Airplane

Tarbes, yesterday. I found this airplane stuck between an parking lot and a military academy. In the center of Tarbes. I drew and painted it on the spot, it took me 35 minutes, before driving to Lannemezan. Een vliegtuig gevangen tussen een parkeerplaats en een militaire academie. In het centrum van Tarbes.

Bonnefanten

A warm evening on the riverbank of Maastricht. The Bonnefanten modern art museum, designed by the italian architect Aldo Rossi. Sketch&waterbrush on location. Een mooie warme avond in april: Bonnefanten museum Maastricht.

Steampunk

Doodles. Rock&Roll and Steampunk

Missiles & art

Visited Hombroich (Germany) with collegue architects from the BNA. Art in the park. The sketches show the Langen foundation, a museum for contemporary art built on a former missile launch site, now converted into an art park.
The Japanese architect Tandao Ando made a superb design. The music building is by the Austrian architect Raimund Abrahams.

The exhibition was about Dubouffet.

Suzans café

Doodles I make while waiting in airports and restaurants. Susans cafe & Dali's desert. Wachten op vliegvelden en in restaurants.

Wals

An old steamroller, quietly rusting away in a yard on the outskirts of Hoensbroek. Deze stoomwals staat rustig weg te roesten op het bedrijventerrein de Koumen, Hoensbroek.

Tarbes

In Tarbes again last week. A quick pen sketch from my window towards the mountains. The weather was beautiful. In Tarbes vorige week. Mooi weer, Een penschets richting de bergen.

Kerkhof in Visé

Cemetary in Visé. The column is a grave from 1882. Drawn last friday. Kerkhof in Visé. Getekend afgelopen vrijdag. Het graf heeft de tekst 1882 en was geheel vervallen.

Dolphins in spring

I wish you could swim, like dolphins, like dolphins in spring. Text from David Bowie Heroes.
These words meant magic: does a dolphin enjoy spring? Does he swim differently when the light gets stronger?
It was a some disappointment when I found out recently that the real text read "swim", not "spring". Another mystery gone.
This is the study for the same painting. made for the birthday of a friend of my wife. I experimented with soaking the paper competely with water and have the watercolour run free over the paper. Dolfijnen: een aquarel voor Minke (een vriendin van Gertie) en de voorafgaande studie. Experiment met vrij uivloeiende verf op met water verzadigd papier.

Travel kit

This is what I always carry around on all my travel or businesstrips:

- Moleskine large, watercolour

- Moleskine small, sketch

- Lamy fountain pen black ink

- Edding 1800, Profipen 0,3 and 0,5mm

- Rembrandt pure sable brush 3 and 6

- Lamy pencil 0.5mm, H

- Ordinary pencil 2B

- Waterbrush, medium Koi- Pentel paintbrush, black

- Stabilo fineliners- Portable watercolour set, Talens, with Van Gogh watercolours. I know the colours only by their Dutch names: ceruleum blauw, citroengeel, azo geel, permanant rood, kraplak donker, ultramarijn donker, kobalt blauw, permanent groen, vert emeraude, gele oker, gebrande sienna, paynes grijs.

Hohenstein Ernstthal

View from the entrance of the Hotel "Drei Schwanen" in Hohenstein-Ernstthal, in the east of Germany. There was still some snow. I also looked at the birthplace of the writer Karl May, but it was not worth drawing. Getekend vlak naast de ingang van het hotel in Hohenstein-Ernstthal. In het dorp was ook het geboortehuis van Karl May, geen tekening waard.

Tarbes, this week

This is the view from my desk on the ste in Lannemzan: the Pic du Midi. 9.10 thursday 12-03-2009 (but to be honest... I left out the 2 high tension poles). Below a quick sketch of a small square in Tarbes. Boven: het uitzicht vanaf mijn werkplek in Lannemezan. 9.10 uur, gisteren 12 maart. Onder: een pleintje in Tarbes.

2CV

Another sketch of the 2CV at Landbouwbelang, made last friday.

Landbouwbelang

Maastricht, an abandoned and squatted factory on the riverbank, "Landbouwbelang". I made these sketches during lunchbreak last tuesday&friday, it's across the river from my working place. Afgelopen week, twee uit de hand gelopen middagpauzes, bij het gekraakte Landbouwbelang complex aan het Bassin, Maastricht. Ik kreeg het idee door een foto van de fotograaf Plemlijn (op flickr), vooral die geweldige zilverkleurige lelijke eend.

Tarbes

I still have some drawings I made, but didn't post. I was in Tarbes when I was called about my father-in-laws death. I subsequently got stuck into a snowstorm, missed my plane and came home a day too late. Shit happens. These are the drawings of those days: early morning bread on place de Verdun, and a restaurant scene in Restaurant l'Epicerie.

Op het moment van het overlijden van mijn schoonvader was ik in Tarbes. Sneeuwstorm, vliegtuig gemist, een dag te laat thuis. Schetsen van die dagen: bakkerij op place de Verdun, restaurant l'Epicerie.

St. Egidien

Yesterdaymorning, during a bussiness trip to the building site in St. Egidien, Germany, I noticed this battered old construction workers cabin.Gisterenmorgen, naast de Knauf bouwplaats in St. Egidien (tussen Leipzig en Dresden), een oude roestige bouwkeet.

Carnaval in Maastricht

Afgelopen zondag, de carnavalsoptocht in Maastricht. De sambaband Passotempo. Last sunday: the sambaband Passotempo in the streets of Maastricht: a little brazilian sunshine in Limburg. See also the article I wrote for the urban sketchers: http://www.urbansketchers.com/2009/02/carnaval-in-maastricht.html

Kowrenne

De Föhners, kow H, de prins en de lelijke beker voor de 1e prijs.

Kowrenne 2009

Gisteravond op de Mèrt va Gebrook, het Kowrenne!

Dit jaar was ons thema "Delfts Kow".

En ja hoor, het is weer gelukt, de eerste prijs voor de snelste koe van Hoensbroek! De 9e prijs in 12 jaar, een mooi resulaat. En ook de felicitaties voor Kow B met de fantastische "Moskow"!

Yes, we won the Cowrunning game in Hoensbroek again.

It's a local tradition, as part of carnaval, to have a running contest on the market of Hoensbroek. Eight local groups each make a wood&paper cow, dress it up in some theme (our theme this year was "Delft cow") and try for the big PRIZE: eternal glory. One sketch shows building the cow in the garage of Franck, one of our group. The other the race itself.

And our "kow H" performed well: we won 2 out of 3 runs.

So I shout loud:

I'm proud to be the fastest cow around!

More pics: http://picasaweb.google.com/Rene.Fijten/Kowrenne2009?authkey=u-nCmJUvqas

Other years: see the link "kowrenne"at the right.

Handen

The hands of my late father in law, Ben Abbink. I drew this shortly before the coffin was closed.

These long tall hands built a family; they played the accordeon, they painted watercolours, they helped, they punished, they guided. They performed magic.

The funeral was yesterday.

De lange smalle handen van mijn schoonvader, getekend vlak voordat de kist werd gesloten. Gisteren hebben wij hem uitgeleide gedaan.