Brasserie 'Het Vrijdag'

The building is called 'Het Vrijdag'. There, one can eat and drink, hold celebrations, meetings, workshops and receptions. See http://hetvrijdag.nl for more about the place. The site does not say about the building but it looks like an old Dutch farm house. It is about ten minutes walk from where I live.

Rose from Enrum

Inspired by a rose from the garden of Louis and Eliza who are living in Enrum, Holland. When we visited them, I took some pictures of their roses and used one of them as reference for this painting. The original colors of the rose are somewhat light pink with a hint of orange. I used watercolors and arches paper.

Our fruit tray

We eat various fruits that are in season. But the fruits in the tray in this painting are the ones we take everyday. Other fruits can be absent but not banana, oranges and apples.
I wish everyone a nice and pleasant weekend.

Peaceful looking robin

I love robins, they are very peaceful looking birds. And they are not so complicated to paint. I did this small painting directly on paper without pencil sketch. Have a good weekend.

A rose for a special day

Today, we sent this small painting as a wedding anniversary card to a couple who are very dear to us. Hope they will have a wonderful time on their special day.

A small rose sketch

Did this small sketch a week ago as a practice before I started a much bigger painting. Wish everyone a rosy weekend.

Rose leaves

I realized that I have not been painting for already more than one month now. The reasons are many but this morning while I was reading online news, I suddenly picked up one of my brushes and with my cotman watercolor travel set on the table I came up with this little sketch of rose leaves. This is what I like with watercolors, we can just immediately start with it without much preparations.

I had a wonderful holiday in Rigi, Zwitserland and in Lake Como in Italy. I may share some photos I took during the trip. Good day to everyone.

Lovely rose

I painted this rose during my practice time in August last year but it is only now that I am posting it here. This was inspired by someone else work but with so many paintings I saw from youtube and other sources I could not remember anymore whose work it is.
I will be going for a vacation in Zwitserland and Italy, so I wish you all a fruitful and enjoyable painting time. Until then.

A big old tree

I painted this old big tree last February but have not yet posted it here. I was hesitant to show it here because I felt I still have to improve it. But since I have no new painting to share today, I decided to post it anyway. The inspiration for this painting came from the photo of a family friend that was sent to us as a christmas card.

Buddleia flower

This time of the year there are always Buddleia plants flowering with various colors in my neighborhood's gardens and parks. Last Tuesday, having just enjoyed the smell of the flowers in the garden nearby my house, I sketched this Buddleia flower and sent it as a birthday card to a family member who just had his birthday.
Buddleia plant is commonly known as butterfly bush. Its flower attracts many insects particularly butterflies.

Red poppy

A red poppy study. Did it two days ago using watercolors and without pencil sketch. I used my photograph as reference. 

Another light red rose sketch

This is another rose sketch I did last week together with the one I posted a week ago using Fontaine watercolor paper.
I wish everyone a peaceful and relaxing weekend. Cheers.

Light red rose sketch

There was a sale of Fontaine watercolor paper a week ago in the shop where I usually go for art supplies. The paper is 100 percent cotton, 300 grams and extra rough. I thought I would try it for my sketching time. Yesterday, I got some time to sketch these roses. I like the paper but I don't know if it is good for a project that requires realistic details.

Four pears

I realized that it is almost one month since my last blog post here. So, here is a painting of fours pears that I did last month but I missed to share. The painting is in watercolor. Have a pleasant weekend to all of you.

Rose from Enrum

4.5x4.5 inches, painted in watercolor
Inspired by my photograph taken from a friend's house in Enrum here in Holland.
We are busy these days improving our house, so I have little time to paint. Fortunately, I have small paintings which I have not yet shared in this blog, such as this rose.
May you all have a wonderful art days ahead.

Landscape study

A 6x8 inches landscape study in watercolor which I plan to paint in a larger size. The place is Bucas Grande Island in the Philippines. The reference photo is by Glenn Santillan.

Tulip sketch: artist pen and watercolor

Last week, I saw a group of tulip flowers while walking around our neighborhood. I took some photographs and yesterday I started using them as reference materials for my sketching practice. This tulip sketch is only one of the sketches I made so far. 

Watercolor sketch of two roses

This is one of the few sketches I made a week ago. It is based from how I imagined these two roses when I was sketching them. Wish you all a beautiful weekend.

Am back with my watercolors

I always find it difficult to start again when for some time I don't use my brushes. I was away for about nine weeks and that for me is too long without my brushes. I missed them. So, to warm up my hand, I spontaneously drew and painted this rose using my brush and watercolor paints on watercolor paper. Have a nice art day.

Am back from Asia trip

I was on a 9-week trip to Asia. This is the reason why this blog was silent for a while. During the trip, I was busy; and even if I have time to sketch or visit my blog, I would rather spend it resting. I got easily tired due to warm weather. Another thing is that internet connection in the place where I stayed is slower than what I am used to, so that made me more not enthusiastic to use my tablet or smartphone in browsing the internet. But I enjoyed the trip. Below are photographs of some plants, etc.

Rose from York

In watercolor, 6x6 inches

Being my favorite flower, I have collected lots of photographs of roses. And this painting was based from a photograph I took while in York in England last year. Hence, I titled it as 'rose from York.'

Happy Valentine's Day to everyone.

Jars from Wierdenland museum in Ezinge

I saw these jars from Wierdenland museum in Ezinge, Holland. 

They are some of the archeological artifacts found in the area. 

This painting is done in watercolor.

A rose from a friend's garden

This rose painting is my first painting for 2016. 

It is in watercolor and the size is 6x6 inches. I used as reference my own

photographs which I took last year from our friend's garden. I changed the original 

color of the rose which is soft pink to this blue-violet color.

Happy New Year!

Sunrise in Oil, 24x30 cm, on canvas

I wish all of you blogger friends and visitors of this blog a blessed and healthy 2016! Good luck for the New Year and may you all have a very successful creative times ahead.

I finished this painting last November. It is one of the two oil paintings I painted as a practice in using oil paints. I like using oil paints but I could not take the smell of the mediums that we used during the practice. I might try next time the water mixible oil paints.