One week in Greece

Yesterday I came home after a lovely week in Greece. My sister and I rented a villa in Gialova, at the westcoast of the Peloponnesos.

This is the week in sketches.

A blue door with a lovely iron balcony. I got a bit lost in the design...

View from next to the villa on the village of Gialova and the Navarino bay in the distance. Sitting on our terrace we would enjoy and stare at this view for hours ;-)

Villa Thea at Eleonas Holiday Houses in Gialova, the villa came with a private pool

Sitting on the Golden Beach 

Looking at the remains of an old castle at Golden Beach

Sketching at Pylos Castle

The view from our terrace early in the morning. The island in Navarino Bay with great reflections in the water. And a bit to the right, the view of Golden Beach and the Gialova lagoon. Lots of birdlife to be seen in the early months of the year.

Sketchcrawl in Den Haag and more

Yesterday I joined the Urban Sketchers in The Hague / Den Haag for a lovely afternoon of sketching. The weather was a bit unpredictable, luckily just a few little drops when we started, and later on cloudy, but dry. We started in the area of the Mauritshuis, home of the famous Vermeer paintings (girl with the pearl earring and View on Delft) and some Rembrandts etc. The Mauritshuis is housed in a beautiful building btw.

Just around the corner of the Mauritshuis is the Binnenhof, the place were the Dutch government is housed.

• From Wikipedia: The Binnenhof (Dutch pronunciation: [ˈbɪnə(n)ɦɔf]; English: Inner Court) is a complex of buildings in the city centre of The Hague, next to the Hofvijver lake. It houses the meeting place of both houses of the States General of the Netherlands, as well as the Ministry of General Affairs and the office of the Prime Minister of the Netherlands. Built primarily in the 13th century, the Gothic castle originally functioned as residence of the counts of Holland and became the political centre of the Dutch Republic in 1584. It is counted among the Top 100 Dutch heritage sites. The Binnenhof is the oldest House of Parliament in the world still in use.

My first sketch is made there, looking at the Ridderzaal from the side, the main entrance is behind the tower.

The Binnenhof

(in ink (watersoluble with my new Lamy fountain pen) and a bit of watercolor)

After one hour I moved to the other side of the Binnenhof, to the Hofvijver. You have a great view of all the buildings over a little lake. I sat there for another 2 hours, enjoying, looking at the buildings, sketching and enjoying the people that strolled along the Hofvijver. Did not have enough time to use my watercolors, maybe I will add them later.

Hofvijver view

(PITT pens)

After the 3 hours the whole group went for a drink on one of the terraces of the Plein and showed our sketchbooks. Lovely sketches and great group!

And today, Sunday, I made 2 sketches in my Moleskine watercolor journal for the Weekend Drawing Event on WetCanvas. One river otter and one quick sketch of a botanical garden.

The weekend is almost over and I have a busy week ahead. And then.... on Saturday.... I will go on holiday for one week, to Greece. I hope to do some painting/sketching there... tbc :-)

Tulips, a lobster and some sketches

Last months WetCanvas Floral challenge was all about tulips. I picked one of the reference photos and painted it twice. Once with watercolors only and the other one with pen and watercolors. Both in my Moleskine watercolor journal.

And I participated in a few WDE's (Weekend Drawing Event) on WetCanvas.

WDE 20 May 2016 - An old door in Greece, with brown  PITT pen, a brown Tombow pen and water

WDE 20 May 2016 - I was fascinated by the clearness of the water on the reference image. And I am really happy with my attempt. In watercolors only.

WDE 29 May 2016 - A juicy yummie looking lobster with pen and watercolors.

WDE 2 June 2016 - Two sketches in a square Handbook journal. The left one with my new Lamy pen and the right one with a Pilot Sign Pens. Both new pens, and both with ink that is not waterproof. But I do like the effect with the watercolors.

Hello again

WOW, it has been a long time since I blogged anything. October 2015 was the last one, after my vacation on Samos in Greece... In the meantime lots has happened, my mother passed away in December and my sister and I were extremely busy with not only getting thru all the paperwork but also with clearing my mothers' house. Very stressful and emotional... My sister and I went almost 2 weeks to Curacao in February to recover and actually take some time to let everything sink in.

And now it is already May, I have been painting and sketching in between. I will show you the sketches of Curacao later.

This weekend I participated in the WetCanvas Weekend Drawing event. I choose the image of some beautiful red pomegranates. I decided to paint them with watercolors in layers. Pfff very painful process that needs a lot (too much?) patience. In the meantime I did a 5 minute watercolor sketch that came out really nice and another one in gouache. I love the spontanity in these 2 quicker paintings.

 Pomegranates in watercolor - 5 hrs. On 300gr Fabriano Artistico. 10" x 7"

Pomegranates in watercolor - 5 minutes. In Moleskine watercolor journal. 11" x 8"

Pomegranates in gouache - 45 minutes. In Moleskine watercolor journal. 11" x 8"

Sketching San Diego

Life has taken it normal pace again. I have been busy with visiting family and friends, drinking coffee, going out for lunch and looking for a new assignment in the meantime. I am not in a hurry to start work again, I really enjoy my time off.

I have been going thru all the pictures I took while I was in San Diego, and found a few more to sketch. In my Stillman and Birn Alpha sketchbook.

Mission San Luis Rey (Oceanside) on the left and the rocky shores of La Jolla on the right.

Two beautiful Asian sculptures (seen in the San Diego Museum of Art)

Balboa Park near the lily pond

And with added watercolors 

I will be leaving for another week holiday soon, I am going to Greece this time, with my sister. Hopefully we can catch the last sun of this summer :-).

Home again

And my time in San Diego is up.... and I am already home again. I flew on Friday from San Diego to Minneapolis and from Minneapolis to Amsterdam, where I arrived on Saturday.

I had a great time, with lots of quality sketching and painting time. Real me time. I loved every day of the 3 weeks. But... I am also happy to be home again. Sleeping in my own bed and socializing with friends and family.

The last few days in San Diego I visited the Birch aquarium in La Jolla and spent the days with some last minute shopping :-).

 And I will show you some pages from my sketchbook I have not shown before.

And one of the last sunsets in La Jolla....

Cooling down

The wheather  has been really hot the last days and now the temperature is finally coming down. Or at least it is on its way back to normal.

In the meantime I have been busy. I visited the Mission San Luis Rey in Oceanside. This was one of the biggest missions in california and it is still in use as a church and a retreat.

And I did some sketching at the beach down the road (in one of my new sketchbooks ,  I bought a small square size sketchbook and two wonderful watercolor journals ).

Yesterday  (Saturday ) I went to a meetup with the San Diego plein air painters. They were meeting at the eucalyptus foŕrest in La Jolla. Most of them paint with oils but I painted with watercolors. 

And today I meet up with the San Diego Urban Sketchers in Rancho Santa Fe. This is a lovely little town just 30  minutes away. We meet at the garden club, where at 11 an artshow started, with work from one of the regular Sketchers.  I sketched the library at the other side of the road.

And after a visit to the artshow, I joined a few Sketchers for lunch at the local bistro. The local coordinator is trying to arrange another meeting during the week. Maybe even with a visit to the zoo. I will let you know wat happens next week.

More cows....

I really fell in love with these cows, I did another sketch with a black and blue Tombow in my A4 Moleskine watercolor journal.

And Bonnie Sitter sent me some more cow (and sheep) pictures. This is Lady 574, grazing in between the wildflowers. Love her!

A4 format, on quality Arches watercolor paper

A3 format, on quality Arches watercolor paper

Both cow paintings/drawings are for sale. Please contact me if you are interested.

Sketching cows

I visit the website from PaintMyPhoto almost every week. On this site people share their photo's for artists to use in their paintings.

This week I fell in love with a lovely image from Bonnie Sitter. She shared her cows image with us, with the appropriate title 'Beauty contest'. Bonnie also kindly sent me some more cow and sheep images by email, to use in next sketches and/or paintings. Bonnie's website can be found here.

I used this photo for several quick sketches with my Tombow markers and a waterbrush in my Moleskine watercolor journal (A4 size). I love the Tombow marker, the ink can be activated with water and will create lovely washes. Not to be used for the small details, as the tips are quit big. Someone told me about the Elegant writer pens from Speedball, but unfortunately I have not yet been able to find them in the Netherlands. They might have to wait till my next visit to the US... Or I can ask one of my US friends to order them for me. I would love to try them.

with black Tombow

with purple Tombow

first sketch in black

in black, love the cow with attitude on the left

Big Sur and Rocky Point

This week I turned some of my reference photo's into sketches and little paintings. 

I visited the art museum in Monterey, it has 2 separate buildings. One in the city center with beautiful paintings of California. And also two great exhibitions. One from a textile artist called Malin Lager. She makes marvelous portraits and paintings with textile and thread. Very impressive!
And an exhibition of work from Jules Tavernier, he worked as an illustrator for a magazine, but also did some great paintings.

On Saturday I visited the Point Pinos Lighthouse. I looked at the inside of the lighthouse and talked to some of the volunteers on duty. I love how people can be passionate about sharing their stories and knowledge with others. Lovely people!

This sketch is from a buoy that is in the garden of the lighthouse.

And on Sunday I went on my painting trip. There were 2 meeting points and somehow I missed the other people attending. The first stop was at the Big Sur River Inn, a stop along the Pacific Highway 1. The road to Big Sur is beautiful with lots of ocean views and vista's. At the River inn there is a restaurant with a terrace and a lawn with a small river. People sit in the middle of the river in wooden chairs.... I did not see anyone painting and/or looking as a painter, so after one hour I headed to the next stop.

The next stop was at the Rocky Point restaurant. Beautiful setting, lots of subjects to paint. I did a few sketches and then went home, I had enough of the sun and the wind. I took some great photo's so maybe I will make some more paintings later. When my sister comes, we can do this trip again, AND go for lunch at the Rocky Point restaurant. It looked very nice!

The last few days I have been checking the arrival times of the flight from Amsterdam. The flight has been seriously delayed for the last days. Hopefully the flight that my sister takes on Wednesday will be on time! I will pick her up from the airport and we will spend 2 1/2 weeks together. It has been great spending time here in Pacific Grove, and the time spend on sketching and painting. I am already here for 2 weeks, time flies.... But it is also great to share the beautiful sights with someone and I am really looking forward to my sisters arrival.