Sunday Stamps: "R" is for rolstoel, regen and regenboog

Today Sunday Stamps are dedicated to the letter 'R'.

While the Dutch word 'Rolstoel' refers to its function ('rolstoel' literally means 'roll(ing) chair'), the English word refers to its appearance: 'wiel stoel' or 'wheel chair'.

Rolstoelen are good solutions for people who have lost the ability to walk. However, this stamp shows that there still are thresholds to overcome, both literal and figurative (social, administrative, financial, psychological) obstacles, once you become dependent on this mobility equipment:



Despite of the obstacles, people manage to practice sports on high level, for instance wheelchair tennis. Dutch Post has dedicated at least two stamps on rolstoel tennis players.

In 2009 a stamp sheet was issued on the theme 'attention for sports talent'. One of the talented tennis players is Aniek van Koot. Three years after this stamp has been issued, she won silver medals on the London Paralympics, and in 2013 she won the US Open:



In 2012 Dutch PostNL issued a stamp sheet in honour of the 100th anniversary of the Dutch Olympic Committee / Dutch Sports Federation NOC*NSF. One of the stamps from this 10 stamps sheet shows Esther Vergeer, who has been the number one in rolstoeltennis for many years:



From Ukraine I received this pretty stamp, showing a woman in a rolstoel. So to see a robijn (ruby) is handed to her:



And you might have noted it in the previous stamp: there is a regenboog (rainbow)!
Regenbogen appear when there is sun (zon) and regen (rain) at the same time. This combination you can see on these stamps, issued in 2004 for the 150th anniversary of the KNMI, the Royal Netherlands Meteorological Institute:



In case the legs and feet function but the hands function less, sometimes it is possible to use the feet for manual tasks. This foot painter also pictured a regenboog:




The regenboogvlag - rainbow flag - is know in many countries as a sign of diversity and tolerance.

Canadian Post issued this regenboogvlag stamp, to celebrate the fact that two people who love each other can marry, no matter if they are male or female:



Some regenboog you can also see in the trousers of the man. These two stamps have been issued in 2016 in honour of the Europride, which took place in Amserdam in that year:



I just now realize that there is an other word starting with an 'R' in Dutch and not in English: 'Roze'!
Roze means pink - and 'pink' has a false friend: the Dutch word 'pink' is the fifth / little finger in English! :-)

Find more stamps in words starting with the letter 'R' at today's Sunday stamps!

In: from the USA

This year it's hundred years ago that the tallest man of Puerto Rico has been born, el Gigante de Carolina: Felipe Birriel Fernández.
This postmark is in honour of him, and with many thanks to FinnBadger I received this postmark, too.
Which has made me wonder: has this mail been traveling from the USA to Puerto Rico - which I always thought to be an independent country, but wikipedia learns me that it isn't - and from there into the world?!?

See more information about Felipe Birriel and other tall men on thetallestman.com.

The postmarks and stamps have been accompanied by this postcard, showing a painting by Charles Seeler, named 'Pertaining to Yachts and Yachting', painted in 1922.



Thank you very much, FinnBadger!

Sunday Stamps: Food

Today's Sunday Stamps theme is "Food".

In many Dutch houses the day starts with bread. That might be usance since ages, the painting on the stamp on the right is rather old: painted over 400 years ago (circa 1615) by Floris Claeszoon van Dijck. Usually my slice of bread (sandwich) is filled with a slice of cheese, and cheese also was present in 1615 as you can see on the original painting.
However nowadays many Dutch people take cereals (corn flakes, muesli) for breakfast, accompanied with milk or yoghurt. No worries: milk was also present ages ago, as the famous painting 'The Milkmaid' proofs, painted by Johannes Vermeer around 1660.

These excerpts are part of a larger stamp sheet issued in 2013 for the grand re-opening of the national museum, Rijksmuseum).



In the evening, the 'typical (traditional) Dutch dinner' consists of a piece of meat, vegetables and potatoes.
Vincent van Gogh painted a family who had only potatoes for dinner, the well-known 'The Potato Eaters' (1885):



Potatoes grow in the ground, and in some countries they are literally named 'earth appel' ('aardappel' in Dutch, 'pomme de terre' in French, 'sib zamini' in Persian).
The way they grow is shown on this pretty Danish stamp:



Nowadays the Dutch kitchen is influenced by many other cultures, so some of the other food you can see on this blog and the other Sunday Stamps blog posts of today you might find in the Netherlands, too.

Food starts with harvest, shown on this nice Greek stamp:



From Spain I received this gastronomic stamp (thank you, Eva!):



From Japan (the dish is named 'ramen'):



From Singapore (I love the combination with the person who eats, seen in the back of this picture):



As dessert you can choose a watermelon or cantaloupe, both great summer fruits, a healthy choice. They have been pictured on stamps more than once:

By Greek Post:



In the USA:




Finally some traditional Dutch food eaten at New Year's Eve: 'oliebollen', which you see on the stamp on the left (wikipedia shows a painting from 1652!).



Fondue (shown on the stamp on the right) is of course known in many other countries.

Enjoy more dishes at Sunday Stamps and via the links mentioned there!

Sunday Stamps: Paintings

This Sunday Stamps theme is 'Paintings'.

Dutch Post issued stamps of paintings by Vincent van Gogh several times. Last year - 2015 - PostNL issued four stamp sheets containing ten stamps for national mail, themed:
- Landscapes
- Portraits
- Peasant Life
- City and Village.

Three of these were easy available in post agencies, the 'portraits' stamp sheet was sold out immediately. But fortunately we could order this one via the internet, be it that it only was available in a four stamp sheet folder.
I've used the portrait stamps already, but the front side of this folder is a matching one, too. It shows one of the portraits, namely Vincent van Gogh's postman, Joseph Roulin. Van Gogh has painted more than one portraits of Mr. Roulin. The version shown here you can see in real in the pretty Kröller-Müller Museum.



Besides the four national stamp sheets, PostNL issued also a folder containing four stamp sheets for international mail, containing five stamps each. These were available as a four-in-one-folder package and via the internet only, and fortunately I could order these.
The themes were:
- Flowers
- Self-portraits
- Still lifes
- Interiors

The first mentioned two stamp sheets I've sent to Eva, and the other two I just scanned to show you for today's Sunday Stamps:

the Still lifes:



And the Interiors:



See more interesting paintings on stamps at and via today's Sunday Stamps.

Sunday Stamps: Spineless invertebrates

Today's Sunday Stamps theme is 'Spineless invertebrates'.

As the Snail represents Snail Mail and thus is directly connected to stamps, I would think snails would have been pictured often on stamps. Not at all, though! The only snails I could find were the remains of dead sea snails: shells.
Also in this painting (from the stamp sheet of the Rijksmuseum) you can see a living invertebrate, who is using one of the snail's former houses, a crustacean: the hermit crab.



An other crustacean is the crab who lives in the Wadden Sea, a part of North Sea which has been added to the UNESCO World Heritage List in 2009. Six years before the Dutch Post (then named TPG Post) issued two stamp sheets on the Wadden Sea. Besides the sea birds and two seal stamps (one of them showed here, too, as a belated addition to last week's theme!) there is one invertebate pictured, this crab:



An other invertebrate, which looks like a plant but in fact is an animal, is the Sea Anemone. What? Did I say Anemone?



I received this pretty stamp from Taiwan some years ago. I've scanned it in case there would be a suitable opportunity to share it. Today I think to be the right day.
All those years I had thought this animal is a sea anemone. Just now, when I looked up the name 'Gymnodorus Ceylonica' I found out... This amazing creature is... a Sea Snail*!...
(* in English the houseless snail is named 'slug', in Dutch both the house-bearing snail and the slug have the same name: slak)


From sea to land: insects!
Butterflies will be theme of Sunday Stamps of 22nd of May, so for today I choose other insects.
Although many people say 'yuk' to non-butterly insects (as I notice on some Postcrossing accounts), insects are an important part of our earth and life. And when seen from closeby, you can see a lot of amazing beauty!

From Korea come these beetles:



From Taiwan these beetles:



And Royal Mail has issued many insects-on-stamps, among them these beetles, bumble bee and dragonfly:





From Sweden this dragonfly:



See more interesting invertebrates on today's Sunday Stamps blog and the links mentioned under today's blog post.

In: from Spain

Some years ago Eva sent me a postcard made out of a colouring pencils package, and a year later she surprised me with a new package 'card', which contained pencils!

Similar to Eva I love colouring materials. I have a lot of colouring pencils and felt pens at home (too much, I'm afraid..). Despite of that I love to visit art supply shops, where I have to force myself not to buy them.
When walking in the street and seeing a usable pencil on the ground I have to pick it up and take it with me.

So also the packages I love to see, and it won't surprise you that I was very happy when I opened my mailbox today to find this beautiful postcard, made out of an Alpino felt tip pens package!

The back of this card is a delight, too. First Eva's message, not only because of what she wrote (about this package, among others) but also she added great little drawings to it. As the message is personal I of course will keep it offline. The stamps are great, too, these paintings by painter Goyo Domínguez:



Thank you very much, moltes gràcies, Eva!

Out: to the United Kingdom

This painting by Carl Spitzweg is named 'Der ewiger Hochzeiter' or 'The eternal bridegroom'.

In the back you can see a clock (and I think it a nice and fascinating painting!), that's why I couldn't resist to send this card to John for his clock postcards collection, even though his clock blog is closed now.

On the back I added a stamp which shows a flower who is appearing in real in our country, these days, as a sign of spring: the crocus.

In: from Hungary

This colourful postcard was sent to me by Micu from Hungary. Micu has a great mail art project, named Mail A Smile. You can join until the end of this year, as it will stop per 1-1-2016. Well, when you read the last challenge, you know you don't need to send a smile only this month, but you can send a smile any time!
Fortunately there are plans for making a sequel to this lovely mail art project and I am looking forward to seeing what will be next.

The painting is named 'Ballet on the table' (1982) and has been created by the Russian-Hungarian painter El Kazovszkij (1948-2008).

On the back side a great mail-related stamp:



Thank you very much, Micu!

In: from Spain

Received from Eva from Spain, this wonderful painting by Edward Hopper.
Eva wrote, and I totally agree, that the sky painted is extremely bright blue. Beautiful!

The postal services must have thought the postage stamp to be on the front side, as they put the cancellation in front. And see, above top right, what the postmark says: Azul! Which means 'blue' :-)



Thank you very much, moltes gràcies, Eva!

In: from Spain

'One hour to departure' is the name of this painting by the Polish painter Wiktor Najbor.
The card was sent by Eva from Spain. I am happy that Eva sticked the Spanish Europa 2015 stamp on the back.
Out of all participating countries, and besides the Dutch stamps which of course I already have used for outgoing mail, this is the first Europe 2015 stamp I see in real!



This year's Europe stamp theme is 'Old toys', and I love this wooden train. The stamp even smells after wood!
Thank you very much, moltes gràcies, Eva!

In: from the United Kingdom

Tasha uit Engeland verblijdde me met deze kaart. Laurence Stephen Lowry (1887–1976) was een Engelse kunstenaar die vooral bekend werd met zijn schilderijen van scenes uit het dagelijks leven in de industriële gebieden in noord-west Engeland, midden twintigste eeuw.
Dit schilderij is gemaakt in 1943 en heet 'Wachtend tot de winkel open gaat'.

Tasha made me happy by sending this postcard. Laurence Stephen Lowry (1887–1976) was an English artist who was famous for painting scenes of life in the industrial districts of North West England in the mid-20th century. He created this painting in 1943, named 'Waiting for the Shop to Open'.
Thank you very much, Tasha!

Sunday stamps: art on stamps

On 8 January 2011 Viridian started 'Sunday Stamps'. Almost four years later, today, it's time for number 200 which is the last one hosted by Viridian. Fortunately she will pass Sunday Stamps on to Violet Sky.

I joined rather late, with my first contribution 24th November 2013 (in two parts, to the theme 'singers'). Since then I posted stamps on an irregular base. And every time when choosing stamps to post, I felt and feel it's a joy to do.
It makes you regarding your stamps with different eyes. I've seen things I wouldn't have seen if I weren't 'forced' to search and look close by the challenging themes Viridian provided to us. And it was and is a joy to see what other people, from all-over the world, have found and shared via Sunday Stamps!
So I want to say a big 'Thank You!', to Viridian for hosting 200 extraordinary blog posts! (Each time that I'll see minerals or geology on a stamp, I will think of you (and not only then! :-) )
And also I want to say a big 'Thank You!' to Violet Sky, for giving us the opportunity to continue searching and regarding our stamps in this special way.

Today's Sunday Stamps theme is 'Art on stamps'.
Although I consider each stamp as a work of art, I went through my stamps searching for 'official' art.
The Dutch post has issued many stamps on art, for instance last year a stamp sheet themed the Rijksmuseum (National Museum in Amsterdam), and a year before for the Stedelijk Museum (Municipal Museum of Modern Art). And I see that Eva has posted some wonderful Dutch stamps today (as many snail mail lovers do, also I love the paintings of Johannes Vermeer on letter reading / writing women!).

Out of many Dutch art stamps I chose just the following two, because they show both the art work and the artist.

Judith Leyster is a 17th century painter. History sometimes seems to exist of men only, and I didn't know that there were female artists before, let's say, 1900. So I was happily surprised when I learned (thanks to Viridian!) about this Dutch female painter by this self protrait on a stamp, issued in 1999.



Maurits Cornelis Escher (1898-1972) is a Dutch graphic artist. Sometimes there is discussion about whether his works are 'art' or 'craft'. I think they're both. Anyway, his works are amazing, with some impossible constructions or 'infinite' patterned pictures.



From the Netherlands to Brazil.
The Brazilian painter Cândido Portinari (1903-1962) has made thousands of paintings, of which about 200 have been lost, and/or are inaccessible to the public, kept in private collections. One of the goals of the 'Projeto Portinari' (Portinari Project) is to locate the missing paintings of this painter who is said to have, throughout his life, movingly expressed the soul and the people of Brazil. To not have him forgotten, the Portinari Project was founded in 1979. And in 2004 the Correios, the Brazilian Post, helped to this search by issuing a serie of five stamps. This is one of them, named 'Marcel Gontrau', which has been painted in 1960.

Out: to Morocco and the United Kingdom

'La sieste' heet deze foto uit 1972 van Paul Almásy. Gelukkig had ik twee exemplaren, zodat ik ze naar twee postvrienden kon sturen die (net als ik) van plaatjes van lezende mensen houden.

The name of this picture (1972) is 'La sieste'. It has been made by Paul Almásy. Fortunately I found two copies, so I was able to send it to both mail friends who like pictures of reading people (like I do, too).



Met op de postzegels allerlei bekende mensen: de bouwer van de eerste onderzeeboot Cornelis Drebbel, de DJ Armin van Buuren, 'De Zouaaf' door Vincent van Gogh, en de Nederlandse koning.

On the stamps some well-known people: Cornelis Drebbel, who built the first navigable submarine (in 1620), Armin van Buuren, the Dutch DJ, 'The Zouave' by Vincent van Gogh, and the Dutch king.

In: from the USA

Bijzonder werk door de kunstenaar Brian Moss. De titel vind ik erg leuk: 'Zwemmen met Guppies'. We hadden vroeger thuis guppies. Ik vond het leuke visjes. Al kwam ik nooit op het idee om er ook mee te gaan zwemmen.
Ontvangen van PostMuse uit Amerika.

Amazing art work by Brian Moss. I like the title: 'Swimming with Guppies'. We used to have guppies at home. However I never though of swimming with these cute little fish.
Sent by PostMuse from the USA - thank you very much!