Sunday morning early bird. At half past 6 I was already in the car on my to Brussels, with a friend who is also a visual artist, on my way to the antique market in De Marollen. She had invited me to go to this huge market where we wanted to be at a quarter to 8 in the morning in order to find the best stuff.
I have quite a bit of experience with flea markets, antique markets and thrift stores because I am always looking for special frames, but this market exceeded my expectations! We arrived at a large square full of rugs and stalls where it was already very busy at this hour. Along the edge of the square, people stood in the spring sun enjoying fresh coffee and croissants. It was amazing, so much to see, a whole collection of torsos of up to 50 mannequins, Mary figurines, porcelain, crockery and beautiful design chairs and lamps. I came specifically for the frames otherwise I could have driven home with three vans full.
Scattered around the market were beautiful frames on rugs, one even more beautiful than the other. Ranging from heavy solid frames to over-the-top gold and kitsch but also a beautiful antique metal frame, finely worked as lace. Then the search to pick out the gems began, I started to ‘browse’ through all the frames, working from stall to stall until I was around the whole square. In the end, this turned out to be a whole day’s work, resulting in 40 beautiful frames.
The frames also contained special things, from a beginners’ landscape painting to very beautiful old communion photos or other portraits, which I can then use in my paintings. This way, nothing is wasted and the original artwork also gets a beautiful, new destination.
Sunday at the end of the day I went back home with the frames and enough inspiration to make some beautiful new drawings to match.