Here you’ll find a collection of paintings done “en plein air” or outside on location.
With these quick sketches and loose paintings I try to capture the essence of a scenery, before the light changes too much. It’s a very focussed, yet very enjoyable experience. Once I’ve painted a scene outdoors, the smells, the sounds, the view, everything I felt is etched into my very soul there to remain forever. I like to think of these paintings as time travel windows, taking me back to where I was in spirit.
“Sleeuwijk” 2022 oil on ACM panel. It was a great evening, albeit a little chillier than expected. Fortunately there were no mosquitoes“Neerijnen church” 2022 oil on panel. I spent a wonderful morning painting the lovely church next to the Neerijnen castle garden.
Barstaön 24x30cm/9.5×11.8in Oil on canvas. view from an uninhabited island in the Gulf of Bothnia. While visiting a good friend in Sweden that once epically saved my life years ago, he took me on a one day canoo trip to one of his favorite islands along the Höga kusten, the Swedish high coast. My body wasn’t really up to it, but I pulled through climbing up to the top of the island, with the help of some of those lame looking trekking poles. (you’d think they wouldn’t be geeky in Scandinavia, how wrong was I). The view was so stunning and the two hours I spent painting this, were some of the most enjoyable painting times I’ve ever experienced.“Biesbosch” 2018 24x30cm/9.5×11.8in oil on canvas. A trip to an amazing Dutch national park called “De Biesbosch”. Here my camera wielding friend Wout and I drove around and filmed some of the beautiful nature and how I made this painting on location. We’ll be uploading the footage to YouTube in the near future. We think it’s great to creatively show the beautiful places our country has to offer, beyond all the cliché tourist traps, everyone’s already heard about When walking into the woods, on our way to this location, we met with someone working as the dutch equivalent of a park ranger, who told us that the spot we’re painting is a great spot for seeing eagles! Unfortunately they had just gone back into their afternoon naptime, so we didn’t get to see any. This is ofcourse a good excuse to go visit it again some time very soon!!“Brakel Floodplains” 24x30cm/9.5×11.8in oil on canvas. The first time me and my friend Aart went out plein air painting, we visited the floodplains next to the small town of Brakel. We immediately found a great spot to paint, getting our equipment there, however, was another story. (something with steep dykes and the worst excuse for stairs ever) Eventually when we were all set up and ready to go, the temperature was around 35 degrees C. and we were burning up, despite a big parasol Aart brought, which kept almost tipping over. I loved trying get those cool dark lines over the muddy sand with as few brushstrokes as possible. I think I got it as close to reality as possible in that amount of time and infernal temperature.“Loonse en Drunense Duinen” 2018 30x24cm/11.8×9.5in oil on canvas. Again I went out to paint with fellow artist Aart. This time to a place called “De Loonse en Drunense Duinen”. A beautiful dunescape, in the middle of the Dutch province of Noord-Brabant. It was quite a challenge getting on location as it was quite a walk up a steep sandy slope with a cart, carrying our painting gear. Fortunately Aart, who excercizes a lot, took the main portion of the weight. I was still already half dead before I got to my eventual painting spot after moving from a poorly chosen landrover-ruined scene to a more quiet place. There was still a very annoying helicopter flying over all day, so I decided to indulge it’s nagging wish to be in the painting. I loved painting those solitary pines and birches on the sand, I’m always amazed at how these trees survive in these barren circumstances. I think I got some sand and debris blown on my canvas when a stampede of kids ran over behind me. Not really an issue though, to me a bit of sand and dirt in the painting gives it interesting geological qualities.“Zouweboezem” 2022 18x24cm/7×9.4in oil on panel. I had a lovely hour of painting here. Would love to go paint the mill from another angle some time
Into The Biesbosch, 2021 18x24cm/7×9.5in Oil on canvas. I went into the Biesbosch national park again with my french easel and painted the path to the best area to watch ospreys. It was a delightful summer morning. I made the block-in for this painting on location and spent another hour on it in my studio when I could see it in better lighting conditions.
