Step by step

 I took photos of the steps I took in painting this portrait. In painting there are constant moments of making decisions, and one of those decisions is when to stop... I think you only learn by doing and staying true to your intuition. This portrait was made on a small piece of paper and it was for me to find joy in painting. But of course you want to be pleased with the end result... I think I am a little. I find that I should stop sooner to hold on to a bit of magic instead of continuing into too much detail.

Here I should have stopped I think, but I continued and made the skintone somewhat lighter. But this made it also loose its depth.

This is one way of starting a portrait, it is not based on any rules, so there is probably a lot wrong with it. And next time it would be totally different, but fun it was!

Walking through August

 I've had some muscle issues lately, and pain in my left leg. So now I need to do my exercises daily, and I decided to go out into the forest for a walk. Some of the trees are changing colours, this one lit up in the misty light. I thought I'd share it here. We are moving into Autumn almost...

but I am hoping for some Summer energy to be creative and work on some canvas paintings.

Different stuff in the sketchbook

 Just some pages from the sketchbook. This first one is  a page which I filled with a landscape.

The next one is a page with acrylic paint, trying out some color combinations and mixes.

And this last one is a fun one, using markers and just 1 colourpencil:

Have a nice week!

George Breitner

 George Breitner (1857-1923) is a Dutch fine artist and I visited a special exhibition on his work in Museum Singer. He was known for his cavelry paintings and his paintings of daily life in Amsterdam. And he was known for the girl with the kimono.

I especially liked looking at his details, his composition and repetition of color. He just made some beautiful paintings. 

This is the Girl with kimono, and a detail of the face. See how many patterns he combined in the painting? Dress, carpet and wall:

Here you see one of his pencil sketches where he is making explicit drawings of details, the hand, the fabric of clothes.

And here is a peek into the Museum garden, designed by Piet Oudolf. It is worth it to see it in every season. So we enjoyed a cup of coffee!