Chambord

 

Forgot to post this drawing: the castle of Chambord. Also made during our French holiday.

Chenonceau

 

Castle of Chenonceau , at the Loire, France. It was raining all day, I had to make a very quick sketch, protecting parts of the drawing with sheets of paper against the loose raindrops. Painted it at the camping site.

Candé sur Beuvron

Just returned from a great holiday in France, in the Loire are. With our children and grandchildren. We had a great time, and excellent weather (except for one dreary and rainy day). This is a sketch of the village, there had been floodinge recently, and large treetrunks were still blocking the passage under the bridge.

Simpelveld ZLSM railwaymuseum

 

Went sketching out today. A railway musuem, with working steamlocomotives. This is a drawing of one of the museumpieces: a railwaycrane.

Roermond

Impression of the market place in Roermond. We were there to prepare a national USk-NL sketching day, but took the opportunity to do some sketchig ourselves.
 

France: Any Martin Rieux: an old barn

 

Here the painting I was most proud of: an old, half collapsed barn in Leuze, a small village close to Any.

I took a pice of MDF wood 60x80cm, and sticked carboard to it, then acrylic paint.

It was really nice weather that day, warm, but not hot. The farmer even dropped by to look at what we were doing; he was quite talkative, and showed us the cows he was clearly proud of. THe barn dated back to WW2, and had been in this state since 20 years. Which is a small wonder.

France: Any-Martin Rieux (2)

 

I am lagging behind. Far too busy in the office. Another drawing/painting in Jaunes. Acrylic and charcoal.

France: Any Martin Rieux

 

Painting week in France, under the guidance of Annemiek Jongen. We had a great group of 6 participants, fine lodging and superb French food. The weather wasn't so cooperative, it was quite cold for June, but we had a great time nontheless. 

Here is a study on bamboo paper 50x70cm, made with charcoal and acrylics, of an old farm in the little village of Jeantes.

Some loose sketches from the village of Esna. There were lots of old and colourful doors.

And a guy who was working on raw cotton, he was whipping it with some thread. I thought he was playing an instrument, but it was to cut cotton into threads.
 

Egypt, Esna temple

 

Had litte time to scan the Egypt draaings, and post them. Here is another one, of te beautiful and colourfull Esba temple. This was sketched on location (you can still see the pencil lines), drawn later that day on the boat. Unfortunately the red ink ran out, I finished this one at home.

Egypt, cruise over the river Nile, Felucca's

 

Made this drawing of the beautiful sailing boats on the Nile, called felucca's, during our cruise last week. One of the many drawings I made during that trip.

Egypt, cruise over the Nile. Edfu

We just returned from a lovely week, cruising with a slow boat over the river Nile, in Egypt. We had a terrific holiday, and I had a lot of opportunity to make sketches in my hand made travel sketchbook. 

For starters this drawing of the bird towers of Edfu. The locals collect bird-dung in these towers, which they use to fertilize the fields.

Leiden: St. Peterchurch

THis is the second sketch I managed to make during our National Dutch Urban sketching day. Due to the rain (and time spent on social activities) these wre the only two drawings I was able to make.

Leiden usk sketchday

 

We organised another national Urban sketcher sketchday. This time in Leiden. A beautiful city to draw in, unfortunately the weather was not very good: strong chilly wind and low temperatures (10 degrees C). But worst of all, some occosional and sudden rainshowers. Real Dutch weather. This drawing was a victim of the rain: as I had finished inking the rain soaked my sketchbook. You can still see the leaking ink and blotches. Anyway, despite the weather we had a great day. Nice to see the 250 participants joining us all over the city. This is the view from the fortress on top of the city, with a nice view over the rooftops.

Small portrait

A small portrait in my sketchbook, after a picture, made with Holbein acrylic gouache. 15x10cm.
 

Bookbinding

 

For a holiday, later this year, I wanted to create a sketchbook of my own design. with different types of paper, and another size. So I made my own sketchbook with a size about 19x19cm, which I finished it yesterday. I used "Coptic binding", a bookbinding system that enables to keep your book totally flat. Handy for sketching. It was fun to do, I hope it will work out well.

Supergrandpa

My grandson Jake wrote a little story for school. I promised him I would illustrate it if it was really cool. So he came up with a story where 3 ninja's were threatening him and his brother in front of the local library (where I take them regularly). But suddenly I was some kind of a cool superhero, who disarmed the ninja's with a few well directed laser beams. 

Well, I could not have made that story up :). Here is the illustration.
 

Tasja Cicak 25 years.

I made this surprise gift  for a dear collegue, Tasja Cicak. For 25 years she is a dear, enthousiast and valuable collegue. She was a redufee from Serajevo, 30 years ago, but totally managed to integrate into the Limburg society. Anyway, hard to see, but this Van Gogh impression of the Barcelona Sacarada Familia is 3 dimensional, made from papier maché and other stuff. WE collected money to sponsor a trip to Barcelona.

Mitzie, deceased

Our beloved cat, Mitzie, passed away today. She was about 11 years old. She will be missed.
 

Maastricht: centre Ceramique

 

Last friday, the magazine corner of the main Maastricht Library. There is a nice coffee corner, where I could make this drawings. I don't think she noticed me drawing.