Zeche Zollverein (2)

 

After te rain stopped, I went to this view, to paint the long rows of former coke ovens. I made a sketch years ago on the same location ( https://renefijten.blogspot.com/2017/05/zeche-zollverein.html ), tried it with gouache this time. A very complicated painting, I quite underestimated it. In the end I ran out of time, had to do some touchups at home.

Zeche Zollverein

 

Painting made in an old, abandoned cokes producing plant in Germany, Zeche Zollverein. It was raining outside, So I deceided to paint a detail in the interior.

Antwerp

I had a business trip to Antwerp last friday. Took the opportunity to make this little sketch from the parking lot. It was just a few days before they shut down Antwerp, due to too many Corona cases.
They even have curfew today. It looks more and more like war.

Harbour

Just a drawing of a harbour. Coloured inks, brushpens, inkpens.

More Genk (Belgium)

Sometimes a museum has more interesting items than just their collection. I found these firehoses to be the colourful item that I was looking for.
Genk in Belgium, at C-mine (a cultural centre in a former coalmine).

Genk C-mine

Two drawings made at C-mine, in Genk (Belgium). It's an old coalmine; some of the ancient buildings are preserved and house a design museum.
It's free and open for public. So when I feel like drawing, but the weather is horrible outside, this place gives enough inspiration to go out and draw.

The dark season

A failed drawing in my sketchbook, just painting it over with gouache.
And see where it goes.  Not after reality.

Anoher one from C-mine

Another location sketch of C-mine in Genk. The whole (former) coal mine is full of machines like these.

C-mine Genk.

I had some time left on Sunday, my wife was shopping. I went to a cultural centre in Genk Belgium, which is housed in a former coal mine. The generator hall is still intact, like it was when the mie was still in function. The large wheel served to roll the cables, who went up the tower, and down the elevator shafts.
Even though it was inside, it was pretty cold.

Chemical heat

I pass a chemical plant each morning when driving to work. This morning (it was still almost dark) the sky was lit orange above the plant, they were burning the contents of a chemical installation. They do that in case of an calamity, or when they are cleaning the Process installations for mojor maintenace. Anyway, it's a terrific sight, the flames are 10 meters high, and make a roaring noise.
So I stopped at a parking lot and sketched the scene looking trough the windshield of my car. then I drove on to the office. Took me about 20 minutes.

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.

Furnace, day 6 #inktober

Drawing of a stonewool furnace, part of one of the factories that I designed and were built.
This one in Serbia.
I used ink in different colours. Yes it's still #inktober.

Zelzate, Steel factory

I dew this scene before. Each time I visit the client in Ertvelde (Oleon), I drive along the canal. fascinated by the dark steelfactory across the canal. Especially when the weather is rainy and humid.
I tried my watercolourpencils again.

Chemicals

More experimenting with glued on paper, in this case I used "tracing paper" with acrylic binder (here that paper is called calque.
Impression of the ACN chemical plant in Geleen. They were burning fumes during maintenance works in the plant. The scene is a bit different from reality, the watercolour does not let itself steer in the same way as on normal paper.

Brightlands

It must seem like I don't make any usual sketches any more; I only feature different stuff like exhibitions, digital art, travels, paintings etcetera.
Here is another event: today my largest work of "art" was presented at the opening of our new Tebodin office on the "Brightlands" office park in Geleen.
A lot of dark suits, speeches and drinks, then the presentation, an explanation and putting my name under the digital painting.

The basic idea was a "Bokeh" image of the chemical plant at Chemelot (Geleen).
I once drove by the plant on a dark moonlit evening with some ground mist, and the lights on the towers seemed to shimmer like alien eyes. I tried to capture that feeling.

The colours are the exact firm colours (nowadays Tebodin is part of the international Bilfinger group). The work was totally made digitally, using GIMP; the dimensions of the print measured 2 x 4,5 meters. That's why the final image in TIFF (resolution 300dpi) measured as much as 1.5GB....

 

A tiny remark: I was there to present the image, and didn't carry a camera. That's why the pictures don't show public :)

Chemicals

Another job at the chemical plant Chemelot. I passed this installation this morning, walking from a meeting to our site office. Just enough time for a quick one. Fountain pen ink washed out with water and adding a little colour.

Flaming tower

Burning (chemical) waste at the DSM Chemical plant, on an early morning a few days ago. This is more or less the view from my working desk at present.

More Chemelot

Another lunchtime sketch today, somewhere on the chemical plant "Chemelot" (a.k.a. DSM-Geleen). Actually it was just five minutes walk, but it took some walking around to find an interesting spot.
Nowadays I am trying to be more carefull about choosing the right angle/composition, and what to draw and (occasionally) what to leave out.
I deliberately stopped a little early, in order not to lose myself into those little details that sometimes spoil a drawing. Did the last enhancements at home, just by memory, to try and catch what my eye remembered seeing.
I will still stick to reality, but I more and more feel that trying to capture the "spirit" of the subject is more important than correctly fitting in all the details.

Ton van der Velden

Ton van der Velden, one of the directors of Tebodin (the engineering company I work for), went into retirement last week. I was honoured to be asked to make this farewell present: a drawing of the Chemelot ACN plant in Geleen.
The last 15 years Ton was responsible for the international growth of our company in Eastern Europe, the middle east and south east Asia, but in the 90's he was director of Tebodin Maastricht. During that time this was one of the projects he worked on.
I handed the drawing over to Ton last thursday evening in our main office in The Hague; we had a good party afterwards. I really hope this drawing will be a token of our gratitude for everything he did for Tebodin.

Some of you may recall an earlier version of this drawing, made 3 months ago. Unfortunately that drawing was made in a sketchbook, so I couldn't tear it out. As the subject was so fitting for Ton's present, I remade the drawing (again on location) on decent paper 2 weeks ago.
The drawings was fitted in a nice frame 45x55cm, but I forgot to make a picture of that.

LD PEF

Got out for lunch today, and took a car to another part of the chemical plant where I work presently. 
I can hear you say "a car ?", but please keep in mind that the Geleen plant covers an area of about 5x2 km.
The sketch depicts the LD-PEF installations. I am not sure, all installations look the same to me.