Pinkpop 2012

Yesterday we went to Pinkpop, which is one of the largest popfestivals in Europe, just a few kilometers from my house. The event takes three days, and featured bands like Linkin Park, the Cure and Bruce Springsteen (among others).

We only went on Monday (together with 61.000 other visitors) for Herbert Grönemeyer, the Specials and the Boss. We had the best weather imaginable, sunny all day, even hot at times. It stayed warm until we went home at 11 at night (I have had my share of rainy Pinkpop a few years ago).

Above sketch shows the performance of Serena Pryne (I had never heard of before).
I find it very hard to draw at festivals or stadium concerts, you are always too far from the performer, and if you are close enough, it's too crowded to draw (believe me, I tried). Besides, you never seem to get the dynamic of the performance. 

I made this drawing at home, by memory, it was an easy scene to memorize. A nice exercise by the way, I checked with photographs and I think I caught it well.

This panoramic view was drawn and painted while relaxing during the performance of Mumford and sons. We sat on an elevated terrace, overlooking the public in front of the main stage. I little later I dozed off in the warm late afternoon. Beer to blame.

Also two pictures I took during the show of Bruce Springsteen and the performance of Herbert Grönemeyer. Both were unbelievable fantastic.
And so were the acts of Seasick Steve (with his self built guitars), the Specials (music from my youth) and James Morrisson ( a bit soft for a festival like this, but very well perfomed).

Three for Ackland

Three for Ackland.
The Urban Sketchers organisation asked us to contribute to an exposition, in order to raise money for the USK.
The exposition will be held in the Ackland museum, in Chapel Hill, North Carolina, USA.
I decided to contribute, and made these three drawings for the occasion. I made them on three different continents, three different places, three different cultures, all of which I visited within one week.
First USA, Baton Rouge for business, then back home, Amstenrade in the Netherlands, and after that a citytrip to Istanbul with my wife.
I attached a real token of each place to the drawings: a Hagia Sofia entrance ticket, a part of the package of flowerseeds that I bought at the gardencentre which forms part of the castle, and the label of a bottle of Louisiana chilli sauce.

Kasteel

The castle of Amstenrade, a few hundred meters from my house. I made this drawing before I returned home after work. While I was drawing this scene a member of the family (yes, the castle is still inhabited by a count) came around to warn me that I had to be careful because I was standing in the middle of driveway. I did. Well, I assume in reality she was just curious what I was doing....... ;)
Schets van ons kasteel; dat van Amstenrade dus. Terwijl ik de tekening in inkt zette, kwam een lid van de familie van de graaf kijken wat ik daar stond te doen. Op dat moment stond ik in het midden van de inrit, en dat is nou niet de meest veilige plek. Je moet soms wat risico nemen voor een mooie prent.

Garden

I haven't drawn a decent sketch in weeks, too much occupied with work and garden. As Spiderman would say: with a big garden comes big responsibilities. We have something like 800m2 of garden, that's a lot for Dutch standards. And a lot of work too.
After I finished pulling weeds today, I made this drawing of our walnut tree, which stands in the middle of the backlawn in between the 2 gardensheds.
Al een tijdje geen tekeningen meergemaakt, te druk met werk en tuin. De hele hemelvaartvakantie onkruid geruimd, genoeg te doen. Dit is een schets van de walnotenboom in onze achtertuin.

Blue Mosque

 

Sketch of the Blue Mosque, (Sultan Ahmet Camii), as seen from our hotel room, nr. 308 of the Citadel Hotel in Istanbul. This is the last of the sketches that I made in our short trip; and I made this one specially for the Auckland Urban Sketchers exhibition. I had to bend awkwardly over the television set to draw this view, that's why the lines are a bit wobbly and not very straight.

It was the smallest hotel room I even slept in, but who cares, you're mostly outside on the Istanbul streets anyway. 

I case you haven't noticed: I am very occupied with work, home and garden at the moment; hardly any time to sketch or even keep up my blogs.

Topkapi in Istanbul

The top sketch is of the Topkapi palace; the famous palace of the Sultan and his thousand wife's. It's a labyrinth of buildings and courtyards, I made this sketch in one of the less crowded ones. I had problems with the paint, I was standing in the burning sun (pretty hot for Spring), and the paint dried quickly.
Below the view from the 1st floor gallery of the Hagia Sophia, one of the most impressive buildings I know. You feel the weight of the centuries on your shoulders when walking through this (original Roman empire) building.
Boven een schets van het Topkapi paleis, onder een schets van de preekstoel (of hoe heet zoiets in de Islam) vanaf de omloop in de Hagia Sofia.

Grand Bazaar

Another day, another terrace within the Bazaar, another cup of coffee. The man on the table next to us ( I think they were a Russian couple) noticed me drawing him; when they left he bent over to me and said: "You were drawing us right? My grandfather did the same, he was always drawing everybody". He briskly turned and walked away. I would have loved to see his grandfathers drawings.

Istanbul

Two days after my return from Louisiana and the sketchcrawl, my wife and I left for Istanbul for our wedding anniversary. That was already two weeks ago. We had the early morning flight from Düsseldorf, and arrived in Turkey around noon. So we had all day to explore the city.
I made these sketches that Monday; one is the view from the Galata bridge (crossing the Golden Horn) with all these fishermen and the view to the famous Yeni Mosque.
The second was while we were sitting for a nice cup of coffee in the famous Grand Bazaar, watching a bored salesman waiting for clients.
Een korte stedentrip naar Istanbul. We hadden de vroege morgenvlucht en hadden nog alle tijd om de stad te verkennen. Deze schetsen zijn die eerste dag gemaakt: de Galata brug en een wachtende verkoper in de Grote Bazaar.

More sketchcrawl

Two more of the paintings that I drew during the sketchcrawl, made in the library, looking through the large windows to the rain outside.
More sketches of the other contributors on sketchcrawllimburg.blogspot

Sketchcrawl

Nico Jamin and I organised a sketchcrawl event in Heerlen, already almost 2 weeks ago (time flies).
At first it was raining, we even had hail, so we stayed inside the Glaspaleis. Later the weather became better, and I made this painting of the yearly Spring market in the centre of Heerlen while kneeling on the ground. My daughter told me afterwards that I attracted a large crowd behind me. But I can tell you I didn't notice it at all, far too concentrated on drawing&painting. Watercoour on Schut 300 gram paper 24x30cm.
Sketchcrawl in Heerlen, de jaarmarkt.
More results from the sketchcrawl on http://sketchcrawllimburg.blogspot.com/

Crossroads

Last of the Baton Rouge USA sketches. I made this on the morning before my flight back home. I made 2 sketches on this location, a traffic island near the hotel, but the first one was a failure. So I started over, this one was better.
After finishing this drawing/painting I walked about hundred meters, to turn right into the suburb, where I made the Louisiana house sketch (see previous posts).
De laatste van de USA schetsen, een kruising naast het hotel. Gemaakt vlak voor mijn vertrek terug naar huis.