Leiden

A business trip to Leiden, a nice old Dutch town. Holland at its best.
The Netherlands had a lovely week with warm weather, all the terraces were filled to the brim.

Amstenrade castle: orangerie

We ae having a heatwave again. But I went out to the nice cool and peacefull park at the castle of Amstenrade. Which is just around the corner from my house.
This is one of the small outbuildings, the Orangerie, as seen from the park.

Bisschopsmolen

Quick sketch of a small passage in Maastricht, near the Bisschopsmolen.

Pater Vincktoren

Another one of the sketchcrawl of last saturday, in Maastricht.
This is a part of the Medieval fortifications.
I tried the bamboo-ink method again.

Jekerkwartier

We had a nice sketchcrawl in Maastricht today, organized by Ruud Otten.
I met a lot of old and a few new friends.
We made drawings on the "Jekerkwartier", near the old fortifications of Maastricht.
This is an old house, a retirementhome for nuns. THe "Faliezusters".
Nowadays I try a new more vivid style of working: drawing with bamboo on good Fabriano paper, and ivid colourswashes.

Portraits during symposium

I managed to make some quick portraits during the Symposium, trying different materials. The first is James Richards, during the Talens workshop. He is instructor of one of the workshops.
I experimented with (Talens) ecoline, I had never tried that before. It's water soluble.

This is Kiah Kiean, a fantastic sketcher. My Bingelrade drawing was inspired by his working method. I used graphite and water soluble pencils in this drawing.

 And this is Evelyn Huang, she also participated in the Rembrandt workshop of Fred Lynch. I had to make a quick inkline drawing, with as little lines as possible.
Chinese ink applied with bamboo stick, and waterproof sepia acrylic ink.

Bingelrade

I went out yesterday to draw an old farmhouse, in the process of being restored into its old form.
The farm is located in Bingelrade, just a few kiometers from my home. Actually it's along one of my running-routes, that's when I noticed the building.
I used chinese ink with bamboo pens, pentel paintbrush and some Rembrandt watercolour, on Fabriano 300gr cotton paper.
The ideas of Kiah Kiaen were followed in this drawing, whose demo I attended during the Amsterdam symposium. A very interesting method, with very interesting results.

Oosterdok, Amsterdam

Saturday, dead tired, but a free moment at last. Just enough time to make a sketch of the boats at the  Oosterdok. The green building is the Nemo museum.
After this the general USk overall group photo was taken, and the final closing party took place.

Fred Lynch workshop

During the symposium there was little time to sketch. But I was able to attend some workshops during the event. Among others the inspiring Fred Lynch. His monochrome drawings are fantastic.
His workshop was called something like: "drawing like Rembrandt". Actually, these scenes are across the street from Rembrandts house.
I learned a lot by working in monochrome, I must do this more often. 

USk symposium Amsterdam 2019

Phew. Finally the Urban Sketching symposium Amsterdam 2019 is over.
Here is the final picture of the event, about 1500 of the approx 2000 sketchers that took part of the event.

The event was lead by Ruud Otten and Gail Howard. I was honoured to be in the core team together with Peggy Otten, Anne Rose Oosterbaan, Roger Klaassen, Linda Toolsema, Peer Wolkers, and the angel of the team, Marleen Dambrink. And about 60 hardworking volunteers. Here is a part of that group.

The conditions under which we had to work were almost unbearable. Nature choose to break the Dutch heatrecords twice during the 4-day symposium. 39,7 Celcius on Wednesday and 40,7 on Thursday. Never before in recorded Dutch history. These were really harsh conditions to work under.
With over 600 symposium and workshop participants and about 2000 sketchers all over town, some things are bound to go wrong. But we heard from all sides that this was the largest and best organised symposium so far.
I am really proud on what we achieved and most of all I am really proud on our Dutch red team.

Meersen, the basilica

Meerssen, the 14th century Gothic basilica. On of the best examples of the gothic "maasland" style. It used to have gothic towers, but these were destroyed in one of the many wars we had in the 16th and 17th century, and never rebuilt. Funny, even though the church is very near, maybe 15 km, we never go there.

Austin 1932

Small and very quick drawing of an Austin, dating back to 1932. Drawn at a vintage car happening in Hoensbroek.

Place du Marché. Luik

Place du Marché, in Liège. On the terrace drinking a nnice cup of coffee.

Hors Chateau in Liege

Sitting nice and quiet in this little square in Liège. A project by the architect Charles Vandenhove.
Making this drawing was almost like meditation.

St Pholien 2nd

Another one from the fleamarket, this time a quick one. Maybe 10, max 15 minutes.

Liège, le brocante de St. Pholien

I visited Liège this morning, just a day out roaming the city, walking around, eating merguez, sitting on terraces and making some drawings.

On friday there is always a nice Brocante (fleamarket). Several times I have made drawings there, it's always a pleasure to be there. The guy selling stuff was called Leo; and when I made the picture he was already cleaning up his place.

Diggers

They are working o our street, the sewerage systems need renovation. there are two old ones, dating from the 1930's. To be replaced with one new large one, in the middle of the street. The construction company started four weeks ago, and it will take until November. My street is now a large pit, fit for a nice drawing of the digging equipment.

Mitzie and Tomatoes

It was warm yesterday, a fine June day. Mitzie, our oldest cat, was resting in the most unlikely place: a pot which was used to grow tomatoes in last year. We didn't have enough time this year, so the pot is vacant. Well, sort of.

Hollandsch Koffiehuis

Last saturday we as organizing team of the USK 2019 Amsterdam symposium came together for a meeting, and inspection of the venues.
I spent most of the day in the nice company of Gail spotting locations for the workshops at the symposium. We had some tough issues for some of the locations, but I am gad to say we found solutions.
When I left for the trainride home, the ride I wanted to take was cancelled. Which gave me some time to sketch an old 1911 building across te centra station, called Hollands Koffiehuis. A coffeeshop dating from an era when you could actually buy coffee at a coffeeshop.

Ford Mustang 1973

Mustang 1973.

I went to the vintage american car meeting, here in  town, this evening.
There was this beautiful blue Mustang from the early 70s. Rather difficult to draw.