Hoensbroek Castle

 

Cycled along our castle, yesterday morning. I was struck by the almost graphic quality of the countre-jour (against the light) effect on the scene. So I stopped to make this drawing, in the heat. It was 30 degrees.

Demolition St Jan

 

There is a high school across the street, the St. Jnas college. I have spent a few years on that school and so have my wife and my children. Over the last two years they built a new school in the middle of the terrain, and now it's time to remove the old parts. This sketch is (or better was) the auditorium. It was a large hall for festivities, exams and recieving the final diplomas. It was raised on columns; under it was the bicycle parking. My friends and I used to spend out lunchbreaks there. Fond memories.

Portrait of Berlin

 

Portrait of Sir Isaiah Berlin; well that's what the drawing was based on. Doesn't really resemble, but it was fun to make. No pencil drawing, direct in ink, immediately washed out with a waterbrush, and some gouache added.

Last days of the firestorm

I start with a random line, then another one......
 

Castle Terborgh: Muldermolen

 

Painted on location: the Muldermolen next to the castle Terborgh in Schinnen. 

I was trying out a new plein air painting setup, using my tripod like I do with Urban sketching. Usually I work with a portable easle, but this is quite an elaborate setup. And together with the other stuff, it needs a car to be close at hand. The new setup is more handy, but it needs improvement. I use a pochade box I recieved for a birthday a few years ago, and had it fixed on a tripod with duct tape.

Sketchweekend: Charles Vos Cour

A drawing of the Charles Vos Cour, a modern building complex taking old building styles into account. By the Belgian architect: Charles Vandenhove.
 

Sketchweekend: Kruisheren hotel

 

Another one place we visited during my "Secrets tour", the Kruisheren hotel. It's an medieval chapel (a monastry of the "Holy cross" order) converted into a five star hotel. WE were allowed to sit on the mezannine to draw this.

Sketchweekend: St. Servaas

Together with the Maastricht group we organized an Urban sketching weekend, here in Maastricht. !25 participants showed up, we had terrific weather and everything went great.

I organized two "secrets  tours". With a small group we walked and sketched on different less obvious locations, and I told the participants stories about the city. This was the first stop of the first day: the entrance to the Saint Servaas Basilica, gothic at its best. I only has short time, so I had to limit myself.

Le Corbusier in Ronchamp

 

Two real quick sketches that I made in France. This is the famous "Chapelle Notre Dame du Haut" in Ronchamps, by Le Corbusier. I managed to squeeze a visit to this iconic landmark in between the sketching week.

Unfortunately the front (the other side of the building than shown here) was in scaffolding, as were the famous tainted glass windows. But when I made the interior sketch, the few remaining nuns came in (yes it's still a monastery) and sang hymns and flayed a flute. THat was really special.

Lange grachtje in the rain

Last friday, thunderstorm. These people ware sheltering againt the sudden rain under the arch of a medieval fortification wall in Maastricht. I was sitting on the other side of the narrow alley, sipping on a coffee under the canopy of a terrace.

Lee van Cleef (almost)

Just a few quick lines for a sunday evening doodle. After a picture of Lee van Cleef.
 

Abandoned factory

On the last day in France I visited an old abandoned factory, and made a quick oilpainting there. An experiment if I could ue oil while using my usual Urban sketching gear. It's not yet finished, there was not enough time. 

This is how it looked like

Lake in France

Another one from that productive week in Corravillers: a little lake on top of the hill. The challenge was to use round brushes - and to show them in the painting somehow.

This was what it looked like.

Corravillers: tiny painting

Another small painting: 20x20cm. Acrylic, on location.
 

Corravillers, church

 

Another one from Corravillers, the third day. This time the idea was to use flat brushes only, and it should show. Acrylic on panel 40x50cm. I am kind of fond of this one.

Tiny Corravillers

My smallest plein air painting ever. On an old piece of wood: 9x6x4 cm. In France, Corravillers.
 

Maastricht Hotel l'empereur

Our group is preparing for a weekend Urban sketching in Maastricht. First weekend in July.

Afterwards we went out sketching. I made this drawing of a hotel across the main trainstation: l'Empereur.
 

Corravillers: bridge

 

Like I already said: I attended a painters course in France, in Corravillers. Each day we received assigments, but I wanted to do some stuff on my own. This was the result; after the assignment, while the others of the group were resting at the swimming pool, I decided to do another one on location.

Waterbased oils on panel 40x50cm.

France: Faucogney et la Mer

I attended another paintingweek in France. It was years since the last one.

We went to France, the Haute Saone region, in the northeast. Annemiek Jongen gave us serious challenges, making sure a painting reflects the character of a certain material (like type of brush). Actually this one was not one of the challenges, I made this one in my own style.

It's a cemetary, high on the hills near Faucogney et la Mer, Saint Martin.

 

Berlin Alexanderplatz

Berlin, the view from our hotel window towards Alexanderplatz. Motel One. It was early sunday morning, so the square was still very quiet.