Virtual Paintout - Jerusalem - May 2012

The Google team has recently added Israel to Streetview.  I am finding some amazing views in Jerusalem and have been trying them out in pastel. Above is a covered market in the old city: the winding path goes on and on and every step along the way could inspire another painting. Below I used oil pastel to capture the panorama from the Mount of Olives.

Virtual Paintout - Gdansk - April 2012

I was impressed by this massive structure in countless shades of red brick on a square in Gdansk and completed the above drawing before discovering it was the "Muzeum Bursztynu". Further research led me to realise that bursztyn was actually the Polish word for "amber" - that souvenir stone I brought back on a necklace when I visited Poland ten years ago. Aside from jewelry, the museum also has a collection of insects found in amber. It turns out that amber is "fossilised tree resin" so the insects must have gotten trapped in the resin before it turned to stone. This fits in well with the other section of the museum, which relates to the building's long ago use as a prison tower and torture chamber!

Here is the Google Streetview image that inspired the above drawing: LINK

Virtual Paintout - Saint Petersburg - March 2012

McDonald's has been established in Russia for 22 years now -- time flies! They opened their first hamburger restaurant in Moscow on 31 January 1990. As usual they tried to add products that corresponded to local tastes. In Russia this meant cherry pie, potato wedges and cabbage pie!

I'm sketching on the Nevsky Prospekt again (via Google's images of Saint Petersburg). I used a combination of pencil, markers, water soluble crayons & pencils, ink and yellow highlighter (11.5" x 8").

Streetview Link

Virtual Paintout - Санкт-Петербург - март 2012

Невский проспект
This month's Virtual Paintout takes us to Saint Petersburg! I can't believe how much it has changed since I saw it in 1988 (as Lenningrad). I tried to find my photographs to locate the same views but have misplaced them. By clicking around in Google's Streetview -- looking at views from bridges -- I wound up on the Nevsky Prospect and began to draw in a sketchbook with Caran D'Ache Neocolor II's. Here's the link: Streetview

Virtual Paintout - Elba II - February 2012

This is my second submission for the Virtual Paintout in Elba. I'm on the Lungomare John Fitzergerald Kennedy in Cavo looking towards the beach. Of course, that's just wishful thinking! I'm not really there; I'm painting from the Google Streetview image (see LINK).

First five stages of 30x30cm oil painting on linen canvas board.

Wolvendael Magazine - February 2012

My 2006 painting of the "Foire de Saint Job" illustrates page 49 of February's Wolvendael magazine ("Journal Ucclois des information communales, culturelles et commerciales")!

Virtual Paintout - Elba - February 2012

Right after my last post and my Streetview travels over Rocky Mountain ski slopes, the weather suddenly turned cold in Belgium and on Friday it snowed all afternoon causing huge traffic jams throughout the Kingdom. Now that it finally feels like winter here, Bill Guffey has decided to send us to a warm, sunny island in Tuscany for February's Virtual Paintout -- not a bad idea! The Via della Costa winds through breathtaking scenery where cliffs drop into the Mediterranean and I couldn't wait to try painting this view of Chiessi in the Comune di Marciana. This is not as easy as I expected but definitely a lot of fun and I'd like to try the same view again on a bigger canvas. The only problem is that I already have several other locations picked out on Elba...

Here's the Streetview image in Google: Chiessi

Oil on Canvas

30x24cm

Virtual Paintout - Summit County, Colorado - January 2012

For January's Virtual Paintout, Bill Guffey sent us to Summit Country, Colorado. What an amazing location! I soon understood where the county got its name. The Google “streetview” team actually put on their skis for this one: more like “slopeview” in parts. It was difficult to choose a location to paint. I must admit I was looking for something I might be able to send out as a holiday card next December... I hesitated between Christmas decorations in town, skiers in action, a view of snow covered peaks and various groups of evergreens. This weekend, I took out a small canvas board and painted the above. The weather in Brussels has been unseasonably warm so I really enjoyed this getaway in the snow!

Here's the scene in Google's Streetview:

LINK

Don't forget to visit the Virtual Paintout blog for the entire collection of winter landscapes inspired by Streetview Summit County.

Oil on canvas board, 24x18cm

Happy New Year !

When I first moved to Belgium, I heard that my landlords had nice paintings on their walls and that they had two sets. That is, when the weather started to get cold, they would take out the winter landscapes and put the summer canvases into storage until the following summer. I'd never heard of anyone doing this but it seemed like a charming idea.

That's probably why, back in December 1999, when I noticed my paintings didn't go well with the Christmas tree, I decided I needed a special holiday painting that I could take out and hang in December to replace one of my spring landscapes. So I went out and bought a poinsettia plant and painted the above still life.

This is the first year I've forgotten to take it out, yet with workers here tearing out the bathroom walls and mixing plaster in my bedroom, it's not surprising. In fact, I haven't managed to do much of anything during this two-week vacation. Hopefully the humidity problems are finally fixed and I will be able to spend more time painting in 2012 (rather than cleaning bathroom walls with chlorine in my spare time).

Virtual Paintout - Arles - November 2011

This month's virtual paintout takes us to Arles - Van Gogh country!

I combined my Google Street View travels with a review of VG's paintings, thinking I might be inspired to paint the same scene he had painted or work in his style.

At first I sketched a road in Arles (below) and added a figure I'd seen in Van Gogh's "The Painter on His Way to Work". Link to Van Gogh Gallery

But I wasn't too happy with this scene so I headed out of town instead. Van Gogh's landscapes usually feature fields of golden wheat or corn, workers busy plowing, planting or seeding, etc., but these just didn’t match the barren fields of late autumn I was running across in Street View.

Finally I found a green vineyard with some low mountains in the distance that brought to mind the "Alpilles" which were the backdrop to some of Van Gogh's landscapes during his time in Arles.

Here's the Street View Link.

I decided to base my colour scheme the Van Gogh painting "Cypresses" (shown here):

Well, I'm not sure I succeeded in doing that but at least it was good discipline to narrow down my choice of colours.

Here are the preliminary steps:

I liked the sketch -- sort of looked a little like a Van Gogh to me.


This was a lot of fun but easy to make a mess in the end so I decided to quit while I was ahead.