Saumur (France), the castle (1)

 

Just returned from a lovely holiday in France, in the Loire valley. We stayed at a holiday camp near Saumur, together with my son and our grandchildren Finn (6) and Zara (5). One of the days I went up to the castle, high above the town, and made a few sketches. One of those is this one, on tinted paper.

Stein: remains of the castle

 

2 pages from my sketchbook: made this morning: the ruins of the former castle of Stein. I was in the neighbourhood for some bicycle maintenance; I took the opportunity to go and sketch the castle.

USk Maastricht: Faliezusters

 

Another one from the Maastricht Urban Sketching meeting. Het Faliezustersklooster. Made rather quick, maybe half an hour.

USk Maastrcht: de Helpoort

I organized an Urban sketching meeting in Maastricht. We were about 12 sketchers, it was nice weather and we had a great day. Above the group. Below my take on the Helpoort (gate to Hell), the oldest city gate in the Netherlands. Acrylic gouache on toned paper.

Raketenstation (Missile station)

 

2 pages from my sketchbook: drawing architecture at the "Raketenstation" in Hombroich (Germany). According to the rumours the NATO used to store cruise missiles here during the last years of the cold war. But since then the terrain with all its bulidings was converted into an artist area and museum park, with musuems buildt by renowned architects. Above: the Langen Foundation building by Tandao Ando. Below: the "Musikhaus" by Raimund Abraham. 

Actually, the museum was closed, but I managed to visit the terrain anyway.

Amsterdam Westerkerk

 

Visited Amsterdam yesterday. To the Anselm Kiefer exhibition "Sag mir wo die blumen sind" in the Van Gogh and Amsterdam Stedelijk museum. Made this sketch of the Westerkerk on a bench along the Prinsengracht.

Hasselt, Belgium

Hasselt, a town in Belgium, this morning. I had to go there for a hip-operation of our cat, Yoda.

Den Bosch: Magnolia

 

I didn't feel like drawing the St. Jan monastry itself, but decided to go for the beautiful Magnolia trees, which were just about to blossom.

Eindhoven HTC 5

 

Far too cold to draw/paint outside. This was done from the main hall on the 4th floor of the HTC5, one of the offices and laboratories of the Eindhoven High Tech Campus. I was there for my last and final presentation of one of the most complicated architectural designs I even made, a semi-conductor plant.

London: airport

 

Waiting at the airport (Stansted), drinking some watery coffee. She was sitting opposite, long enough to make this quick sketch. She left before I finished painting, that was improvised.

Retired now (2)

 

As a suprise my department organized a Masterclass Urban sketching. My direct collegues assembled for a visit to a local church in Ulestraten (it was too cold to draw outside), where they asked me to give an unexpected Master Class. THe resulats of my about 15 collegeus was far better than I expected. I manage to squeeze maybe 3 minutes in between to make this quick sketch of the altar.

I am now retired

 

As of today I am officially retired as an architect. Even though I will still work a few days to finish an important job, the end of my professional life is at hand. 

I had a unforgettable retirement drink last wednesday, and my collegues gave me a few nice surprises. They assembled some 60 artist impressions that I made over the years, and sketches I made on my own building sites. Then changed them into postcards, and had my present and former collegues write a farewell notes on the back. Absolutely stunning. Some lasting memory!!

Hillensberg (Dtsl)

 

It was very cold today, with a strong chilling wind, but I needed to get out and make a drawing somewhere. Sometimes I cross the border to do some shopping (som articles are cheaper, better or local specialties) and fill my tank with cheaper gasoline. By doing so, I usually cross a small village on a steep hill called Hillensberg (Germany). It had a small 13 or 14th century church I had never noticed before. A nice opportunity to make this sketch.

Heist op den Berg

I had a business appointment in Belgium, in Heist op den Berg. On the other side of the road there was this quite bizarre building, and I couldn't leave without making a quick sketch. 

I mean, Belgium is renowned for its eclectic buildings, but this one was even more over the top. And this wasn't even the most bizarre side (Unfortunately the other side had a truck parked in front). You may notice details like round stained glass windows, four types of masonry and two male statues carrying the towers on both sides of the front door. Belgium is a lot more interesting than the Netherlands anyway.

Amstenrade in gouache

 

 

 This morning I went painting in the park behind the castle of Amstenrade (just about 1 km from my house). It was not cold, and I was be able to do this painting in (acrylic) gouache on darkbrown toned paper. In the picture you can see my gouache setup, fixed on a camera tripod. I made the box myself.

Aachen

I was in Aachen (Germany) last friday. A view from the terrace of the major bookshop there, Meyrische.

Roermond challenge

 

During the National sketchday in Roermond, I initiated two challenges. The first was on the market: you had to make 4 or 5 little sketches of details that you notice. I did the excercise myself on the Market of Maastricht, to provide an example (top one). The second challenge was: define and draw in a few strokes the total scene of the market, but then fill in only one or two details. These will draw the attention (the market of Roermond, bottom one). The results of the excercises were beyond expectation.

Roermond: USk-NL day

 

I helped to organize another National Urban sketchingday in Roermond, last Saturday. We had perfect weather, and a great turnout. More than 200 sketchers spread out over the city to draw. I enjoyed the fine weather, the drawings, meeting new and old friends. 

I also gave a workshop, perspective drawing for urban sketching, which was attended by some 15 people. In the end I was only able to make one drawing myslef, of the Munsterkerk, which you can see above.

Below a picture of the crowd, at the end of the day, at the "show and tell".

More stones

 

the second drawing of the geology tour. The girld stood there long enough for a pencil sketch (contour, wheels and posture was enough). The rest drawn after she was gone.

Ber and the stones

A week ago we went sketching with the Maastricht group again. We started at the Museum for Natural History. They had a route through town with 18 locations where you could see different types of stones that were used during construction, through the ages. Interesting. But after 2 locations (and drawings) we found a nice terrace with some excellent beer. The drawing shows Ber, one of our group. He had a brain haemorrhage some years ago, couldn't use his normal arm, so learned to use the other hand by drawing and sketching. He is always there when we go sketching.