Haarlem: het Spaarne

View over the Spaarne, the stream running through Haarlem.
if you want to see more sketches around this bridge, check this site of Roger Klaassen:
https://urbansketchers-netherlands.blogspot.nl/2017/03/hartje-haarlem.html.

A few pictures of the group, made by Marc Liefferinge.
Above Roger Klaassen en me, below the total group.

 

Dutch Windmills

The National Haarlem sketchcrawl. Actually, this is the second time I ever painted/drew a Dutch windmill. I am not looking for traditional or nostalgic scenes, but this was a beauty. De Adriaan, along the canal "de Spaarne".
 
I stood there with Roger Klaasen, who drew almost the same scene but is a totally different style, see here at the side. He is far better with linework than me.

And then, while waiting for the watercolour to dry, I sometimes do experiments. Like with this little sketch: made in indian ink, drawn with bamboo sticks, in maybe 5 minutes.

Haarlem: St Bavo

Haarlem, yesterday. We had another national sketchcrawl in Haarlem. in total 70 sketchers met in the city, spread out and made numerous drawings.
I joined Roger Klaasen, together we found some beautiful spots to draw.
Even though there was a cold wind, it was sunny and nice.
The drawing above is the main Cathedral of Haarlem, the St Bavo. We were sitting on a terrace while drawing this.

Weilerswist (Germany)

On the road in Germany, returning from Frankfurt. I had dinner at the McDonalds in Weilerswist, below Cologne. This guy was enjoying a coffee and some chocolate cake: some McDonalds have a real coffee counter with good coffee nowadays. Starbucks made these chains improve.

Gaspard

Small portrait of Gaspard, a live portrait model.
The painting is only 25x30cm, in acrylic. Took me 1 hour and a quarter to make.

Election day

It's election day in the Netherlands. We'll choose our parliament today.
And it was beautiful weather: spring has arrived, soft temperatures and nice smells in the air.
During my lunchbreak walk I passed along the polling station in Elsloo, where some senior citizens were chatting with all the time on their hands. I had to return to office. Tsja.

Glass horse

After the mixed results of the last glass vases, I returned o familiar ground.
A horse head, sheet glass with mixed emaille colours, and small stripes of glass on top.

Yesterday I finished the base glass, added the colours, and made the horse's manes.
Here is an image of the design, the statue will be about 30 cm high.

Bad Camberg

Had to drive to Frankfurt yesterday, for a business meeting. I took a coffee break after a few hours driving. This business man was sitting on the next table, totally off the world with his Iphone.
Modern day communication. In the 10 minutes that I made this impression he did not even move his hand or shifted in his position.

Pate de verre vases

I made these two vases in "pate de verre" technique.
It's an ancient technique in which small glass particles are glued into a mold, and then heated.
It's very hard to make. I started with this technique in May last year or something like that.
This is the 4th trial of the blue bowl, and the 2nd version of the brown one.
And even though the brown one looks good on the picture, it has a deep cut in the bottom.
Keep in mind that each version cost at least 3 weeks (monday evenings in atelier) to make.
We found that the oven is probably not balanced enough for this type of heating.
I don't know if I will ever do this again.

La Cienega blvd, L.A.

Oilpainting, based on a picture that I took some years ago in Los Angeles.
I already reworked the picture into an urban sketch, which eventually lead to a comic in which sketchers all over the world participated. The sketch is shown below.

I tried to learn from the fantastic work of the L.A. based artist William Wray, who does similar treatment of Urban scenes.
I tried his themes before, without much success, but this is the first time that I am really content with the result.

Gonna do more like this. 

Jake

Jake, our grandson is now 13 months old.
Even though they say never sketch a family member, I could not resist.
Made this while he was eating some bread, that's the only time they sit still enough.