SS Rotterdam

Rotterdam yesterday.
Poor me, all hotels were overbooked, due to the world championship ping-pong; so I had to spend the night in a luxury cruise ship..... The S.S. Rotterdam is a former Holland-NewYork liner, which is restored in all its beauty and is now in use as a hotel. Looks better than these floating apartment blocks you see across the Mediterranean. From its deck it has the most beautiful view across the water and the city lights of Rotterdam.
Ik mocht een nachtje slapen op de SS Rotterdam, een oud gerestaureerd cruiseschip, dat nu aan de kade ligt. Een gweldig uitzicht over de lichtjes van de stad aan de ander kant van het water.
Remark: there was a general problem with blogger: they removed all posts and comments since wednesday.

Delftse vogels

Molslaan in Delft. We were sitting at a terrace sipping cofee where I saw this guy on the other side of the canal gulping down a tin of icecream. It looked like he was famished. The swan did not get anything from him.
Molslaan, Delft, deze man schrokte een pot Hertog ijs op alsof hij uitgehongerd was. Niks over voor de zwaan.

Just a few meters away a "meerkoet" (a coot ?) was mothering her offspring. The father was in constant fight with the curious ducks and seagulls.

Pasgeboren kuikens van een Meerkoet, ook aan de Molslaan.

More Delft

View over Delft from our hotel room. Uitzicht over Delft vanuit onze hotelkamer. Geen hollandse luchten met dit mooie weer.

Delft

My wife and I had a nice long weekend in Delft, The Hague and Scheveningen. The weather was fantastic. I sketched this while drinking coffee on a terrace on the Beestenmarkt in Delft, you can see the "new church" (it's what you call new....it dates back to 14-15th century....) through the trees. It's the second highest churchtower of the Netherlands, the one of Utrecht (see the sketch of a week ago) is the highest.
Een lang weekend met Gertie naar het westen, Delft en Den Haag. Dit is geschetst vanaf het terras op de Beestenmarkt in Delft, je kunt de toren van de Nieuwe kerk nog net door de bomen zien.

Matisse 3

Slowly progressing with my Matisse painting.

Utrecht

Koninginnedag, Queens day, which was last Saturday, April 30th. There are all kinds of  festivities all over the country. We went to Utrecht to enjoy the freemarkets, music, food and wonderfull weather. I think it was the best weather in a century. I drew this sipping coffee on a terrace next to one of the canals: it shows the highest churchtower of the Netherlands.
At the Freemarkets the locals try to earn some euro's by selling old stuff, or homemade food, involve you in silly games or making music. These kids had a smart idea: they wanted to get rich by sleeping....
Koninginnedag en vrijmarkt in Utrecht, afgelopen zaterdag. Wat een geweldig weer!

Brenda en Mart

Last friday my son Mart and his girlfriend Brenda had their "Gala" evening. The final schoolexams will start shortly, and the Gala is the last school event where they can party with their comrades.
It's fully dressed up event in first-time-smokings and black dresses; they are brought to the dinner place in fancy cars where they get the flashlight and red carpet treatment. And then dinner and dance.
Seeing them both in something else than jeans and sneakers, it's a sight to make any parent proud.
Gala avond voor onze zoon Mart en zijn vriendin Brenda. De examens beginnen over een paar weken.

The scar

I read the science fiction novel "The Scar" (well, I read it's dutch translation "Armada"), by the writer China Mièville.
Great book, if you like Dieselpunk novels.
It's about the adventures of a collection of interconnected ships, forming a floating city.
Gelezen: "Armada" geschreven door China Mièville.

Matisse 2

Haven't done much sketching the last week, I preferred sitting on the veranda untill late at night reading the first book in the (fantastic) Millenium trilogy. Enjoying the warm evenings, smells of spring and twittering birds.
These are colour and composition studies for the Matisse painting we are making for art class. See earlier post.
Niet veel geschetst deze week, ik zat liever op het terras genietend van de avondwarmte met een goed boek (deel 1 van de Millennium reeks: mannen die vrouwen haten). Hier wat kleurstudies voor het Matisse project.

Burned

Mariarade-Hoensbroek, during my running round, just a few blocks from my house, I saw this totally burned out Suzuki. It was  left in the middle a field, and I returned to make this sketch. Probably used by drugrunners or joyriders. Uitgebrande Suzuki Alto in de velden naast het voetbalveld Mariarade. Waarschijnlijk drugstransport of Joyriding.

New York by night

Both paintings next to each other. New York by Night.

Bob

This is the second diptych New York painting, for Bob.
Het tweede schilderij van de tweeluik, voor Bob.

Rianne

Yesterday my daughter, Rianne, turned 21. Not my little girl anymore.
A few weeks ago Rianne and Bob asked me to make a painting to decorate their new home. Bob liked the Madison avenue painting of some weeks ago, and they would like to have something in that style as birthday present.
So I decided to make a diptych (two paintings for each of their birthdays) of which the first part is shown here.
Gisteren werd mijn dochter Rianne 21 jaar oud. Weer een mijlpaal. 
Bob en Rianne wilden voor hun verjaardag graag een schilderij in de stijl van het Madison avenue schilderij van een paar maanden geleden, voor boven de bank in hun appartement. Twee verjaardagen, twee schilderijen, dit is de eerste van een tweeluik.

Matisse

For the art class we have to make a painting using Matisse techniques. That means vivid colours, good composition, contrasts in movement and above all a flat image. I am having trouble with this, especially the flat image (I keep being drawn into perspective). Matisse was never my favourite painter, but it's a good excercise to find out how his paintings work.  These are the pages full of sketches, analysis and ideas to get to the painting. Saturday I will start with it.
Idee schetsen om te komen tot een schilderij, gebaseerd op Matisse technieken. Dat wil zeggen felle fleuren, discontinue beeld compositie, contrasten in beweging en rust etc. Zaterdag ga ik het proberen uit te werken.

Quarry truck

A little south of Maastricht there is a large quarry in the St. Pietersberg for the cement industry, ENCI. During a recent visit for a project I saw this huge Caterpillar truck, 4,5 meter high. It weights 30 tons and can load 50 ton of mergel. Impressive.
Schets van een van de Caterpillar trucks in de St. Pietersberg groeve van de ENCI.

Marijke

Marijke, portrait in acrylic, 80x100cm. It was made during art class, and took about 5 hours. We tried a technique in which every  earlier layer would show through the new layers of paint.
Portetcursus, dit is Marijke, ze stond een paar morgens model voor ons klasje. Acryl, 80x100cm. De bedoeling van deze techniekoefening was dat de oudere lagen door de nieuwere lagen verf blijven doorschijnen.

Niki de Saint Phalle

This weekend I helped children making drawings and collages in the Schunk museum in Heerlen. There was a nation wide museum weekend, and we tried to stimulate the kids to draw what they saw in the art exhibition. There were objects and drawings of Niki de Saint Phalle at display; not really my taste, but still interesting to see these colourful works.
Museumweekeinde in het Schunk museum in Heerlen. Een tentoonstelling van Niki de Siant Phalle. Ik was vrijwilliger om kinderen te helpen met tekenen en schilderen van Niki achtige collages.

Peugeot 203

Peugeot 203; Today during lunchbreak I looked out of my office window to see if it was raining, and I saw this beautiful car on the parking lot on the other side of the street. I had to stand and draw/paint real close, that's why the perspective is so distorted. It took me about 25 minutes.
Deze Peugeot 203 stond aan de overkant van kantoor, tijd voor een snelle schets. Perspectief is wat vertekend, maar dat is omdat ik noodzakelijkerwijs zo dichtbij moest staan.

Im Westen nichts Neues

Erich Maria Remarque wrote a chilling book about his experiences in the trenches of the first World War: "Im Westen nichts Neues", better known as "All quiet on the western front". I reread it last week. I had to do something with the images the book left behind.
Gelezen: "Geen nieuws aan het westelijk front" van E.M.Remarque, over de eerste wereldoorlog.

Bicycles

Another sunny day on the river Maas. A few weeks ago the river was flooded, and the banks are still filled with stuff that the river left behind: bleached wood, blotched plastic and rusty cycles. Rommel langs de Maas, overgebleven na de overstromingen van enkele weken geleden