Trees in New Mexico

This was a new technique I learned from a dear painter friend. Working wet on wet and from a projected picture. Interesting to let everything flow and not get panicky when the water finds a new way. A good watecolour manages and finds the new possibilities growing from that.

Toscany, Italy

In the heat of an summer afternoon in Toscany I sat on the middle of the street to make this watercolour. It was painted in the shortest possible time as I could not stand it any longer. Maybe that was just right as I find often that giving myself less time often makes the painitng better.

Village of Cantalupe 2007

This village of singing wolves lies in the Sabina and probably owes his name to the earlier forlorn landscape with wolves calling at night. The sketch is made from the balcony of 'our' villa, I was tempted by the fields, the olive trees, the mountains with this place in the middle of all and of course by the lazy warm afternoon of that summer.

Giacometti in Louisiana

If you drive up North along the coast from Kopenhagen in Denmark, you will find one of the most fascinating Modern Art Museums of the 20st Century.

Bridge near Porto

During our extensive travels through Portogal we camped on a nice site near a river close to Porto on our way to Spain. This bridge was to be seen through the foliage in the play of light and sun.

Luca Italian roofs

Close to the cinque terra this village in the mountains above Luca had the most amazing houseroofs viewed from our small own veranda.

Lavender, La Magnatoia, Italy

Lovely lavender was what greeted us when we arrived in a farmhouse in Umbria after an exhausting drive till two in the night. As nobody was awake, we decided to sleep in the grass, some of our compagnons preferred to stay in the car and have a sleep there.

Lovely to find bright sunshine in the morning with sounds of birds singing in the orchard of olivetrees and the fragrance of lavender greeting us when we finally got sit in the sunshine and relax.

The aquarel is photoshopped, while the colours stayed the same the shadows and profiling help to get a better impression of this voluptuous bush of lavender flowers next to our breakfast table.

Blossoming Apple Trees, France

These blossoming apple trees in a garden near Noyer sur Serein were painted during late spring. I struggled a lot with the background of huge trees towering over this idyllic sceneand finally was helped out by a knowledgeable master painter, who not only taught me that the pines of christmas trees grow in triangles, but also that you can make more when you take something away. This is how the long small stems of the trees in the background of the total picture came into being. This fragment is an absolute favourite of mine.

Avila Beach Hotel Curacao

This pier of the Avila Beach Hotel is a portal to the seas surrounding the island of Curacao. Spending two weeks with my friends in their house and participating in the life of an expatriate family was a tremendous experience on this beautiful island. I just love the usaturated colours of the Caribics and it took my quite a while to get the right palet. Once found it was great fun and excitement to get into the blues of the ocean.

Rocca in Sabina

Somewhere in the Sabina landscape close to Rome this watercolour of an old fort and landscape was made. It was one of the first times that I worked wet in wet on aquarel paper. That was quite an experience of handling insecurity of brush, water and colour. Especially the sky turned out quite nice when I dared to put on pure colour and let it go. A fractal experience.

St Jan, 's Hertogenbosch

The St Jan in the city of 's Hertogenbosh in the Netherlands is one of the oldest cathedrals in the Netherlands. The first roman chruch was built 1220 but it took till th e14 and 15th century that the Gothic cathedral was finished and the church became the formal seat of the Bishop.
This picture of part of the facade shows the Gothic features of the nether lands (low lands) I like so much. It is based on a sketch to which I added light colours to capture the peaceful atmosphere of having a Bossche Bol with a dear friend and enjoying the view on the dome on a beautiful Sunday morning.