Suzanne Postel – Murals, Frescos & Portraits

My meeting with Suzanne Postel came out of my curiosity to find out who the artist was of a rather imposing mural covering the entire side of a building contractor’s office, along the Korreweg in Groningen. Having cycled past many times in my daily travels, finally one day I jammed on the brakes and went inside to enquire.

I met Suzanne at her studio along the Eendrachtskade, which is spacious enough to serve as both work and exhibition space. The studio is filled with marvelous paintings at every turn and the area in the back, where we sat and drank coffee, has a wall that is a collage of small paintings, images, and photos of friends and family. I asked her how it came about that one of her murals was on the side of a building contractor’s office. She told me that living nearby meant that everyday she had looked out upon the building and a set of filled in windows that had been painted a rather unimaginative white. This made her fingers itch to do something about it, so much so that she approached them and offered to paint the offending building with a mural. The result is a set of very impressive classically robed women, each standing in a niche bearing a tool or implement relevant to the building trade.

Although always an artist at heart, after her student days and completion of her studies at the art school Minerva in Groningen, she decided to leave Holland for France. Here she lived for a period of ten years where she helped in setting up and running a naturist camping resort with her parents. France was an exciting and challenging period in her life, but she missed painting and the Dutch culture and returned to Groningen in 1999. In her own words: ‘I wanted to cycle across the market place with my children and buy sugar waffles’. Once back in Groningen she set up a studio and has established herself as a muralist and portraitist.

Before starting a piece of work, she does a lot of sketching, takes photographs (in the case of a commissioned portrait) and adds to a scrapbook. A book full of ideas this scrapbook is filled with images, material samples, and text, often poignant lines from poems. A particular favourite is the poet Jean Pierre Rawie. From this process arises a series of puzzle pieces that when put together become the basis design for a mural or portrait. Then turning to canvas or masomite (a specially treated art board) the initial idea is laid down very quickly as an acrylic base. After that she will work further on the idea in oils until its logical conclusion is reached and she is happy with it.

Other strong influences in her work can be seen to come from paintings from the Renaissance and Impressionist movements and from the world of dreams. According to the Chinese one should live out ones dreams in order to move on. One particular dream that she has turned into a painting is a self-portrait of herself, angry and with a dripping paintbrush in her mouth. What it means she is not sure, but it needed to be painted.

With regular commissions and exhibitions, as well as doing all her own public relations, and giving painting lessons to students with an age range of twenty to sixty. Suzanne is not only able to follow her passion but has been able to make it into a successful business.

The opening of her current exhibition entitled ‘De Hoge Lucht’ (The Light from Above), took place on 24 June 2007. The event was opened by Jacque D’Ancona (a renown Dutch journalist, amongst other things).

For more information about Suzanne you can visit her website here 

© Alison Day

Alison Day Design 

First published in the Connections magazine #16 Summer 2007 

The Romanesque Beauty of the Aa-Kerk

The Der Aa-Kerk with its characteristic yellow tower can be found in the centre of Groningen, alongside the fish market and centre’s shops.

A little Romanesque cross church that was built in the 13^th century was enlarged in the 15^th century to a gothic cross-basilica. The organ it contains is of great international repute and dates back to the 17^th century. For the first four centuries of its existence, the church was a Roman Catholic Church after which during the Reformation it passed into the hands of the Reformed community for the next four centuries. In the 1970’s the last of the three monumental churches in the centre of the city of Groningen (Der Aa-kerk, the Martinikerk and the Nieuwe Kerk) became too large for the Reformed community and after restoration the church became part of Stichting Der Aa-kerk (non-profit) in 1987. The church has now mainly a cultural function.

The name ‘A’ comes from the river Aa that used to have an important function for sailors and merchants in the western part of the city. The vault, which originally was not much bigger than a large village church, was dedicated to the holy Nicolaas (or Sinterklaas), who amongst others is the patron saint of sea merchants and traders.

In 1671, as a result of a lightning strike and ensuing fire, the tower and clock had to be totally restored, with further repairs being carried out in 1710. The new tower was finally completed in 1718, a design of the town construction master, Allert Meijer. Since then there has been a ‘tidy-up’, in 2006 of the church restoring it to its former glory.

Although the Aa-kerk hasn’t been in use as a church for more than twenty years, it is still in use for exhibitions, congresses, readings, theatre shows, and weddings. There are also educative programmes available for the first two years of primary school.

© Alison Day

Alison Day Design 

First published in the Connections magazine #14 Winter 2006 

Pacific Restaurant Review

For their ritual monthly night out together, the Ladies of Connect met at the Pacific Restaurant & Café, in the centre of Groningen, which opened its doors in in June 2006..

With an Australian style interior and matching cuisine, the lunch menu offered a variety of dishes to choose form. For a starter, instead of pumpkin or oriental soup one could choose Carpaccio Aboriginal with kangaroo meat followed by Ozzie Ostrich a ‘tender Ostrich steak served with a delicious roasted garlic sauce’.  For dessert, chocolate features heavily on the menu not that we were complaining), but also includes a couple of fruit desserts as well.

For groups of 15 or more it is possible to experience the Pacific Food Adventure with a three-course menu featuring flavours, herbs and spices from the Pacific region. For a birthday, graduation, or special event it is also possible to order Pacific’s Chocolate Cake - ask for details.

There were varied reactions to the restaurant and its food resulting in the decision to start up ‘The Connect Gourmet Guide’. Each Connect lady present has given the restaurant a mark on a scale of one to five. Areas judged were food, atmosphere/staff and value for money. At the end of this article you can see the results of our first Gourmet Guide. So a word of advice to all restaurants – if you see a large group of ladies approaching your premises, it may be worth your while to pull out all the stops!

The Pacific Restaurant & Café can be found Oosterstraat 65-67, 9711 NS Groningen.

Website: here

© Alison Day

Alison Day Design 

First published in the Connections magazine #14 Autumn 2006 

The Animal Ambulance

For the many pet owners in and around Groningen a missing cat, dog, or even rabbit can be quite a worry. Searching, putting up flyers and patiently waiting doesn’t often end with the return of that soft, faithful friend. There is another option, however, and that is to ring the Dierenambulance (Animal Ambulance).

Your animal may well have been picked up, if reported as a stray in some other neighbourhood, alternatively you can file a missing animal report with them. They take great care to include as many details as possible about the animal, where and when it was last seen, as well as any photographs you can supply them with for easier identification. When your pet reappears you will be informed by phone. In the sad case that the animal is not alive you will be called in to identify your pet and be given time to say goodbye, in a room specially set aside for that purpose. After that you will be helped with arrangements for burial or cremation.

In the case that the Animal Ambulance picks up an animal that has been hit by a car and its wounds are of a particularly serious nature, it will be immediately taken to the nearest vet.

Apart from domestic animals the Animal Ambulance also picks up and helps any other injured wild animals as well. In the case of birds, they are taken directly to Het Hemelrijk, a bird sanctuary on the edge of Groningen, where they are looked after until healthy enough to fend for themselves again.

The Vereniging Dierenambulance Groningen (The Association Animal Ambulance) was set up in 1979 with the idea of helping sick and wounded animals. It is open 7 days a week, 24 hours a day. The employees (numbering 50 in total) are mainly volunteers with a love for animals and who are prepared to give 20 hours a week of their time to helping animals. Before beginning each volunteer goes through an intensive training and takes a First Aid course for animals in order to be able to give immediate on site relief when necessary

The Animal Ambulance’s website: Dierenambulance (in Dutch) has information about the work they do, lost and found animals, and first aid solutions. Take a look at their promotion to get more of an idea. film

For funding the Animal Ambulance rely on subsidies from the Council of Groningen, but also receive help from the private sector (for example Century Auto Groep, and the ABN Amro). Otherwise, they receive annual donations from individuals as well as charitable donations from groups and schools.

So, if you are looking for a worthwhile cause to support. The Animal Ambulance is a good choice. More info here

© Alison Day

Alison Day Design 

First published in the Connections magazine #13 Autumn 2006 

The 'Monkey Rock' Groningen

The building of the Gasunie (Gas Corporation HQ) or ‘Apen Rots’, (Monkey Rock) sits defiantly on the outskirts of Groningen in all its 87 metres of blue and sandy coloured glory. This is the head quarters where the distribution of natural gas is controlled.

Consisting of two wings each with seventeen floors, the two wings form one angle of a pentagram at 108 degrees with each other. At the adjoining point of these wings the complex is opened up by lifts and a staircase. The staircase leans on a column in the form of a tuning fork, the stairs of which are turned 4.5 degrees per floor. The effect created by the interior gives rise to the building being named the ‘Monkey Rock’. The building covers an area of 45.000 m² and, from initial design to completion, took from 1989 to 1994,at a cost of € 63,50 million.

The Gasunie was designed by architects Alberts & Van Huut Ltd., in Amsterdam. Their vision before starting a project is to envisage the human being as the inspirational starting point, and then to design around this idea, so that the building not only fits in with its landscape but with the city it is placed in as well. It is most important that its human occupants can relate to the building and feel comfortable as they use it, either as an environment to live or work in. 

This organic style of building started in 1925, and continues to the present day. The style of this expressionist movement can be found to have influences from Art Nouveau and the architecture of the anthropological movement. Use of the mathematical Golden Ratio or Phi is often used in the construction. Also the relation between exterior and interior as well as the use of natural materials and colours, as opposed to monotone colouring, are an important part of the style.

Other architects who not only used the organic style in their work, but also were inspired by man and the natural world were, Antoni Gaudi, as well as a few of the modernists, such as Le Corbusier, Frank Lloyd Wright and Hans Scharoun.

© Alison Day

Alison Day Design

First published in the Connections magazine #11 Spring 2006 

Wagamama

Wagamama started out at Streatham Street, London, England in 1992, and has since then grown into a chain with shops the world over.

The interior of the Groningen branch, is sharp and clean as far as interior design and colour goes. The walls are neutral, the visible kitchen area (where one can watch the chefs hard at work) is silver and the back wall has a large red and yellow graphic mural design painted on it showing a figure eating hungrily from a bowl. We were greeted by friendly staff, dressed in red and black, with the Wagamama logo on a red T-shirt.

This is fast food with a twist. The philosophy behind the food is ‘positive eating and positive living’, where preparation times range from 5-10 minutes without detracting from the freshness, quality and taste of the food.

I tried Duck Gyoza, a side dish of fried dumplings filled with duck and leek with a Hoi Sin sauce and accompanied by a glass of wine. The simplicity of this delicious dish was pleasantly surprising, as was the presentation. The menu included a variety of dishes with noodles (their speciality) and some very healthy fresh juice combinations.

More about Wagamama can be found here

https://www.wagamama.com/

© Alison Day

Alison Day Design

First published in the Connections magazine #11 Spring 2006 

Bagels & Beans

New in the last few weeks to the centre of Groningen, is Bagels and Beans. This new eatery is part of a new franchise, with a total of twenty others so far throughout the Netherlands.

The interior is painted ochre yellow with images of bagel and beans. Seating is wooden chairs and tables, plus there is a large central table. There are magazines available in racks if you plan to kick back and relax.

On the tables you can find signs painted on oblong wooden bats with exclamations such as ‘Thirst’ on them which can be waived at the waiting staff, to attract attention and get service.

Drinks include all kinds of coffee such as mochachino, as well as all  kinds of fresh fruit juices, including an anti-stress one containing Royal Jelly.

Bagels come with a variety of fillings, including cream cheese, and the pastrami one (which my friend Kim had) came with cream cheese on the side in little dish.

They have a great selection of cakes, including fig cake and Brownies the size of a block of flats!

Bagels and Beans - Zwanestraat 30, 9712 CN Groningen

© Alison Day

Alison Day Design

First published in the Connections magazine #10 Winter 2006 

Dutch Campaign to ‘Keep Sugar in The Netherlands!’

As long as can be remembered and long before records were made, humans have extracted sugar from plants to use as a sweetener in some form or other. Sugar beet was first identified in 1747 and by 1880 had replaced sugar cane as the main source of sugar on continental Europe.

Sugar processing in the Northern Netherlands did not emerge until as late as 1914, and meantime sugar beet grown here had to be transported to factories in the south to be processed. It wasn’t until sugar produce had increased considerably in Groningen and Friesland, during the period of 1901-1910 that the Association of the Friese-Gronings Co-operative Beet Root Sugar Factory was set up in 1913. This association was responsible for building the sugar factory in 1914.

Although the Groningen sugar factory has received aid from the government in the form of subsidy and permanent control on growth and production since 1931, this does not detract from its role as a local employer and European sugar producer.

The factory is situated on the Groningen-Hoogkerk road south of the centre on the Hoendiep. The annual sugar beet processing period in the Northern Netherlands begins in September and continues 24 hours a day for four months, processing sugar beet produced from 105,000 acres of land. On average it takes 37 kilos of sugar beet to produce one bag of sugar that you buy in the supermarket. During this time the factory’s enormous chimneys emit a constant column of white smoke during the processing period. If the wind is blowing in the right direction, and dependent on at what stage the sugar making process is at, the smoke emissions can either be very sweet and sugary smelling, or in the extreme quite unpleasant

The Northern Netherlands has two main sugar beet companies, which process sugar beet. The Suiker Unie (The Sugar Union) and CSM. The Suiker Unie has a market share of 62.5% whilst the CSM has 37.5%. The Suiker Unie is a co-operative company, which means that the farmers are the shareholders.

Today, the sugar factory in Groningen has launched a publicity offensive against Brussels’ and plans to reform the European sugar market. A campaign slogan of ‘Keep Sugar in the Netherlands’, which the factory sports in the form of a large banner, announces this determination. A 96 day marathon, which started on 15^th September and runs to the 20th December 2005, organised by the CSM, aims to produce 340,000 tons of sugar during this period, and thereby showing the improved working relations with other factories abroad, as well as the adaptations to the factory itself.

The Dutch sugar industry aims, by campaigning, to ensure continuity within the industry as well as reducing the restrictions of importing sugar from under developed countries. This is underlined by the sugar industry’s reform proposals that have been collectively drawn up for a more equal and responsible sugar market for the European Community.

© Alison Day

Alison Day Design

First published in the Connections magazine #10 Winter 2006 

Shona van Dam - India, Meditation and Minerva

An interview with Shona van Dam took me to her degree show in the Academy Minerva in Groningen. A long, narrow, totally white interior filled with white scrolled pillars of card in various heights and breadths and each poised on a sketchbook. Both imposing and unusual this installation requires interactivity from the viewer to reveal its secrets.

According to Shona the installation is based on a 30-meter high dome-like building, which is the focal point of a community called Auroville in Tamil Nadu, India. Built in concentric circles, the design is based on the galaxy. The dome is known as the Matrimandir or ‘Soul of the city’ has an inner chamber with 12 white pillars, which serve as décor rather than being functional. In the centre of the white marbled inner chamber there is a large ‘crystal’, globe measuring 70 centimeters in diameter, this is the largest optically perfect glass globe in the world. Daylight that emanates from a hole in the ceiling passes through an installation and emerges as a beam of light that passes right through the crystal from top to bottom, ending up in a pond full of lilies. In this chamber the atmosphere is one of purity and calm, and here meditation and reflection are practiced. The ethics of the community are to live in harmony whatever their race or creed, outside of the predetermined restrictions of other countries or states. 

Auroville is Shona’s birthplace. White pillars feature in her work, reflecting calm and purity. By placing rolled up cardboard in pillar form on top of her sketchbooks, the viewer is made to look down into the ‘pillar’, to view her work and thereby physically interact with each work individually. Sometimes you have to stoop down low, at other times stand on tiptoes, or by moving the pillar. In this way the experience is more intense and is in total contrast to the experience provided in most museums, where the observer often remains disconnected from an exhibition, by not being allowed to touch or move anything.

What one sees at the bottom of each tube is an image combined with a spiral of text. This is her way of releasing as she says an ‘over load of the mind’, as a result of the stimuli of life and the world around her. ‘The setup is designed to give the viewer the opportunity to peer through a ‘mini-scope’, into my thoughts, ideas and emotions’, said Shona. Some images are drawn but by burning the paper she creates others. This is done systematically and in diverse ways. One sketchbook shows the use of a very red pigment in combination with the paper. This was created using soil, a kilo of which was sent especially by her mother from Tamil Nadu. Shona has a fascination with the unique characteristics of the materials she uses and their reaction upon contact with paper, as well as the textures, imprints and grains that are left behind.

The daughter of a Dutch mother and English father, Shona originally left India at the age of nineteen to come to Holland to ‘learn art and how to earn her own money’. The former she has accomplished the latter she says she is still learning. She plans to return to India in October to get back to her roots, after which she wants to travel, starting with New Zealand.

To learn more about Auroville their website can be found at here

© Alison Day

Alison Day Design

First published in the Connections magazine #9 July 2005 

The Gold Office.

The Goudkantoor (Gold Office) was built in 1635 and was then known as the ‘Collectehuis’. It can be found in the Waagstraat complex behind the old City hall. Over the years it has been used for many different purposes. Presently in use as a café-restaurant, it was also once a ship museum, a tourist information office, and a part of City Hall.

This is a delightful building to see and stands amidst the modernity of the shopping district in the centre of Groningen. With a rich historical background this building was once actually used as a tax office for Groningen and the surrounding provinces. The Latin proverb on the front of the building ‘Date Caesari quae Caesaris’ means ‘Give unto Caesar what is Caesar’s’ which referred to the collection of taxes.

The name the ‘Goudkantoor’ comes from the period when it was used as an assay office for gold and silver pieces, during the 19-th century. Here gold and silver objects were assessed for their quality and given a hallmark accordingly.

Built in the Dutch Renaissance style, this building has a very striking façade. The eye catching shell-like forms that appear above both doors and windows are said to be the handiwork of a sculptor from Bremen. Tests on the paint remains of the bricks (in red, ochre, gold and blue) are said to be the original colours. Motifs on the walls are from the 17-th century with origins from South Scandinavia, the German coast and the Low Countries. This kind of decoration was often used in preference to glass and Goblin tapestry.

Acquired at the beginning of the last century by the City Council of Groningen the original coat of arms of the province was immediately replaced by that of City of Groningen. This was seen as a great conquest as between Groningen and the province there has always been a great rivalry, as long as can be remembered.

© Alison Day

Alison Day Design

First published in the Connections magazine #8 July 2005, 

Discovering Groningen by Waterbus

With the weather warming up, now’s the opportunity to take one of the circular boat trips round Groningen and view the city from another angle.

Lasting about an hour, the trip starts across from the Central Station and follows the canals that circle the city centre. With refreshments on board one can sit back and enjoy the multitude of historical buildings, bridges, towers and houseboats that seem to glide effortlessly by. This is accompanied by a pre-recorded tour guide via the tannoy on Groningen’s history and inhabitants, in Dutch, English and German.

If you would prefer to see the Groninger countryside on a more extended trip then maybe the Reitdiepcruise is more for you. Leaving Groningen early in the morning on the ‘Ommelaand’ and returning at 20.00 in the evening, the trip follows the Reitdiep channel to a lake called the “Lauwersmeer". Included in the ticket price is morning tea or coffee and lunch.

Other cruise destinations available from Groningen are Nienoord, Delfzijl - Dollardvaart, Damsterdiep, and the lakes, Zuidlaarder Meer and Paterswoldse Meer. The boats ‘Pronkjewail’, and ‘Goudraand’ of the excursion company Kool, sail all the year round and are also available for group excursions such as weddings, business lunches, school trips and promotions.

For more information and reservations: http://www.rondvaartbedrijfkool.nl

© Alison Day

Alison Day Design

First published in the Connections magazine #8 July 2005