Winter Covers

Letter received from Bree (Malaysia). In fact I received this letter some months ago and thought it was adequate to be published in the winter. But maybe you are in the opposite part of the world starting your summer...

Letter sent by Laura (the UK).

I'm a Snail

Snails drawn and sent by two 8-years-old artists (PC). The one with the bow is supposed to be... me. Of course, I appear along with my husband.

Cats Go Postal

I have not read this book, but the title caught my attention. Because I had heard about mail delivered by pigeons, horses... even dogs, camels and reindeer! But cats??

I thought, at first, it was just a children's books. And it is, but inspired in a true event. In the late nineteenth century, some people of Liège (Belgium) decided to free some cats in the countryside, far away from the city. In less than 24 hours all the felines were at home, claiming for being fed. So they deduced (?) they would train 37 cats in order to deliver mail.

As you can imagine, the the experiment did not turn as expected: the cats suffered from lack of discipline and interest.

Boston Tea

Postcard made of tea packaging and sent to Laura (UK). I was amazed by the use of languages (English, French and Arabic). Well... I wrote the message in Spanish!

Never Sent Mail Art

I would like to keep track of all the mail I send. Sometimes this is impossible. For instance, there are some mail art calls whose organisers do not care enough to send you an e-mail like: "Your work has arrived". But you still can keep track of your sendings if they have a blog or a site.

But... What happens if they published something you have never sent? I recently discovered a supposed work of mine in a site about mail art. Just that that was not mail art! This is just the back of a postcard I sent as a thank you for one contribution to the Oz Postcard Project! But they published it even with a title that, of course, I never wrote: Amore Retro (?).

What worried me is that this is just a cover of a magazine which, of course, has an author. And he or she could think I am publishing this work under my name. I know I can use images for mail art, especially if I do not get  money for it. But this one... Well, I did not make any intervention on it. It was just a page.

I wrote to the mail artist whose I sent my postcard in order to retire it from the exhibition. He did unwillingly. I think he never understood my reasons.

This kind of things discourage me a lot.

Christmas Envelopes

Sent by Britta (Denmark). Did You notice the postmark on the mermaid stamp? It says God Jul (=`Happy Christmas')

Sent by Micu (Hungary). The ribbon arrived safe and sound!

Sent by Ângela (Portugal).

Dutch Painters on Stamps

This is a post for Sunday Stamps #200, and that means this is the last Sunday at Viridian's. I am thankful, and I hope that the Sunday Stamps series will be very successful at See it on a postcard (even if I do not participate every week!).

Today's theme is Art. Among the Dutch stamps I have received, some are dedicated to very famous works by Dutch painters. I am sure you know most of them!

Van Leyden

David playing the harp for Saul (gravure, c. 1508), by Lucas van Leyden (1494-1533). The stamp was issued on 14 April 2000. It belongs to a sheet of 10 commemorating the 200th Anniversary of the Rijksmuseum in Amsterdam.

Rembrandt

Man with a beard in oriental clothes by Rembrandt Harmenszoon van Rijn (1606-1669). The stamps was issued in 2006; it belongs to a 12-stamps sheet named The 400th Anniversary of the Birth of Rembrandt.

Vermeer

Girl with a Pearl Earring (c. 1665) is probably the most known masterpiece by Johannes Vermeer (1632-1675). The stamp was issued on 1st July 2014.

I like this painting, but the theme of the three works below is more appealing for letter lovers: The letter writer and her maid (left), The love letter (center) and Woman in blue reading a letter (right). There were issued on 27 February 1996. 

Don't you love the stamps which have letters as a main theme?

Shoemaker Doyer

Jan van Speijk Debating whether to Set Fire to the Gunpowder (1834) is a work by Jacobus Schoemaker Doyer (1792-1867). The stamp belongs to the same sheet that the first one in this post.

Van Gogh

I have published Van Gogh stamps before, but I have recently received three more:

Café Terrace at Night and The Zouave by Vicent van Gogh (1853-1890) were painted in 1888 and issued as stamps on 2nd January 2003. They belong to a 10-stamps sheet celebrating the 150th Anniversary of the birth of Van Gogh..

The last one was issued on 14th July 2014. It shows the The Courtesan (1887) one of the Japonaiserie works by Van Gogh. The whole sheet is really a beautiful and one!

British Time

Letter sent by John (the UK), made of a page of a magazine (I guess). Very British mail!

Look at the stamps. They belong to the series about the history of Buckingham Palace, issued on 15 April, 2014. The Blue Drawing Room is a very cool name, isn't it? In fact, I too draw and write and make mail art in a blue room... (a bit less luxurious, I'm afraid).

I want to add an original print made by Alan (the UK):

"The rose symbolises England, the thistle is Scotland, and the red hand is Northern Ireland. Wales is not represented in the flag, so I made the pole out of daffodils and leeks."

Charles Dickens's Personal Postbox

Can you imagine that you send so many letters that you have your personal post box at home? Let's say more than 14,000 letters over fifty years?

So did Charles Dickens. He requested a letterbox to avoid the steep one-mile road to the village of Higham. The postal service installed in 1859 a wall box at his residence, Gad's Hill Place (nowadays a school). It was one of the earliest to be introduced in Britain.

The Letter Box Study Group and the Charles Dickens Centre Charitable Trust have recently asked the Royal Mail to put back the postbox in service. Unused since 1990, it was recommissioned the day before yesterday. You can see here the ceremony: how Dickens' great-great-granddaughter sent the first letter through this box to her own granddaughter, who is currently Dickens' youngest descendant.

A special Dickensian postmark will be applied to any pre-Christmas mail posted in the box.

(More about this news here.)

Walking the Mail in the Winter

«Walking the mail in the winter is a pretty unique experience overall. In our modern society one would think it strange that someone would actually have to tromp trough the snow for miles in order to deliver Victoria Secret catalogs and Wal-Mart fliers. But we do.»

Austin Brown, Walking with the mailman

Seaside Architecture

Laura, John and Emily (the UK) have sent some stamps of the set Seaside Architecture, issued by Royal Mail on 18th September, 2014. This set is a very favourite!

And I have been lucky enough to receive not one but two postcards of Southwold Lighthouse!

And more lighthouses from the UK sent by John: Greenock in Scotland...

... And Bidston in England. Both postcards are John's pictures.

Malerwinkelhaus Documentation

I have received the documentation from this mail art call (Germany). Nice to share the sheet with some great artists, and nice to see one of my contributions on artist stamps! 

Participation is open until 31.12.2014.

Christmas Postcards Sent Last Year

I bought these postcards (and other similar landscapes) during a trip to the South of Morocco, in mid-October last year. The trip was too short to have time to sent a lot of postcards (I still sent some, of course!). So I kept them to be sent later as Christmas cards. Maybe it sounds a bit strange... but they make me think of the Three Wise Men. And I guess it's the same for my friends in Spain and the PC!

Postcard Club

Founded by Illustrator Ed Cheverton, Postcard Club promotes handmade postcard swaps between Artists around the world, as well as celebrating the wonderful practice of mail art. This blog acts to document and feature these exchanges in an attempt to encourage more people to swap artworks and generate a huge global network of postcard swappers. 

If you would like to swap postcards, please feel free to get in contact with anyone on the members list, or invite any artist you would like to get involved to swap with you! Once you have done a swap (with me or whoever) you’re a member of Postcard Club! 

Postcard Club Rules: All cards must be handmade by the artist.

I am not (still?) a member, but the postcards exchanged look amazing!

Tunbridge Wells

Royal Tunbridge Wells is a town in western Kent (England, UK) about 64 km south-east of central London. The town was a famous spa and tourist resort in the Restoration period, when the Pantiles attracted visitors who wished to take the waters.

I have never been there, but after some postcards sent by Laura (the UK) due to different trips, I feel like I have been. 

And did you know that disgusted of Tunbridge Wells means a certain type of letter-writer?

The phrase disgusted of Tunbridge Wells is a generic name used in England for a person, usually with strongly conservative political views, who writes letters to newspapers in a tone of moral outrage. According to local historian and former newspaper editor Frank Chapman, the phrase originated in the 1950s with the staff of the former Tunbridge Wells Advertiser. The paper's editor, alarmed at a lack of letters from readers, insisted his staff pen a few to fill space. One signed his simply "Disgusted, Tunbridge Wells" (Source: Wikipedia)

The Pantiles

Church of King Charles the Martyr, 1676

Wellington Rocks