Another one of Rekem

This is the third drawing I produced that day. Kasteel d'Aspremont-Lynden is dating back to 1500-something. But in bad shape, the main tower (here in front) is reinforced to keep it from collapsing.
Still, in all its decline, a very beautiful castle.

Rekem België

Last saturday I went to Rekem, in Belgium, just across the border.
There was an exhibition in the old caslte, organized by Matty Engelen, another Urban Sketcher.
The exhibition was very interesting, with a lot of beautiful works.

I couldn't resist making some sketches, especially when Matty told me about the access into one of the towers of the castle. When I was working on the above view of Rekem, the photographer Frits Paffen mounted the stairs, and made these beautiful pictures of the work in progress.

I made another drawing, that I will show in a few days.

Liège USK meeting (2)

A few more of the sketches I made at the USK Liège meeting.
The top one during our lunch near the "escalier de Bueren".
The second is the view from the "remparts", the ancient defence walls. I have drawn often there.

This one is a view down a very steep road. Hard to show the steepness.

Liège, USK meeting (1)

        Four years ago I was invited in Liège to make a 5 meter long strip of drawings of the city, together with a group of other Urban Sketchers.
It resulted in a very successful book, over 10.000 copies sold.
There was a reprise last weekend, some 200 urban sketchers were roaming the city. I just had Saturday, received my 2 meter long laperello, and managed to fill it with some 9 drawings, in about 7 hours.





Here are the first 3, Michael Dessin brought me to this place, at the Church Saint Martin, where I met Arnaud and Jean Christophe again. Some scenes here.

Grandfather/grandmother again again

Another big surprise. Our son, Mart, and his girlfriend Lisa are expecting a child.
Such a great news!
It means that before the year is over we will have three grandchildren (if everything goes well of course).
The sketch is about their little dog Miku, which is a Papillon dog (Butterfly dog). Because of the ears of course :)

Auschwitz Gaschambers

This is the most horrible of all sketches that I made. The remnants of the gaschambers of Auschwitz-Birkenau. The Germans tried to erase the evidence, so they bombed the gaschambers.
There were 4 of these in Birkenau, and one in Auschwitz itself. 1.100.000 people died in the camps, 90 percent in the chambers like these. Hard to imagine what happened here.
I had to make this drawing quick, we were with a guide, and he stopped here for only 7 minutes.

This is a sketch of one of the guardhouses of the original Auschwitz camp.
I had only 3 minutes to do the sketch, just enough for the linework. I added the watercolourpencil later at home.

Still, I think it conveyes the desperate feeling of that place.

I am glad I visited the place; of the camps I've seen so far (Dachau, Mauthausen, Theresienstadt), this was the most horrible by far.

Auschwitz Birkenau (2)

The entrance to the concentration camp Birkenau.
The trains would pass this gate, and unload the victims on the platforms behind it.

Just a few minutes from their death.
Almost a million victims must have passed these gates.

Horrible.

As you can see, the original drawing was a bit different, the white acrylic marker didn't perform well, and the official guide was waiting.
So I adapted the drawing with gouache and ink into something more fitting.

Auschwitz chimneys

This may be the most horrible series of posts as of to date.
We had a nice long weekend in Krakau, Poland. And we visited the concentration camps of Auschwitz. Horrible.
In case you didn't know: Auschwitz consists of 2 complexes, the first camp near the town, and the larger camp Birkenau, some 3 km away. Especially the latter was horrifying.
An impression of rows of chimneys on the vast terrain, the only thing left of the endless barracks after they were set on fire to be burnt down.

Stockholm Espresso House

Sitting in an Espresso house, during our visit to Stockholm. Nice to be able to draw, while enjoying good fresh brewed coffee.

Stockholm: view from the boat

Kastellholmen, Stockholm.
I made his sketch in under 10 minutes, the time the ferry took to cross the strait between the islands (Ferryline 80, from Skansen to Gamla Stan). It's a small castle or outlook from a former military camp on the island. Or so I was told.

Stockholm: Skansen

Stockholm. Already two weeks ago.
We had tough times last weeks, my brother in law deceased last week.

Still, some sketches of our trip to Stockholm.
On the third day, that was the second day of Eastern, we went to Skansen.
That is an open air museum, where old buildings are rebuilt and preserved. Old traditions and crafts are kept alive, and there is a lot of infornation available on how Swedes used to live.
We visited and old farm, and the very nice guide gave us more or less a full hour of college of old building techniques.

I asked if I could make a sketch, which she allowed. She found out much to her surprise, that I included her into the sketch. The least I could do to give something back for their friendliness en openness.

The Hague

Two sketches that I made during the Urban Sketchig Netherlands day, this time in the Hague.
It's our Political Capital. Above you see our house of Parliament, the little tower houses the working chamber of our Prime minister, Mark Rutten.
The bottom drawing is the "Ridderzaal" the assembly hall, where the parliament assembles for
official meetings. We had terrific weather (Spring arrived at last) and a perfect organisation. About 70 sketchers had a fine day!

Stockholm

Busy days. No time to post much. Just returned from a nice long Eastern weekend in Stockholm.
It was very cold, but dry, I lovely city.
This is a drawing I made in the old centre of town, the Gamla Stan. The old fountain at the Storteget.
Probably the best known colourful facades of Sweden.

Girl

Just a quick drawing (maybe 10 minutes). After a drawing by the French painter Soluto.
Black pencil and watercolour.

Sand quarry in Meers

On location sketch, this afternoon.
A quarry excavating sand from the river Maas. I have run a lot of times past this quarry, it's on one of my regular routes. Today I went there to make this sketch.

Waiting for the rain

Made this drawing out of nothing. And the title seemed fitting somehow.
Waiting for the rain.

Elsloo in spring

Lunchtime today. the snow and frost have gone, it's still fresh but the sun is doing its best.
I got out to make this drawing. It's in Elsloo, and hard to see but the village is on top of a hill. I am standing on the hill on the other side of a little stream. The gardens are winding down the slope to the stream.
At least with these bare trees you can have some nice see-throughs.
This what it looked like in reality,
 

Where does inspiration come from?

I thought it might be nice to show where I get inspiration from.

I saw these 2 apple trees during my Sunday morning run last week, on the road between Amstenrade and Merkelbeek.
The right tree has been cantilevered for years, each time I pass it I always wonder why it hasn't fallen over yet, especially when it's in full bloom.










 

I made these 2 quick ideas the same day (BTW. I must have noted the wrong date, it was the 11th). The left sketch was worked out as a glass fusion item, which I may show later.
The right sketch served as idea for a larger painting.

This is the basis of the painting: cardboard and cement (for tiles), on a wooden board about 50x60cm.

I will paint over it soon. posts to follow.
The painting is supposed to be inspired by Jean Dubuffet.

High speed train

Visit to Magdebug, Germany. For business. We took the ICE (German high speed train, at times they run approx 250km/hour). I had no time to sketch in Magdeburg itself, so I made this quick one, during a stop before entering some station. I forgot which one, somewhere between Magdeburg and Hannover. I barely had time to sketch the dominant shapes, the rest I did out of memory.

2 Models

Model painting of Julia.
2 positions, each took one hour to make.
Acrylic, 50x60cm.
The left one looked good as preliminary sketch, but I overworked the actual painting.