Bench Players – Rop van Mierlo

This month is a special month. Because we’ve decided to expand the features of our surprise subscription away from “just” magazines to everything the incredible world of independent publishing has to offer. And we’ve found just the right publication to start with! This book, disguised as a zine, offers a soft transition. And when we say soft, we mean sooooft. Because it is filled with all kinds of the fluffiest animals. 

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The playful and peculiar creatures are created with a wet-on-wet technique that lets liquid watercolours run freely over a painting ground wetted with a sponge. Artist Rop van Mierlo was always fascinated by modern man’s urge to tame the natural world. He, on the contrary, wanted to create wild animals that he could not control. The wet-on-wet technique seemed perfect for Rop’s concept since it allows for chance. The animals he paints almost look alive, they move, details are beyond his control.

 

 

Rop learned his now signature technique as a child at a Waldorf school, but he had trouble with it at first. Submerged in water, all the colours ran amok, crossing the carefully prepared pencil lines. He was horrified! Years later, while studying at the Design Academy Eindhoven, he rediscovered the style, and this time he was hooked on the free-spirited process. Since then, he has painted thousands of pictures, the same animal over and over again, only to select one in the end. The others ended up in a drawer. These he calls his “bench players”, sitting on the bench just waiting for their time to shine.

 

 

Well, that time is now. In collaboration with Nieves Books and us (!), Rop has published this delightful little book and we decided to top this collab off with a limited edition tote bag in a signature Rop van Mierlo edit.

Bench Players
Rop van Mierlo
14,00 €

W. A. x do you read me?!
Tote Bag
10,00 €