Beetles

Went out to draw these two Beetles in Merkelbeek, this evening. I passed them yesterday during my running training.
They were standing in a field in the back of a farmhouse. The blue one is obviously a donor car for the yellow one, which is prepared for a rallycross.

Finn, but not really

I tried to draw my grandson Finn (now 6 months old). He was laying on his back, I drew this while standing at the foot of the bed. So the perspective is a bit weird.
Even though I did my best, and ther drawing is remeniscent of his face, it's not Finn.
Still, I always learned that it is difficult enough to make a drawing in which the person looks alive. I think I succeeded to do that anyway. Drawing babies from life is very, very hard.

Julia, once again

Julia, in a live portrait painting session. It was the last session of the Masterclass portrait course of this season.
Acrylic 50x70cm, took me two hours to make.

Brooklyn, Brighton Beach

A sidestreet of Brighton Beach Avenue. I guess it is probably also known as little Russia, I have never seen so many Russian shops, except for Moscow itself.
Coming from a country where nearly all electrical cables are underground this was a fascinating sight.
I now know why the Spiderman comics originated in the States. Inspiration around every corner.....

NYC Hanover street

View from the Starbucks at hanover square, downtown New York. They sold Banh mi, something like vietnamese baguettes. No idea what that tastes like, but we already left the Starbucks before we were hungry enough to try.

Central park

Very quick sketch in the Central Park, New York. Made in about 10 minutes.

Brooklyn Tabernacle Choir

The Brooklyn Tabernacle choir, a real gospel choir. 250 singers, incredible.
We wanted to attend an early Sunday mass, and took the risk to go to Brooklyn, the renowned choir that won several Grammys and sang at the inauguration of Obama (that seems already ages ago).
We were welcomed heartily. I was given permission to sketch, which i did when they were still doing voice exercises before mass. When they started to sing I didn't want to draw anymore, but only wanted to enjoy the music.
I also liked the mass itself by the way, I loved they way the priest did his sermon. A real show, so unlike what we are used to here in  Europe.

Christopher Slutman funeral

Our hotel was near 5th Avenue. We noticed that the street was closed down, to our surprise there were thousands of fire and policemen standing in attention, a few miles along 5th Ave.
They were paying their respects for Christopher Slutman, a Marine and ex-NYC fireman, who died during a roadbomb attack in Afghanistan, early April.
There were large amounts of policemotors, some firetrucks, policecars and a group of bagpipes.

Very impressive, especially in our European eyes.

May he rest in peace.

New York, Times & Liberty

Last weekend my wife and I were married for 30 happy years. Like we did at the 20 and 25 years anniversary, we visited New York city, this time accompanied with some friends.
This meant we did the usual tourist things, but also a few new ones.
I have made sketches of these two scenes before, but I could not resist to do them again.
The view towards the statue of liberty, from the Staten Island Ferry. It was a quick one, I only had like 10 minutes to do this one. 
  

This sketch, made from the platform on times square, also took about 10 minutes, I did not want to hold up the company.
I loved the city, and will show a few more drawings.

Germaïn, portrait

Portrait session, last saturday. Germaïn, a model we had a few times before.
Great guy to paint, so different than the usual models.
On Bamboo paper, 50x70cm, acrylics, about 2 hours work.

Paris Notre Dame

I was horrified by the fire in the Notre Dame in Paris, last week. Visited it a number of times, admired the stained glass windows and the mighty organ. Such a beautiful place.
I made this drawing back in October 2009, during a visit to Paris. There was a Maria procession on the Seine. I just could not leave this event unnoted.

The enigma of a monday at noon

I went to an exposition, the Tefaf in Maastricht. there were some Giorgio de Chirico paintings.
I was inspired by these, and made my own version.
Ink drawing, digitally coloured.

Koerennen / Kowrenne

A commission drawing of the Cowrunning festivities in Hoensbroek.
I made this drawing (size A4) for a friend, Bert.
Some 20 years ago he initiated a "Kowrenne" group, of which I was part as well. Later we split up into different groups, but I must say that theirs (Cow B) was even more successful as ours (Cow H).
We stopped some 5 years ago, they last year. This drawing is of their last run. The contest is quite physically demanding, and yes, we all get older.
I made the drawing for his birthday.

Heijningen

Business trip last week. I had to visit an industrial park in Heijningen, in the river delta.
Next to my visiting adress there was this shipyard and winter ship storage.
I had some time left for a quick sketch, before leaving for home.

Amsterdam, de Gooyer

Amsterdam, de Gooyer. An old windmill, practocally in the middle of town. I was sitting on a nice terrace on the other side of the canal. in  the sun, sipping on some coffee.
Even though I lived in Amsterdam for a short while, I had never seen the mill up close.

Amsterdam, Nieuwmarkt

For the first time in a long time, I went out for a day to Amsterdam, to visit an exhibition about David Hockney and van Gogh.
I also took the opportunity to go out and sketch. It was beautiful spring weather.
I made this at the Nieuwmarkt, the Waag. In the middle ages goods used to be officially weighted here, and taxes to be paind. It's still a beautiful building.
In front is the daily market.

Floating thooughts

Floating thoughts.
One of those drawings that draw itself.

carnaval 2019

Carnaval last weekend. This is the float in the parade of Hoensbroek. One of the 100 groups/floats/bands and single participants (Eimzelgänger).

Madonna with child

The finished painting. Madonna wit child. Or rather, my daughter Rianne, with our grandson Willem.
Based on a picture. Acrylic and oil pastel 50x60cm
It was a difficult procedure, following Christianne Knops ideas. The different stages:

stage1: blocking in the areas. Here you can still recognize the forms of the original photograph.

  stage 2: bringing back the lines with oil pastel

stage 3: different colourfields, extending beyond the border. Each field should show a little of the previous one. Linework should behave freely around the colourfields, not restrict them. This was how last week ended.

Stage 4: today, just painting a totally different colour on top. This was very difficult to do, I had to give up on the parts I loved the most. Killing your darlings.

Stage 5: I enhanced the skintones, the strong arms needed to be emphasized.

Stage 6: Due to the arms, the clothes were too bleak. I added a contrast colour, carefully leaving traces of the old layers visible.

Stage 7: the dress needed contrast: I darkened the backgroud, redrawing the linework every time with different coloured oil pastels.



Stage 8 (final, see the first image): the dress was interesting of colour, but alltogether too flat. I added an extra layer of purple-grey.
I also adjusted the background.
Then the linework again, with orange white and black oil pastel.

The point is: when to stop. I worked over 4 hours on this, and could have gone on.
But I reached the point where I had the feeling that whatever I added would not make it better or more interesting.
I guess that is the learning point.

Mother

Too much other things to do than drawing. I am helping organizing the Urban Sketching symposium in Amsterdam, in july. I'm doing the workshop coordination, 36 in total.
That is a lot of work, checking if the proposed locations are okay or the instructors, and proposing better alternatives. Most instructors are unfamiliar with Amsterdam.

In our Art class we are preparing for an exhibition in May. And we have a new assignment: painting in gthe style of Christianne Knops. We did that before, some 3 or 4 years ago, always an interesting treatment of the subjects: the play of line and coloured fields.

These is the unfinished painting that I am working on. It's loosely based on a picture of my daughter with my grandson Willem.
But the posture was what iterested me.
I am trying to finish it next weekend.