On a sunday in the month of august, our little painting class went on a trip to learn what painting ‘en plein air‘ is all about. Luckily, the area where I live has a lot of nature to offer. Bryan – a professional painter from the city of Enschede – took us to ‘Het Lutterzand‘. This nature park is quite unique, mainly…
Over the last 500 years, art has changed dramatically. But if you watch the fascinating video below, it seems that art changed – in the first place – very fluently…
When I start painting a new portrait of someone, I’m never sure how long it will take me. It might be finished in one hour, or I might be working on the same painting during several sessions. Last weekend, I wanted to paint a portrait ‘from life’, but I didn’t want to ask my girlfriend to sit still for hours…
While making this little torso painting, I wished I knew more about the anatomy of the human body. I decided not to count every muscle I saw, but to look at the statue as one organic shape. What I like about this work, is the rough style in which it’s painted; the thickest strokes of paint are the highlights on the chest.…
Felice Beato was an Italian-British photographer who lived from 1832 to 1909. I found this fascinating photograph of a real Samurai on Pinterest, photographed by Beato. It was probably made around 1865 in Yokohama, Japan, in the early days of photography. I immediately liked a few things about this Samurai photograph: the lovely way the light touches this strong and…
On the 4th of May, I had a little exposition at the Local Sunday Market in my hometown Enschede. It was nice to show my paintings to an audience and to get some reactions. The atmosphere at the Local Sunday Market was very relaxed. You could meet a lot of creative people and see different kinds of handmade products. For more information…
During recent painting lessons, I wanted to try something new. I decided to go for another self portrait, but at the start I didn’t really know how to give a fresh spin to it. So I just started, and every painting session colors started to get more intense. During the different sessions, I got some good help from my teacher. Together…
During recent painting lessons, I made a study of a wonderful portrait of Russian portrait painter Valentin Serov. What I often like about Serov’s portraits, are the original poses he chose for his models. The portrait he made of Konstantin Korovin (the ‘First Russian Impressionist‘, 1861 – 1939), shows a man who looks relaxed and casual for his time. Below,…
Making still life paintings in oil, is great to improve your mastering of shapes, lines, colors, lighting and composition. In other words: as a painter, you can learn a lot of every still life you make. I learned a few great new techniques and ways of looking at possible compositions from the book Mastering Composition by Ian Roberts. There are…
Spring is in the air! Even in the city, I smell blossoms everywhere. When I looked out of our bedroom window, I saw this inspiring urban spring composition. I felt like painting fast and thick, so I did. Cadmium yellow is really a color you can’t do without when making spring paintings. Normally, I wouldn’t use pure colors of paint…