This week, in France, I took the opportunity to visit Lourdes. As it was after work, it was all dark. I was impressed by the devotion of the candle light procession: a dreary november night and still >1000 people. Impressions of the Maria grotto and of a wanderer warming his dinner on a small stove on the bridge over the river.
Lourdes, in het donker. Een treurige novembernacht, en toch >1000 gelovigen bij de kaarsjesprocessie. Schets van de mariagrot en van een zwerver die zijn maaltijd verwarmde op een brandertje op de brug.
Pele e osso means skin and bones, it refers to a painting of Bea Meira (http://cadernosdabea.blogspot.com/, oct 18, 2008). The idea kept humming in my mind. This is my own version.
I have to fly to Tarbes and Lannemezan nearly every week now. On wednesday there is market in and around the main markethall. A sketch just before I drove to the building site.
Prague: sketch of a "hurdy gurdy" player in one of the squares downtown. And a sculpture supporting a fronton on an office building. 
Praag: een draailier speler en een skulptuur in de facade van een kantoorgebouw.
Concentratiekamp Theresienstadt (Terezin) bij Praag. Prachtige herfstkleuren, maar het besef van de geschiedenis geeft het een heel ander gevoel. Verder een schets van de crematie ovens.
Last weekend in Prague with my wife and some friends; terrific time, fine weather. This is the view from our room in the Ariston Hotel on a misty morning.
When posting the "siberian autumn" post in skineart.com, I recieved the comment by Bea Meira that it was spring in Brazil. Which inspired me to make the blossom counterpart of falling leaves. This is supposed to be Jacaranda blossom, native to Brazil. I hope I will get the chance to see it in reality in Sao Paolo once. 
Herfst in Siberie, lente in Brazilie.
When I was young it was my dream to make a trip from Moscow through Russia with the Trans Siberian Express, 6 days in a train. Fantastic. This is how close I came, it passed by at 80 km/hour near the station of Bogandinskiy, Siberia.
Last week in Tyumen, Siberia. In this inner courtyard two women were collecting empty beer and wodkabottles. Due to the brilliant colours the grey housing did not seem so dreary.
An old lady and her cat were sitting in the late autumn sun in front of her house, in Bogandiskiy, east-Siberia. Below you see the rough sketch made with fountainpen, on which the painting was based. 
Mourning cloak Butterfly, picture taken in Siberia. Officially Nymphalis antiopa.
I flew back from Tyumen, Siberia today. It was a beautiful place: all the birch trees were golden brown in the autumn sun. We had some terrific sights flying over the siberian plains by helicopter. 
