Polar bear sketch

After all this blog is called paintings and sketches, so I better put in at least a sketch..

More moooo

-Enjoying the morning sun-
Oil on Masonite

Starting to get used to the slick feeling of the masonite but I still prefer the textured feel of canvas or linen.

2 calves - oil quickstudy

-Curious stare-
Oil on masonite, 25x20 cm (10 x 8)

Every serious wildlife and animal artist should have at least once in his career have painted a cow. I have been wanting to paint a cow for a long time but somehow, other things came first.
So, when I wanted to do a quickstudy last friday and came across this reference photo, I knew I wanted to paint these 2 curious animals.

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Elke schilder van wildlife en dieren in het algemeen zou in ieder geval 1 keer in zijn carriëre een koe moeten hebben geschilderd. Bij mij was het er nog nooit van gekomen maar afgelopen vrijdag kwam ik toen ik een snelstudie wilde maken deze foto tegen. Gelijk wist ik: dit wil ik schilderen.

Landscape study 'Moerkapelse Rotte'

-Moerkapelse Rotte-
Oil on canvasboard, 24x18 cm (9.4 x 7.1)

Don't you just love lighting situations like this?

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Ik ben gek op natuurlijk licht zoals dit.

Asian lion cubs - new oil painting

-Asian lion cubs-
Oil on 3D canvas, 60x40 cm (23.6 x 15.7 inch)
available through oogvoornatuur

closeup

Lately I've been looking a lot at modern impressionistic painters like Huihan Liu and Jennifer McChristian and as a result I'm trying to be looser in my brush-handling. I'm experimenting with small studies and this is the first bigger painting in the new direction.

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Een nieuw olieverfschilderij dat te zien (en te koop) is bij Wildlife gallery Oog voor natuur in Opheusden. De laatste tijd kijk ik veel naar moderne impressionistische schilders zoals Huihan Lui en Jennifer McChristian. Daardoor ontwikkelt mijn stijl zich meer in die richting met naast een aantal kleine studies dit schilderij als resultaat.

Upcoming wildlife art show

200 years Charles Darwin

From October 3 until December 29 2009 at wildlife gallery Oog voor natuur in Opheusden The Netherlands you can see work by 67 international wildlife artists about animal survival. The theme was chosen because the book The origin of species by Charles Darwin was published 150 years ago and it was 200 years ago that Darwin was born.

One of my oilpaintings is also on display.

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De thema-tentoonstelling ”Oog voor Overleven” bij Kunstgalerie Oog voor Natuur is van 3 oktober t/m 29 december 2009 –op zaterdagen– gratis te bezichtigen aan de Lindelaan 2a te Opheusden (Gld.), van 10.00 tot 17.00 uur. Of op afspraak op een doordeweekse dag: 0488-442366.
Informatie: www.oogvoornatuur.com

New Richard Schmid landscape book

I'm trilled to read that a new book is coming from one of my favorite painters of all times, Richard Schmid. It is available for pre-order through his website.

This 11" x 14" book features over 300 images and it is the largest collection of Schmid’s landscapes ever compiled in one book. It is quite expensive ($75 for the softcover and $135 for the hardcover) but I've never regretted buying the also expensive Alla prima - All I know about painting which contains a wealth of information.

Another quickstudy

-Pelican study-
Oil on masonite, 25x20 cm (10 x 8)

Flower imitation oil quickstudy

Lately I've been reading a book by Craig Nelson, 60 minutes to better painting. It's about making lots and lots of quick-studies in oil or acrylic to improve your technique, the idea being that the hardest part of a painting is the start.

When I returned from cleaning my brushes my first impression of the painting was that the 2 flamingos resembled a pair of flowers, hence the title.

-Flower imitation-
Oil on masonite, 15x20 cm (6 x 8)

'Arctic beauty' finished

-Arctic beauty-
Acrylic on canvasboard, 47.5x41 cm framed (18.7 x 16.1)
email to purchase

Sorry for the lack of updates but the last 3 weeks I've been working on a painting for an upcoming show in October. More about that in a later post.
I realized that I didn't post the finished version of the polar bear acrylic so here it is framed.

Grey crowned crane

-Grey crowned crane study-
Oil on canvasboard, 18x24 cm (7.1 x 9.4)

I intend to do more of these oil-studies, they're so much fun to do. The idea here was to experiment with looser brushstrokes and somewhat thicker paint (still not thick enough though).

Plein air studies

2 recent plein air studies.




Painting in the Oostvaardersplassen with painting buddy Cas van der Sluijs
He took this picture of me painting:

Sketchbook paintings

I've been on a holiday to Germany last week, had a small sketchbook with me and 4 tubes of gouachepaint so I created these sketches.

Polar bear - in progress

Lightened the whole background to push it furter back.
Some more detailing on the bear, softening edges here and there, warm vs cool, and changed the eyes a little.
Foreground still needs some work.

Polar bear - in progress

Babysteps..
Worked on the lighting on the bear and on the background to get a more foggy feeling.
This turns out to be a hard painting to photograph because of the glare and the subtle colors.

Polar bear -in progress Step03

Still working with Chroma Atelier interactive acrylics. Starting to get a better feel for the paint. It's nice that you're able to blend the paint after it is dry to the touch by just spraying on some water or unlocking formula.

Polar bear study Acrylic- in progress

Step01 Block-in



Step02

Added a little color and adjusted some shapes.

Gouache study 't Weegje

I did this gouache painting in 2005, haven't painted much in gouache since then but after some recent posts by Nathan Fowkes I decided to give it another try.




It's tricky to control the wetness of the paint and to try not to lift the previous layer. I need more practice but for a first try after so long I think it's not too bad.



't Weegje, gouache on black W&N paper sketch block. 16x9 cm (6.3x3.5)

Great crested grebe finished Part2

After posting the image on wetcanvas I was advised to tone down the background flowers.
I like the result, hope you do too.



This is what it looks like framed.




In our garden mom and dad blackbird are having a busy time with 3 kids to feed. Funny to watch.

Great crested grebe - finished

Finished this painting yesterday.
I'm not really used to watercolours and I didn't really like how the Moorman watercolor board absorbed the water but despite that I'm quite pleased with how it turned out (you may have a different opinion of course). Added the green frame in Photoshop to get a sense of how it will look when framed.