to attract Dutch female students http://www.dutchnews.nl/features/2015/08/science-and-technology-still-fail-to-attract-dutch-female-students/

Looking for a quick getaway? Here’s some quirky Dutch options

Life & Culture July 10, 2015   

So, the long Dutch summer vacation is nearly upon us and that means time to seek adventure, relax in luxury after a hard quarter or spend some quality time with loved ones. If you have been too disorganised or cash strapped to book something so far, but can’t stand the idea of a crowded campsite or bog standard chalet holiday, then Esther O’Toole has found some quick and quirky Dutch options to inspire you.

Urban Campsite, IJburg, Amsterdam

This unusual initiative is now in its second year. Part open air art installation, part camping experience, Urban Campsite touts itself as a chance to get some new perspective on city life in a surprisingly quiet spot just outside the centre of town. Handcrafted wooden cabins, sit alongside tepee-esque tents and even a bottle! The message in it – you. Not all the accommodation is suited to families so do ask when booking. It’s a little rough and ready in its finish but you certainly feel out in the wilds. There is a communal fire pit with comfy benches and workshops with the artists, all very ‘gezellig’. The well-known café/bar, Blijburg, is just next door. Though it’s not quite back up to speed since its recent move, the beach has been renewed and is ready for the summer season; there are bins, toilets, a snack bar and swimming area. What’s more, the new location allows for fantastic views across the IJmeer towards Pampus Island and Durgerdam. Open June, July and August.

Lloyd Hotel and Cultural Embassy, Amsterdam

One for culture lovers who want to be able to get into town easily, but are also after a more unusual holiday experience, would be the Lloyd Hotel. A very comfortable, up-market hotel with café/bar and an emphasis on design. It also acts as a ‘Cultural Embassy’, hosting events from book readings and cinema to theatre productions in the rooms! Definitely big enough for families but also a great place if you’re looking to escape the children. Regular special offers include things like bike hire and picnics with champers as part of your booking.

De Leeuw, Deventer

Definitely one for with the kids, Hotel Hanzestadslogement or, ‘De Leeuw’ as it is commonly known, is a hotel with olde worlde sweet and tea shoppe (Weds-Sat). It boasts over 200 different types of traditional sweets, alongside other local delicacies. With its range of charming rooms and apartments the hotel can accommodate different size groups, all located in a beautiful 17th century building. You will find it right in the historic centre of Deventer.

Kruisheren Hotel, Maastricht

Venturing further south you can stop off in what the Huffington Post called a ‘one of a kind’ hotel, the Kruisheren. Originally a gothic church, this design hotel has over 60 rooms, each individually designed to combine the best of old and new, as well as a terrace in the 15th century cloister.

Castles in the Netherlands

If you’re looking for a really dreamy trip, why not check out one of the other fairy tale castles on Chateaus.nl run by the family Oostwegel. Ranging in size, price and facilities, these are mainly found in South Limburg and the Belgian border region. They promise luxury (with swimming pools and spas), wonderful countryside views and southern hospitality.

Camp Silver, Texel

If you’re looking to get way out of town and are in search of a memorable experience, you could try Camp Silver on Texel. Perhaps more for couples or small groups of friends than families, this is a real hideaway. With its beautiful, silver Airstream caravans and a Pacific Dome for breakfast/dining room, it promises rest and relaxation in the middle of a UNESCO heritage site and is under two hours drive from the capital.

Camp Spirit, Veluwemeer

Somewhere similarly remote but with more activities for the family is Camp Spirit. On an island in the Veluwemeer, just 45 minutes east of Amsterdam, Camp Spirit has a range of Yurts, Indian and Swedish tepees and Sahara tents. You can swim, do yoga and there are children’s and community activities laid on throughout the day.

Bike & Barge

In search of something more challenging? Well, nothing says Holland like bikes and barges so why notcombine the two in a uniquely Dutch tour? Responsible Travel and Utracks both organise biking and barging holidays for individuals or families and pride themselves on working with small, local guides and travel partners.

For more insight into Dutch current affairs in English and great features (including by Esther) go to www.dutchnews.nl

24 Hours and Counting!

In her last guest blog for Quint this week in advance of her solo exhibition, artist/illustrator and Quint Collective member, MJ Hodge talks about the landscapes that inspire her dream-like 'reverse glass' painting.

Her solo exhibition will be at Conway Hall, London click here for details on their site

18th - 24th April 2015

www.mjhodge.co.uk

@mjhodgeart

The Land: Looking Glass Landscapes

In the early days of the Croatian Naive the artists were all peasant-painters. Poor farmers tilling the soil for their families’ survival, encouraged to paint the hardship of their daily lives as a way of showing the world the harsh reality of their existence through a self-taught art. As a result, the early paintings of the tradition are bleak: dour in colour, depressing in content, forceful in representing deprivation, oppression, hopelessness and death.

Such art is powerful, but it can be hard on a soul that longs for more. And so, when I look at the evolution of the Croatian Naive I can see how those painters, first encouraged to paint ‘what they saw,’ might begin to paint the world in more expressive ways - interpreting it through memory and with longing. Until they were no longer painting the hard winters outside of their windows only, but the blossom filled springs that haunted their dreams.

Leading, over time, to the land and landscapes which had been backgrounds to the ploughs, peasants and drama of earlier paintings, taking on greater prominence and evolving into interpreted and imagined landscapes that owed more to the artist’s imagination than to the view outside their door.

At the time I was first introduced to the Croatian Naive, I knew nothing of this however. All I knew was that in encountering Ivica’s bird and butterfly landscapes for the first time I felt the possibilities of landscape painting like I’d never felt them before. From being an illustrator of animals and figures, I felt for the first time the deep pull of a tree’s roots and the onward draw of painting the far horizon. Perhaps it was the whimsy of the wings that spoke to me, or perhaps it was the sorrow in the bird’s eye - but the need to explore the landscapes that mean the most to me through spiral, flower, fine detail, colour, totem and stretching sky has influenced my work ever since.

In addition, Ivica’s own garden and his tending of that garden have given me a greater insight into the practical needs of the peasant-painters who balanced their painting lives with seasonal tasks. To paraphrase Ivica when I asked why he did so little painting in the summer, ‘I have been in the garden digging because it needs to be done and the sun is warm. The paintings will wait.’ Words which continue to send me out into the garden every spring and summer, to practice patience and feed my soul in a different way.

And every year, this seasonal shift reminds me that while my painted landscapes may owe more to my imagination than the view outside my window, it is only by regularly walking into the land outside my door and by digging my fingers into the warm earth under a summer sun that I am kept rich in the inspiration needed to paint my glass bright all the winter long.

creativeCroatia - bringing contemporary Croatia to London in 2015 

ALICE IN WONDERLAND IS 150 YEARS OLD THIS YEAR. CELEBRATE WITH MJ HODGE AT HER ALICE INSPIRED SOLO EXHIBITION THIS WEEKEND!

18TH-24TH APRIL

CONWAY HALL, LONDON

WWW.MJHODGE.CO.UK

Here's today's guest blog from the wonderful artist and illustrator MJ Hodge. We're proud to have her as a Quint Collective member!

That Alice Girl

I do not think of myself as a self-portrait kind of a person and yet many of my recent paintings have one small, fair-haired girl in common: adventuring far, reaching towards the horizon and meditating into unknown distances.

She is not a specific character I set out to paint nor was she intended to represent myself; in some cases she is most definitely not the person I’d intended to paint. Which has made me query my painting process from the initial spark of inspiration to the finished end: trying to understand how my unconscious impulses combine with instinctive intuition to subvert, high jack and otherwise override my more conscious choices.

Usually I am happy with the organic process of my work, allowing cumulative, evolutionary surprises to catch me off guard as I ‘feel’ my way towards each line, shape and colour as it is ‘best, now and in this moment.’ In fact, until this moment I’ve cheerfully ignored any self-analysis, but now I am curious:

If I never intended to paint myself (I didn’t), and I never set out to paint a narrative that carried the same character from series to series (again, no), then who exactly have I been painting these last many months?

I have wandered many a musing path since asking this question, and in the end I think I have an answer of sorts ...

She can not be any specific girl, however she might just be a spirit girl - full of possibility and wonder - just at that magical age when we begin to explore the world with increased independence. More Jungian than Brother’s Grimm, she crosses the glass threshold and brings us with her.

Innocent in some ways and wise in others, she is a reminder towards staying curious and keeping our minds open. She is the very best part of the time before dreams separated from reality. And while there have been no rabbit holes or magic mirrors, in hindsight she is the perfect guide to take us through a looking glass.

A place where things are truest in their mirror reflection; where the rules of perspective, laws of physiology and the focusing power of shadows can be ignored; where worlds may be painted out of season, landscapes out of place, and stories out of time. A dreamscape where the stars touch the earth, waves caress the sky, solitude is company and adventure beckons from both near and far horizons, even as you’re standing still.

You can call her Alice if you like.  

After all, she's gone through the looking glass and we are still standing here.

creativeCroatia - bringing contemporary Croatia to London in 2015

MJ HODGE AT CONWAY HALL THIS APRIL!!

18TH - 24TH APRIL

Conway Hall, London

www.mjhodge.co.uk

Here's our second guest blog from artist and illustrator MJ Hodge about the inspiration and process behind her remarkable 'reverse glass' paintings. Melanie is writing exclusively for Quint this week about her work in the run up to her solo exhibition at Conway Hall, London, this weekend.
Follow her on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram, spread the word and get along!

The Tradition: Grounded in the Croatian Naive

The Croatian Naive began as an experiment in 1929 when an Academy trained and early proto-type of the artist-activist, Krsto Hegedušić, encouraged boys in the village of Hlebine ‘to paint what they saw.’ In the decades following the artists moved from canvas to painting on glass and three further generations of artists have taken the Croatian Naive from the bleakness of subsistence farming to the edges of surrealism and back again, via the cutting edges of pop art and massive auction successes. Today though the Croatian Naive is a fading tradition and the artists nearly forgotten.


For me, however, the Croatian Naive began the day I first visited the studio of the Naive painter, Ivica Fišter. Despite my poor and haphazard Croatian language skills, he introduced me to the basic techniques of the medium and then encouraged me to learn more about the tradition and other artists. Through Ivica I met Katarina Krvarić who, after Ivica, has had the profoundest impact on my work. Together, with the artist Željko Seleš, these three artists have shaped who I am as an artist and how I work on a daily basis.


In addition to a warm welcome and encouragement as I started learning more about the tradition, the Croatian Naive has offered me an iconography of visual motifs which have inspired me and which continue to appear in my own works even though I have no memory of borrowing them intentionally. From over-sized flowers blossoming out of season, to animal totems and landscapes re-imagined before my eyes, the Croatian Naive opened my eyes to a new way of looking at the world and gifted me the means with which I might express myself more fully.


Lastly, the Croatian Naive has given me a personal history grounded in a wider picture: like the early peasant-painters I received very little training in the technique and from early on was told to find my own answers to the questions I asked. Like them too I have been inspired by the foothills, vineyards, mountains and islands of the Croatian landscape, and I have used those views as the springboard for my own imagined and interpreted dreamscapes. And in a twist of fate that felt like a homecoming, and which was discovered only after the fact, I too hung my first exhibitions on the walls of the Ullrich family gallery - only 75 years on from those first Naive painters.


It is in all of these ways that I am grounded in the Croatian Naive: in the technique, the tradition and a shared history; in the land and landscape; in how I approach my work and tend my garden; in my appreciation of a supportive arts community; and in a shared aesthetic that travels across generations. For me, the Croatian Naive is a living and lively conversation and my paintings are just the next line of dialogue, waiting to happen.


creativeCroatia - bringing contemporary Croatia to London in 2015

THROUGH THE LOOKING GLASS...

This week we're delighted to be bringing you a series of guest blogs from Quint-Collective member, MJ HODGE, in advance of her upcoming solo exhibition of fantastical art and illustrations. 

We love MJ's work, full of hope, aspiration and playfulness. We'll let Melanie explain the process.

18th-24th April

Conway Hall, 25 Red Lion Square, London WC1R 4RL

www.mjhodge.co.uk 

For more details follow MJ Hodge - Art & Illustration on Facebook and Instagram

The Technique: Reverse Glass Painting

Beginning with a clean piece of ordinary window glass, the artist starts by signing their name - backwards.

Following the signature, the artist next paints the finest, foreground details. Once the paint is dry, more details, layers and background motifs can be added. A second layer of paint may also be added for richness of tone. This process is repeated until the artist is satisfied or has run out of glass.

Usually, but not always, the artist works with a sketch under the glass. I sometimes draw it twice: first as it looks in ‘real life’ and as it should appear in the final painting, and then tracing it onto a transparent plastic sheet which I can flip over. Once flipped I am able to view the image in it’s mirror reflection and check it for balance and secret symmetries.

When I first started in this technique I was told that reverse glass painting is not for the impatient. And it’s true. The Croatian Naive has influenced not only the way I paint, but also impacted on how I approach almost every aspect of my creative work as I’ve learned my patience the hard way.

To begin with, nothing can be rushed. Oil paints can take anywhere from three days to two weeks to dry, depending on their pigment and viscosity. This can be a bonus as I lay down brushes for the school run, but it also means that very little can be done ahead of the previous layer’s drying time.

Next, it takes a steady hand to paint everything from the pin-prick details to writing my name backwards. This is particularly true of the stars which I paint over many hours, across many days, with a cocktail stick. But it also means, that when it’s time for a pause, I stop. I know that forcing any part of the painting to happen faster only leads to heartbreak.

Therefore most of my paintings take a minimum of six months before they are finished and dry enough for me to step away from them for the first time to see the full effect. That moment is absolute magic - for until that moment I really don’t know what kind of painting I’ve created or if I’ll even like it.

Some paintings can take longer though, particularly if there are many galaxies of stars: for ‘Naive Dreamer’ I spent over 40 hours just painting the stars. And some paintings take years: I started painting my ‘Seeking Harmony’ series in 2011 but only finished them in 2014 after a long break. In my studio I have sketches for paintings that date back to 2010, still waiting for their chance to reflect on the world. 

creativeCroatia - bringing contemporary Croatia to London in 2015