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June 22, 2010
First off: The events the last weekends were a lot of fun. I will post an update as soon as I can show the paintings.
And now to the portrait from last Friday. This time Kaisa, another good friend of mine. I’m glad she allowed me to paint her before she leaves to the other side of the world. Maroesja took a photo of me in action – shortly before the picture is done.
 Me swinging the brush!  Kaisa, oil on 40x50cm linen
June 1, 2010
Another portrait – it got a bit more of the real feel that I am looking for, while still not seeming like a photo. Although the three hour sessions don’t leave me with enough time to measure exactly (leaving some inaccuracies there), they teach me how to work effectively. And it does add a loose touch, that I would not reach when having unlimited time.
I like that – but I still also want to do longer sessions. That would help me with studying more careful and really to think about each step. So I will start to seriously look for an atelier, so that I can plan this all myself.
 "Fabio", oil on 40cm x 30cm linen
May 22, 2010
This is the last image of the Portrait Month. Can’t wait for next year 
 Flip - oil on linen 50x40 cm I thought maybe it is interesting to show my palette for this one – so here is a photo of the state after half an hour. As you can see, I mix all major colors before I start painting. I don’t know anyone else doing it like that, but I think it makes sense. This way one can see all the value relationships before painting the shapes, saving me the pain of doing corrections on the canvas.
 Palette - premixing all the oil colors in big amounts
May 14, 2010
The actual Portrait month is over – I still have this and one more image to show.
With this painting everything went wrong: The model didn’t show up, so we started late and a fellow artist had to pose (thanks Mieneke  ). Then the background was a cloth over a door – so it changed every time someone walked in or out. Two people dropped water/turpentine on the floor … and when I was done, I dropped the image on the palette, leaving big blobs of color on it.
Somehow though – the picture survived (just had to repaint the background and hair) – and: it’s one of the rare cases where I’m really happy with how it turned out.
 Mieneke, Oil on linen 25cm x 35cm
May 12, 2010
April 24, 2010
Painting a good friend is really a challenge. I think it is the pressure to get really the person one knows – but damn, its fun to try
So thanks a lot to Norma for posing last week in the ongoing Portrait Month in the Gallery de Stoker. And the good news: more friend-portraits are upcoming. If anyone else wants to, let me know.
 Norma, oil on linen 50x40cm
January 27, 2010
A new portrait from last week; her name is Lake Montgomery, she is a singer living in Amsterdam (I like her music btw). Did it two and a half hours; it worked – new record
Also I’m off tomorrow to the Global Game Jam, where you make a game in 48 hours. I’m really curious how it will work out – I do not know yet my teammates, so I hope for some luck there. This means no painting this weekend, and maybe I’ll die when trying to carry my 20 kilo PC there. But if if all goes well I can post a game here… exciting!
 Lake (portrait), oil on linen canvas 50x40 cm
December 15, 2009
Finished them both today, with little fixes. Maybe I make better pictures whenever the sun shows up in this country … which might take several months :/
Anyways, playing around with new things in the paintings. Especially limiting the colors and values I use. The Inez painting got kind of a medieval style in some areas. Especially on the arm – I like that, I will try around more with that.
 Portrait Inez, 40x50cm Oil on Canvas  Portrait Anna, 50x50cm Oil on Canvas
October 30, 2009
Take a quick look before I write more – this is a Roman painting. First in the original as you can see it on Pompeii’s walls, then as a photoshopped version, in which I combined several photos, effects to bring out the true color and some touch-ups (without adding things that weren’t there).
See it here like nowhere else!
 Wall Painting from Pompeii (Young Couple), Original Version  Wall Painting from Pompeii (Young Couple), Retouched Version It really touches me I do admit – those people look like they could be ones neighbors. Most probably this is a portrait of a newly wed couple. Both seem to be writers as they hold papers and pencils.
Ironically the catastrophe of 79 AD that not much later delivered them most likely to a horrible death, conserved the picture. Which gives us the gift to see of one of only a handful remaining Roman paintings.
I discovered this in the BBC documentary “Sister Wendy’s: A Story Of Painting“. In which a kinda odd nun goes around in the world and talks about art. She knows a lot and has a unique view on things. Great stuff.
What struck me is the high technical quality. How few things did we learn until then? The colors of the skin are close to perfect – with a transition from yellow, to red, to violet to gray. And maybe even because it’s not photographically perfect, the figures feel full of life. The eyes are nearly magical.
It took Europe more than 1000 years to get back to that standard. And very probably this picture is just from an average artist – as if you would pick now a random painting from our time, to pass to the future. Imagine what pieces of the masters of that time are lost, never to be seen again.
October 12, 2009
I was painting these in a gallery in Amsterdam, while an “Open Atelier Route” was going on. Lots of galleries and art studios were open to see – and also here people could walk in and watch as we painted portraits of those two really interesting models.
 Portrait Ilse, 30x40 oil on linen  Portrait Dirk, 30x40 oil on linen
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