Using brush and colors to relax

This coming Sunday, our painting group will be holding a once a year exhibition. I decided to join them, so I am somewhat busy these past few days. In addition to this, I am also preparing for my two months trip to Southeast Asia. Today while busy thinking what paintings to include in the exhibit, I grabbed my brush and without thinking I wetted it with water and some colors and then with some movements on the paper, I created this rose. I found this relaxing. This is in watercolor.

Komende zondag, heeft mijn schilder groep een expositie. Wij doen het een keer per jaar. Ik heb besloten om deel te nemen dus ben ik deze dagen een beetje druk. Verder moet ik ook alle voorbereiding doen voor mijn reis naar Zuidoost Asia. Vandaag, terwijl begin ik met selecteren van mijn schilderen, pakte ik mijn penseel en maakte het nat met water en kleuren en daarna heb ik deze roos gemaakt. Ik vond dit 'relaxing'.

Still life project - learning from others

This is based from Frisnet's work which I found in his book with a step by step instructions. I guess practicing from other's work is also one of the best ways of learning painting techniques. Once we are already familiar with the various techniques, then we can develop our own way of painting. In this painting, both wet-and-wet and wet on dry techniques were used. I am not yet comfortable with the former technique. I find its result very unpredictable. I envy those who love the wet-and-wet method, but I'm trying.

Dit is gebaseerd op het werk van Frisnet dat ik in zijn boek vond met stap voor stap opdrachten. Ik denk dat een van de manieren om de technieken te leren is om de projecten van anderen te volgen. Als we al bekend zijn met de technieken dan is het onze beurt om onze eigen manier te ontdekten. In dit schilderij heb ik de nat-en-nat en nat-op-droog technieken gebruikt. Ik ben nog niet gewend met de eerstgenoemde techniek. Ik vind het onvoorspelbaar. Ik ben jaloers op sommige schilders die  al expert zijn met de techniek. Maar ik blijf het proberen.

Valentine's Day Rose

This rose was standing in our living room during Valentine's day. I did not have any idea that I want to paint it until a few days after that day. I decided to take a photo of the rose and later made a sketch. It was a beautiful light pink and strong red pink at the end of the petals. I don't have yet a pink color in my acrylic palette so this painting is in red. This is done in acrylic paper, and not yet finish.

Practice study on acrylic

In my previous post I said that I wanted to experiment and learn more how to use acrylic. Today I tried it for the second time using the same subject, calla lily. Instead on a canvas, I used watercolor paper. However, later when I was working, I regretted not using my new acrylic paper. Also the paints I used were of less quality. I told myself thereafter that If I want to learn, then I must use the right material for specific medium. So far my experience with acrylic showed that it dries fast, so I also have to work quickly. I know that this work is not professionally done but just a result of an exercise to learn.

First try on acrylic

I used acrylic on canvas for this painting. This is my first try using this medium. And I must say that I want to experiment more on this. I used a reference book for this work but I'll mention its title and its author next time as I could not fully remember them right now.

Buchenwald Room

This is one of the rooms in the Buchenwald Concentration Camp Crematorium building in Germany. The cart in the painting was used then to carry dead bodies of the Jews and other political inmates in the camp. Some friends asked me why I dared to paint this because it gives only bad memories. I said that what I wanted in this painting is for the people to remember what happened during the time of Hitler and that they will learn some lessons from it. I visited the camp on 15 June 2009. After going around and visiting all the buildings, I felt emotionally exhausted and until now I continue to ask how the authorities then can do that to the victims. Really horrible. 

Van Gogh's Asylum Hospital in St-Remy-de-Provence

This is an outside view of the walled-Saint Paul de Mausole, an asylum in St-Remy de Provence where Vincent van Gogh voluntary asked for help for his illness (May 1889). I was there in 09 October 2005 and just like other tourists with their cameras, I took some pictures of the surrounding areas of St-Remy including the asylum. Then, I was not yet into painting as a hobby, so many of the photographs I took were not really professionally taken. I based the above painting from one of those photographs. I still have to do some small finishing touches with this piece.

During our visit to St-Remy, we followed the route where Vincent had painted some of his master pieces. Then we ended our tour to the hospital where we visited the museum inside the compound.

Many pink tulips

I realized that I have not been posting for quite a while now. So here are some pink tulips that I've done as an exercise a few weeks ago. I am a little bit in a hurry to feel the beauty of spring season. Here in my neighborhood I usually enjoy the coming of spring by walking around where every space is filled with various flowers with different colors. Crocuses and daffodils are everywhere.
I used quinacridone rose, sap green, olive green and yellow ochre to paint these flowers.

Convent of St. John

This convent is located in Muestair, Switzerland. Mustair is a small village near the border of Italy and Austria. I was there twice, but the photograph I used for this work was taken in 18 October 2007. The convent is a UNESCO World Heritage and it is not so big. A visit at their museum, one can have view of the lives of the Benedictine nuns in the village.
     The size of this painting is 30 x 40 cm, in watercolor.

Red Gladiolus

Yesterday, despite a thick snow on the ground, I saw a bit of sunshine. Taking this opportunity of a good light, I held my pencil to make a sketch of a gladiolus from a birthday card I got from a relative. Then in a rush I played with it with watercolor. See what happened, the flower is recognizable but it can be seen that it is not seriously done. This is what I do when I have an immediate urge to use my paintbrushes.

Since today is the last day of 2010, this work is naturally my last for this year. MAY EVERYONE HAVE A FRUITFUL & MORE SUCCESSFUL 2011.