Garden

I haven't drawn a decent sketch in weeks, too much occupied with work and garden. As Spiderman would say: with a big garden comes big responsibilities. We have something like 800m2 of garden, that's a lot for Dutch standards. And a lot of work too.
After I finished pulling weeds today, I made this drawing of our walnut tree, which stands in the middle of the backlawn in between the 2 gardensheds.
Al een tijdje geen tekeningen meergemaakt, te druk met werk en tuin. De hele hemelvaartvakantie onkruid geruimd, genoeg te doen. Dit is een schets van de walnotenboom in onze achtertuin.

Blue Mosque

 

Sketch of the Blue Mosque, (Sultan Ahmet Camii), as seen from our hotel room, nr. 308 of the Citadel Hotel in Istanbul. This is the last of the sketches that I made in our short trip; and I made this one specially for the Auckland Urban Sketchers exhibition. I had to bend awkwardly over the television set to draw this view, that's why the lines are a bit wobbly and not very straight.

It was the smallest hotel room I even slept in, but who cares, you're mostly outside on the Istanbul streets anyway. 

I case you haven't noticed: I am very occupied with work, home and garden at the moment; hardly any time to sketch or even keep up my blogs.

Topkapi in Istanbul

The top sketch is of the Topkapi palace; the famous palace of the Sultan and his thousand wife's. It's a labyrinth of buildings and courtyards, I made this sketch in one of the less crowded ones. I had problems with the paint, I was standing in the burning sun (pretty hot for Spring), and the paint dried quickly.
Below the view from the 1st floor gallery of the Hagia Sophia, one of the most impressive buildings I know. You feel the weight of the centuries on your shoulders when walking through this (original Roman empire) building.
Boven een schets van het Topkapi paleis, onder een schets van de preekstoel (of hoe heet zoiets in de Islam) vanaf de omloop in de Hagia Sofia.

Grand Bazaar

Another day, another terrace within the Bazaar, another cup of coffee. The man on the table next to us ( I think they were a Russian couple) noticed me drawing him; when they left he bent over to me and said: "You were drawing us right? My grandfather did the same, he was always drawing everybody". He briskly turned and walked away. I would have loved to see his grandfathers drawings.

Istanbul

Two days after my return from Louisiana and the sketchcrawl, my wife and I left for Istanbul for our wedding anniversary. That was already two weeks ago. We had the early morning flight from Düsseldorf, and arrived in Turkey around noon. So we had all day to explore the city.
I made these sketches that Monday; one is the view from the Galata bridge (crossing the Golden Horn) with all these fishermen and the view to the famous Yeni Mosque.
The second was while we were sitting for a nice cup of coffee in the famous Grand Bazaar, watching a bored salesman waiting for clients.
Een korte stedentrip naar Istanbul. We hadden de vroege morgenvlucht en hadden nog alle tijd om de stad te verkennen. Deze schetsen zijn die eerste dag gemaakt: de Galata brug en een wachtende verkoper in de Grote Bazaar.

More sketchcrawl

Two more of the paintings that I drew during the sketchcrawl, made in the library, looking through the large windows to the rain outside.
More sketches of the other contributors on sketchcrawllimburg.blogspot

Sketchcrawl

Nico Jamin and I organised a sketchcrawl event in Heerlen, already almost 2 weeks ago (time flies).
At first it was raining, we even had hail, so we stayed inside the Glaspaleis. Later the weather became better, and I made this painting of the yearly Spring market in the centre of Heerlen while kneeling on the ground. My daughter told me afterwards that I attracted a large crowd behind me. But I can tell you I didn't notice it at all, far too concentrated on drawing&painting. Watercoour on Schut 300 gram paper 24x30cm.
Sketchcrawl in Heerlen, de jaarmarkt.
More results from the sketchcrawl on http://sketchcrawllimburg.blogspot.com/

Crossroads

Last of the Baton Rouge USA sketches. I made this on the morning before my flight back home. I made 2 sketches on this location, a traffic island near the hotel, but the first one was a failure. So I started over, this one was better.
After finishing this drawing/painting I walked about hundred meters, to turn right into the suburb, where I made the Louisiana house sketch (see previous posts).
De laatste van de USA schetsen, een kruising naast het hotel. Gemaakt vlak voor mijn vertrek terug naar huis.

Koninginnedag

Today is Koninginnedag, Queens day. We went to Utrecht for the festivities, free markets, foodstalls, improvised bars and music everywhere. And Orange flags and dresses wherever you look (Orange is the colour of the Dutch Monarchy). The weather was fantastic, I cannot remember we had better sunny weather ever on this day. And thousands of people in the streets and on the boats which swarmed the canals.
I made this drawing while sipping coffee on one of the terraces next to the main midtown canal, overlooking the Oude Gracht. It was early, 11.00, the festivities had yet to start.

Louisiana houses

On the morning of my flight back, I rose early to make sketches in the vicinity of the hotel. I managed to sketch and paint 3 sketches (one of them is horrible though). A few hundred meters from the Baton Rouge hotel I found this more or less typical Louisiana suburban house, with a beautifully porch. It's on the corner of Marigold and Cherrydale avenue. I tried to find the house back on Google streetview, but apparently the house was not yet built back in febr 2008!
One funny thing about these houses: they are located in huge grass lawns, with beautiful full grown trees, but there are no fences, hedges or shrubs to define where your garden ends and your neighbours starts. That's very strange to a Dutch eye.

Burrito in Atlanta

Phew. That was a busy week. First to the USA on business trip, then co-organising the local Sketchcrawl, then four days with my wife to Istanbul, Turkey. The latter to celebrate our wedding anniversary.
I have a stack of about 15 drawings I made in this week, which I will post the coming time.
Here is a sketch of the fast food meal I ate on the Atlanta airport on my way back to Europe.
Actually the meal was not the best choice, it was quite heavy stuff, it bothered me during the flight.
Een (fastfood) burrito, zoals gegeten op het vliegveld van Atlanta, USA.

Mississippi

I still have some sketches left from my trip to Louisiana, here is another.
As stated yesterday, I would have liked to sketch the steamboots on the Mississippi, but this is second best: the Plaquemine ferry across the river. My company, Roel, decided to make a nice detour for my benefit, and take the ferry instead of the bridge. It was a strange ferry, the ramp was located at the side of the boat, and the cars had to manoeuvre around the steering house in a circle to park their cars. Like a floating rotunda. I just finished the drawing, sitting on the stern, when we arrived at the other side.

Sketchcrawl

Yesterday we did our first Sketchcrawl in Heerlen. We did not know if anyone would turn up, and much to our surprise in total 12 people of in total 4 nationalities showed up (Dutch, German, French and English). Initially the rain poured down heavily, and we drew from the library windows on the first floor of the glaspaleis, later it became dry and we could go outside.

Here pictures of the  group; unfortunately some crawlers had to leave too early for the final review and group picture.  The results will be shown on our special blog: http://sketchcrawllimburg.blogspot.com/

Baton Rouge, Louisiana

Just on my way back from a short visit to Louisiana, USA. Only one day in Baton Rouge near New Orleans, on business. Luckily I managed to make a few sketches, here is the first of them. I would have liked to draw steamboats on the Mississippi of course, but this roadcrossing near the hotel tells also about the USA. It was made early morning just before breakfast. You have to take an opportunity as it comes.

Me, myself and I

This is the most difficult painting I ever made, a self portrait. You can see the preliminary stages in the post of March 24th. I finished it yesterday.
Looking back, I think the painting became too refined, it lacks broad strokes and rough edges. But once I started painting this idea (the mirror, the camera, myself etc.), the painting led itself to this style.
But I really enjoyed working with oilpaint, it was the first time I used it, and it works very fine.
So here it is, on 70x90cm oilpaint. Me, myself and I.

Aan de kerk

Another sketch of my home village, across the road from the castle. The lane is called "Aan de kerk"; obviously it leads to the church (dating from 1850).
I was told that in the 30's an aunt of my father had a café in the house on the left. As she was widow another uncle would be there every evening for protection; consuming free drinks. Untill he got so drunk, he had to be carried home. Family stories.

Luca

Art class. A quick painting of Luca, the daughter of Annemiek, our teacher. This is one of the 2 paintings I made in these two painting hours that we have on Saturday morning.
Acrylic, 50x60cm. The difficult part was to know when to stop.

Do chairs go to heaven?

 

Doodling during a memorable meeting. One of the participants went on drooling about hardly relevant details and definitions, until the irritated client flashed out and intervened. That was a first time in 20 years experience.

I started with the shoe. I have no idea why.

Sketchcrawl

Nico and I am organizing the first Heerlen Sketchcrawl !

Sketchcrawl is something like Urban sketching in a group, organized worldwide on April 21st.

Have a look at the Sketchcrawl site.  

So, if you are into sketching everyday life, come, take your drawing gear and join us on April 21st, 13.00 hours in Schunck cultural center and library (glaspaleis) in Heerlen. And it's free!

Check our special  blogsite: http://sketchcrawllimburg.blogspot.com/

For those not living in Limburg, there are other sketchcrawls in Schiedam and Gouda.

Voor de nederlandstaligen onder ons: lees de flyer.

Amstenrade

The castle of Amstenrade, just around the corner of my house.
This is the view from the village, as seen from the Hommerterallee, with the small unused guardhouse in front.
The caste is still private property; the count and/or countess d'Ansembourg live there.
Kasteel Amstenrade, gezien vanaf de Hommerterallee.