In between travels

Hi all,

Feels like my teaching life has started again. I gave a weekend workshop in Niort (France) towards the end of April for the association EVA and then I toured for two weeks in the US, teaching first at Cheerio and then heading to Washington, Memphis and finally Chicago. Thoroughly enjoyed it all. My hosts were all too good to be true and my students paid attention and never protested but kept smiling when I pushed them relentlessly. That used to be slightly different when I was teaching Latin at Grammar school

Within three weeks I’m off again, this time for the NorthWest Calligraphy Conference in Portland (OR), and prior to that a more intimate three-day workshop in Santa Fe (NM). In August I’ll teach at the CLAS Festival in Malvern, U.K.

In between, I’m enjoying the lovely weather and return to my studio towards the evening to get some things done. There’s an exhibition planned for August…

In September I’ll fly again to the States for another series of workshops. I’ll start in Miami (a few days on the beach is included), take John Stevens’ workshop in Cheerio (can’t wait for that), fly down to Kansas city for two workshops (one of them for the lettering staff of Hallmark) and end in Atlanta.

I have a few local workshops scheduled in Winter and in Spring 2013 I’ll do an extensive tour in the North West territories of the US (7 different venues). In June 2013 there’ll be a tour in West Canada (Calgary, Red Deer, Edmonton and Vancouver).  

Two months ago I finished another small film for the ‘Latin Lovers’ collaboration with harpist Andrea Voets. It’s about Orpheus, the legendary and unfortunate singer-songwriter of Greek mythology. You can watch it here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c4buRVgwWAY

That’s all for now, I guess.

Take care,

Yves

Beethoven

Hi there,

This week I filmed pieces of my work, a pianist at work and my own hand at work. It all resulted in a film with Beethovens ‘Pathétique’ as musical score, an absolutely wonderful piece of piano music if you ask me.
I want to share it with you, my trusted followers. Hope you will enjoy it: there’s lot of live writing in it. Of course, you can forward the link to other people if you want. Here it is:

Best
Yves

Finally an update

Hi folks,
I must confess I neglected my blog terribly. Almost forgot I had one. But I suppose you all have better things to do than anxiously waiting for an update. Still, here it is.
What happened since October last year ? Oh, the exhibit in the castle of Poeke went fine. Sold three pieces, all to the same man, I found out later, a teacher in graphic design – which is nice to know.
Eye on Art Gallery, located in the design district of Carmel, Indiana, bought some work and will hopefully become a distributor of my work in the States.
I accepted to participate in a few exhibitions locally. One of the gallery-owners urged me to work larger and on canvas, which I did… for a few days. I may well return to the canvas, but that was hard labour and I still need to find my path there.
I also promised a contribution for a big project with prisoners writing texts and European artists giving shape to their words. More news about that will follow.
I made a series of works, inspired by the ancient myth of Theseus and Ariadne, to accompany the harp music performed by Andrea Voets, an old student of mine. These works resulted into a film which is projected while Andrea plays the harp. You can see a fragment of that collaboration on Youtube

I’m currently taking lessons in Premiere Elements and that movie was the first one I did. I made another one on my exhibit in Antwerp, that I also posted on Youtube

I sent some material (video, pictures and comments) to Denis Brown, who wanted to include me in the ‘guest section’ of his highly reputed Calligraphy TV program. And I am thrilled with the result. People who have subscribed to the series will understand why. To find yourself among calligraphers like Brody Neuenschwander, John Stevens, Thomas Ingmire and Hans Joachim Burgert… it made my day.
I’ve started the coaching of the students who will contribute to a big exhibition in April. In my class I have seasoned calligraphers as well as painters and aquarellists who have never seen a nib at close range. And yet they will all incorporate letters into their work.
I’ve added another teaching topic to my little list. I’ve become quite familiar with the Pentel Point Brush and made a workshop around it, which I’ve tried out a few times already locally.
I haven’t done a lot of teaching lately, but I worked on various commissions ànd I took the time to fill my portfolio again. You can see some of it by visiting my website and clicking on the button ‘new work’ on the welcome page.
In the meantime, nearly all my copies of ‘Thoughtful Gestures’ have left the building. I have about 40 copies left. If you decide that life is definitely worthless without a copy of that book, you’d better be quick.
And finally, I sent notice to a few calligraphy guilds in the States that I would plan one or two tours and that I’m available for bookings. One tour is getting shape and will bring me in the North West (Montana, Washington, possibly Minnesota and Canada) in Spring 2013. Another one is scheduled for Autumn this year. If your guild is interested to be part of that tour, feel free to contact me as soon as possible.

I guess that’s all for now. Thanks for reading this. I’ll be back.
Yves

After the Rush

Hi all,
It’s been a while since I last posted something on my blog. The first half year of 2011 was loaded with workshops, travels, the preparation of my exhibit in Antwerp and the publishing and selling of my book. Halfway August I could finally relax from all the fuss. And in recent weeks I have been able to produce some new work. You can have a look at a selection of it on

https://picasaweb.google.com/kalligraaf.yvesleterme/NieuwWerk?authkey=Gv1sRgCL6StYOB2Mf-SQ#slideshow/5659603959032281586

Please copy and paste the URL into your browser to view the works.

Apart from some local workshops there’s not much planned for the months to come. Time to do some commissions, prepare a few new workshops, produce new work… and there will be again a huge exhibition in April next year with personal work and work of my students. More info and pictures will certainly follow.

In a more distant future, there will be workshops held in Cheerio, Washington, Memphis, Chicago, Santa Fe and Portland. Also two in France: Nancy and Niort.

Last weekend saw the closing of my exhibit in the Antwerp church. A film about the whole project will be made and I’ll post a link to it when it’s ready. Last weekend also saw the opening of another exhibit in which I take part. The venue is the Castle of Poeke: we are 50 artists and I’m represented with 6 works. See for more info: www.biennalepoeke.be

Take care,
Yves.

Out of Africa

Hi all,

Just got back from South-Africa, where I spent a wonderful three weeks in the company of my fellow calligraphers. Met nothing but nice people, who guided me around, served me the best food and spoiled me in various ways. I stayed in Pretoria, Johannesburg and Capetown for in total 6 workshops. In the meantime I could fully appreciate the mild climate in midwinter (there’s a good reason for migrating immediately) and the beautiful scenery of Capetown. Nice also to callitalk with colleagues such as Heleen de Haas, Andrew Vandermerwe, Leesette Turner, Hilary Adams, and so many others… Ah, I could go on for some time here. Let me just post a few pictures. Follow this link on picasa for a slideshow of a ridiculously small selection of pics:

https://picasaweb.google.com/kalligraaf.yvesleterme/SouthAfricaJuly2011?authkey=Gv1sRgCOCPw_zrj8GzmwE#

And now, I need to make the last preparations for the next workshop, starting tomorrow evening. Don’t have to travel far this time: Turnhout, Belgium. It is the last one of quite a series. I have nothing scheduled for the rest of this year.

Take care,
Yves

Workshop in the Dordogne

The reason for not posting anything sooner about the exhibition is that I had to prepare some workshops for France and South Africa. I just returned from a three day workshop in the Dordogne for Atelier Calligraphie, organised by Emmanuel Spaeth, whom you may know from ‘Mail Art Across the World’. Always a delight to stroll around in the old parts of a French city and to taste their bread, wine and cheese. Not to mention the French calligraphers, who are a delight in themselves. Emmanuel threw a big bunch of pictures of the class events on picasa. Here’s the link.

https://picasaweb.google.com/zeshadok/201107StageGestuelleYvesLeterme#

You’ll see lots of quick demo-stuff on the spot, some finished pieces done by me and work done by participants.
And now, I need to get ready for South-Africa.

The Antwerp Exhibition

Sorry this took me so long. On Saturday June 25th the exhibition in the Antwerp church St-Anna opened. Everything went fine, no accidents reported. It is the first time I’m having a solo exhibition, and a rather big one at that. Visitors can watch a movie, a text on the floor of about 14 m long and a huge column of canvases, lighted from within. Next to these monumental things, I’ve made new work on paper, wood and fabric with texts relating to the theme, which is about the scandals in the church and a modern iconoclast. If you can’t make it to Antwerp in the coming three months, you can get an idea by following this link: www.anna3.be, then click on the ‘info’ button below my picture and this will lead you to three series of pictures. Hope you’ll enjoy them.
Yves