Exhibition "Alphons Winters prize 2014"

This evening the first of six regional exhibitions for the biannual Alphons Winters prize was opened in the town hall of Kerkrade. I was pleased to have my entry "(Sur)Real Reflections" selected for this first round exhibition. In the upcoming weeks a selection committee will select works from the regional exhibitions for the second round final exhibition in Maastricht later this year. Vanavond werd de eerste van zes regionale tentoonstellingen voor de tweejaarlijkse Alphons Wintersprijs geopend in het raadhuis van Kerkrade. Ik was blij met de selectie van mijn inzending "(Sur)Reële Reflecties" voor deze eerste ronde tentoonstelling. In de komende weken zal een selectiecommissie werken uit de regionale tentoonstellingen selecteren voor de eindtentoonstelling in Maastricht.
(Alphons Wintersprijs 2014, Raadhuis Kerkrade, 11.4.2014 - 14.5.2014)

Portrait sketching in Kerkrade (Montmartre style)

For the promotion of the local art school (VAZOM) I participated as a portraiture artist in a Montmartre style street art market, offering market visitors the possibility to have a quick portrait sketch done for free. It soon became a complete portrait frenzy, with market visitors queuing up to have a portrait done (the photo above was made early on when things were still quite calm). I did a total of 22 portraits in four hours, most of them children, often spurred on by their parents. My art classmate Rene standing on the other side of the market did a total of 27 including a dog. Not directly perfect portraiture conditions, with quite lively children, many of them finding it difficult to keep a pose, sounds of whistles and horns (handed out by a market entertainer) sounding throughout the market and from time to time having to grab hold of the drawing board and easel to prevent them from being blown over by the wind. But it certainly was a very enjoyable experience.
I didn't get around to making photos of the individual portraits done at the market. Shown below are two quick sketches I did that morning of a photo that I had lying around to loosen up and get the hang of working with charcoal and conte again. (Stuart for Julia Kay's Portrait Party on Flickr). Charcoal and conte on grained paper (21 x 29,7 cm).
Portrettekenen tijdens "Montmartre op d'r Maat" in Kerkrade voor de Vrije Akademie ZOM. Een drukke middag, veel snelle (gratis) portretschetsen gedaan, voornamelijk van kinderen, samen met mede-cursist Rene.

Exhibition "Mirror"

This evening, the group exhibition with the theme "Mirror" in the town hall of Kerkrade was festively opened. It consists of a presentation of art works created by students at the local art school (VAZOM) and displays a wide and interesting variety of interpretations on the theme. Here's me beside my entry titled "(Sur)Real Reflections", based on a photo of a (multiple) reflection of myself in the window of the museum shop of the Magritte Museum in Brussels as described in a previous post. Op vrijdagavond werd de groepsexpositie "Kunstbespiegelingen" in het raadhuis van Kerkrade geopend door de wethouder van cultuur. De expositie bestaat uit een presentatie van werken gemaakt door cursisten van het locale centrum voor de kunsten (Vrije Akademie ZOM) met als thema "Spiegel". Mijn bijdrage, getiteld "(Sur)Reële Reflecties", is gebaseerd op een foto van een (meervoudige) reflectie van mijzelf in het etalageraam van de museumwinkel van het Magritte Museum in Brussel zoals beschreven in een eerdere post.
(Kunstbespiegelingen, Raadhuis Kerkrade, 1.6.2012 - 4.7.2012)