Paysage d'Automne

Acrylic
Canvas
30 x 30 cm

Ozenay Expressionniste

Expressionist take on a scene in the village of Ozenay - view on the church from the chateau driveway.

Acrylic
Canvas board
50 x 40 cm

Allée du Chateau - Chateau Driveway, Ozenay (Impression)

Impression of the Chateau d'Ozenay driveway on a sun-drenched morning.

Wax pastel
Grained paper
14,8 x 21 cm

View from Brancion (study)

View from Brancion (study)

Acrylic
Canvas
50 x 60 cm

Le Saule Tordu - The Twisted Willow, Chateau de Messey

Study inspired by a beautiful twisted willow in the garden of the Chateau de Messey guesthouse in Ozenay.

Wax pastel
Grained paper
14,8 x 21 cm

Reflections on an Artist's Dream

This is my main entry for an exhibition of artwork created using an iPad or other similar mobile tablet device, employing the theme of "Secrets & Stories" as their source of inspiration at West Ox Arts Gallery in Oxford (UK). The Secrets & Stories-based theme behind this work is that of an artist and his passion for and entanglement with his subject. The concept could of course refer to any artist and subject. This work however specifically is about Oxford-based artist and friend Martin Beek, who over the last year has submerged himself in the process of portraying a vast array of landscape views in the Oxford area. I used an earlier iPad-portrait drawing of Martin to represent the artist himself. Then mirrored it with its preliminary sketch combined with a collage of an iPad-landscape drawing I recently did of a sunlit autumn woodland to depict the artist's dream, the entanglement with his subject and the process of getting to grips with it: a mind spinning with images and impressions, an eye both catching and caught by the light, an artists's path, fragmented, anything but straightforward. I titled it "Reflections on an Artist's Dream (A Wider Picture - Martin Beek Diptych)"; the subtitle could of course refer to the expanded width in terms of a diptych portrait, but particularly is meant as a hint to David Hockney's "A Bigger Picture" which over the last year has been one of Martin's sources of inspiration. Mijn bijdrage voor een groepsexpositie met het thema "Geheimen & Verhalen" van werken gemaakt met behulp van een iPad of een ander soortgelijk mobiel tablet-apparaat.

Sunlit Autumn Woodland (Impression)

Quick experimental (digital) sketch (iPad, Brushes App) from memory and imagniation after a sunny autumn walk through the fields and woodlands where I live, inspired by David Hockney's work that I saw a few days before, during a visit to his "A Bigger Picture" exhibition in Cologne.

Punky Cows

Quick cows sketch roughly based on a photo in the newspaper. Ink pen, wax pastel on grained paper (21 x 21 cm). Snelle koeien schets met inktpen en waspastels.

Mailbox and Autumn Leaves

Dutch mailboxes are orange nowadays and blend in nicely with autumn colours. Quick and rough sketch of a scene in Heerlen. Ink pen, wax pastel on grained paper (21 x 21 cm). Also shown is a quick contour/continuous line drawing I did as a study on the leaflet of a local museum (Bonnefanten Museum Maastricht). It coincidentally got an autumny feel as well through the colours on the leaflet. Brievenbus en herfstbladeren. De oranje brievenbussen van PostNL passen mooi bij de herfstkleuren. Snelle schets van een Heerlens stadsgezicht met inktpen en waspastels.

Cow (watercolour study)

Another quick cow sketch, this time a watercolour study, (very) wet-in-wet with a large brush. Watercolour on grained paper (21 x 21 cm). Nog een snelle koe-schets, dit keer een aquarel studie, (zeer) nat-in-nat met een grote kwast.

Gathering Bales of Hay

Another quick and rough farmland scene done from memory, this time after a walk through the fields where I live. Wax pastel on grained paper (21 x 21 cm).

Cows in a Sunlit Pasture

I recently spent a whole day walking in the farmland surroundings of the small village of Teuven in Belgium. Back at home I started on some sketches of farmland scenes that I had come across and had tried to memorize, like this one of cows grazing in a beautifully sunlit pasture. Wax pastel on grained paper (21 x 21 cm).

South Limburg Landscape - View from Overeys

En plein air landscape painting in Eys, a village in South Limburg, the southernmost region of The Netherlands, known for its rolling hills, lush meadows and picturesque villages. Acrylic on canvas (50 x 70 cm). Landschap schilderen in Eys, Zuid-Limburg.

Lac de Panneciére

Painting holiday in the Morvan, day 5: Lac de Panneciére

En plein air landscape painting in a Rothko-like style, applying transparent layers of paint with a sponge. Achieving depth through a multitude of transparent layers and greying towards the horizon proved to be very difficult in an outdoor setting and within a limited timespan, as the paint dried very slowly and each layer had to be dry before applying the next one. Acrylic on canvas board (50 x 70 cm). Landschap schilderen in een Rothko-achtig stijl, door middel van transparant schilderen met een spons.

Lac de Panneciere is a large reservoir lake in the Morvan. Every 10 years the lake is drained for major repairs to the dam. The last time this happened was in 2011, but because of extra maintenance it will remain empty until the spring of 2013. In the meantime, you can now walk trough the area of the drained lake. The original river runs through it and you still see the old roads, bridges and the boundaries of the meadows from before the inundation. By now the barren landscape has started to become green with new growth. Lac de Panneciere is een groot stuwmeer in de Morvan. Om de 10 jaar laten ze het meer leeglopen in verband met groot onderhoud aan de stuwdam. Voor het laatst gebeurde dat in 2011, maar in verband met extra groot onderhoud blijft het nog tot het voorjaar van 2013 leeg. In de tussentijd kun je nu dwars door het drooggelegde meer lopen. Het oospronkelijke riviertje loopt er dwars doorheen en je ziet de nog oude weggetjes, bruggetjes en de afscheidingen van de weilanden van voor de inundatie. Het kale landschap begint inmiddels door nieuwe begroeiing langzaam groen te kleuren.

Houses in Poussain

Painting holiday in the Morvan, day 4: Hamlet/Old houses and farms

En plein air painting in Poussain, a hamlet with a few (desolate) houses and farms, focused on achieving depth through positioning of planes and angles (large-small, slanted lines and overlapping forms) and inspired by the work of Dutch painter Hans Oltshoorn. Acrylic on canvas board (30 x 40 cm). Schilderen in Poussain, een gehucht met een paar (verlaten) huizen en boerderijen, gericht op het bereiken van diepte door middel van vlakverdeling (groot-klein, schuine lijnen en overlappende vormen) en geïnspireerd door het werk van de Nederlandse schilder Hans Oltshoorn.

After doing my composition sketches of the houses I wanted to paint, I moved up the road a bit to paint in the shade of a tree at the edge of a field. After a while a large herd of cows appeared from over the hillside, lead by an impressively sized, fierce-looking and heavily roaring bull. He clearly wasn't pleased with the presence of people near his pasture. As the herd approached the fence the cows joined in and started loudly mooing. I just went on painting and assumed that they would soon calm down, but that wasn't the case and the roaring and mooing went on and on. At a certain point I did stop to look around and check for possible escape routes, just in case the bull would come through the fence. But luckily he eventually became more interested in the cows and things calmed down. After a while he lead the herd back up the hill leaving me and the rest to continue our day of painting in tranquil surroundings. Na voltooing van mijn compositieschets van de huizen die ik wilde schilderen, ging ik een eindje verderop staan om te schilderen in de schaduw van een boom aan de rand van een grasveld. Na een tijdje verscheen er een grote kudde koeien aan de horizon, aangevoerd door een indrukwekkend grote, fel ogende en zwaar briesende stier. Hij was duidelijk niet blij met de aanwezigheid van mensen in de buurt van zijn weiland. Naarmate de kudde het hek naderde begonnen de koeien luid te loeien. Ik ging gewoon door met schilderen in de veronderstelling dat ze spoedig zouden kalmeren, maar dat was niet het geval en het briesen en loeien ging maar door. Op een gegeven moment ben ik voor de zekerheid toch maar even gestopt om rond te kijken om mogelijke vluchtwegen te inventariseren voor het geval de stier zou besluiten het hek tussen ons te negeren. Maar gelukkig nam na verloop van tijd zijn interesse voor de koeien de overhand en werd het weer wat kalmer. Uiteindelijk leidde hij de kudde weer de heuvel op, en konden we onze rustige schildermiddag weer voortzetten.

Morvan Landscape - View from Châtin

Painting holiday in the Morvan, day 2: Landscape views

En plein air landscape painting during a short dry but windy interval on an otherwise rainy day, focused on opaque painting with a spalter brush (painting in the style of Cézanne) and achieving depth or accentuation through colour (cold-warm contrast and brightness contrast). Strong wind caused some struggling with easel and canvas from time to time. Acrylic on canvas board (50 x 70 cm). Landschap schilderen tijdens een droge maar winderige periode op een verder regenachtge dag, gericht op dekkend schilderen met spalter (schilderen à la Cézanne) en diepte- of accentwerking door middel van kleur (koud-warm contrast en helderheidscontrast). Harde wind veroorzaakte van tijd tot tijd enig geworstel met ezel en canvas.

Claude Monet's House, Giverny

First attempt at landscape (townscape) painting in an impressionist style on a small canvas (18 x 24 cm), trying to catch the subject as much as possible with quick broad and loose brushstrokes. I found it quite difficult to achieve on such a small surface. There's a lot that I would want to change or correct, but on the other hand I rather like the roughness of it and think that it's probably better to leave it as it is than risking it becoming overworked and ruining the whole concept. Based on a photo I took of Claude Monet's house in Giverny. Acrylic on canvas (18 x 24 cm). Eerste poging tot landschap schilderen in een impressionistische stijl op een klein canvas (18 x 24 cm).

Workshop landscape painting

Workshop landscape painting in Eys, focused on achieving depth or accentuation through colour (cold-warm contrast). I started out with a series of quick and rough watercolour studies and then did a few pastel drawings. My watercolour studies became increasingly abstract. Not particularly satisfied with the result, but still, here they are. Watercolour and soft pastel. Workshop landschap schilderen te Eys, gericht op diepte- of accentwerking door middel van kleur (koud-warm contrast).

Storescape

Quick sketch with wax pastel. I did this quick rough and distorted ink pen sketch from a photo that turned out a bit messy. Contemplated on throwing it away, but as I rather liked the figure sketch in it, I decided to keep it and just messed around with adding some colours. Not particularly satisfied with the result, but still, here it is. Landscape ("storescape") for Lots of Landscapes on Flickr. Snelle schets met Neocolor II waspastels. Landschap ("winkelschap") voor Lots of Landscapes op Flickr.

St Paul's

Sketch with wax pastel. It didn't really turn out in the style I wanted to achieve, so in that sense I'm not particularly satisfied with the result. The quick scrap paper sketch I did of the same subject earlier rather appealed to me, so I decided to keep it and post it as well. Landscape for Lots of Landscapes on Flickr, a group in which members paint and draw landscapes from photos posted for that purpose. Schets met Neocolor II waspastels. Ben niet bepaald tevreden met het resultaat. De snelle kladschets die ik eerder van hetzelfde onderwerp maakte sprak me wel aan en besloot het te houden en ook te posten. Landschap voor Lots of Landscapes op Flickr, een groep waarin de leden landschappen tekenen en schilderen van foto's die voor dat doel gepost zijn.