Guernica in glass

This is a trial pane of stained glass; I used only one colour of grisaille/contour.
The panel is meant to test out different kinds of grisaille, which in dry form is like fine crushed grey earth/dust. You mix it with spirit, vinegar and distilled water and use it to make lines on the front (=contour) and grey and hatched shades on the back (=grissaille). Then its carefully baked at about 160 degrees.
It's the traditional way since medieval times to make stained glassed church windows.
I used a part of a painting of Picasso called "Guernica"; about the first modern air raid in history, by the German Luftwaffe in Spain 1937.
Size about 40x50cm.

2013, so far.

This is the first 6 months of 2013, an intermediate report.
As you may recall, each 15th of every month I choose a (news)picture to redraw; assembled it looks like this.
Not very encouraging. War in Mali and Syria, demonstrations in Bulgaria and Turkey, burning factories in Bangladesh and terrorist attacks in Boston. I am afraid the next 6 months won't be that much better.
For the original photographers (who have the reproduction rights) see the original posts:
January, February, March, April, May, June.

Timeline June: Taksim square

Timeline series (each 15th of the month I choose a news picture with graphic quality).
This time the riots in Istanbul, on Taksim square. There seem to be riots and discontent everywhere around the world.
This drawing was based on a picture by fellow Urban sketcher Samantha Zaza. She  lives near Taksim in Istanbul, and reports on the Taksim events on her blog: http://harikaszaza.blogspot.com/

It's half a year now that I do "Timeline", I'll post the first combined result tomorrow.

Mistletoe in Royer

During the art course in France, I did a few running rounds through the hills and vineyards of the region. Some 5 km from our Château there was a little village called Royer. It had some old, almost bare trees (I think poplars) filled with Mistletoe. The stuff the druid used to make the power drink for Asterix and Obelix. I came back one evening for this quick impression.

Ozenay

Sketch of one of those strange tractors they have in these winedistricts like Burgundy.
With huge wheels so they can pass over the grapevines. It's Chardonnay territory.
Actually, the original village "Chardonnay" was only 5 km away. I thought that was just a name for a grape type, never figured the wine was called after a village.

Post-impressionism

 

Day 3 was for the post impressionists like van Gogh, and Cezanne. They did not only try to catch the light, but explored the way the act of painting (the strokes of van Gogh), colour (experiments by Gauguin and Seurat) and positioning of volumes (Cezanne) can stage a painting.
We concentrated on Cezanne, building depth by positioning volumes that are created by shades of colour.

In the morning I sketched this terrace with the little church of Brancion behind it.
I used it to create the above painting later that day, 50x60cm, acrylic on canvas.
I worked below a large tree, out of the sun, as I burned my neck the day before.

More cows

Proceeding on the drawings & paintings I made on this French drawing week.
Each morning, starting at 9.30, we had to make sketches and exercises to get the feeling for the subject and "style".
These are a few of the sketches of the first day, the "realist" phase.
In the end I made a painted version of the bottom sketch, but I find this drawing to be far better than the resulting painting (which I will not show here).

Kornelimünster

A short intermezzo from my France drawings/paintings. I made a short trip today, driving around Aachen and enjoying our new car. In the small and ancient village of Kornelimünster I drew this porch towards the church on the top of the hill. It was a beautiful day.

Impressionist

Our drawing week was structured around painting styles of 19th century France. Not so much copying a certain style, but trying to grasp how the different groups and artists looked to reality.
The first was "realism" (like the painter Corot). The sketches of the cows of the last few days were exercises that resulted in a realist painting. But it was not good by far, that's why I don't show that one here.
Monday was for the impressionists, like Manet. Trying to catch the light. Here is a sketch of the castle and the final painting that I made in the afternoon, 50x60cm, acrylic on canvas.

La chapelle sous Brancion

La chapelle sous Brancion, a small village in France, just 5 kilometers from our lodging. And as the word says, it's located far beneath the medieval castle of Brancion. This sketch was made halfway the steep road down.

Cows at Chateau de Messey

Just returned from a painters week in Burgundy, France. I'll post more drawings and sketches in the next few days. This was the view from our breakfast table in our lodging, Chateau de Messey, in Ozenay, near Tournus.

Ouder echtpaar

Trying out different techniques, now with Inktense pencils (Derwent). Based on a picture of the (deceased) parents of a close friend. The faces don't resemble much, but that was not the goal. I was trying to find out how to use these watercolour pencils, and layers of hatching.
Made on plain A4 copier paper, that's why it's wobbly.

Grisaille

This is my new glassworks project: stained glass painting. I am experimenting with grisaille.
In traditional (painted) stained glass you have three stages: contour (= linework), grisaille (= grey areas and shadows) and emaille (= coloured areas).
I did the linework on one side of the glass panel, on the other side I covered the total area with grey grisaille (which is very fine earth diluted with vinegar and de-mineralised water). Then you have to use brushes and other scratching equipment to take away the greys, thus creating shaded areas. In the end it will be heated and burnt into the glass.
For this experiment I used a part of Picasso's Guernica painting, because of the varied use of greys.

Anne in monochrome

As model for this years final portrait Master class, we had Anne again.
Another session with her as model was done in March, see "a-large-hat".
This time I wanted to work in a  rather monochrome setting, I choose red as theme (mainly alizarin crimson red) and tried colour hues close that tone. Acrylic, on paper 50x60cm, took me about 1 1/4 hour.

Timeline May: Bangladesh

Tineline, May 15th. Bangladesh in the news, the factories producing our cheap clothing are falling apart.


The factory this man worked for went up in fire, so he lost his job and the means to support his family. But that was the least of his concerns: he was sitting there, desperately hoping for good news from a missing family member.

Original photo by Pieter van den Boogert.

I just discovered the photographer made an impressive photo essay on clothing, see
www.pietervandenboogert.com

Kaisergruft

The last of the Vienna sketches. It rained so much that we had to look for sheltered tourist attractions. We found the crypt under the Kapuzinerkirche, where the Austrian emperors were buried.
Among others Sissi.
There were a lot of bronze coffins, and sad looking statues.
 

Hundertwasser

We visited two buildings by Hundertwasser, an artist/architect who is very popular by the public, but disliked by most of my fellow colleagues. His architecture is flamboyant, chaotic, anarchistic and very colourful. Even though it's far away from my architectural taste, I thoroughly enjoy his visions. But I would hate to have to live in it.
Anyway, we visited the "Kunsthaus Wien", which has a nice terrace in the backyard. Shaded trees, colourful architecture and good coffee. What more do you need for a decent sketch?

Votivkirche

A drawing of the Votivkirche. Our hotel was next to it, we had a nice view from our window to the backside of this neo-gothic church.
I managed to spend half an hour after breakfast to make this drawing, just before we left for the city centre of Vienna for a visit to the Prater and the Hundertwasserhouse.
If you look closely to the picture of me in action (posted a few days ago), you can see this drawing on the other page of the Prater view drawing.

Schloss Schönbrunn

When you are with a group of friends (6), you don't get the time to make nice drawings. You have to steal a moment here and another there.
In this case, we made the tour in the castle Schönbrunn, just outside Vienna. We visited the rooms and exhibitions, and made a nice long walk though the park in the warm sun. We ended on a beautiful terrace with some nice cold icecoffee and a beer, in full view of the castle.

But drawing that facade would have been totally uninteresting, at least from where we sat.
So I decided to draw the icecoffee.
After all, it's less important what you draw, as long as it represents the memories of the place.

Vienna, Wenen

Vienna! (Wenen; Wien) We just returned from a visit to the city: me, my wife and some good friends.
We had very good weather, at least until Saturday, when it started raining.
It was the first time I visited the city, I always thought it was a bit old fashioned, boring and uncool. Well, was I wrong! I loved it there.
Visited the center, the Hofburg, Schloss Schönbbrunn, the Prater, Hundertwasserhaus and so on.
Here is the impression of the city centre, as seen from the old and famous Ferris wheel in the Prater (a large park). I drew and painted this during the trip, which lasts about 10 minutes.