Messy Piglet

Looking through a magazine I came across a photo of a piglet looking rather pleased with itself and thought it was a perfect subject to try and catch on canvas. I started out with a very rough sketch and then continued with roughly breaking the white of the canvas with some bright colours, not particularly characteristic for a pig. Contemplating on how to continue I paused for a short coffee break during which the little fellow kept staring out at me, seemingly quite pleased with its messy state. It rather appealed to me and I didn't want to lose that effect, so I decided to just leave it as it is for now and perhaps just start on a new one. Acrylic on canvas (30 x 40 cm).

Hadrian: A Portrait of an Emperor

Hadrian Template

Quick sketch with markers using the Hadrian template for the Hadrian: A Portrait of an Emperor-project, a portrait project based around the Roman Emperor Hadrian at Housesteads Roman Fort, Hadrian's Wall this summer on behalf of English Heritage and the National Trust. Visitors to the Fort will be asked to "Make a Wall of Hadrian's" using this template. Snelle schets met viltstiften op basis van de Hadrianus-template voor een portret-project rondom de Romeinse keizer Hadrianus onder andere bekend om de verdedigingsmuur die hij liet bouwen in het huidige Groot-Brittannië.

Lucian Freud (1922-2011)

Last Christmas I got Martin Gayford's book "Man in a Blue Scarf; On Sitting for a Portrait by Lucian Freud" as a present and very much enjoyed reading it. It gives an interesting insight on how Lucian Freud went about painting a portrait (or rather several at the same time) but also an insight in the life and personality of the artist (and to some extent of the sitter which in the case of art historian Gayford is certainly interesting too).
After hearing that Lucian Freud died I thought of doing some kind of tribute for this great figurative artist. So I set out to do a portrait of the artist based on a photo that featured in a collection of photos the Guardian published to commemorate the artist.
This is the first stage of my portrait. At a certain point I had a likeness that rather appealed to me, but it got lost. Perhaps I can pick it up again in the next stage. Acrylic on canvas (50 x 60 cm).

Keys

Another quick scrap paper sketch. I'm planning on doing a small painting of a bunch of keys, inspired by Manet's extraordinary small still lifes, like the ones he made of asparagus. I did this sketch just as a reminder to pick up later, but also find that such everyday objects often turn out very rewarding to sketch.

Apples

I've been enjoying Lies Goemans' daily miniature paintings ever since she started her Happy-mini-mail project and have had the intention for quite a while to someday do some myself but never got around to it. Rather dissatisfied with not having painted lately and with no real inspiration to start on something big I finally did do a quick miniature painting (10 x 10 cm) of some apples that were conveniently lying around. Acrylic on canvas (10 x 10 cm). Miniatuur schilderij geïnspireerd door de dagelijkse miniaturen van Lies Goemans in het kader van haar Happy-mini-mail project.