I want to share this video’s with you. Heartrending story of a woman ”Riverbend” in Bagdad, and heartrending but beautiful artwork by Danijel Zezelj. It’s narrated in German, beautifully by Sherin Zayed, but with English subtitles.

Another year has passed, another Barbarian festival. Last night I went with some friends to ”Muziek theater Romein” in Leeuwarden for another ”Barbaars” heavy metal concert. And this time I managed to make some acceptable photos. We were late. We had a nice dinner at M’s, and then drove to the city of Leeuwarden. So we missed the first band, and as one of the other bands didn’t turn up, we saw three bands. And Waw! Were they good!

The first band was my fovorite; Methusalem. Great music, great musicians, and a great singer!
Check them out on mySpace.

The next band was Wizard, also very good!

The last band was Freedom call.
Some of their songs were “Party-Metal” they really got the crowd going!

I had a great time!

Me and the singer of Methusalem.
Or the Singer of Methusalem and me…

I made these paintings.

Read all about them on my Art blog!

I have started a new project, I am writing a diary, only not with the pen, but with paint.
I will post these small paintings, with a short description, every day on my art-blog.

This is 23 oktober

Well, friends it seems that Obama should not have been given the Nobel price for peace, but the Nobel prize for weaseliness selling out our hardwon rights for freedom and free speech.

To my utter amazement the Obama Administration supports the sick and anti-constitutional fascist religious insane Islamic/kolonialist ”Un-resolution to ban religious blasphemy”.

Check this video from the brilliant Pat Condell

Yesterday I discovered I have something called  Windows Moviemaker on my computer and I have made a slideshow of my sketches!

Which you can see at you leasure at my art blog

I also have my own video channel on You-tube!

Yesterday morning I went to the village of Zuidlaaren. Every year, people from all over Europe flock to Zuidlaaren to sell and buy horses.
When you go you should go very early in the morning, Before 07.00. And it is usually very cold so you should get all your winterstuff out and wear it in layers! I bring a fresh sketchbook and a couple of soft pencils (The soft pencils get a lot harder in the cold)
The sketches I made will be posted at my Art Blog.

When I arrived (before 07.00) it was still dark

Check out the murderous candy! There is a fair attached to the horse fair and many people spend the whole night there, going on the rides and doing the rounds of the café’s. I always preferred to sleep early and be comparatively fresh when setting out for a hard days work.

Now there are a lot of really ugly, badly built horses. And horses which aren’t quite healthy, But then they are one of the reasons I like to sketch at the fair. And every year I fall for one of these horses! If I had some money I might actually take one home!

So… Wanna see ”The Artist at Work?”
Go to my Art Blog where I also post videos of ”The Artist at Work”

The black Frisians are always hugely popular. But the breeding lately seems to aim at a very slender narrow horse. I don’t like it at all; I like the more compact broadly build Frisian. They always carry their head very proudly.

Norwegian Fjord Horses. Very popular in the Netherlands for those who are not all out to ride competitions, but prefert o ramble around nature.

After being put there since night not all horses are resigned tobeing tied down.

There are big horses and small horses.

Drawing a draughthorse

The village is absolutely Packed with humans and horses. It’s a miracle no accidents happen.

A couple of Belgian heavy draughthorses.

Warmblood ridinghorses, all very young still, basically foals.

I want to invite everybody to my new Art-blog!
It is getting the right shape by now and I have put up an ( I hope) interesting post on a portrait of my horse Rabhar.

I plan this to be my primary blog in the future, featuring the sketch of the day, and regular updates onmy work as an artist and the work I’m doing.
Clouddragon will remain and feature weekly rants but I am after all an artist, and I am very much better again, and I am back at work!

I hope to see you at my Art-blog.

Pencildrawing by Laurie Lipton

One of the results of the despicable and evil custom of marrying underage girls, as young as six years old, to perverted old goats, is that the victims tend to die an early death.

Sometimes by suicide, but also by childbirth.

Last month a 12-year-old Yemeni girl, who was forced into marriage,  died during a difficult delivery in which her baby also died, a children’s rights organisation said on Sunday, demanding action to stop Yemeni men taking child brides.

“The child, Fawziya Abdullah Youssef, died on Friday September 11 in western Yemen at the age of 12 due to a complicated delivery,” the Yemeni Organisation for Childhood Protection (Seyaj) said.

This little girl suffered for three days before she died, the baby was stillborn.

“The case of Fawziya illustrates the tragedy of those whom we call ‘the brides of death’, who are little girls, less than 15 years old, forced into marriage, mostly due to financial reasons, The proportion of little girls and teenage females married before 15 is nearly 50 percent”.

The Parliament of Yemen has passed a law that would make the minimum age for girls to get wed 17.
But before the president could sign it, some of the  lawmakers requested it would be reevaluated by the parliament’s constitutional committee.
According to the lawmakers the measure is potentially Un-islamic.

They must be joking!