Arco Scheepen's gedoe

Vogeltje had het koud....

2012-01-29T20:18:00.000+01:00

Vandaag in dierenpark de Wissel in Epe geweest. Het was behoorlijk koud, vonden ook veel van de dieren aldaar.....

Schots landschap

2012-01-23T12:59:00.000+01:00

Zwart-wit bewerking van een foto van een Schots landschap, afgelopen zomer gemaakt.

Apies kijken...

2012-01-13T13:46:00.000+01:00

Een foto gemaakt tijdens een van onze vele dierentuinbezoeken. Sigma 50-500 lens op een eenpootstatief.

Inktoefening

2012-01-09T10:09:00.001+01:00

Begonnen aan het boek Composition van Arthur Wesley Dow, een boekje uit 1913. Compositieleer op basis van oosterse kunst, met name Japan. Ik raak steeds meer geinteresseerd in Japanse en Chinese kunst, vind vooral het inktwerk bijzonder mooi. De eerste oefening in het boek bestaat uit het trekken van rechte lijken uit de losse hand met een chinees penseel:

Deze penselen zijn behoorlijk dik en zijn van erg zacht haar gemaakt. De minste druk op het penseel en je trekt een lijn van 1 cm dik. Het is de bedoeling zo recht mogelijke en zo dun mogelijke lijnen te trekken, uit de losse hand. Daarbij is het belangrijk niet meer vanuit de pols te werken, maar vanuit de schouder. Het resultaat:

De verticale lijnen zijn met pen gedaan, de horizontale lijnen met penseel.

Abstractigheid...

2012-01-06T12:41:00.000+01:00

Een abstracte zwart-wit foto gemaakt tijdens onze laatste vakantie in Schotland. Een mooie rotspartij met zonlicht erop.

Aaibaar?

2011-12-29T14:38:00.000+01:00

Maar weer eens een oude(re) foto in zwart-wit bewerkt.
Foto gemaakt in een kleine dierentuin in Belgie, de Olmense Zoo. Klein maar fijn, met veel dieren die je niet vaak ergens anders kunt zien (o.a. witte leeuwen).

Zeegezicht bij Den Oever

2011-12-27T13:17:00.001+01:00

Jeuj, weer een post.
Zomaar weer een foto geselecteerd en een zwart-wit bewerking van gemaakt.
Erg leerzaam om niet een standaard zwart-wit conversie te doen, maar alle kleurkanalen individueel instellen. Onvoorstelbaar welke delen van de foto je daarmee kunt wegduwen en naar voren halen.

Een jaarlijkse traditie?

2011-12-23T13:11:00.000+01:00

En alweer een bericht dat het weer een hele tijd geleden is dat ik hier wat geschreven heb. Lijkt wel een jaarlijkse traditie te worden. Maar er is wel een verschil. Ik heb de layout van het blog aangepast, andere stijl en andere achtergrond. Tevens alle titels in het Nederlands gezet, en ook dit bericht is in het Nederlands geschreven. Zo'n vaart loopt het niet met mijn international art career.

Ik ben begonnen me weer eens wat meer te verdiepen in zwart-wit fotografie. Ik maak toch redelijk veel foto's en doe er eigenlijk weinig tot niks mee. Zo doorloop ik nu mijn foto-archief en vlag de foto's die me de moeite waard lijken om naar zwart-wit om te zetten. Het verdiepen hierin doe ik op basis van een aantal boeken: "The power of black & white in Adobe Lightroom & Beyond" van Piet van den Eynde en de drie delen van "The magic of black & White" van Andrew S. Gibson.

It's been a while...

2010-09-25T12:35:00.004+02:00

Last post was more than a year ago. Wow, time really does fly. Finally started doing some painting and drawing, it took me a very long time to get fired up again. After all the work on the new house, I was so anxious to start again, but somehow I couldn't, wouldn't, hesitated and despaired a little. Lots of self doubt, unsure of the direction to take, but had loads of time to think things through though.
It's going to be all about texture and bold colours. It's about time I admitted to myself that certain areas of painting are not for me, because of my colour blindness. I will never be able to see subtle colour differences, so I will no longer try to go there. Whenever I'm in a museum or gallery, I'm always drawn to paintings and drawings with lots of texture, so I figured that that's the way for me. Trying to no longer be afraid of colours, using them as bold as I can, with loads and loads of texture. Anyway, working on lots of paintings at the moment, in oil and pastel. Will post soon. This is a drawing (partial scan) I'm working on every now and then, the squid man. It's going to need a lot more work, maybe I'll throw in some fish as well, who knows...

A short update

2009-08-24T10:40:00.003+02:00

For the very few people out there who sometimes take a peek at my humble efforts to contribute something to this world, no art is being produced at the time. We recently bought another house, and it's gonna take months and months of doing all kinds of things on our current house to increase its' sellability, and than some more doing all kinds of things on the new house. So it's probably going to be a while before I post anything here again. In the little time I have besides work and working on the house and planning, I'm working on my writing skills (something I do besides painting). I'm following a course on creative writing and poetry at the moment.
I'm having a lot of ideas about new works and the direction I want to take. I'm writing all of that down for later use.

A bit fed up at the moment

2009-04-16T13:02:00.000+02:00

As far as drawing and painting goes, I'm a bit fed up with the things I'm doing at the moment. For the last few years, all I haven been doing really is study. I have been doing the figure drawing bottega at SOFA, and I've been doing master studies (drawing and painting). And now, suddenly, I'm a bit fed up with all this study and really feel a need to start finding a voice of my own, to start expressing myself.

But, after being in a study mindset for so long, this is certainly not easy. What I also started to recognize lately is the fact that I tend to zig-zag too much. Whenever I see a great painting or drawing (style), I sort of feel the need start doing that too. Letting yourself being influenced is one thing, but I'm always letting myself be carried away too much. And that has got to stop.

My last post was about a master copy after the 'Man with the golden helmet' by Rembrandt or a pupil. It hasn't changed much since that last post, I did some more underpainting work at the helmet, mostly creating texture. But there was an enormous reluctance to carry on with the painting, or anything else for that matter. I stopped working for a while to do some serious thinking, and the conclusion was that I'm just fed up with studying, with working after someone else's ideas. In my thoughts I saw myself as an old man, looking back, and all I had been doing was studying and not developing something of my own.

So, in conclusion, I think I figured out that I must not try to be anybody else but me. I will try to produce work of my own, flaws and errors included, and I'll try to learn to be happy with work of a lesser standard than Rembrandt, Turner and the rest.

New painting started

2009-03-01T16:27:00.004+01:00

The painting in my last post is drying in the area I need to work on, so, aside from drawing, I've started another painting, a study of the man with the golden helmet (Rembrandt or a pupil). I just started on the underpainting, and decided to document more of the whole proces, so I took a few pictures. This is how far I am at the moment:

I already spotted a few issues:

1. the nose is too short, so that needs to be fixed.

2. the helmet is probably not high enough. That cannot be fixed anymore without redoing the whole face, and I think that that's not an option.

I first primed the whole canvas with the 'goo' from the bottom of the pot I clean my brushes in. Then I slightly drew in the main forms with white chalk (still visibile in the helmet), and then started to work on the darker shapes with burnt sienna and van Dyck's brown.

New painting (in progress)

2009-02-21T14:00:00.003+01:00

It's been twenty days ago already since my last post. I never got around to taking a few pictures of the painting I'm currently working on. I only want to do that in daylight...

It's after a selfportrait of Rembrandt. The likeness isn't really good, but that's not really what I've been working on; I've mainly concentrated on the building up of the painting (which layer after which other layer, when to work opaque and when to glaze), and on the applying of the paint itself (dragging, scumbling and glazing). Up till now I'm quite happy with it:

The top of the picture is too dark, the light wasn't enough....

Two details:

The last detail photo shows the area I'm currently working on.

2009-02-01T20:36:00.003+01:00

It's been a while since I last posted. Haven't been sitting still though, just didn't get around scanning anything or taking photo's of drying paintings...

I started working more and more on pen drawings...

Pen drawing, loosely based on an etch by Rembrandt

Pen and ink, 10 x 10 cm

Ink portrait

2009-01-08T09:58:00.002+01:00

New paintings and studies are on their way. Bought a large easel yesterday, hope to produce a lot of nice work on it. In the meanwhile, a little portrait study in ink & wash (bistre):

Back to ink

2008-12-28T20:03:00.002+01:00

I tend to drift a little between different materials. Sometimes I use pen & ink, sometimes oil paint, sometimes it's pastel. I've tried other materials, but these are the ones I keep coming back to. I didn't do any oil painting for the last two months, I haven't really been up to it. Right now it's pastel, and pen & ink (and a combination of materials for studies). So for this post, its a pen drawing after an etch by Rembrandt:

Head study after Rembrandt etching

Nocturne no.1

2008-12-21T13:03:00.002+01:00

This is a pastel study for a nocturne; it's supposed to be a view from a bridge I drive across every on my way to work. Unfortunately you cannot stop on the bridge; I would've loved to have taken some photo's, because the view is different every day.

Nocturne no.1 (study)

It's been a while

2008-12-06T14:01:00.002+01:00

Apart from being sick, I've been working on lots of different things, but didn't have a lot to show for. I recently tried pastel and was amazed at the color depth and textures you can achieve. This a an abstract thing; should have paid a bit more attention to the lines, some of them are not so straight and perpendicular. But I think I'm definitely keep working with pastel:

Abstract in pastel

Happy...

2008-10-28T14:05:00.003+01:00

I recently reorganized my 'studio', and I've come to the conclusion that the real reason I've not been doing a lot of work recently was the location. I was completely unhappy with the layout. But now I've measured up a few things and reorganized; threw out a lot of stuff and installed a stereo system. And now, all of a sudden, it's fun to work there. The only thing I've been doing in the meanwhile is SOFA homework.

Now to get the rest into gear again...

Time for a contemplation...

2008-10-17T12:02:00.002+02:00

I don't have any work at the moment that is in a scanable state. Lately I haven't been painting a lot, a few things are drying and for some reason I'm not starting new things. Mainly because I'm not too happy with the results. So at the moment I'm thinking about how I can get my painting skills on a higher level. I'm figuring out a series of exercise paintings for training purposes only, work on it will start shortly. In the meanwhile work in the SOFA bottega continues:

And yes, I know, the figure on the left is crap.

Birdsketch

2008-10-02T12:40:00.002+02:00

This is a study I did for a painting I'm working on. This sketch was done very rapidly, and shows (at least I think so) that I need to do that more often. In the painting the bird is watching a blue 'orb' with a fish skeleton in it. The working title is 'Blue sun'

Finally...

2008-09-25T21:09:00.002+02:00

I have scanned a few things. As I wrote earlier, I didn't do a lot in the past few weeks. And then it's suddenly quite scary to start again. Anyhow, this is a painting I'm working on at the moment. The sky is going to need a lot more work. The foreground needs some work to. It's very roughed and has many layers, and is all done with a knife. The real painting is a bit bigger, I just slapped this on an A4 scanner (it's 30 x 40 cm).

Landscape (in progress)
oil on panel (30 x 40 cm)

Still haven't scanned anything

2008-09-14T19:46:00.003+02:00

Still not completely back into gear after the holiday. Been busy with just about anything, chores around the house etc. The only drawing I've been doing is work for Mentlers' bottega. Ideas for drawings and paintings are accumulating however...

Back from holiday

2008-09-01T13:18:00.002+02:00

Was away on holiday, which accounts for not posting for a while. I haven't scanned any work lately, so I've got nothing to show for really at the moment. So I thought I'd show one of my latest drawings I did for SOFA. In the workshop I just finished working on the butt, and am now moving on to the upper leg muscles.

So I will start working on some new works. Really. Honestly.

Yet another pen drawing

2008-08-08T08:44:00.002+02:00

Pen portrait

2008-08-03T23:09:00.002+02:00

Continuing studying pen drawing from Rembrandt etchings. Having a blast!
I have to remember though that you cannot draw as fine as an etching. The first time I had the chance to study Rembrandt's etchings I couldn't believe how incredibly fine the lines were, and how small some of these etchings were.

Another pen drawing

2008-07-25T08:28:00.003+02:00

Pen drawing after Rembrandt etching

Studying etching & pen drawing

2008-07-20T15:08:00.003+02:00

I recently bought a wonderful book: 'all Rembrandts' etchings in full size'. I wanted to gain some skills in pen drawing for example landscapes. So I've started to draw from Rembrandts' landscape etchings. I'm fully planning to start doing drawings like these from life - just going outside and draw some of the lovely landscapes we still have here in the Netherlands.

Tree study after Rembrandt
pen on paper

Another monotype

2008-07-17T08:39:00.003+02:00

Monotype nr. 4
Oil on paper 13 x 18 cm (4 x 5")

On the easel...

2008-07-13T15:42:00.004+02:00

As yet untitled
Oil on panel (30 x 40 cm)

Besides doing monotypes, I'm currently working on this painting. Don't mind the crappy photo, didn't take the time needed to shoot a decent photo. The foreground is quite unfinished, the clouds need more work too.

Lament

2008-07-11T12:21:00.002+02:00

Last night there was an episode from Simon Schama's Power of Art on the telly. This episode was about Turner, one of my favorite painters. It focused on his Slave ship painting, but also showed lots of other paintings (with also many closeups).
My two favorite painters are Rembrandt and Turner, and as far as colors and texture of the paint are concerned, the two have a lot in common. A few weeks ago I was in London, and saw a lot of Turner paintings in the National Gallery and the Tate gallery. And also, living in the Netherlands, I had more than enough opportunity to study Rembrandt's paintings.

I often feel a little sad when studying the works of these two painters, for it clearly shows the heights that you'll never be able to reach. Still, the beauty of the paintings still outweigh the sadness, so there's no harm done there. But I so want to be able to paint even remotely like them, and I don't know how, don't know where to start and have but little clue how to achieve textures like they made. I know I have to be glad with the progress I'm making, but more often than sometimes it's very hard to keep going on.

Monotype nr. 3

2008-07-10T12:51:00.002+02:00

Monotype nr. 3
Oil on paper 13 x 18 cm (5 x 7")

Yet another monotype. Got a few others drying at the moment. Reading a book right now about making monotypes, and I've got quite a few ideas for new ones, less abstract than the ones already made. Meanwhile, drawing and painting also continues...

Monotype nr. 2

2008-07-08T12:45:00.001+02:00

Monotype nr. 2
Oil on paper - 13 x 18 (5 - 7")

Monotype nr. 1

2008-07-05T20:27:00.003+02:00

Started doing monotypes a little while ago, and having a blast doing them. First started out with acrylics, but they're drying way too fast for my liking. So I tried oil paint on water color paper and that works a treat! Takes a few days to dry but that's not a big problem. The first few are just abstracts, I'm now trying to do a little more figurative work in them, trying out where that leads me. Unfortunately the colors don't scan too well.

Monotype nr. 1
Oil on paper (13 x 18 cm - 5 x 7 ")

Painters and paintings that rocked my world - part 3

2008-06-25T12:40:00.004+02:00

Rembrandt is my all time favorite painter (with Turner in second place). I do my best to see as much of his paintings in real life as possible, preferably multiple times. Here in the Netherlands they have quite a collection of his paintings, etchings and drawings. Whenever there's an exhibition which shows 'foreign' Rembrandts, I'll be sure to visit.
His use of color, chiaroscuro, texture and storytelling blow me away, time after time.

There are too much of his paintings I like, but I'll show two of them:

If you ever have the chance to visit the Rijksmuseum, be sure to stand a couple of hours in front of this painting:

One of the best self-portraits of the many:

Click here for a more than excellent gallery of Rembrandt paintings

In the meanwhile...

2008-06-19T15:39:00.002+02:00

I'm not much of a painter (yet).
I've noticed every now and then that when I'm painting I'm lathering on paint like I was painting a fence or a barn.
I'm not subtle enough, the things I do are not 'painteresque' enough to my liking.
Apart from my drawing exercises, I'm devising a 'scheme' to become a bit better at applying paint.
So maybe then I'll learn to plan a painting instead of haphazardly starting one and seeing if and where it all ends.
Maybe I'll learn to start working blocking in first and then work in stepwise refinements.
I'll keep you posted.

In the meanwhile, a little ink drawing I recently did in between:

The failed Medusa (work in progress)

2008-06-12T22:08:00.004+02:00

Started the preliminary sketches of a new ink work today, called 'The failed Medusa'. The failure is due to the fact that she's not going to be terrifying at all. The hairdo is based on a painting by Piero di Cosimo (he didn't do anything with snakes though, just braids). I have to do some more studies on snakes, the way that can be 'draped'. I also want some more info on how to do the scales slightly convincing. So lots of things to do before work on the real thing can get started; I will also have to finish the squid dude.

Squid dude - update

2008-06-08T20:02:00.002+02:00

Worked hard on the squid dude, it's really been hatching hell, and I was pleased until I started doing the bubble things at the top. I'm not really sure what I was thinking there, and I'm neither too sure how to fix it. Have to think about it a little more...

In the meanwhile...

2008-06-04T09:04:00.002+02:00

no progress has been made on the squid dude - too busy. I have been doing exercises for Mentler's bottega (as I have been doing every day since last September):

Work in progress - Squid dude

2008-06-02T09:30:00.001+02:00

Started work on this over the weekend; will need quite a lot of work.

Studying on and on and on and on...

2008-05-30T14:59:00.002+02:00

Still working on arm studies, now doing some work after Bammes:

It's photo post day today....

2008-05-26T12:32:00.002+02:00

Worked on different things, but still nothing showable. So another photo then...

I like abstract photo's with a lot of visual clutter, don't you?

Drawing studies

2008-05-22T10:03:00.002+02:00

Did a few face studies and a master study:

Paintings and painters that rocked my world - part 2

2008-05-21T09:49:00.003+02:00

Just look at this, at the textures and the colors:

Light and colour - after the deluge
J.M.W. Turner

When I first saw the 'impressionistic' paintings of Turner, I was completely blown away. Having bought & studied a few books on him, and having viewed a few online galleries one thing that was on my to-do list was visiting the National Gallery and the Tate gallery in London to see his works. A month ago we went to London and my wish came true. First the National Gallery where his masterpieces "Rain, steam and speed" and "The fighting Temeraire" are on display. The next day we went to the Tate gallery, where lots of his works can be seen in the Clore gallery. I just love the impressionistic look of his paintings, with the use of bold colors and lots and lots of texture. Impressionism avant-la-lettre!

In the meanwhile...

2008-05-19T10:01:00.004+02:00

I have a few drawings waiting to be scanned, and a few paintings in the making. I'm thinking of doing a step-by-step series of a painting done on oak panel, starting with the creation and preparation of the panel itself.
In the meanwhile, a photo:

And a drawing I did for my continuing study in Michael Mentler's SOFA (bottega). I'm especially pleased with the fluidity of the lines; I'm improving...:

Patience is a virtue...

2008-05-14T09:57:00.003+02:00

Working in oil can be tedious sometimes. It isn't always easy to wait for the paint to dry if you're really excited about a painting and you really want to continue with it. I royally applied dark paint in the background of a painting, with lots of ridges and bumps. And I waited a week or so to let it dry. What I was trying to do was apply lighter paints on top of it, and wipe and scrape some of it away again to create texture. The wiping isn't a really subtle process, and shouldn't be tried on thicker layers of paint where the paint is still wet underneath.

So part of the paint layer came of like the skin on a blister, and I was looking at the blank canvas again in some places. I wasn't really amused. After taking a break I looked at the damage. It's all repairable, but it'll take a while.

I took a day off from work yesterday to visit one of my favorite museums: Boymans van Beuningen in Rotterdam.
There was a show on medieval Dutch painting. Great paintings, great colors. And above all it was very nice to see that the oak panels I'm making are exactly like the medieval ones.
While wandering through the museums own collection I spent quite some time gazing at this picture, and marveled at how rough painting and texture is really done:

Rembrandt - Titus at his desk

Trees

2008-05-12T11:48:00.003+02:00

Trees
Oil on panel, 9 x 9 inch (23 x 23 cm)

This is a painting I recently did, I'm not quite sure yet if it's finished or not. I'll guess I let it stand around for a while and have a look every now and then. If I don't have the urge the change anything I'll let it stay that way. The one thing I'm happy with is the rough texture of the bark of the tree.

Photo

2008-05-08T10:39:00.002+02:00

On making panels

2008-05-05T09:10:00.003+02:00

This weekend I have been busy creating panels. I had a big massive oak table, 90 x 75 cm (35 x 30 inch approx.). The table top is 4 cm thick (1.5 inch). The 'legs' are made of 2 planks on each corner 36 cm by 12.5 (14 by 5 inch), 2 cm thick.
I had the all the planks sawn lengthwise into 1 cm thick planks (0.4 inch). I now have a large amount of oak panels for painting. They need a fair amount of work however to have them ready to paint on. The saw that was used is pretty coarse, so there's a lot of plaining and sanding to before they can be primed. I also plain the edges on the back in a 30 degree angle (diamond pattern), to make them easier to frame later on.

I started priming the first six panels with zinc white, grinding them down a bit with pumice between layers. I still have about thirty panels to do. All in all it's pretty hard work, but I'm having a blast doing it. It's very rewarding and you end up with beautiful oak panels to paint on. Maybe one day I'll start making my own oil paint.
Update:
I learned yesterday that I'm not priming them in the right way. The way this priming is supposed to be done is that zinc white should be 'worked' into the wood with pumice. So it's kind of grinding & applying at the same time. The reason for using zinc white is that zinc is able to deal with water in the wood.

Another photo

2008-05-02T09:42:00.001+02:00

While I'm working on some new stuff, here's another photo.

Moonbugs

2008-04-26T13:33:00.003+02:00

Moonbugs
ink & watercolor on paper

This is a drawing I recently made. Lots of ink work, and decided to do some watercolor washes on top of it. Didn't really gain by that I think. It did give me the idea though to try this in oil paint. I've already started working on it.

Gesture drawings

2008-04-23T09:08:00.005+02:00

Gesture drawings
Pencil

It's not that I'm not working at anything at the moment, but I haven't really got a lot of new work to show right now. I have to scan / photograph a few things. So in the meanwhile I'll show a few gestures that I'm doing for my study at SOFA. I'm trying to do a few of these every day, in order to learn more about poses and to loosen up my drawing a bit.

2008-04-21T10:30:00.004+02:00

After Rembrandt's Landscape with stone bridge
Oil on canvas - 40 x 30 cm

This is a painting I did after one of the few landscapes that Rembrandt did (that we know of today). I never did a landscape before, so this was new to me. I saw the original in the Rijksmuseum in Amsterdam. What especially drew my attention was the dark cloud in the upper right corner. There Rembrandt just put a 'whirly' gray-purple wash directly over the underpainting (just a sienna wash).

I nearly spent an eternity trying to capture the detail and color of the trees that are lighted up, but it was very, very hard. Again I fell in the trap of trying to reproduce it 100%. I think I'm done with that now, that I'm not going to do these kind of things anymore. I need to start making more work that is just 'me'.

If you want to compare my humble efforts against the real thing, look here.

After Rembrandt...

2008-04-17T14:57:00.002+02:00

After Rembrandt's 'Titus as a monk'
Oil on paper - 21x28cm

I made this study to learn more about painting portraits and the way Rembrandt built up his portraits. I started on a tinted ground, first establishing the shadows. After that used flake white to build up the lighter areas of the face. Then some glazes to push some parts back. The face came out a bit too 'blotchy', although it looks worse on this picture than it is in reality.

Painters and paintings that rocked my world - part 1

2008-04-16T10:56:00.003+02:00

Introduction
Blogging is all about content, and coming up with fresh content on a regular basis can be tough.
Especially as my blog is about drawing and painting, and I'm not exactly the world's fastest and most productive artist. I have loads of old drawings and paintings, but also a feeling of responsibility: most work didn't get past quality control. So I thought about occasionally posting about the painters and paintings that really influenced me.

Jan Mankes
Also called "the most delicate of all dutch painters". He died of TBC in 1920, when he was only 31 years old. Despite this young age he produced around 200 paintings, consisting of landscapes, portraits, still lifes and animal paintings. He had an incredible style, with very thinly applied oil paint with which he could produce really "glowing" results. Last year I saw a show of his work at the museum of Modern Art in Arnhem. It blew me away...
To start of I'll show two paintings. For more information, follow this link to a more than excellent website with lots of paintings, drawings and etchings.

Cloud abstract

2008-04-15T09:54:00.003+02:00

Cloud abstract
Oil on panel - 13x14cm

Just a little piece of sky with bright blues and lots of texture. Done on a very small panel (5.1 by 5.5 inches). I got loads of these small panels and I use them for texture and color studies. Sometimes it yields something that I think is worth framing and putting up on a wall.

2008-04-14T11:26:00.004+02:00

Bowl and spoon
Oil on panel - 40x30cm

Another painting from last year. Worked pretty hard on it, for quite an extended period of time, but I'm still not quite happy about it. The 'edge' on which the bowl is standing is a bit too dark (although the quality of the picture makes it look worse than it is). The edge also isn't completely straight. It should be fixed, but that isn't going to be easy. Because this edge has a lot of texture, and is glazed heavily, it would probably keep on showing up through upper layers.
So the chances are that I will keep this as it is. It's a strange thing, looking back at older work. I have the urge to 'fix them', upgrading them to the point where I am now. But in reality, that wouldn't be fair. Those works were done at the best of my ability 'back then', and now serve as a document of my slow progression through the years.
I will have to keep reminding myself of that...

Just a photo today...

2008-04-12T13:46:00.002+02:00

On the easel...

2008-04-11T09:34:00.003+02:00

As yet untitled
Oil on canvas cover panel - 30x40cm

Something I'm working on at the moment. Like always I work in what I call waves; sometimes work on a painting stalls for weeks and than I put it on the easel again and make lots of progress within a few hours. This painting is however not finished by a long way. At the moment I don't like the 'squareness' of the background, it needs to become more organic, chaotic. The blue is a bit too overpowering and needs to be brought down a bit. The painting is bit bigger than is shown here, I had a few problems taking a decent picture of it.
Working with long pauses in between does have it's advantages though. First of all after a few weeks you look at it with a fresh view, and secondly it gives the glazes plenty of time to thoroughly dry.

2008-04-10T10:55:00.005+02:00

After 'The Goldfinch' by Carel Fabritius
Oil on panel - 22x33cm

This is my second attempt to do a master copy after Carel Fabritius' Goldfinch. Carel Fabritius, who died in 1654 when a gunpowder storage exploded and obliterated half of the town of Delft, was the most talented of Rembrandt's pupils. Due to his early death and the high probability that the explosion caused fires, only fifteen works remain. Who knows which heights he could have reached?

My first attempt was done after an image of the painting from the time before it's restoration. Only when I visited the Mauritshuis museum in the Hague, and saw the painting in its restored state I realized my study was far too yellow. So I started again, this time making it whiter. There's lots and lots wrong with my version of this painting. First of all the pose of the bird isn't observed really well. My finch tilts its head the wrong way. I also struggled with the little bird house. I couldn't match the weathered, green painted wood of the original and after trying several times I decided to stop trying.

What this painting has thought me is that I try too hard to fully duplicate the original, that I do not work after a painting.

Dead chicken pullet...

2008-04-09T09:15:00.008+02:00

Dead chicken pullet
Oil on canvas - 16x22cm

I found this little dead pullet on a horse farm last year, and took a few pictures of it. I finished this painting a few months ago. I'm sort of pleased with it (not with the picture of it, it's a bit too yellow). This painting was also a little exercise in handling paint with a thixotropic paint medium. A fluid is said to be thixotropic when the fluidity changes with movement or pressure. Oil paint is a very slow dryer and it's impossible to, for instance, paint light colors on a wet darker underground, because the colors will immediately mix whenever you try that. So you have to either wait until a layer is dry, or use mediums with thixotropic properties. With these mediums it is totally possible to paint wet on wet without mixing, and, as a bonus, you can achieve great textures.

I have seen a lot of Rembrandt paintings, studied them from as close by as possible without making the ushers too nervous. I also devoured books from Ernst van de Wetering and a book on Rembrandt technique from London's National Gallery, and I'm convinced that Rembrandt also used a medium with these properties (most likely a linseed and egg emulsion). For whoever is interested in this stuff, the painter Tad Spurgeon is very much into this matter, and has tons of information on his excellent website.

If I ever have time and more space to experiment a bit I will try out a few of his recipes, but for now Winsor and Newton's Gel and Oleapasto mediums will do the trick.

Another abstract...

2008-04-08T09:38:00.003+02:00

Untitled
Oil on paper - 25x18cm

I love making this kind of abstract paintings with lots and lots of textures, glazes and scumbles.
I either start out these things by lathering on 'underpainting white' and adding colors, scumbles and glazes in the course of the next days or even weeks. Underpainting white works nice because it's alkyd based and thus dries really fast. The only downside is the smell, which is rather strong and it can ruin your brushes if you're not quick enough cleaning them.
Another way to start these paintings is even slower. I sometimes use a blank panel, piece of paper or small canvas, to sort of clean my pallete. Any leftover paint I pick up with a painters knife and apply it to the painting. Over the course of a few weeks, a nice texture starts to build up, and at some point there's enough texture for it to start working it up with colors. I do a lot of glazing, working some transparent color over a texture and wiping the higher parts of again. This leaves the 'valleys' glazed.

If you would've said to me two years ago that I would be doing abstracts, I would have laughed at you or even get mad.

On realism...

2008-04-07T09:32:00.004+02:00

Green bottle (after Henk Helmantel)

Oil on canvas (40x30cm)

To say that I always liked realism would be an understatement. I always said that I 'hated' almost every other way of painting and drawing. That I could never understand impressionism, expressionism and abstract art. I've started to change in the past year, started to listen to other types of music and I also started to open up to all sorts of arts. I guess I can now say that I missed out on a lot. But, it's always better to grow up and mature late than never at all.

This painting I did about a year and a half ago. It's after a painting of the dutch realist painter Henk Helmantel, who I admire a lot (link). Although I still like and admire this type of work, I slowly get the feeling that this isn't the way for me, and that's a strange feeling for me, after having been a realist 'freak' for all my life.

Abstract painting

2008-04-06T10:32:00.005+02:00

Abstract
Oil on panel (13 x 14 cm)

This is the first of the scans of last years' paintings. It's a study in color and texture in oil paint. I love textures, the rougher the better.
A detail:

Highgate cemetery no.2

2008-04-04T09:25:00.001+02:00

Another drum photographed on Highgate cemetery in London

An exercise in Mentler's Bottega

2008-04-03T10:13:00.003+02:00

This is my latest exercise in the Bottega at SOFA. I'm working on the foot at the moment, not the easiest shape to understand. I'm actually pretty pleased about the drawings I did for this course in the last few days. I am however much more pleased with the fact that I'm still excited about doing the exercises, that I'm still not getting bored, just that I'm still persevering.

Portrait after Michelangelo

2008-04-02T10:19:00.003+02:00

Portrait study after Michelangelo
Pencil, 2007

Pencils are not my friend. I really like to see pencil drawings, but when I use them myself, I invariably never get the result I hope for. The above portrait is one which I'm mildly pleased about. My struggles with the pencil caused me to use pen and ink more and more, which I really enjoy. Every now and then I'll pick up a pencil again and keep on trying. One day I will succeed and then world domination is only a small step.

Highgate cemetery no.1

2008-04-01T15:33:00.006+02:00

Drum on Highgate cemetery (London)

Another ink drawing

2008-04-01T09:38:00.003+02:00

Untitled
Pen and ink

Ink drawing

2008-04-01T09:33:00.005+02:00

Untitled
Pen and ink

A room with a view

2008-04-01T09:26:00.005+02:00

I bought a moleskine notebook while on a citytrip in London. Since some time I write down my thoughts, nice lyrics and ideas for drawings and paintings in a notebook. I drew this view from the hotel room:

On the SOFA...

2008-03-31T11:22:00.003+02:00

I'm a proud member of Michael Mentler's Bottega (workshop) at SOFA, the Society of Figurative artists (see links). In the bottega we learn to draw the human figure without model. Drawing from memory and knowledge that is. It's pretty hard to do, and a lot of work to post homework twice a week. But it is rewarding, especially if you're making progress:

First post...just to start of...

2008-03-31T10:27:00.003+02:00

I draw, paint, doodle and take photographs. I'm searching for a 'visual voice' all of my own, and I try out many different styles and materials just to find out what suits me best (for the time being). By doing that I'm slowly starting to open up to types of art and styles that horrified me for years. With that, the choice of books I read and the types of music I listen to, are also changing. I never cease to amaze me.

I'll try to keep up this blog with the things I try, discover and make, and will every now and then show things from the path I followed so far.