Momus Vrijthof

Another sketchcrawl drawing. This is the Vrijthof in the center of town. The main square with the best terraces of the netherlands are located. I had to protect myself against the rain ans stood in the music stand in the middle to make this.

Sketchcrawl Maastricht

Sketchcrawl 47 in Maastricht.
It was raining a little (too bad after two weeks of the most beautiful sunny spring weather), but we had a lovely day after all.
I was allowed to stand behind the glass in the shop window of a clothing shop (Bershka, thank you), with this view over this cute Maastricht corner, at the Dominicanen.
Next to the most beautiful bookshop of the Netherlands and probably also of the world. It's located in a fully restored 700 year old gothic church. But that is a matter for another time, another drawing.

1974

For some reason I had to go through old drawings. And I found this forgotten drawing that I once made, when I qws very young, back in 1974. 41 years ago. I read a lot of Science fiction in those days, and this was just a fantasy about a spaceship.
Remember, this was years before the first Star Wars episode made the theatres. That was in 1977 - I can still remember coming out of the movies and being totally overwhelmed by what we had seen.

Bird

Transfer technique again. I transferred rasterized pictures (two of which are my own photographed hands) on a wooden base, and then tried to integrate them into a painting. Obviously this one is called "bird".
It's a difficult but rewarding exercise. When you start you have no idea where or how you end up.
Acrylic on prepared wood, approx. 41x62cm.

Goslar again

Another business trip to Goslar, Germany. Years ago I vowed to make a sketch on every business trip I make, even if it means to rise before breakfast to make one. But this specific morning I had to prepare for the meeting, so I could only make this very quick (and not very good) sketch.
It was made from the hotel window towards the train station on the other side of the street. Hotel Niedersäksischen hof, a very nice hotel.

Datteln Hebewerk

I seem to be running from one deadline to another.
Last Sunday and Monday I was in Goslar (in Germany, a five hours drive), for the presentation of some new plans. Hardly any time to sketch there. But on my way back I brought a German colleague home, he lives in a little town called Datteln. This is Ruhrgebiet: the old coalmines and steelworks area.
But Datteln has a beautiful "hebewerk": a lifting device to lift ships from one canal into another one. The height difference between the Dortmund and the Dortmund-Ems kanal is 14 meter. These kind of works make an elaborate system of locks unnecessary.
The "hebewerk" was put in operation in 1899, and worked until the late 60s.

de Molenaar

Some of my drawings, made during the Feed symposium, were used as cover article in "de Molenaar", the leading professional magazine in the animal food and milling industry.

Rokjesdag. Short skirt day.

Short skirt day. Rokjesdag. That is how this first, beautiful day of spring is called here in the Netherlands.
It just seems all girls all decide to wear skirts today, to treat their legs to some warm sun.
It was superb weather, 22 degrees, no wind, and the air smelling sweet of the blossoming trees.
This was sketched during lunchbreak today, on the bank of the river Maas.

Sketchcrawl on april 25

Join us for the next Limburg Sketchcrawl, April 25th in Maastricht. At 13.00 hours at the souvenirshop on the bridge.

Treeline

Just a doodle with some watercolour, inspired by a drawing of Paul Steven Bailey.
Full agenda at present, no time to go out and sketch outdoors. The drizzling and stormy weather is not helping anyway.

Dada

Today we had art class again. With transfer technique (paste a laser print on a surface and start painting while integrating it).
I choose a few loose items: mouth, nose, eye and jaw. As I started I had no idea what to do, I started with an ochre-burnt Sienna background, but that turned out to be too saturated. So I added a white-blueish rectangle to compensate. But the original  print was hardly visible anymore.
So I added lines of black Chinese ink, drawn with a twig. That turned out to be okay. I just had to add some red and some accents. Took me two hours to make. Arcylic on board, 42x62cm. 
In the end the result reminds me of Dada paintings, like the ones Max Ernst made.

Tom

I had to babysit this evening, to Tom, the half-year old son of Tamara, a good friend of my wife. He is such a cute, quiet and lovely boy. And his eyes keep looking around. After an hour he went to sleep, which gave me the opportunity to make these two drawings of him.