Had a nice day of visit to Amsterdam. Visit to the modern art museum and managed to maka a quick sketch of this scene along the "Groenbrugwal", one of the many canals near the Waterlooplein.
rene fijten sketches
Sketches
Thursday, 11 August 2022
Wednesday, 3 August 2022
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.
Monday, 1 August 2022
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.
Thursday, 28 July 2022
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.
Monday, 25 July 2022
Sunday, 17 July 2022
Castle Terborgh: Muldermolen
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.
Thursday, 14 July 2022
Sketchweekend: Charles Vos Cour
Sunday, 10 July 2022
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.
Monday, 4 July 2022
Sketchweekend: St. Servaas
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.
Thursday, 30 June 2022
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.
Sunday, 26 June 2022
Lange grachtje in the rain
Tuesday, 21 June 2022
Saturday, 18 June 2022
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
Tuesday, 14 June 2022
Lake in France
This was what it looked like.
Friday, 10 June 2022
Sunday, 5 June 2022
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.
Thursday, 2 June 2022
Tuesday, 31 May 2022
Maastricht Hotel l'empereur
Afterwards we went out sketching. I made this drawing of a hotel across the main trainstation: l'Empereur.
Thursday, 26 May 2022
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.
Monday, 23 May 2022
France: Faucogney et la Mer
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.