Autumn island

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.

A peculiar sky

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.

Later!

The Sea #2

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.

Pedestrian with Red Jacket

Last time I told you about the painting I was working on: a guy with a red jacket, walking towards the ocean. Well, here it is:

Pedestrian with Red Jacket, oil on panel, 40 x 120 cm

I must say, I really enjoy this new direction my work seems to have taken. I always avoided the human figure, because I wanted the focus to be on light and space. When you introduce a figure the painting becomes a narrative, like a still from a movie. The funny thing is: that is exactly what I like about it now. What on earth is this guy with his red jacket doing there?

It has been a while since I painted a human figure   (almost 40 years I guess) so I was a bit out of practice. Still I enjoyed it a lot. The problem often is to make the figure  a part of the landscape. It should not be isolated, like it's a separate world. To solve this problem I painted the background just over the edge of the figure and the figure on top of that. Of course the reflection in the water also helps. 

Feedback is welcome!

Rømø Beach

As promised in my previous blog entry, here's an oil sketch of a beach scene on the Danish island Rømø.

Rømø Beach #1, oil on paper sketch, 30 x 40 cm

Maybe you remember the triptych I was working on last July. Each of the three images had a human figure in it, which is quite exceptional for me. Since then I've been thinking about doing more of that. Got some encouraging reactions to the triptych and  when I showed it in an exhibition at the Møhlmann Museum (a privately funded museum of contempory Dutch realism) all three paintings were sold within a week. 'I must be on to something here...' I thought. Lots of different ideas went through my head and at the moment I'm working on a painting with a guy in a red jacket walking towards the sea. Hope to show you the result in my next blog.

Rømø Beach #2, oil on paper sketch, 30 x 40 cm

Anyway, I wondered what the Rømø sketch would look like with a few figures in it. 'What's the worst that can happen' I said to myself and I added  three guys walking on the beach. I'm not sure about the result. Did it get better? Please let me know what you're thinking!

Reflections #4

I keep coming back to this theme. Must be the time of year... 

Reflections, oil on paper sketch, 30 x 40 cm

I'm considering the idea of making a second 'how-to' video, this time on how to paint reflections. Some of you may have seen my first video (how to paint photo-realistic clouds). It was released in June 2013 and I had so much fun with the comments I got from all over the world that it gave me a taste for more. What's holding me back is the fact that it's an awful lot of work. I'll talk it over with my friend the cameraman and we'll see.

Cumulus Clouds, oil on paper sketch, 30 x 40 cm

In the meantime I made two more oil on paper sketches. I plan to make some more in preparation of a large painting on panel. Last week I visited the Danish island Rømø and I saw some stunning scenes of backlit clouds reflected in the wet sand. Made me feel like driving home, get into my studio and start painting. By the time I post my next entry I hope to have one or two sketches to show you.

Painting sand

Before I get to the subject of this entry I'd like to (once again) draw your attention to the new blog I launched two weeks back: 'An oil painting a week'. If you get the chance, please take a look and let me know what you think. End of commercial.

Dunes in the Sunlight, oil on paper, 30 x 40 cm

This last week I've been working on an oil sketch on paper: a dune in the sun with a blue sky and some summer clouds. I wanted to emphasize the grainy texture of the sand, so I decided to conduct a little experiment. Why not apply the texture beforehand and paint on top of that? I still had a can of modelling paste and I applied it with a palette knife. Got out my stippler and worked the paste till I got a very fine texture that looked like this:

Then I mixed a bit of fleshcolour (Lukas) with Yellow Ochre (Talens) and Bohemian Green (Lukas) and soon found out I needed a lot more paint. A surface like this absorbs paint very quickly. Took me a few layers to get it right.

Painting foliage has never been my strongpoint. This time I started with an underpainting of Burnt Sienna (Talens) and Yellow Ochre (Lukas). Once dry I painted the sand reed on top of it with my beloved saber/squirrel brush (see blog entry Friday, January 17th, 2014).

Drew some more reed in the wet surface with the stem of my brush, exposing the brown underpainting. It was a struggle, like always...

For a bigger picture of the painting please see my online sales page.