Zara

Tuesday May 19th: our fourth grandchild was born. After three lovely boys, now a girl.
Daughter of Mart and Lisa. How lovely she is! We are so proud.
It will take a few days before I can see her, due to Corona restrictions, but I guess we'll get chances enough.

De Soto Fireflite Coronado

Saw this old De Soto Fireflite Coronado, somewhere in Heerlen. It was standing at the curb, in front of a vintage car restore shop. There was also a nice old Nash, maybe next time

Heerlen, Maankwartier

Out drawing again, It felt good, the sun was warm, even though the wind was on the fresh side.
This is the central tower in the new "Maankwartier" in Heerlen. Translated it means "the Moon quarter". THe tower has a huge solar clock on top (the half-sphere).
It's an architectural project initiated by an artist, Huisman. Most architects don't like it because it refers to iconic buildings from the past; the first 40 years of the last century. But I must admit it's well done, and has an overall visual quality that seems to be missing from most shopping malls nowadays.

A digital face

A first attempt for an all digital painting. No reference images, models, tracings or whatever, just drawing with a digital pen on my laptop, starting from scratch.

Old barn

Another on location sketch, I've done this one already a faw times, it's near my daughters house.
Always fun to draw.

Romneyhut

An old Romney hut, I found this one on a quiet footpath along the river Maas.
Just a few hundred meters from my daughters family house.

Orangerie Amstenrade.

Already two weeks old, this sketch of the entrance to the gardens of the Castle of Amstenrade.

Harbour

Just a drawing of a harbour. Coloured inks, brushpens, inkpens.

Corona dreams are made of this

Today a page of my sketchbook was publicised on the internet site of our national newspaper.
They had a feature about: does Corona influence your dreams?
 volkskrant.nl/dromen-we-door-coronamaatregelen-meer-en-vreemder-dan-normaal
As it happens, I keep track of my dreams since January 1st. (as far as I can remember them the next morning). I already have about 35 dreams noted and sketched.
This is how the sketchbook looks like.

So far I had 5 Corona related dreams, most about social distancing. One was about virus falling from the sky (the one that was publicised, see the top story). And one of the Wuhan market (already on february 17th).

Amstenrade

Lockdown had the unexpected result that I lost my appetite for drawing. I really prefer drawing outside than inside, so lockdown, even the less restricted one here in the Netherlands, is an ordeal.
Drawing the garden didn't work, neither did the back of our house, or the living room.
But we had lovely weather yesterday, at our King Willem's anniversary, so I took the liberty of drawing this scene, just a few 100 meters from my house. I swear, in the time that I stood there, I did not see a living soul, only a few cars and motorbikes on the road 10 meters behind me.
Anyway, it's nice to draw a view I have seen all my life. We take a lot for granted.

Springtime on Mars

Now isn't this great? The nice people of the Ray Bradbury Experience Museum used one of my drawings for one of their publicity posters.
The museum-to-be is located in Waukegan Illinois (not too far from Chicago).
Bradbury was and still is one my most favourite authors. 
Back in 1974, in highschool, I made a rough sketch based on the "Martian Chronicles". And in 2010 I remade the drawing, which you see here. I am thrilled that it is used for this purpose.
Check the original 2010 article:  https://renefijten.blogspot.com/2010/01/ray-bradbury.html

And I do love the caption: "Try the refreshing experience of springtime on Mars".
I couldn't have thought of a better one.

Faces

So what do you do during these Corona days? Excercise drawing faces, after pictures on the internet.

Mosaic

I participated on a mosaic game. A picture, devided inti 18 pieces, each given out to a different artist. THe fun this is you have no idea where your part is, or how it connects to the next one, or what the total is. Mine is the brown one, on the rigth, near the bottom. Really fun to do.
Thanks to Laura S. Fiat who organized it, and Wes Douglas who provided the origical picture.

The Outlook

I can't go out to do some nice on location drawings, and I just don't feel like painting after pictures.
So I decided to try some digital painting. I wanted to try Procreate, but you'll need a Ipad for that. So I used Autodesk Sketchbook, to be used with my touchscreen laptop.
It is my first all-digital drawing, and it took a while to get used to the pen and brushes, and find out where all the features are hidden. Not a very easy program to use. But here it is, something weird.

Dockyard worker

Still within the Corona days "intelligent" lockdowns. I am working from home, I am using my "drawing and painting" room now for work. But this means I don't like to sit there in the evening as well. And I am totally lacking of inspiration. Nothing to see, nothing to draw.
I found an old vintage picture of a few Italian New York dockworkers, back in 1910. Gave me something to draw. As excercise.

Cats in times of lockdown

Mila, our cat is not pleased with her lockdown. Neither are we humans.

Old Barn in Meers

I am painting again, in these times of homebound Corona social distancing.
This is a real broken down barn. It's just a few hundred meters from my daughters house, but you can only get there through small paths. I found it by accident.
It's been in this state for years, I don't understand how it survived the recent storms.
Anyway, made with washed out Cobra oilpaint, on a Talens canvas panel, 40x50cm.

Amstenrade in Corona days

The Castle of Amstenrade, just a few 100 meters from our house.
It's Tuesday now, I made the drawing last Sunday. Two days that feel like ages, all due to the deepening crisis of the Corona contaminations. The numbers of victims and the deathtoll is rising quickly.
Schools are closed, streets far too quiet, me working at home. Everyone tries to avoid personal contact. We are even avoiding visiting my mother; as her age is in the second half of 80. Afraid to pass something on, which we don't even know we have. Tough dilemmas, but she is okay with it. There are good alternative ways to communicate these days.
And in the meantime, after weeks of continuous rain, the weather gets better. Trees blossom, flowers start to colour our garden, birds are suspiciously eying our cats, squirrels make the branches dance.
It seems out of tune with our own feelings. Strange days.

Oirsbeek

Oirsbeek, a village just 3 km from where I live. It was nice weather, and I just had to get out and draw on a quiet place.
All the news is all about the Corona virus, the death, the lockdowns of schools, restaurants and other institutions. I had contact with possible virus victim early last week, and I confined myself to working at home. Luckily I have no health problems, but I know some people with high fevers (maybe the virus, maybe not, but you just don't know). All this is terrifying.
So I need drawing to set my mind to other things.

Family in glass

Three dimensional glass fusion object. I had made the first three figures before, back in 2015. Rianne was expecting our first grandson, Jake. But there is another lovely boy now, Willem. So I had to add another figure.
And another cat, first there was Noortje, now there is also Sammy.
A lovely family.