A few weeks ago we started shooting the second long play video after 'Painting Clouds'. Don't know when it will be released, but it will take a few months. Awful lot of work. The title will be 'Reflections'.
The video will show me working on a 120 x 90 cm painting of a beach with clouds reflecting in the wet sand. Last year I made an oil sketch of the subject and I was curious what it would be like on a large panel. Some of you may remember I wrote about it in 2014 in my 9 Oct post.
Oil sketch, 40 x 30 cm
The title also refers to short intermezzi in which I will reflect on what inspires me, much like the latest video I posted on YouTube.
I found some really funny drawings I made as a five year old. I'll show a few of them in the video. I can clearly remember the moment I drew them. How hard it was to get them right and how dissatisfied I was with the results. Some things never change... Here's one to give you an idea.
Shells, ball point, 1956
Painting with a camera in your neck is a strange experience. At first I was aware of every move I made, but I'm slowly getting used to it. The camera man is a close friend, who also shot the Painting Clouds video. He knows how I work, so there are very few interruptions in the painting process.
Of course there is always a possibility the painting goes horribly wrong and we'll have to start all over again. That would make an interesting video: 'How not to paint reflections'. We'll see.
Got several emails with questions about the surface I paint on. The short answer is: 6 mil. MDF panel, mounted on a wooden frame to prevent curvature.
The long answer is: I used to paint on canvas, but the texture of the fabric started to bother me. I wanted the decision to be up to me, wether I needed a smooth or a textured surface. So I started painting on wood. I used to prepare my own (masonite) panels. Grounded them with Gesso (a Talens brand) and a brush. Watered the Gesso down in the first three, maybe four layers. Less water in each following layer and you avoid "gumming-up". I used very fine sandpaper to smoothen each layer, always with lots of water. To speed up the drying process I had a hair dryer on stand by. To tell you the truth: I hated it, it was an awful lot of work. The results were great though.
Now I don't ground my own panels anymore. I found a guy here in Holland who does a great job preparing MDF panels. Smooth surface like you've never seen. At first it was hard, painting on his panels. Very slippery, made me feel uneasy. But over time I found a technique based on layering that allowed me to do just the stuff I had in mind.
I did a 70 minutes video (Painting Clouds by Layering) that tells the whole story. Here's the trailer.
A positive comment I often get is "Your paintings look just like photographs'. A negative comment I often get is "Your paintings look just like photographs'. Same phrase, opposite meaning.
Painters have always used the technical possibilities of their time to make their work look as real as possible. The 17th century Dutch painter Vermeer used an ingenious lense system and the 19th century Impressionists were keen to use the newly invented camera. In the 21st century painters use digital cameras and computers. A few years back I made a YouTube clip called 'The computer is a painter's best friend'. It's a small demonstration of how I use Photoshop to design my paintings.
Ocean with Evening Clouds, detail
Seen from a distance my work may seem photographic, but when you look up close, you'll of course see that it's not. That's why on my website (at least in the 'recent work' section) I always include two or more details when I put a paintng online. Sometimes these details become almost abstract. Dots of paint and small brush strokes that you don't see from a distance, let alone on a computer screen.
Ocean with Evening Clouds, oil on panel, 120 x 160 cm
Got an email a while ago from a guy who just saw one of my paintings: "This was only a painting, but it made me feel
the same way as I had just done on the beach" This is a great compliment and it sums up what I'm after: make a painting that mirrors the feelings I have when I'm in this landscape, wether it's standing in awe for the grandeur of nature or simply enjoying the beauty of it all. For me realism is the way to achieve this, or at least get as close as possible. Mission impossible ofcourse, but I just love to keep trying!
Been working less than I planned. You know how it is these last days of the year. Don't get me wrong, I love the family visits, but it's not easy painting with a bunch of kids playing in the studio.
Still I managed to finish the painting I've been working on for a while. It's quite big: 80 x 150 cm. I love the large formats. They give a sense of space you don't get on the small ones.
Tracks, oil on panel, 80 x150 cm
I'm writing about this particular painting because I used a different method to paint the clouds. In the first stage I did the blue of the sky, with it's transition from a greenish- to a darker blue. It took me two days and a number of layers to get it right, but that was worth the trouble. The transition gets much smoother and the colors more intense. The next day I did the first layer of the clouds in a mid tone, much like the cloud on the right side of the painting. Used my thumb to give the edges a fluffy look. In the next few days I slowly built up the white of the clouds (Titanium White with a little Vermillion Red to be preciese), using the initial mid tone for the shadow parts.
I use this method mainly for free floating clouds against a blue background, but I think I'm going to try it for more overcast skies as well.
Well, that's it for now. Hope you're enjoying the Holiday Season. All the best for you and your loved ones for 2015!
A few months ago me and a close friend made a trip to Vlieland, my favorite Dutch island. We planned on shooting some footage for my second longplay video. My friend is a skilled cameraman who also shot my Painting Clouds video.
The idea was to crosscut the images with paintings I made, to show the impact of the island on my work. The weather forecast was good, so we were hoping for sunshine and clouds. When we got on the ferry it was still a bit misty, but we didn't mind. The boat trip takes about an hour and a half and we shot some wonderful images of the hazy sun, reflecting on the water. We were convinced that, by the time we'd get on the island, the sun would come out and we'd see some stunning clouds.
Well, you probably get where this is going. Nothing of the kind happened.
The sun didn't come out all day. We rode our bikes all over the island and we had a great time, but we'll have to come back for the clouds.
I used the
footage we shot for a short YouTube video. Hope you like it.
Yesterday I finished the painting I told you about in my previous blog entry. I initially thought it would be a piece of cake; I did a smaller version earlier (see my July 5 blog) so what could possibly go wrong? I should have known better. Every time I think stuff like that, I get into trouble.
The Sea #3, oil on panel, 120 x 160 cm
It turned out the hardest part was the sky. It's a peculiar sky, with a diagonal line that separates a lighter and a darker part. I didn't make that up: I saw a similar sky this spring. The line is caused by a cloud that blocks the sun. The funny thing is that it coincides exactly with a contrail.
The problem was how to balance the two parts. In the early stages of the painting the line was too hard, so I kept softening it, till it almost disappeared and I had to go the other way. And then again I had to soften it and so on and so forth... It's a big painting, so it took me quite a few days to get it right. I'm okay with it now. What do you think?
Painting the water is a lot of fun. Especially the little dots of foam. Titanium white, always mixed with just a hint of color. In this case Naples Yellow. I'm using Bohemian Green with a little Burnt Sienna in the shadow parts of the waves. The Dutch beaches are very sandy and that has an effect on the color of the water. It gets a bit muddled and sometimes it is downright brown or even green. Every now and then I envie those of you who live on the coast of the Mediterrenean or the Pacific with it's blue-green water, but I do love the endles shades of grey-ish blue that are so typical of the North Sea. They're the colors I grew up with.
Maybe you remember the triptych I made a few months ago. The centerpiece is a picture of my grandson and his dad walking towards the sea. I wrote about it in my blog entry of August first. It's a small painting and I have been imagining for some time what it would look like on a really large panel, 120 x 160 cm or something like that. A few days ago I decided to stop imagining and start painting.
Underpainting of 'The Sea #2', oil on panel, 120 x 160 cm
Starting a painting often means thinking about it, making a plan. In this case I wondered should I do the landscape first and paint the figures on top of it, or integrate them in the underpainting. I decided to the latter. They're such an important part of the painting, they should be involved in the equasion right from the start. The downside of course is that you can't paint the landscape in a single stroke as it were, but you have to leave out the figures in the first stage. It's more work, but hey, I love painting, so who cares.
Anyway, here's a picture of that first stage. In my next blog entry I hope to show you what happened next.
