Jake's song

I sometimes make music.
My Grandson, Jake, now 15 months old, was brabbeling away, and I used that soundbite to compose this song. Made with MusicMaker and Beatbox, I played most instruments myself.

Germaïn again

The same model, Germaïn again. (I made a mistake with his name, not Jamin but Germaïn).
This time I took a simple sheet of plywood, and tried to paint subtle, trying to keep the wood character into the painting. Even though the resemblance is ot striking, I think it looks vivid. For a life portrait session I guess that accounts for something.
Acrylic on plywood, 50x60cm.

Hulsberg

The church of Hulsberg.
I made the sketch while waiting for the Easter mass to begin. As Gertie sings in the choir, they have to warm up their voices half an hour before the start. I walked around the church and made this fast little sketch.
Just added the background colour at home.

Germaïn

This is Germaïn, a very good model, which we had the pleasure to paint last Saturday during live portrait painting class. It was supposed to be a two mornings session, but somehow the painting worked out so vivid, that I decided to leave it at this. I had something totally different in mind with the red background, but somehow the red appearing in parts of the face, together with the gesso-white of the fibreboard just worked out fine. Acrylic paint on wood, about 40x60cm.

Here are the earlier stages of the painting, and a picture of Germaïn (I posted this picture without his permission, I don't know how to reach him, if there is any problem I will remove it).

I show it here to show which choices I deliberately made.

(editorial note: I made a mistake with Germaïn's name, it's corrected now).

Klimt again

Pretty busy lately, it's often like that in this time of year.
One of the things I did the last few months is (re)working this painting.
I was not content so far. I changed a few things, like trees and skin. It's done now.
If you want to see last years version, see this link.
http://renefijten.blogspot.nl/2016/06/girl-reading-klimt.html

Elsloo, view from my office

View from my office window. I was just in time to make this. The last few days the trees in front of my window start getting leaves, and this view will be obscured until autumn. Not a great loss.

Gertie in Delft.

Just another sketch that I made last weekend. It's Gertie (my wife) enjoying the sun on the "Beestenmarkt" in Delft. Even though I usually refrain from drawing family, I could not resist. And I must say, the resemblance is okay. Even though she usually does not look so serious. :)

Rotterdam Markthal

We had a lovely (short) weekend in Holland. First went to visit Delft (where I did my Masters in Architecture). Then a short ride to Katwijk aan zee, where we had dinner in a restaurant on the beach with a glorious sun sinking into the sea. In the evening we went to a fantastic musical "Soldier of Orange". Based on a autobiography of a guy who fought in the resiatance in WW2, and was personal adjudant of Queen Wilhelmina.
But the major feature of the musical is that the whole theatre moves and slowly turns, while the 8 stages are fixed and grouped in a 360 degrees circle. And it features real WW2 motorcycles, cars and a genuine original Dakota airplane. Fantastic.
On saturday we went to Rotterdam, where we had coffee in the Markthal, where I made this sketch.
I had forgotten my brushes: I made this with watercolour pencil, and a little water in a sponge.