Drawing at the Rijksmuseum

Finally, I made some time to visit Amsterdam, and more precise the Rijksmuseum.

They provide sketchbooks and pencils to get you into drawing several objects,

instead of taking pictures with your phone.

Ha, that's just something for me!
I like the architecture and the fascinating painting work of these old buildings!

art lab in the museum with a wall of drawings

I like to look up... especially in churches or old buildings,

and this ceiling is a beauty.

I think it is the lines and curves and the patterns all combined into one!

Of course the paintings in the Museum are also interesting to look at, many Breitners, Rembrandt of course, and some of the Cobra group.

Christmas presents

Lots of items in my Etsy-shop to give for Christmas, or for the New Year:

Christmas inspiration in the studio

Christmas is coming and I made some new cards:

And if you'd like to make your own festive Christmas tags for decoration I also made a design for them,

see my Etsy-shop for further information.

New work - painting on Friday

Being busy with all sorts of things makes it difficult for me to find time to paint.

I committed myself therefore to spend Friday morning in the studio to paint,

and to just paint what comes to mind,

and it's been good.

I worked on this winter-scene, sledging in winter, I love it and with a view on the Alps, 

it is a great and fun activity. You can find this painting in my Etsy-shop here.

Somehow I also made some portraits, for example this one:

And still working on this one:

Autumn impressions - the smaller picture

There is so much to be seen, images for inspiration.

Source: Scotland again.

Autumn impressions - the larger picture

Autumn inspiration: making pictures of incredible landscapes

Source: wonderful Scotland.

Inspiration by this book

Books have inspired me for a long time, 

I think I am always eager to learn new techniques.

So this time I focused on a book on USE OF COLOUR, given to me by a friend.
I have just started, there is lots to read.

  

I use colour by intuition, and by experiment.

Of course there are some rules on colour, for instance how to use dominant colours. 

I sometimes like to just ignore those and see where things lead me.

I remember this lesson in our class: we had to paint a rather large canvas for a large portrait. I wanted something happy and bright so I took my light green bottle of paint and painted the whole canvas green. 

My teacher came to me in silence, just stood there looking, and then abandoned me. 

He probably thought I was rather mad....

Of course it was only the base. 

It ended up in this painting of an older French man, just back from buying his daily baguette.

The tricky thing was that we had to paint with our brush on a long stick. I used a broomstick, so it was very long.... this technique forces you to look at the larger picture and not worry too much on details (you cannot paint those anyway with your brush on a stick). I learned a lot from this exercise.

Working on the basics of the portrait

Finished painting

Nature and its colours

My eyes are drawn to this:

It reminds me of impressionism and of Claude Monet whose use of colour attracts me.

A couple of days later I made this:

And another one in the making with a different palette of colours:

Blueish

Portrait in blue

Some fun doodles, drawings in blue!

Family craft in Uppercase Magazine

One of my favourite magazines is the Canadian Uppercase Magazine. 

Probably because it is about graphics, craft, words, letters and art... 

It has really nice articles about Makers and their passion for their work.

Sometimes there is a call for stories about craft. 

When I saw there was one about Lace, I send in a story about a family-member. 

I have inherited a box full of hand-made lace and doilies made by my great-aunt, and maybe even her mother. They are so delicate, it is a craft we are almost losing.

Therefore, I was glad to see they published the story in Uppercase.

These are pictures of my family's craft and the box full of treasures:

I have also found a book on Dutch lace and its history, which I like to read. 

And the lace inspired me to some drawings, here's one:

Fantasy insect drawings

Summer has shown many insects, butterflies, damson flies in my garden,
so therefore in my sketchbook:

Process of making

I have been working on a painting,

sketching, composition, first try, second try...

it is a process of learning and looking.

first idea, making composition

Painting from intuition

sketching again

many layers, corrections are put into this, not finished, in progress