Gouda, museum harbour

 To prepare for an Urban Sketching meeting in Gouda, on April 18th, I visited potential locations to sketch. This is along one of the canals, at the museum harbour, full of old ships.

U-boot U995, Laboe

 

Now this was something special! There was a 1943 German Submarine (the U995) on the shore of the beach in Laboe, just a few 100 meter from my hotel (and the exhibition). On the first day I drew the outside. The temperature was not too cold, but it was windy: my tripod with drawing board fell over a few times.

The next day I got permission to draw the interior. It was cramped, but I managed to sit on a bench/bed, not blocking the other visitors. Painstaking work to draw all these details, but I loved doing it.

Done with waterproof ink in a Lamy calligraphy fountain pen on toned paper, some watercolour and white gouache.

Exhibition in Laboe (Germany)

 

My first solo exhibition was opened last Saturday, at the opening of the new library in Laboe (northern Germany, at the sea). The exhibition shows 32 of my paintings, drawings and watercolours. It was organized by Anja klein of the local gallery Atelier1. There were a lot of visitors, like 200 or so; not all for me but also to visit the new library. The mayor gave a nice speach. Anyway, the exhibition is running to the end of June.

Hulsberg Wissegracht

 Quick sketch while I was waiting for appointment at the dentist, of Hulsberg, as seen from the Wissegracht. The rain started quickly after this.

Van Gogh in Nuenen

 

I visited the Van Gogh Village museum in Nuenen; he lived there with his parents before he went to France. He painted the "aardappeleters" (potato eaters) here, based on his visits to the farmers and workers in the region. It was a very poor region in those days. Anyway, even though it was cold I managed to make two quick sketches (each about 15 minutes) of buildings that van Gogh had sketched and painted: the Pastorie (the house of his parents) and the Collse watermill. Each A5.

Koale Kit

I grew up in the 60s, under the smoke of the coalmine "Emma". I was triggered by an call for art objects by the local museum, Schunck. the theme was "At home". I have no idea if this fits within their ideas of the exhibition, but that is not important. It's one of those things: you have an idea, and you have to work it out, as an urge, if only for yourself, I based it on the warmth of the coal hearths, my father would use one of these  to bring coal from the gardenshed into the house. We still have this coalbucket.

Blogpost nr 2000!

 

I started in 2017, almost 20 years ago, and this is my 2000th blogpost. 

A portrait made yesterday, a mondaymorning live portrait session. Acrylic on 50x70cm. bamboopaper. Took 2 hours to paint.

Flowers in gouache

 

Tiny gouache painting of vase with flowers, for a congratulations card for a former colleague, Wendy.

Maastricht, de Ruiterij

 

Made this inkdrawing entirely on location, last Saturday. Added colours digotally with Gimp.

Maastricht Ceramique

We had an Urban Sketching Meeting in Maastricht, yesterday. Thew sun shone, it was cold evn though it improved during the day. This was made behind the glass of the library, with a view between modern buildings towards the old city center.
 

 

Jacqueline. Live portrait.

 

Monday morning live portrait session. Oilpainting on canvas, 40x50 cm. We worked two mornings on the same model. Last week we did the underpainting in burnt sienna and an mix of blue and raw umbur.

Today I added te skin tones, ochre, white, a little red and some burt sienna. 2 mornings each 2 hours.

Black Ink

Quick portrait in black ink. After a picture somewhere.

 

Brooklyn underpass

 

Recently fnished another painting. It's a scene of an subway underpass somewhere in Brooklyn. It's an oil painting 50x60cm. Unfortunately I can't get the photograph of the painting correct, it is less harsh than depicted in this post, and the yellow is glowing better than shown. Well it is all I can do.

Comics by Willem and Zara

 

The 26th, Second Christmas day, our children and grandchildren were here for a festive dinner. It was a great family moment. After dinner I helped Zara (the top drawing, she is 5 years) and Willem (the bottom one, he's 7 years now) to make Christmas comic stories. All about Christmas presents being stolen by either Aliens (Zara) or the Grinch (Willem). Luckily the presents came back where they belonged :)

Best wishes for these Festive days.

Best wishes for the Christmas days and may 2026 be a year of enjoyment and good health.

(based on a gouache painting I made on location in 's Hertogen Bosch december 2024).
 

Utrecht: Museum Speelklok

 

I am secretary of the Association of Dutrch Urban Sketchers. We have 2 new boardmembers, and one leaving, to get o know each other we had a lunch in Utrecht. Unfortunately it was too cold to sketch outside, so we went to a museum of automated musical instruments, like pianola, streetorgans, carrilions and clocks. The top one was cute: an automated Van Gogh puppet, who paints sunflowers every hour. And when he is finished the sunflowers turn around in the painting :) .

Maastricht Helmstraat (2)

 

A guy sitting in front of the entrance of a supermarket at the Helmstraat in Maastricht. I quietly observed him from the other side of the street. He was not a beggar, maybe homeless, or passing time, I don't know. Just before I finished he stood up and left.

Maastricht, Helmstraat

 

Maastricht, de Helmstraat. This morning. Ink and watercolour in a A5 Moleskine watercolour sketchbook.

2 men: portraits in ink

 

Two quick ink drawings, made this afternoon, based on pictures from the Internet, a photo by M. Odekerken (left) and a picture of some unknown Zapatista from Mexico (right).

Aunt Leny's anniversary: 100 years

 

My aunt Leny, living in Amersfoort, will celebrate her 100th birthday tomorrow. As a present I painted a scene of Amersfoort, at the Elleboogkerk. 

There is a little story attached to this scene. As long as I can remember my aunt has had a painting of exactly the same viewpoint hanging in above the dinnertable. But that painting dates from before WW2 (if I recall correctly). But it's a winter scene with lots of snow. Last summer I was in Amersfoort and I sketched on the same location, but I disliked that drawing. So I remade it with acryl gouache, here it is. Actually, nothing much changed during that time, only the trees are in bloom and they are a lot larger.

Update: 14 december: we had a great party yesterday to celebrate her birthday. Here you see both paintings next to each other :) .