Our Castle

Our town has a huge medieval castle, dating from the 13th century, and probably long before that.
It's not a good sign to have a castle like this, it means that there were a lot of wars and gangs roaming this region. You don't need a castle when there is no threat.

An impression of the total complex, the drawing represents the central part. You have to cross three bridges to get there,.

Anyway, I decided to make this drawing today, it was nice and sunny on the terrace across the moat.

Mila, with Cat-titude.

Quick sketch of one of our cats, Mila. Sitting quietly in our garden.

Liege, marche de puces

I noticed I forgot to post this drawing, made a month ago, during our little trip trough Belgium and France. The flea market in Liège, belgium. It was not very warm that day.

Utrecht Domtoren

Utrecht National Urban Sketching Meeting. I gave the "negative space" workshop, which means I only have little time left for drawing.
I managed to make this one of the Domtoren, which used to be the highest tower of the Netherlands.
I was sitting on the terrace of an Indian restaurant, which was pure luck, because it briefly rained. Short but strong. Luckily we were covered by a canopy.

Neu-Isenburg

Before I post the drawings of the Urban Sketchers meeting, here is a drawing that I made yesterday morning. Businesstrip again, to Neu-Isenburg (Germany), just below the flight path of the Frankfurt airport.
Stood up half an hour early to sketch this scene. Before I started I made a big coloured stain on the page, and made te drawing on top. Somehow it interferes with the drawing, which (sometimes) gives a vivid effect. A good way to loosen up the drawing style.

Utrecht, National USK day.

Last Saturday we had a national Urban Sketching day in Utrecht, with 100 enthusiastic participants.
I helped organizing it, my part was mostly organizing the workshops.
There were three: Christiaan Afman Veenema did "blind drawing and continuous lines", Julia Henze did Lettering of Urban Sketchers", and I did "Negative space".
The workshops were a huge success, not in the least because of the dedication of the participants. In my workshop they worked hard and concentrated, I did not make it easy.
Unfortunately I did not make pictures during the workshop, have to think about that the next time.
As teacher you don't have a lot of time left to draw, I only made 2 drawings. Will post them later.

Forgotten lives

I made this painting for the biannual exhibition and amateur artists competition "Inbeeld".
The theme was "silent lives".
It reminded me of about how we wiped out our shared history of the coalmines in this region. I said it before, there is nothing left but ugly scars in the landscape.
And the miners themselves (almost all are gone now), they kept silent about that era. If I remind correctly, back then they didn't even talk about underground. As if it were 2 different worlds, below and above.
I used fibreboard, put tilemortar on it, gessoed it, then an underpainting of acrylic. Finally oilpaint,
60x70cm.

Kitty

My last live model painting of this year. Kitty this time. We were supposed o work on this painting 2 saturdays in a row, but I was finished after 2 hours.

I kept the bottom half unpainted, the white is the gesso, to emphasise the head. The purple was chosen as contrast to her very white hair (the real background was bleak grey).
I was very pleased with the portrait, and so was Kitty.

Acrylic on fireboard, 40x60cm.

Zeche Zollverein

Before we visited the opera "Einstein on the Beach" in Dortmund, my son and I visited the old coal mines of Zeche Zollverein, near Essen.
This coal mine has stopped for years, and is now preserved as monument to Industrial Architecture.
It's fantastic, especially the part where they used to make cokes. This scene.
The coal would be heated for hours to 180 degrees in the closets on the right, and then dumped into the water and transported.
It reminds me of my youth: there was a huge coalmine around the corner, literally (Staatsmijn Emma), and I still remember that I could see the same kind of cokes-furnaces from the bridge crossing the railroads on the Akerstraat.

Einstein on the Beach, Dortmund

Yesterday my son Mart and I went to Dortmund (Germany) to see the Opera "Einstein on the Beach" by Philip Glass.
My favourite composer and my all-time favourite piece of music.
This was an exceptionally good performance. I saw the same opera in Amsterdam a few years ago, in original the 1978 and even the original perfomers. And that was really 1978.
This was contemporary, abstract, with computer steered visual displays (the background images pulsate, move and change with the actual performed music, so each concert is different).
It was 3 1/2 hours non-stop repetitive music. I would go again tomorrow if Dortmund wasn't a full 2 hour drive away. 
Above picture is mine, at the start of the concert, the bottom one from the site of the Operahouse Dortmund.

Montmedy and Tetaigne

I had a nice weekend in the North of France, last weekend. To celebrate out 28th wedding anniversary. Even though the weather wasn't all that good, we had a terrific time.
We stayed in Tetaigne, a tiny village near Sedan. Our former neighbours have a Bed & Breakfast & Dinner there, Lovely place to stay and dine. We exchanged many good stories of the old days.
On saturday we made a trip through the surroundings. Montmedy is an old military town, with a fortified citadel. The weather was good enough for a coffee on the terrace on the market square, so I had chance to draw this scene.

 This is a view of Tetaigne from our lodgings. More or less all of the village. :)