Tonalism Spring Challenge

The Tonalism Facebook group still hasn’t selected the photo for their Spring Challenge but I was inspired to try one of the “contestant” photos already. The photographer is Dave Ridge but I don’t think his will win because there’s another that’s way ahead in votes. We’ll find out on the 12th.

"Tonalism Challenge"
30x30, oil on canvas

Place(s) à l'Art à Uccle 2019

"Place(s) à l'Art -- septembre 2012"
20x20 cm, oil on canvas
(private collection, Brussels)

Final date:  Sunday, 29 September 2019 on Place Saint Pierre (9h00 to 13h00)

See you there (unless it rains)

The event will follow a new schedule this year:

Every Sunday from 9h00 to 13h00, from 28 April to 29 September 2019 on Place Saint Pierre.*

*except from 28 July to 1 September, when it will take place in Parc Wolvendael from 15h00 to 18h00, during the outdoor concerts.

Read about the changes on the site of the Commune d'Uccle:  2019 "Place à l'Art"

Concerts in the park: musiques-au-parc

See you there on the following dates in 2019:

 28 July, 4 August and 1 September in Parc Wolvendael (15h00 to 18h00)

22, 29 September on Place Saint Pierre (9h00 to 13h00)

My drawings from previous years: Mes dessins de Place(s) à l'art

Le piétonnier de la Rue Xavier de Bue

Virtual Paintout - U.S. Virgin Islands II - August 2018 (first stages)

After concentrating on urban sketching in coloured pencil for months, it was nice using oil paints again. I plan to continue working on this painting but had to sign and photograph today in order to meet the deadline for Bill Guffey's VPO site.

Here's the link I used: Google Street View

The three previous stages:

Link to final version

"Clouds at Isaac Point"
8x10inch oil on canvas
(private collection, Brussels)

Virtual Paintout - Malta - July 2017 (first stages)

First stage of a 13x18cm oil painting
of the harbour at Marsaxlokk
(private colleciton, Naples)

I didn't want to miss the Virtual Paintout in Malta so I spent the last weekend of the month travelling through the country in Google Street View. I had barely started the above seascape when I discovered an unusual beach with rectangular bassins further up the coast.  (Street View Link)

A sign read :

" Do not pass or stroll through Salt Pans. 

Do not litter in Salt Pans. 

Do not wash clothes or anything in Salt Pans.” 

This was intriguing so I checked a few Internet sites and found out that salt production was an ancient industry in Malta, probably dating back to Roman times. The process involves leaving sea water to evaporate in "pans" (the flat areas) until the salt residue can be collected and moved to storage areas on higher ground. 

In my sketch below, tourists are visiting the Kwejni Salt Pans:

"The Salt Pans"

Coloured pencil in 20.7x29.6cm sketchbook

Barcelona (first stages)

Finally got around to painting this view of the Sagrada Familia that I found in Google Street View: Link to Gaudi's Basilica. I'm almost done my version but sounds like the real one won't be finished until 2026 or even later.

"City Trip"
13x18cm, oil on canvas
(private collection) final version

Virtual Paintout - Philadelphia II - January 2015

Difficult to miss the "Swann Memorial Fountain" when you visit Philadelphia given its central location near so many of the city's highlights like the Barnes Foundation, the Rodin Museum, Moore College of Art, the Franklin Institute, the Philadelphia Free Public Library. I have taken several photographs here over the years, usually of the turtle and frog sculptures near the outside rim. However, I am only now learning that the three figures in the middle depict Native Americans and each represents a local waterway (the Delaware, the Schuylkill and the Wissahickon). A real tribute to water since Dr Swann himself was head of the Philadelphia Fountain Society, a company which helped provide drinking water to the city.

Google Street View Link


"Logan Square"
18x24 cm, oil on canvas

Virtual Paintout - County Kerry, Ireland - October 2014 (first stages)

This month, the Virtual Paintout took us to County Kerry, Ireland, where the Google Street View cameras have captured some beautiful countryside.  I found the above landscape near the scenic Ring of Kerry: 

Google Street View Link

Whenever I paint something like this, I  start thinking how I would like to work on a huge canvas, yet I would never finish in time to submit to the VPO site by the end of the month.

Here is the final painting, completed in February:

"Scenic County Kerry"
24x30cm, oil on canvas

Virtual Paintout - Kinmen Island - August 2014 (first stages)

It's not easy fitting everything in during the summer months.  After missing July's VPO in Greece (despite having picked out a few spots on the coast), I didn't want to let Kinmen Island slip by too, so I took advantage of this rainy weekend to finish a tiny painting today.  For someone who's just experienced the worse August weather on record here in Belgium, it's surprising to see umbrellas open in bright sunshine. In fact, bright sunshine itself seems a bit unreal.

This group is visiting the Shuitou Deyue Tower, which is part of a historic buidling complex highlighted in the guidebooks.

"Tourists"
12.5x17.5cm, oil on canvas

Late Monet (first stages)

Time to start painting again.

In Monet's later work, the subject matter practically disappears. Last time I had not painted in a while, I took a 30x30cm canvas panel and tried to recreate the colors from one of Monet's 1922 series, "The house from the garden":

"Impression of a Monet"

30x30cm, oil on canvas panel

I wouldn't call this a copy because I didn't follow the brushwork very carefully but it was a great loosening-up exercise. When I'm not painting every day, I need something like this to get back into it more efficiently.

Afterwards I worked on a small canvas I had started when the Virtual Paintout was in Croatia.  It's a far-cry from a Monet but I think what I accomplished was better than what it might have been without the start-up exercise.

"Croatian mountain landscape"
24x30 cm, oil on canvas

This time I was planning to select another Monet when I saw sunflowers on sale at the supermarket. The temptation was too great; I went out and bought a bunch.  Then, once you have cut flowers in the house, the clock starts ticking and there's no time to dabble in late Monet.

"Five sunflowers"
20x20cm, oil on canvas panel
(private collection, Brussels)

It took me a long time to get this to work because I started out too fast. I've been sketching recently and so I think I was looking for immediate results and failed to spend enough time planning the design. But a bouquet of sunflowers is so uplifting and motivating that you don't give up too quickly. In fact they are still in perfect condition so I'm off to try again from another angle.

Virtual Paintout - Slovenia - March 2014 (first stages)

I was surprised to find images of the autumn in Street View Slovenia. 

When Bill Guffey revealed the Virtual Paintout destination for March, he mentioned flowers and springtime, so I was looking for a scene along those lines when I ran across this vineyard, photographed in October.  

Location link:  Velike Malence

Needless to say, I had to stop in my "virtual" tracks and get out my paints right away!

Since I have not posted recently, I was anxious to finish this oil sketch today but hope to get back to this again next weekend.

"Velike Malence"

20x20cm, oil on canvas

Virtual Paintout - Iceland II & III - November 2013 (first stages)

"The Westfjords"

10x15cm, oil on canvas


More stress-free travel via Google Street View, where I'm now discovering the Westfjords region of Iceland and worked on these two small oil sketches.  I had forgotten how different it felt to paint on a hard panel with a smooth finish. 

"Driving to Isafjördur"
13x18cm, oil on board

Place(s) à l'Art -- septembre 2013 (first stages)

"Place(s) à l'Art -- septembre 2013"
13x18cm, oil on canvas panel

Virtual Paintout - Charleston SC - July 2013 (first stages)

Bill Guffey selected Charleston, South Carolina, for this month's Virtual Paintout. I've never been there but it looks like a beautiful city. I thought it would be fun to start by painting one of these horse-drawn carriages in the historic district (Link). Meanwhile, I've had my television on all day because it's the Belgian National Holiday (21 July) and the country also has a new King Philippe today, following the abdication of his father, Albert II. So when I checked the name of the Charleston Street I was painting, I was surprised to find out I was on King Street!

"King Street"

10x15 cm, oil on canvas

Parc de Wolvendael - 1 mai 2013 (first stages)

May 1st was a pleasant surprise: sunny and warm enough to sit in the park and paint!  

Later finalized in the studio:

 

"Le 1er mai au Parc de Wolvendael"
20x25cm, oil on canvas
(private collection, Brussels)

Virtual Paintout - Slovakia II - December 2012 (first stages)

Happy 20th anniversary Slovakia! (I heard on the evening news that they split from the Czech Republic on 1 January 1993.) Street View images of the country are filled with blossoming fruit trees so I gave up looking for snow and decided to start dreaming of spring already! (road to Voznica)

Wishing everyone a positive and productive 2013!

Another View of Mount Fuji

When Fujifilm asked if they could use an image of my Virtual Paintout “Postcard from Mount Fuji” to demonstrate the high quality of their printers, I didn’t realize right away that this would lead me to discover the world of canvas prints. I had thought prints would pale in comparison to real paintings, but - to my astonishment - the result was excellent. When enlarged, my tiny brushstrokes seem transformed into huge colour marks that stand out on the canvas. They’ve explained to me that they use a special printing process on a Fujifilm Acuity UV (ultraviolet curing) printer, where ink is water based and when exposed to UV light, the molecules bond to each other and to the support. The water then dries up immediately.

 

I've tried this out on other small paintings and sketches.  They not only withstood magnification but have been given a whole new life – no longer limited to just one wall or hidden in a sketchbook on a shelf.  For instance, I now have a giant enlargement of my tiny 5" x 8" sketch of Ostend on my office wall. After spending two years reducing everything to thumbnails for computer monitors, it's a lot of fun seeing big for a change! Thanks Fujifilm!

Virtual Paintout - Elba II - February 2012 (first stages)

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 Street View image (see LINK).

"Elba Beachscape"
30x30cm, oil on linen canvas panel
(private Collection, Brussels)

Virtual Paintout - Arles - November 2011 (first stages)

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.

"Arles"

24x30cm, oil on canvas

(private collection, Brussels)

Virtual Paintout - New Zealand - June 2011 (first stages)

June's Virtual Paintout is in New Zealand. I've never been there but it looks beautiful. The challenge this month is the lack of colour in the Google Street View shots, but I'm having a great time anyway. Below are stages 1 and 2:

Here's what it looks like in Google:
Near Kiwi Road

Studio Atelier May 2011 Painting Project (first stages)

Well, this is as far as I got on Barb Benik's Studio Atelier Challenge (see her photo on my TV above). But I plan to post the completed painting soon!