Each Spring, the Cistus Ladanifer (rockrose, gumrose, labdanum) takes over the landscape of the Algarve with abundant white flowers. It is a rather invasive plant which overgrows all the abandoned farmland. But in Spring you forgive this plant that bad habit. It is so beautiful to see them in the morning sun, opening their flowers towards the sun and gently waving in the wind. April is the month with the most flowers and every year again I have to take photos of it. So why not paint them? I did already an early one in 2018, which is sold. So […]
Filosoof
7 posts
A heavy thunderstorm in November that kept me awake for a night, inspired me to paint these 2 paintings. They belong together (diptych) and are for sale. It reminded me of the Doors song, “Riders on the Storm” (June 1971). Although Morrison must have given it a more existential meaning than the one I give it here. To me they are (Ghost) Riders in the sky (A North American cowboy legend, see Wikipedia or the Northern European version: Wild Hunt (also called Wilde Heir) see this Wikipedia page. Since then I can’t get the song out of my head.
It’s a long time ago that I wrote about my painting process. This time I wanted to give attention to the highlights and darks in a painting. A good amount of highlights and darks can give a dramatic effect on a painting. The old masters and especially Caravaggio, often used this technique to create more drama. And drama was an important thing in paintings and fresco’s when you imagine that paintings hung in areas where the light was not often good or the distance from the viewer to the painting was huge. Preparation For this painting I used an Artists […]
Today a total different painting than Floripes was. It was already quite a time ago that I painted a portrait. I started on an old painting that I didn’t want to keep. I putted a few colours over it and then a blueish kind of grey with also a pinch of yellow in it. Then I made the drawing of the face. It is a rather rough drawing, not detailed, just to place the eyes and mouth. I used a very vague photo. Using a vague photograph is sometimes an advantage, unless the painting really has to resemble someone. With […]
In the Algarve there are a lot of legends. Most of them from the time of the Moorish occupation. One legend is still alive: Floripes, legend of Olhão. Floripes was a beautiful Moorish woman who was left behind when the Moorish were expelled from the Algarve. Also her fiance fled away without taking her with him. But he came back to pick her up. Unfortunately his boat cracked on a rock and he drowned. From that time Floripes was enchanted. Inhabitants of Olhão can still tell the story and some of them even still believe in the legend. You can […]
It continues to itch. Drawing real bodies. So this week I have drawn and painted in a more classic way. I got it on the canvas rather quick, with a dark underpainting. But the composition was not satisfying for me. Through this process I go more often. The painting doesn’t give a feeling, it doesn’t look yet. And then I remembered a quote that painting is mainly simplifying. Remove all that is not necessary. I don’t know any more who it was, but it could have been very well Picasso. He was a genius in simplifying. Meanwhile I also started […]