Fish

The day the fish found the way to the shore.

Chateau Vaeshartelt

The castle of Vaeshartelt, just a bit north of Maastricht. Now a conference centre.
There was a wedding on the lawn, in this warm late-summer afternoon. Nice ambience.

Chateau Neerkanne

Beautiful late summer weather. I took a nice friday afternoon off to make some sketches.
this château Neerkanne, a castle near Maastricht, just at the Belgian border. Actually I was standing ON the border to make this drawing.

50s girl

I received some goodies at the symposium, one was ecoline markers (water soluble ink). Fantastic stuff. I tried it out in this 50s style portrait (based on a picture).

Windmill St. Hubertusmolen

This morning, driving between Schimmert and Beek, on the top of the hill, I made a quick sketch of this windmill. The St. Hubertusmolen. With windmills you have to be lucky, they head towards the wind. So view is not always good, you have to do it when it's turned correctly.
My radio played Air by J.S.Bach, that's how long it took to draw this.

Nude

Made during a life model session. 50x70cm, acylic on wood.

Lievelde (2)

Another one of Erve Kots in Lievedle. It was summer then.

Lievelde (Achterhoek)

We had a few nice days in one of the more rural areas of the Netherlands, the Achterhoek.
We stayed in this nice old farmhouse, now converted into a hotel.
I made this quick one during breakfast, siting in the warm sun on the terrace.

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.