A dream (part 2)

 

The dream part 2 (previous installment: A dream (part 1))

The buildings were upset about being deformed, so they took revenge, stretched out and caught the zeppelins in mid-air. Then they cut them to pieces, which fell to the earth in the form of roasted chickens.

At first everyone liked the roasted chickens. They were very polite and greeted everyone in the streets. But after a while they got hungry and started eating the legs of chairs and tables. So the Police came and rounded them up to be taken to prison.

Babel's Ark

 

Finally finished, my stained glass window of Noah's ark. Someone who saw it noted that he not only saw the Ark in this piece, but also the tower of Babel. Even though it never crossed my mind when I designed the window, it totally makes sense.

Even though it is hardly visible, I used two different glass painting techniques in this piece, grisaille and enamel. Grisaille are the dark lines and figures of the animals and buildings. But as I wanted other and more colour nuances than the available glass plates, I gave some glass parts an additional blue or brown colour tone on the backside. With the coloured glass, it gives beautiful effects.

I reality the piece has more and subtle colour tones (the white is light yellow). But my decent camera was stolen last week, so I had to do with the camera of my mobile phone.

Size about 60x75cm.

Tower bridge, London

This is it, the only drawing left from a fine weekend in London. I made this one in the large Moleskine (which I stacked in our suitcase, which was not stolen).
We were staying in the (excellent) hotel "the Tower", located adjacent to the Tower Bridge. For a few hours we even had a room with a view towards the bridge! This view was drawn and painted from the 1st floor bar, while resting our tired feet and enjoying a nice pint of Guinness.
I should add that I drew this image late in the evening. As the bridge was fully lighted I was able to draw it as if it was daylight. I considered drawing it as if by night, but the bar was dimly lit and you need good light to paint an acceptable night scene. Believe me, I tried.

Robbed

We were mugged last night in the Brussels-south raiulway station.
We just returned from a lovely weekend in London with our daughter Rianne (she presently studies for her Masters at the Imperial college, London).

It was the classic distraction tric - asking a simple question and someone walking behind your back picking up the bag. I immediately realised what had happened to me, but within a breath they were already gone.

We lost our camera and some euro's. But worst of all my travel sketching gear and my small Moleskine sketchbook. There is now only one London drawing left (which was packed in our suitcase).
These sketchbooks, fountain pens and brushes have no value to the muggers, but it took me years to assemble.  Infuriating.

There will not be so much sketching in the coming few weeks, I am afraid.

I had a dream

 

I was a little feverish last Sunday, and I woke up remembering this dream.

Overlooking a city from a top floor balcony, in the shimmering heat of the noon, I saw an Apollo rocket rise into the sky. But it slowly and elegantly turned around and crashed into its launching pad. Out of the boiling cloud a huge zeppelin emerged, changing its form like a huge blob, and hovering above the city. Wherever the zeppelin would descend, the buildings would slowly twist and deform. Whenever it rose the buildings would reshape again. It was very quiet all around; not even a sound from the birds. You would only hear the soft moaning of the wood fibres of the doors, as they were deforming.

Isabelle

Art class. Drawing and painting with Chinese ink after a live model, Annemieks daughter Isabelle.
In the first hour we made about 12 drawings in 6 different poses using bamboo pens and twigs.
The second hour we added ink washes to the black line drawings.
My favourite material.

St. Servaas

Yesterday during lunchbreak I walked to the citycenter of Maastricht.
The weather was rather mild for the time of year.
This is a sketch of the backside of the St. Servaas basilica. Actually, it's the entrance side, but the altar side of the St. Servaas is located next to the Vrijthof (a large market square), so everybody consideres that side to be the front.
Here is a drawing of the Vrijthof side: Vrijthof

Rêve de Ceramiques

Rêve de Ceramiques, a photo by 201169 on Flickr.

I normally don't repost, but I loved this drawing of the multi-talented Pascal (living in Paris). He probably woke up in horror and sweating about this dream. Pascal, je suis honore d’être dans tes rêves bizarres.

Watercan

On artisjokkens blog ( click here: "watercan") his latest design for a multi usable watercan was shown, which will undoubtedly result in a revolution in gardening. I inserted his artist impression below.

But you still have to fill it and walk around.

This led me to this design for an improved version, which I show here for patent application: a multi-usable static watercan.
No need to move it around anymore!

Just put them wherever you want flowers, they will sprout from the can, and you never have to walk the garden to water the plants anymore.

That's called progress, Folks!

Artisjokkens version.

Chinese ink

Experimenting with Chinese ink: painting silhouettes of (live) models, and then adding drops of pure ink in the wet ink, and let it flow.
These are a few of the about 20 paintings that I made in under 2 hours, all quick ones.
Not as easy as it looks.