What you get when purchasing art at the Mr. Upside gallery

One beautiful painting (‘Soft Skin’) ready for delivery at the clients home, in Voorburg, the Netherlands! The painting, together with a signed Certificate of Authenticity, an invoice, two wooden flyers, business cards and a handwritten personal note on a @moo Deluxe Postcard makes a nice set of 'goodies'.

I always tend to forget how much time, effort and care goes into delivering a painting, :)

But I also remember ordering something at a small Dutch webshop to find a personal, handwritten note added to the box. Someone who I looked up to, had taken the time to write a really personal note. So cool!

Since then I try to incorporate at least a small note, written on Moo Deluxe Postcards, to make the sale even more personal. Giving feels good.

More info on the painting and the sale in this blogpost on the sale in the Mr. Upside Gallery in Voorburg.

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Painting 'Soft Skin' sold

This nice couple came by the Mr. Upside gallery yesterday and decided to become the new owners of this beautiful, relatively new 100x150cm painting. It's a birthday present for the lady on the picture.

More info on the painting here:

Interested in a unique painting yourself?

If you are interested in having a unique abstract painting, like 'Soft Skin' on your wall too, please feel free to contact me. I am happy to discuss the possibilities.

Art newsletter

If you like to stay up to date with the most recently finished paintings, leave your name and e-mail address here and I'll send you updates conveniently to your inbox every month. You can unsubscribe anytime. 

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New online identity, new portfolio

In the past months I've been working 'silently' on a visual and functional overhaul of my existing art webshop.

Why? 

Three reasons. 

Reason 1

Because the initial concept of my art, 'bringing happiness and joy through lots of colours', limited my creative progress. I know that the common belief is that limitations enhance your creativity and I can endorse that belief. But I had lots of ideas for paintings and art objects that didn't fit the concept and it is way to early in my career to limit myself.

Reason 2

Besides a concept that didn't fit my art anymore, my online presence was scattered. With four separate online identities, all offering services in the fields of design, art and interior styling, my online presence was scattered. 

I had four websites up and I only updated my art webshop. My freelance Visual + UX/UI Design and Illustration portfolio could be reached at Designia.nl. I had a sleeping personal blog at MichielNagtegaal.nl and I still have a Dutch interior design blog because of the small amounts of money I receive from affiliate links. And it is still online because it takes massive amounts of time and effort to transfer the hundreds of blogposts to this new website, :)

 

Reason 3

And last but not least, in the past several years lots of Youtubers and Instagrammers cleverly managed to set up a business around nothing more than their own person. Becoming a so-called Influencer. Very admirable and inspiring.

I am not the kind of person that likes to have a camera on their face each and every moment of the day but this trend in Social Media got me thinking about 'being my own brand'. Why not just sell 'me' as a creative package? What do I have to offer? Would it even be possible to cross sell my creative disciplines? With analytical UX Design on one end and the total freedom of fine art on the other end, there is a real risk of not selling anything at all because clients don't know what your expertise is.

So I decided to combine it all into one online presence; MichielNagtegaal.com. And time will tell which of the four 'brands' survive. 

SIGN UP FOR THE ART NEWSLETTER OF DUTCH ARTIST MICHIEL NAGTEGAAL

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Featured in the Dutch 2018 Artists Yearbook

Each year the Stichting Kunstweek (Dutch Foundation Art Week) publishes the 'Dutch Artists Yearbook' that features Dutch established and upcoming artists. I had a feature in the 2017 edition and decided earlier this year to also signup for the 2018 edition.

Four artworks

Applications are reviewed by a committee. I was glad my application was accepted this year. This time I am presented on four pages, with pictures of 'Flamingo Morning', 'Drone', 'King Candy' and 'Don't talk, listen'. The artworks 'Flamingo Morning' and 'Don't talk, listen' are not sold yet at the time of writing this blogpost.

Some numbers on the book;

• a minimum of 5000 editions in the first run
• 250 pages
• hardcover
• sold for € 19,95 ($23 approx.)
• size: A4 (210 x 297mm / 8,2" x 11,6")
• paper inside: 115 grams half mat mc silk 

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Interior update Mr. Upside gallery with some underlayment

Today the long awaited furniture elements arrived in the Mr. Upside gallery! Two cabinets, two presentation blocks and a textiles rack are all made of underlayment. This untreated wood give the fairly large home office / gallery not only a more natural feel but the two cabinets also function as room dividers.

The room dividers are part of our plans to change the function of our 80m2 home office. The two cabinets are based on wheels so they can be easily pushed to any position in the room. They also provide massive storage space for all kinds of stuff you don't want to show the people walking by.

Textile studio and popup gallery

The room previously functioned as a too large home office and sometimes as a bicylce storage, pop-up gallery and also as an extension to our garden shed. Now the cabinets nicely divide the room in a small gallery and the textile studio Janette needs to make her products.

&hout furniture craftsman

The furniture was made by Dutch, Rotterdam based furniture maker and interior designer Lennard Eijkman of &Hout. "To keep my work interesting and to keep developing myself, I mainly focus on businesses and entrepeneurs with original and fresh ideas' Lennard described on his website.

Interior design

After a small brainstorm session on the future plans of the room, Janette immediately took the role of project manager and art director of this interior project. Because of my unlimited confidence in Janette, my own busy schedule and the fact that Janette is passionate about interior and product design, I did not have any contact with Lennard untill today. But as he walked through the door this afternoon I met a very relaxed, experienced and well mannered artisan and craftsman.

Attention to detail

The furniture pieces are all very well build, with attention to detail and solid. We are extremely happy to have the ability to have commisioned such a project. And get the unique furniture delivered, ofcourse, :)

Mr. Upside on Instagram

If you would like to see more images on 'work-in-progress--projects and art, please check out my Instagram account on www.instagram.com/mrupsideart

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Also check out these other Mr. Upside blogposts

NEW: Mr. Upside Five Panel Cap added to the shop

The shop keeps growing! Today a luxurious baseball cap with a shining Mr. Upside logo was added to the cool uplifting products already available. The cap listens to the roaring name 'Yupoong 6007 Five-Panel Flat Bill Cap'.

The trendy Mr. Upside cap, with embroidered logo is available in eight different color ways; Royal Blue (check the photo above, where it already makes our daughter a bit crazy), Black, Navy/Red, Black/Grey, Red, Black/Red, Grey and beautiful White.

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