Ozenay

Sketch of one of those strange tractors they have in these winedistricts like Burgundy.
With huge wheels so they can pass over the grapevines. It's Chardonnay territory.
Actually, the original village "Chardonnay" was only 5 km away. I thought that was just a name for a grape type, never figured the wine was called after a village.

Post-impressionism

 

Day 3 was for the post impressionists like van Gogh, and Cezanne. They did not only try to catch the light, but explored the way the act of painting (the strokes of van Gogh), colour (experiments by Gauguin and Seurat) and positioning of volumes (Cezanne) can stage a painting.
We concentrated on Cezanne, building depth by positioning volumes that are created by shades of colour.

In the morning I sketched this terrace with the little church of Brancion behind it.
I used it to create the above painting later that day, 50x60cm, acrylic on canvas.
I worked below a large tree, out of the sun, as I burned my neck the day before.

More cows

Proceeding on the drawings & paintings I made on this French drawing week.
Each morning, starting at 9.30, we had to make sketches and exercises to get the feeling for the subject and "style".
These are a few of the sketches of the first day, the "realist" phase.
In the end I made a painted version of the bottom sketch, but I find this drawing to be far better than the resulting painting (which I will not show here).

Kornelimünster

A short intermezzo from my France drawings/paintings. I made a short trip today, driving around Aachen and enjoying our new car. In the small and ancient village of Kornelimünster I drew this porch towards the church on the top of the hill. It was a beautiful day.

Impressionist

Our drawing week was structured around painting styles of 19th century France. Not so much copying a certain style, but trying to grasp how the different groups and artists looked to reality.
The first was "realism" (like the painter Corot). The sketches of the cows of the last few days were exercises that resulted in a realist painting. But it was not good by far, that's why I don't show that one here.
Monday was for the impressionists, like Manet. Trying to catch the light. Here is a sketch of the castle and the final painting that I made in the afternoon, 50x60cm, acrylic on canvas.

La chapelle sous Brancion

La chapelle sous Brancion, a small village in France, just 5 kilometers from our lodging. And as the word says, it's located far beneath the medieval castle of Brancion. This sketch was made halfway the steep road down.

Cows at Chateau de Messey

Just returned from a painters week in Burgundy, France. I'll post more drawings and sketches in the next few days. This was the view from our breakfast table in our lodging, Chateau de Messey, in Ozenay, near Tournus.

Ouder echtpaar

Trying out different techniques, now with Inktense pencils (Derwent). Based on a picture of the (deceased) parents of a close friend. The faces don't resemble much, but that was not the goal. I was trying to find out how to use these watercolour pencils, and layers of hatching.
Made on plain A4 copier paper, that's why it's wobbly.

Grisaille

This is my new glassworks project: stained glass painting. I am experimenting with grisaille.
In traditional (painted) stained glass you have three stages: contour (= linework), grisaille (= grey areas and shadows) and emaille (= coloured areas).
I did the linework on one side of the glass panel, on the other side I covered the total area with grey grisaille (which is very fine earth diluted with vinegar and de-mineralised water). Then you have to use brushes and other scratching equipment to take away the greys, thus creating shaded areas. In the end it will be heated and burnt into the glass.
For this experiment I used a part of Picasso's Guernica painting, because of the varied use of greys.

Anne in monochrome

As model for this years final portrait Master class, we had Anne again.
Another session with her as model was done in March, see "a-large-hat".
This time I wanted to work in a  rather monochrome setting, I choose red as theme (mainly alizarin crimson red) and tried colour hues close that tone. Acrylic, on paper 50x60cm, took me about 1 1/4 hour.

Timeline May: Bangladesh

Tineline, May 15th. Bangladesh in the news, the factories producing our cheap clothing are falling apart.


The factory this man worked for went up in fire, so he lost his job and the means to support his family. But that was the least of his concerns: he was sitting there, desperately hoping for good news from a missing family member.

Original photo by Pieter van den Boogert.

I just discovered the photographer made an impressive photo essay on clothing, see
www.pietervandenboogert.com

Kaisergruft

The last of the Vienna sketches. It rained so much that we had to look for sheltered tourist attractions. We found the crypt under the Kapuzinerkirche, where the Austrian emperors were buried.
Among others Sissi.
There were a lot of bronze coffins, and sad looking statues.
 

Hundertwasser

We visited two buildings by Hundertwasser, an artist/architect who is very popular by the public, but disliked by most of my fellow colleagues. His architecture is flamboyant, chaotic, anarchistic and very colourful. Even though it's far away from my architectural taste, I thoroughly enjoy his visions. But I would hate to have to live in it.
Anyway, we visited the "Kunsthaus Wien", which has a nice terrace in the backyard. Shaded trees, colourful architecture and good coffee. What more do you need for a decent sketch?

Votivkirche

A drawing of the Votivkirche. Our hotel was next to it, we had a nice view from our window to the backside of this neo-gothic church.
I managed to spend half an hour after breakfast to make this drawing, just before we left for the city centre of Vienna for a visit to the Prater and the Hundertwasserhouse.
If you look closely to the picture of me in action (posted a few days ago), you can see this drawing on the other page of the Prater view drawing.

Schloss Schönbrunn

When you are with a group of friends (6), you don't get the time to make nice drawings. You have to steal a moment here and another there.
In this case, we made the tour in the castle Schönbrunn, just outside Vienna. We visited the rooms and exhibitions, and made a nice long walk though the park in the warm sun. We ended on a beautiful terrace with some nice cold icecoffee and a beer, in full view of the castle.

But drawing that facade would have been totally uninteresting, at least from where we sat.
So I decided to draw the icecoffee.
After all, it's less important what you draw, as long as it represents the memories of the place.

Vienna, Wenen

Vienna! (Wenen; Wien) We just returned from a visit to the city: me, my wife and some good friends.
We had very good weather, at least until Saturday, when it started raining.
It was the first time I visited the city, I always thought it was a bit old fashioned, boring and uncool. Well, was I wrong! I loved it there.
Visited the center, the Hofburg, Schloss Schönbbrunn, the Prater, Hundertwasserhaus and so on.
Here is the impression of the city centre, as seen from the old and famous Ferris wheel in the Prater (a large park). I drew and painted this during the trip, which lasts about 10 minutes.

Music!

I discovered that I forgot to post this sketch of the sketchcrawl a few weeks ago. This was a brass band called "Miserabel", they played all through our crawl.
But they definitely did NOT sound "Miserabel"!

I have a lot of respect for the guys playing the Sousaphone; that thing must be so heavy! And you never get to play the solo.

A chianina calf

This Chianina calf was just a few days old. They are born with very long legs, longer than what you would expect from a cow. They look more like Bambi than to a regular calf.
Anyway, the farmers wife put her hand in the calfs mouth, and he was desperately sucking it all the time as I made this drawing. He probably thought there was milk.
I had to make this sketch really quick, just within a few minutes, afraid that the scene would change.

Chianina

Today we visited a cattle farm in Sibbe (near Valkenburg). The parents of Tamara, a friend of ours, own a Chianina farm. The Chianina are a rare breed of Italian cattle, originally from around Florence, and they own the only Dutch farm where these cows and bulls are bred.
I am not a cow aficionado, but these are very beautiful animals. White, sturdy and huge: bulls can easily reach up to 2 meters, and weigh 1600kg (the weight of a small Landrover). They are the largest race of cattle worldwide. But most beautiful are the calves: the first few months they are brown and stand on very tall legs. With these legs and their large eyes they almost resemble to Bambi!

King Willem Alexander

Yesterday our Queen Beatrix resigned, and was followed up by our new King Willem Alexander. The first man to take the throne after some 120 years.
The installation was in Amsterdam, but there were festivities all over the country. We went to Eindhoven, where the festivities were dedicated to the youth: spread all over the city centre I counted at least 9 podia, with deejays playing Hiphop, Dance and House music. Also a few live bands.
These two (not so young) Dutchmen were sitting on a low wall enjoying a glass of beer in the Spring sun on the central market place, watching the official ceremonies on the big overhead screens. While enduring the heavy beats and deep basses of the music.

Below a sketch of the freemarket near the PSV stadium. Even if it was pretty crowded, it was not as lively as the one in Utrecht that we visited in recent years.