Visé lock

The harbour of Visé Belgium, a boat entering the lock to the canal. Painted on location.
I tried different paper (seawhite brighton), but it did not work out. Then I tried to improve the green foilage, and it became a total misery. Just to show some paintings can never be salvaged.

Amsterdam

A day to Amsterdam, for shopping and a visit to the Hermitage. A sat on a wall somewhere on the Oudezijds Voorburgwal eating french fries and mayonaise, to sketch this. No, I did not smoke anything...

Car

I want to go outside and sketch, but no chance because of the bad weather. All it ever does is rain.
I took an old picture of an abandoned car I found some years ago, somewhere in France, and made this drawing.

Cow

No drawings outside, it's too wet. My value exercises are based on photographs. This one is based on a picture of a cow in India, taken two years ago in a village called Ochra.

Colour values

More value studies. Maybe a bit boring these exercises, but very useful as experiments. In order to focus on tone values and not on the subject "trees", I used other colours than the obvious green.  I had to do the sky three times to get it right.
This is a local road near Merkelbeek, a little further down the road than shown in the post of June 23rd.

Value studies

Trying to improve my "values" (toonwaardes) in painting and sketching. Almost every day one or two of these tonal sketches. The subject is pretty irrelevant, a photo or an earlier sketch will do, it's a study of shades of grey.

Into the light

One of the hilly country roads "holle wegen" as we call them here. Leaving Merkelbeek, as seen during one of my 8 km. running rounds. I drove back two days later for this drawing.
I am a bit dissatisfied with my drawing lately, I want to improve  my use of "values" and composition. So I bought a book by Carl Purcell (your artist's brain, het artistieke brien), one of those book about drawing with the right side of your brain. I always thought that to be new age humbug, but I was wrong.
I am doing some of the exercises in the book (in my own way), and they really help understanding what I am doing. This painting should be considered to be one of those, an exercise in values.

Prieel

Not much sketching lately, most of my Saturdays are spent building a wooden pergola in my backgarden. Fortunately I don´t have to do it on my own, my son Mart is a big help.  He is young and lean enough to climb on the roof.
With a little luck it´s finished next weekend, only the shingles roofing left to do.
Prieeltje in wording in mijn achtertuin. Het kost me al een paar zaterdagen, maar ik heb goede hulp van mijn zoon Mart. Alleen de dakbedekking nog.

Noah's Ark

 

Another project, another style. 

This is the design for a new stained glass window, the Ark of Noah. 

I visited an exhibition on ancient Russian icons in the Hermitage-Amsterdam last year and was fascinated by the towered medieval cities these artists painted in the background. I made sketches, but I didn't post them; just put the images in that dusty area in the back of my head. They popped up when I was thinking about a new window, in which I wanted to incorporate glass-emaille and grisaille painting. That was a month ago. In the meantime I already cut the glass pieces, assembled as shown below. The pane will be about 60x70cm. 

Above linedrawing was painted with a black Pentel paintbrush on a sheet of A4, then scanned and coloured in GIMP (open source Photoshop).

Mijn nieuwe ontwerp voor een glas in loodraam: de ark van Noah. Geinspireerd door russische iconen. De figuren moeten worden gebrandschilderd in twee verschillende technieken: glasemaille en grissaille techniek. Inmiddels heb ik de stukken glas al gesneden en gerangschikt. Afmeting ongeveer 60x70cm.

Merkelbeek

Last wednesday I ran my weekly short round, 8km circling Oirsbeek, Merkelbeek and Amstenrade. The sun set beautifully over the hills. I went there again this evening to sketch and paint the scene, unfortunately less sun, but still a nice view.

Gate in Amstenrade

I felt like sketching this evening. Stayed close to home this time.
A gate in one of the outbuildings of the Castle of Amstenrade, just opposite the church.
Poort in een van de bijgebouwen van kasteel Amstenrade, tegenover het laantje naar de kerk.

Skeleton

I started with this drawing during lunchtime on Friday, without any idea where it would lead to. I set off with an idea about a whale flying over an oiltanker and ended up with a Mosasaurus in deep sea. A mind can make strange detours.
Noodlers Bullet black ink in a 21x30 WC-moleskine book.

Landscape in the sun

At last, after months of painstaking work, I finished my first real stained glass window.
I did it all by myself: the image, the design, choosing colours and textures, cutting the glass, mounting the lead frames, soldering, finishing, and adding glasspaint.
Size about 60x60cm.

Here it is, in all it's glory. It's even better when the sun hits the pane, but its practically impossible to make a decent photograph of it; the world behind the pane always shines through.

Floriade

Last friday I visited the Floriade in Venlo with a group of fellow architects of the BNA.
The floriade is a park exhibition organised once every 10 years in the Netherlands.
We visited the Innovatoren by architect Jo Coenen and Villa Flora with its impressive energy saving installations.
But most impressing was the painting I saw on the 12th and highest floor of the tower. It was a 3D painting by Patrick Hughes, and I have never seen such a mindboggling painting in my life. I can describe here how it works, but not what it does to your mind when you see it in reality. I can only say it's made in reversed perspective, if you have the chance go and see for yourself (the exhibition is not open to normal public by the way).
I made the above sketch in 5 minutes from that 12th floor, looking over the park.

On request: a video of a similar painting by Patrick Hughes: note that the filmer moves in the other direction than what you would expect. And it's oilpiant on wood!
http://vimeo.com/26867701
Also an explanation by the artist:
http://vimeo.com/40144443 

Eindhoven rain

I had to spend a day in our Tebodin office in Eindhoven.
We could not get outside during luchtime.
So I decided to draw the view from the 3rd floor of the office, the backside of some houses across the street.

All it ever does is rain.

Ma 80

Last saturday my mother turned 80. A genuine milestone.
We organised a family gathering with dinner and bowling in the castle of Limbricht.
Which brought an occasion for a nice photograph of my mother, my brother, our partners and our children.
I thank all present (also those friends not showing in this picture) for giving my mother such a unforgettable day.
80e verjaardag van mijn moeder, een familiefeest in kasteel Limbricht.
Een kans voor een mooie familiefoto.
Ik bedank allen, ook alle vrienden die niet op deze foto staan, voor deze onvergetelijke dag.

Last art class

The final art class was last saturday. I can hardly wait untill the holidays are over for a new series of model/portrait painting.
Even though I still have an unfinished painting on my easel, this is the last painting of  this year's class. Acryl, size about 50x60cm, live model, it took me 2 hours to paint.
I tried to keep the structure of the brush strokes visible, and the colourpalette limited (ultramarine and burnt sienna).

Exposition Kerkrade

 

Our artclass, together with other amateur artists from the VAZOM artschool, were invited to a group exhibition in the old cityhall of Kerkrade.

The exhibition has as theme "mirrors", and was opened this very evening. There were speeches and Arvo Pärt music, wine and nice conversation.
Paintings look totally different in this setting compared to the easel at home. It was nice to see all these fine results displayed together in the exposition room. Here you see me proudly standing in front of my selfportrait "me, myself and I".

The exposition runs until July 6th.

Pinkpop 2012

Yesterday we went to Pinkpop, which is one of the largest popfestivals in Europe, just a few kilometers from my house. The event takes three days, and featured bands like Linkin Park, the Cure and Bruce Springsteen (among others).

We only went on Monday (together with 61.000 other visitors) for Herbert Grönemeyer, the Specials and the Boss. We had the best weather imaginable, sunny all day, even hot at times. It stayed warm until we went home at 11 at night (I have had my share of rainy Pinkpop a few years ago).

Above sketch shows the performance of Serena Pryne (I had never heard of before).
I find it very hard to draw at festivals or stadium concerts, you are always too far from the performer, and if you are close enough, it's too crowded to draw (believe me, I tried). Besides, you never seem to get the dynamic of the performance. 

I made this drawing at home, by memory, it was an easy scene to memorize. A nice exercise by the way, I checked with photographs and I think I caught it well.

This panoramic view was drawn and painted while relaxing during the performance of Mumford and sons. We sat on an elevated terrace, overlooking the public in front of the main stage. I little later I dozed off in the warm late afternoon. Beer to blame.

Also two pictures I took during the show of Bruce Springsteen and the performance of Herbert Grönemeyer. Both were unbelievable fantastic.
And so were the acts of Seasick Steve (with his self built guitars), the Specials (music from my youth) and James Morrisson ( a bit soft for a festival like this, but very well perfomed).

Three for Ackland

Three for Ackland.
The Urban Sketchers organisation asked us to contribute to an exposition, in order to raise money for the USK.
The exposition will be held in the Ackland museum, in Chapel Hill, North Carolina, USA.
I decided to contribute, and made these three drawings for the occasion. I made them on three different continents, three different places, three different cultures, all of which I visited within one week.
First USA, Baton Rouge for business, then back home, Amstenrade in the Netherlands, and after that a citytrip to Istanbul with my wife.
I attached a real token of each place to the drawings: a Hagia Sofia entrance ticket, a part of the package of flowerseeds that I bought at the gardencentre which forms part of the castle, and the label of a bottle of Louisiana chilli sauce.