After Lunch, garden table in sunlight

oil on canvas panel - Öl auf Malplatte - huile sur carton entoilé
15 cm x 15 cm / 5,9" x 5,9"
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One of our last lunches outside - the days are getting shorter and cooler (just a little bit). As the sun has already wandered to the other side of the house, we drink our after lunch coffee there - might paint that tomorrow...

Sunlit Vine, french house in autumn light

oil on canvas panel - Öl auf Malplatte - huile sur carton entoilé
15 cm x 15 cm / 5,9" x 5,9"
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The amazingly beautiful weather we are blessed with here at the moment allows us to still have lunch outside - and just then the sunlight shines through the leaves of the vine growing along the wall of our house. From my place at the table, I then enjoy this lovely view!

Evening in Autumn, farmhouse, France

oil on canvas panel - Öl auf Malplatte - huile sur carton entoilé
15 cm x 15 cm / 5,9" x 5,9"
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On our property there are two buildings, the main house and a big barn, between them a flight of stairs leading to the terrace. In the evening that is where the last rays of sunlight shine through and create a wonderful, pastoral atmosphere, as you can see in this picture. The weather here at the moment is absolutely fantastic!

Rainy Evening

oil on canvas panel - Öl auf Malplatte - huile sur carton entoilé
15 cm x 15 cm / 5,9" x 5,9"
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Portrait of a young woman

oil on canvas panel - Öl auf Malplatte - huile sur carton entoilé
15 cm x 15 cm / 5,9" x 5,9"
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First of all I would like to send a BIG "thank you" to Myra who is a very creative (and fast working) artist and film maker! After having just discovered my work, she surprised me with a wonderful little film about Cezanne, full of humour, in which she also featured a few of my paintings!!!! Have a look on Myra's blog Last cup of coffee and enjoy!
I am very touched and feel honoured by so much attention! Thank you, very, very much, Myra, for this lovely gift! And please excuse me for not having mentioned this yesterday already, but we were invited for dinner and I simply didn't make it.

Another attempt at a portrait of Melodie, the young Dutch woman. I prefer the brushwork here, it seems more lively to me than the first one, but unfortunately I didn't manage to capture her likeness as well as before. I might work on it again...

Anneke, portrait of a woman in profile

oil on canvas panel - Öl auf Malplatte - huile sur carton entoilé
15 cm x 15 cm / 5,9" x 5,9"
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This is the portrait of another Dutch woman, Anneke, whom my Dutch girl Melodie from a few days ago was looking at. I like this painting much better than that of Melodie, so I think I will try to paint it again. With my students today we decided to hire a model for our classes in the near future - we are getting more and more aware of the fact that portraiture painting can only be learnt properly from the living model!

L'Atelier Gris II, sunny corner in artist's studio

oil on canvas panel - Öl auf Malplatte - huile sur carton entoilé
15 cm x 15 cm / 5,9" x 5,9"
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Well, I tried to do this one a bit looser than the first one but I am not sure I like it better. I wanted to ignore the details - the difficulty is to decide which detail is superfluous which essential? When is less more?

L'Atelier Gris, sunny corner in artist's studio

oil on canvas panel - Öl auf Malplatte - huile sur carton entoilé
15 cm x 15 cm / 5,9" x 5,9"
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Heavy rain here today, so I stayed in my studio and tried to capture the occasional sunrays peaking through an opening in the clouds. This is definitely the only tidy corner in my studio, believe me! I am thinking of maybe painting the chaotic corners sometime as well, but in this one I wanted to concentrate on the light on the grey walls (unfortuntely not white - yet...) and keep it as simple as possible. I did a second one after this which I will show you tomorrow. By the way, isn't that little sofa beautiful? A friend of mine gave it to me with two matching chairs, because she moved and didn't have any space for it anymore. Lucky me!

Oregon Coast on Misty Day, painting

oil on canvas - Öl auf Leinwand - huile sur toile
35 cm x 70 cm / 13,8" x 27,5"
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This third and last painting of the series that I painted for my Dutch clients was my favourite! I loved working on all the different hues the water reflected and on trying to achieve that special light filtered through the clouds. Although perhaps the less spectacular place of the three, this is where I would most like to have been myself - I LOVE the sea and miss it quite a lot. I hope I will have the opportunity one day to live on a coast again!

The Perito Moreno Glacier

oil on canvas - Öl auf Leinwand - huile sur toile
40 cm x 50 cm / 15,7" x 19,7"
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Here now the second of the series, the Perito Moreno Glacier in the Andes.
Apparently it sort of devides a lake like a huge dam, so that the water levels vary a lot. I have never been in South America myself, but painting these scenes is a tiny bit like taking part in the journey!

Patagonia

oil on canvas - Öl auf Leinwand - huile sur toile
40 cm x 50 cm / 15,7" x 19,8"
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This is one of three landscapes that I was commissioned to paint after the photographs of a Dutch couple, that they took on their wonderful trip to Patagonia and the west coast of the United States. I finished the third and last of this series today and am happy and relieved that this commission is finally done.Will show you the other two in the coming days.

Under the Lime-Tree

oil on canvas panel - Öl auf Malplatte - huile sur carton entoilé
15 cm x 15 cm / 5,9" x 5,9"
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This is one of our favourite spots to sit and have lunch whilst enjoying the lovely view down into the valley - but now it has quite suddenly become too cold to do so - autumn is taking over. Now we just enjoy the new colours appearing in nature!

To the Trees

oil on canvas panel - Öl auf Malplatte - huile sur carton entoilé
15 cm x 15 cm / 5,9" x 5,9"
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Late Summer Morning

oil on canvas panel - Öl auf Malplatte - huile sur carton entoilé
15 cm x 15 cm / 5,9" x 5,9"
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Initially I had planned to paint another portrait today, namely the person the dutch girl was looking at. But when I saw the beautiful light this morning and realized that this was probably one of the last days this year with such an atmosphere, I decided to paint en plein air instead. It was so much fun that I finally ended up with three paintings, which you will see over the next days. The portrait just has to wait....

The Dutch Girl

oil on canvas panel - Öl auf Malplatte - huile sur carton entoilé
15 cm x 15 cm / 5,9" x 5,9"
sold - verkauft - vendu

A few weeks ago, on one of these balmy summer evenings here in the Dordogne, I was invited for dinner on the terrace by some dear friends. Not only was the food delicious but I also had the pleasure to sit opposite this beautiful young lady from Holland, who bears the not less beautiful name "Melodie".

Father and Son

oil on canvas panel - Öl auf Malplatte - huile sur carton entoilé
10 cm x 30 cm / 3,9" x 11,8"
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To be honest, I am not really happy with this one. I quite like the right side of the painting but I had lots of difficulties with the left side. I painted that young man's face a million times, wiped it off again and again, but didn't manage to paint him as loosely as his father. Secondly I am not sure about the background. Might give it another try sometime because I do like the composition of the two men looking at each other and the waterfront....

Red Door - Bordeaux

Before we left for Barcelona we went to Bordeaux one day where we got to walk along the dock promenade that has been developed over the last few years on the banks of the river "Garonne". It is quite beautiful with generous views of the city in the background. The buildings along the quayside - a scruffy part of town earlier on - are partially renovated and partially still waiting to be. I particularly like the coloured doors one sees here (in Germany that is rather rare) and was inspired by this red door to paint this scene.
I also got to see a lovely exhibition titled "Matisse and Marquet" which was a perfect complement to Hilary Spurling's biography of Matisse, that I am reading at the moment. It was the first time I ever saw anything by Albert Marquet and I was very impressed!! Matisse of course has been one of my heros since my teenage days!



oil on canvas - Öl auf Leinwand - huile sur toile
24 cm x 33 cm / 9,5" x 13"
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Marigolds

Hi everybody!

After a very stressful 10 days in wonderful hot Barcelona, I am now back in the studio. We had to find an accomodation for our 17 year old son who will spend his last schoolyear at the Lycée Francais there. Quite a difficult undertaking!
Anyway, back home I was very pleased to find my marigolds in bloom beside my studio door - voila!



oil on canvas panel - Öl auf Malplatte - huile sur carton entoilé
15 cm x 15 cm / 5,9" x 5,9"
sold - verkauft - vendu