Einstein on the beach

Yesterday evening I visited the Opera "Einstein on the beach", music by Philp Glass, direction Robert Wilson.

It's an opera taking 4 1/2 hours without breaks, performed in the Muziektheater in Amsterdam.

It's all about slow moving scenes, ballet, texts, visuals and patterns of the "actors" and stage, with repetitive somewhat minimal music in the hypnotizing Philip Glass style.
Sometimes you would sit through 20 minutes of looking at a simple light beam moving from one side to the other.

Back in 1979 I lived in Amsterdam, the piece was on the radio one evening, and I was thunderstruck. It was my first encounter with modern "classic" music, and it has been my favourite music piece of all times since.
But that was the music, the theater performance I only knew by reputation.

I have waited 35 years for this, and it even surpassed my expectations.
Even my son, not really into that kind of music, could not keep his eyes from the scene, and sat though the opera without even taking a break.

I am still enthralled.

Noebele

Second set of drawings of last Saturday.
Above an assortment of old and new floats and objects, as found and drawn on location. Floats, that's how Carnaval wagons are called in English (according fellow USK sketcher Virginia, from LA-California).

Also a sketch of the group "Noebele" working on their float.
I am not too pleased about that drawing, persons are drawn too stiff .
The penguins are from last years float, which had as theme Hollywood. 

Carnaval: optochthal

Optochthal, I don't even know how to translate this: "parade warehouse"?
Anyway, Carnaval is approaching fast, it will be around February 10th, and the preliminaries are in progress everywhere.
I visited a local warehouse where the parade wagons are made; there were a lot of people working on different wagons.
The whole place was crammed with objects, there must be at least 60 wagons, old and new, in store or in the process of being assembled.
I made a few drawings on location, this is the group "Vanalbijee" (translated from our local dialect that means "assembled from all sorts").
They are making a wagon with the theme "bakery". The clown-like baker will hover over a huge assortment of breads, "vlaaien" (a local variety of flat fruitcakes), cakes and cupcakes.
They were still welding and covering the structure with papier maché.

Optochthal van Hoensbroek/Heerlen, de groep Vanalbijee (van alles bijelkaar) druk aan het lassen aan hun carnavalswagen. Er waren daar minstens 60 wagens in die hal, geweldig.

Chemelot from the fence

Back to work again. Still having my office at the Chemelot Chemical plant in Geleen.
As I arrive and leave in the dark, I can only make drawings near my working place. I made this view from the parking lot, sitting in my car and listening to the new Muse album.
Actually, I sat there for two successive evenings, yesterday evening the light dissappeared way too fast to finish the drawing. I was lucky the same parking place was available today.

Surprises

First, best wishes for the new year, may it be a good and healthy one.

I know, a bit late, but here are the sketches of the "sinterklaas" surprises I prepared for my family and their partners.
All have a story linked to events that happened last year.
For example, Rianne now lives and studies in London. She uses a bike there, but being Dutch she does not use the usual flashing lights, yellow safety jackets and helmets. So I prepared an UK-helmet with christmas lights, to help her assimilate in London.


The  wooden voodoo-foot (full size, I cut it myself from a piece of firewood) was meant for my wife; it refers to the fact that the doctors could not find an origin and cure for the achilles injury she has since summer.
And Brenda and Bob received some jokes as well. I'll have to start thinking about next year.

Vendetta

Yesterday evening we celebrated Sinterklaas with our family.
I know, a bit late, but we decided to postpone it untill our daughter Rianne returned from London.

So we had a lasagne dinner, and gave and received presents.
And we had fun about surprise presents accompanied with Sinterklaas rhymes (which according family tradition I make for all of us).
I made this painting for my son, Mart, as decoration for his student room.
He is a regular anglophile (presently he studies to become an English teacher) and was always fascinated by the movie "V for Vendetta" and the story of Guy Fawkes.

Acrylic on prepared carton, I used a London map as background, 50x 70cm, 










The painting is supposed to be hanging next to the one I made for him last year, the painting of Ann Lee. (Ann Lee post)

A dream (part 3)

The dream part 3 (previous: part 1 and part 2 )
Halfway the road to the prison some space invaders appeared and stole the roasted chickens. But the patrol car called in the flying fish brigade, who took up pursuit. The space invaders had not counted on that and in fear made chewing gum balls to hide the chickens in. Will they be able to escape?

Kafka

Not really a nice picture for Christmas eve, but I reread "In der Strafkolonie" (In the Penal Colony) of Franz Kafka. A horrifying story.
Last saturday in art class we experimented with portraits, collages and half transparant overlays; this was the result.


Notwithstanding this picture, I wish everyone a happy Christmas.

Mescherbergloop

For the first time in two years I was able to run an official competition run again: the Mescherbergloop. The worst 15km of the Netherlands, only very steep hills, muddy fields, slippery country roads, forest paths and uneven stairs. Through freezing weather, rain and wet snow.

Last year February I suffered from a chronic ankle injury; I couldn't run more than 50 meters without having to stop from pain. (very frustrating, I have run marathons in the past).
The surgeon told me that even though it could improve a little, I had to get used to running with pain. Or take up another sport.
It took me almost two years, slowly building up the distances, to be able to run a painfree 15 km. And that's good enough for me.

Tebodin office Geleen

This is the view from the printer room on the second floor of the Tebodin office in Geleen.
Next to our regular Maastricht office, this one is located in the middle of the Chemelot Chemical plant (better knows as DSM), near our clients. My habitat since summer 2011.
I started this drawing during lunchhour. But as it is made in front of the window of the printerroom, people would walk in and chat me up all the time. So I finished this one yesterday at home.

Marsha in the sun

These are the preliminary stages of my new project, a stained glass window with a nice summer theme.
I already cut and polished the glasspieces. I will be painting it next week, and burning the paint into the glass.
In the bottom you see Marsha, our black cat. She is now about 15 years old, moving around is becoming difficult for her. She will be able to enjoy the sun in this window forever.

Shoreditch high street station

There is no fun in drawing in the dark, so with these december days, dark and always busy at work, there is not much opportunity for Urban sketching .

I decided to pick up Urban Painting again. This one is based on a picture I took at the Shoreditch high street underground station in London. Oil on board/canvas, size 40x50cm.

Bamboo and watercolour

Last weeks model class. Three of about 11 quick drawings of different poses, made in under two hours.
No pencil drawing to define the dimensions, but drawing directly with stubborn Bamboo sticks and chinese ink. Quick shading with bold strokes of watercolour.
 

Glass bird

Another stained glass piece, this one is made by my wife Gertie.
I made the design specially for this object; you can see the sketches for the different ideas below.
The piece is standing on the front windowsill of our house, on a nice steel pedestal.
It's a pity the orange and red colour nuances are a bit lost, they shine beautifully when the sun hits the panes.
Diameter 400mm.

Camden Lock retried

A sketch of Camden Lock, London.
I made this painting on location during my visit to London in September, in a Moleskine A4, but it went totally wrong.
Normally I don't even try to improve a waterolour gone wrong, but did it this time anyway.
Washed away dark spots, reinforced parts with extra colour, tried to enhance the composition, added some white gouache.
Even though it improved more than I expected, it's still not to the standard I wanted to reach. But why should I only show the good ones here?

A dream (part 2)

 

The dream part 2 (previous installment: A dream (part 1))

The buildings were upset about being deformed, so they took revenge, stretched out and caught the zeppelins in mid-air. Then they cut them to pieces, which fell to the earth in the form of roasted chickens.

At first everyone liked the roasted chickens. They were very polite and greeted everyone in the streets. But after a while they got hungry and started eating the legs of chairs and tables. So the Police came and rounded them up to be taken to prison.

Babel's Ark

 

Finally finished, my stained glass window of Noah's ark. Someone who saw it noted that he not only saw the Ark in this piece, but also the tower of Babel. Even though it never crossed my mind when I designed the window, it totally makes sense.

Even though it is hardly visible, I used two different glass painting techniques in this piece, grisaille and enamel. Grisaille are the dark lines and figures of the animals and buildings. But as I wanted other and more colour nuances than the available glass plates, I gave some glass parts an additional blue or brown colour tone on the backside. With the coloured glass, it gives beautiful effects.

I reality the piece has more and subtle colour tones (the white is light yellow). But my decent camera was stolen last week, so I had to do with the camera of my mobile phone.

Size about 60x75cm.

Tower bridge, London

This is it, the only drawing left from a fine weekend in London. I made this one in the large Moleskine (which I stacked in our suitcase, which was not stolen).
We were staying in the (excellent) hotel "the Tower", located adjacent to the Tower Bridge. For a few hours we even had a room with a view towards the bridge! This view was drawn and painted from the 1st floor bar, while resting our tired feet and enjoying a nice pint of Guinness.
I should add that I drew this image late in the evening. As the bridge was fully lighted I was able to draw it as if it was daylight. I considered drawing it as if by night, but the bar was dimly lit and you need good light to paint an acceptable night scene. Believe me, I tried.

Robbed

We were mugged last night in the Brussels-south raiulway station.
We just returned from a lovely weekend in London with our daughter Rianne (she presently studies for her Masters at the Imperial college, London).

It was the classic distraction tric - asking a simple question and someone walking behind your back picking up the bag. I immediately realised what had happened to me, but within a breath they were already gone.

We lost our camera and some euro's. But worst of all my travel sketching gear and my small Moleskine sketchbook. There is now only one London drawing left (which was packed in our suitcase).
These sketchbooks, fountain pens and brushes have no value to the muggers, but it took me years to assemble.  Infuriating.

There will not be so much sketching in the coming few weeks, I am afraid.

I had a dream

 

I was a little feverish last Sunday, and I woke up remembering this dream.

Overlooking a city from a top floor balcony, in the shimmering heat of the noon, I saw an Apollo rocket rise into the sky. But it slowly and elegantly turned around and crashed into its launching pad. Out of the boiling cloud a huge zeppelin emerged, changing its form like a huge blob, and hovering above the city. Wherever the zeppelin would descend, the buildings would slowly twist and deform. Whenever it rose the buildings would reshape again. It was very quiet all around; not even a sound from the birds. You would only hear the soft moaning of the wood fibres of the doors, as they were deforming.