Last weekend I visited De Lakenhal at Leiden, Netherlands to see the exhibition ‘Rembrandt and the Golden Age’. Quite nice, also to see the refurbished museum. When I looked out the windows at the front of the building I was captured by the Oude Vest on which the light was filtered by the museum glass. It looked a little bit sinister and there were gloomy clouds in the sky which lead me to draw this one.
This drawing depicts Lily Elsie, Edwardian actress and singer. I liked the hair volume, its curls and planes.
Last year I used dancer Julia Gómez Avilés as a model. Next to being a wonderful person for an artist she is ideal because of her flexibility.
In the dead of summer means I am in the midst of the outdoor sketching season. Although I did not complete this one on the spot the invention of the basic composition and planal distribution were done at Katendrecht, Rotterdam. The vista is directed at Hotel New York that nowadays looks almost encapsulated by skycrapers. I was there long ago but the cityscape almost was inrecognizable. The watertaxi was done in my studio because they keep on moving all the time. Nevertheless a new typical sight in swinging Rotterdam. Although, the drawing seems rather detailed, I kept it quite impressionistical.
After teaching today I went to Park Sonnenburgh in Voorburg, Netherlands around the corner.
Today I was out on a trip to Beek-Ubbergen with my parents. We returned to the place where I sketched two previous drawings. This time I drew the whole thing at the very spot, opposite to the Duivelsberg (Mount Devil).
On my way to my students in Voorburg I always come across this park that got a kind of reshape last year. I love to see the sun shimmer through leafs causing me to see a whole range of blue, yellow and ocre kind of greens.
When I returned to my car from my little trip to Kethel, Schiedam, Netherlands, I saw this beautiful tree in bloom. Sometimes you look for grand things and the little all of a sudden pop into your eyes when least expected.
2 days after my 50th birthday I visited estate ‘Voorlinden’ again, together with my parents and my godmother.
This is the fifth drawing of Gouda, a beautiful city in Zuid-Holland, Netherlands, not far from where I live. It is a depiction of the Sint-Janskerk from the Market (de Markt).
