Spa, course Ceran

"Je fais des esquisses á n'importe quelle heure". Voilà, une des phrases trésor que j’ai appris dans le cours en langue français à l’institut Ceran á Spa. Grace á la patience infinitif de mes professeurs et le support de mes collègues-étudiants, j’ai maintenant des rêves en français. Probablement je vais faire les mêmes erreurs qu’avant; maintenant je sais lesquelles.

Last week I did a training in French language at the Ceran intitute at Spa. Tiring but rewarding.
Ne hesistez pas de me notifier mes erreurs!

Running

Nico, the trainer of our runninggroup STAP-brunssum has decided to retire. He was there for us each sunday for the last 10 years (and god knows how long before that; that's when I joined). He always made us sweat reminding us: "If I can do it, you can do it too". Yeah right. I made this painting for him.

Nico, onze trainer van mijn hardloopvereniging STAP, heeft besloten ermee op te houden. "Als ik het ken kenne jullie het ook". Een scan van de aquarel die ik voor zijn afscheid heb gemaakt.

Click on it to enlarge or download

Rianne geslaagd!

Rianne, my daughter passed her exams this week! Rianne is geslaagd voor het VWO!

Tarbes, last week

Visiting the south of France again. I stayed in Tarbes, in the fantastic design hotel "Rex". Once again a picture of my (bath)room. Tarbes (near Lourdes and the Spanish border) is not very interesting, but there is always something to sketch. Like the statue of Foch near the military academy and the horrible fountain near the market place.

Zuid Frankrijk, vlakbij Lourdes. Schets van mijn kamer in het "Rex" hotel. Tarbes is niet zo interessant, maar toch... een schets van het monument van Foch, en van een gruwelijk lelijke fontein bij de markthal.

Herbert Grönemeyer

Last friday Gertie and I went to the Grönemeyer concert in the Borussia stadium in Mönchen Gladbach.
This time we had no seats, but we saw the show on the field. Fantastic music-fantastic show. Only 4 encores. In the middle of the crowd you feel more into the concert than when you are seated. From memory I made a sketch of the lighttower standing behind us.

Business lounge

Last week I made a trip to France again. I was bored in the business lounge; so I made some sketches using my brushpen.

Patersweg

At last, last thursday we moved to our new house. Eindelijk verhuisd.

Patersweg

Still busy moving. Painters at work.

Patersweg

Redecorating our new house. De schilders zijn druk bezig in ons nieuwe huis.

The cave

China, Beijing, CCTV and Birdsnest.

The latest update on two of the most impressive buildings I have seen recently: the CCTV tower in Beijing and the "birdsnest", also Beijing. The pictures were made last week by our special correspondent (Floor, the tourleader of our visit to China last year). The weather looks more bright than what we had.

De CCTV toren en het vogelnestje (t.b.v. de olympische spelen) in Beijing. Foto's gemaakt door Floor, onze reisleidster van onze China reis.

Gala St.Jan

Gisterenavond was het schoolverlaters gala van het St.Janscollege. Rianne en haar vriend Bob in grootse stijl. De trotse ouders staan niet op de foto.
My daughter Rianne and her friend Bob, at the grand final exam gala, yesterday evening. Everything to be proud of.

China Dino (2)

The China Dinosaurus exhibition in the Maastricht library draws to an end. I went there today to make some more sketches. The first one is a 8 meter high Yangchuanosaurus. You would not like to meet him 150.000.000 years ago. The bottom one is a Mamenchisaurus. In reality his neck is 3 times as long, but it did not fit on the page. To see its head, see my post of 2 weeks ago.

DSM

Another try with my new brush pen, a sketch of a Edea-transformer station somewhere on the DSM chemical plant.

BMW in Shenyang

Today a collegue of mine, Andre van Drunen, went to work for another Tebodin office, in Hengelo. A few years ago I did a project with him: the design of a BMW carfactory in China, up north in Shenyang. It was a very difficult project, but we had a great time in the long summerevenings behind a few good beers in the Munich beergardens. Some contrast with the dust and chaos of China. I made this painting for him: it is the entrance of the Chinese car plant during costruction. Based on some very old scribbels.

Brush pen

Bought a Pentel brush pen this week. A cross between a fountain pen and brush. The above sketch of a Banyan tree is the result of a few hours experimenting. I used a drawing of a tree that I found on Flickr (by Jane Y). I kind of like the result.
Afgelopen week een Pentel brush pen gekocht en uitgeprobeerd. Wel even wennen, zie bovenstaand resultaat van een Banyan boom. Model stond een tekening die ik op Flickr vond.

China Dino (1)

Went to the China Dino exhibition in the library of Maastricht. They exposed full Dinosaur skeletons coming from China! 140.000 years old!

Here the sketches I made on site. Awesome! The large one was a 30 ton heavy mamenchisaurus, the other was a 10kg heavy pterodactilus (Dsungaripterus). Some contrast.

Schetsen van de China Dino expositie in Maastricht.

Hoensbroek Castle

A sketch of the little tower in the corner of the Hoensbroek-castle complex. As a child people said it used to house people suffering from the plague. Don't know if it's true, but it gave way for imagination. We called it the plaguetower for that.
De pesttoren van Kasteel Hoensbroek. Als kind hoorden we dat daar melaatsen in hadden gezeten. Bracht in ieder geval je fantasie op hol.

Patersweg

Verhuizing komt eraan. Zo willen we dat de huiskamer gaat uitzien. Our plans for the redecoration of the our new (old) house.

Eastern and snow

Eastern and snow. Pasen in de sneeuw.