Het Licht (The Light)

Het Licht (The Light)

3 x 7 oil on panel

available

This painting is of a field, perhaps some polder land again. I was having such a good time with painting light and dark transitions in the skies that I decided to do it again with this painting. There's no big story behind this painting, since it's not really of a particular place in Holland. It's just an impression, a depiction of the light fading at the end of the day over the Dutch landscape. I'm interested in these flat horizon landscape paintings and the way light plays over the fields. More of these to come, for sure!

I have been working on my seascape still, talked about here. It has changed quite a bit from the last session, but I haven't been able to get a good photo yet. I'll take one soon and post again about the progress!

Thanks for stopping in!

Boerderij (Farm)

3 x 7 oil on panel

available

This painting is of the fields of a Dutch farm. So many of my memories of Holland revolve around riding through the country side, whether by bus or bike. When I lived in Groningen (up north) my missionary companion (we always worked and lived in pairs as missionaries) had been there for 6 weeks before I arrived. She had visited some of the smaller villages (dorpjes) in the surrounding area by train and bus, but never by bike. It was in the month of February and we decided, for some crazy reason, to try to bike to a town about 9 miles away, in the snow and ice, on a frigid day. My companion thought she knew a great shortcut through some fields and over a dijk (dike). Well, needless to say, we trudged through a farm covered in a layer of ice and snow, along a frozen canal and dike, over a skinny bridge, and finally on a bike path into the fierce dutch polder wind. All that flat land next to the northern atlantic really makes for some great wind. A trip we thought would take an hour took three. We finally arrived to the town only to find that the person we were there to meet with wasn't home. We left a note, turned around, stopped off at a supermarket to get warm and get some food, and rode our bikes home. This time we didn't take the short cut, and guess how long our return trip took us? 45 minutes. Yeah.

Dutch farms are actually quite beautiful. The country-side is basically lined with farmland. In the spring and summer many of them light up with the vivid colors of tulips. The land is so green and rich, really all year round. The land is open and flat, but properties are often divided by straight rows of trees and man-made canals. This painting is a typical view of a the country-side and farmland in Holland.

Het Strand (The Beach)

Het Strand (The Beach)

3 x 7 oil on panel

available

As you have most likely noticed, the last 4 Dutch landscapes have been simple horizon lines close to the bottom of the panel. When I prepped these panels I sketched over the base color with charcoal. And guess what I sketched? You guessed it, a simple horizon line in just about the same place for each painting. It was fun to think of a different landscape/seascape for each one, but still keeping the same horizon line. I have three more panels of this same size coming up with the same theme, so be prepared for at least a few more paintings in this same vein.

I have to say that I think this is my favorite one so far. I just really love the sky. I've wanted to do a sky like this for a while, but haven't had the right subject or size. This is one I think I plan to do on a larger scale sometime (after I finish my current 12 x 24 inch painting still sitting on my easel!). This is a painting of the beach and ocean again. I love how the storm is rolling in from the north-west in this painting. The waves seem to have just the right amount of movement. I really wish I could be standing in this painting, but just not if it's as cold there as it is in Rhode Island today!

Peter and I took our little 2 year old to Providence on the bus. Once we arrived there we decided to go to the fish store and buy him a fish. Yikes! That was the coldest I've been in a long time. It's about 24 degrees with a wind chill that makes it feel like 10 degrees! Aah, I'm glad to be in our warm apartment where I can look out over Belcher's Cove and see that it's frozen from here to Barrington! I thank the Lord for shelter over my head at this time of year!

Tulpen (Tulips)

Tulpen (Tulips)

3 x 7 oil on panel

available

Here's the next Dutch landscape. I'm really enjoying these little paintings. Working on a small scale is great on so many levels. #1 Instant gratification! #2 Less paint to manipulate around the surface, so the results can be easier to get than on a large surface. #3 They are like tiny windows into the world when they're finished.

I figured I needed to do one of tulip fields, since that is one of the beauties of the Dutch landscape. Every year in Holland there is a huge tulip festival at the largest garden you've ever seen, Keukenhof. Keukenhof means "kitchen garden" and refers to the good old days when farmers had a family garden near the house that was solely for the family's consumption, not to be taken to market. This was the food they used in their own kitchen, hence the name of the garden. Anyway, Keukenhof is anything but a quaint personal garden. It's an expanse of land with trees, pathways, ponds, fountains, hedges, shrubs, and above all else, tulips! Every year thousands of people visit to see the tulips in full bloom. The gardeners at Keukenhof have planted all the bulbs to bloom at different times, so there's always a beautiful array of colors around every corner.

My favorite memories of tulip fields, however, isn't the times I visited Keukenhof. I just remember the train rides to and from different places, and the miles upon miles of tulip fields that pass by. You can almost always see the workers out in the fields, bent over the tulips. It's always fun to see a swathe of one particular color with a few random colors popping up here and there, like little runaways trying to fit in.

De Zee (The Sea)

De Zee (The Sea)

3 x 7 oil on panel

available

It's a small Dutch seascape this time around. Painting the grassy dunes along the coast made me want to paint the ocean. The sea in Holland is a cold and ferocious thing. As a missionary we had lots of rules to follow to keep safe and stay out of trouble. One of those rules was that we weren't allowed to swim. We could, however, visit the beach, but only in the colder months. So, while Dutch beaches might have more to offer than wind, cold sand, and sharp salty air, I certainly don't know about it! That being said, my memories of the beach are really good ones.

Here's a bunch of us missionaries building a sand-castle on the beach at Zandvoort aan Zee, while I lived in Haarlem. I believe this was in March, and it looks like a fairly sunny day, but rest assured, it was cold and windy! I'm the blonde with my hands on my knees three people in from the left.

Here's me and my sweetheart, Peter, at the same beach on a visit back to my mission in 2007. This was in November, so, alas I still haven't visited a Dutch beach in the summer months. Next time!

Duinen (Dunes)

Duinen (Dunes)

3 x 7 oil on panel

available

I stayed true to my word everyone! I really did start in on my new series of small Dutch landscapes. See, I'm not always all talk and no action:) I suppose my Polder and Canal paintings from yesterday fit in with this Dutch landscape theme, but I'm glad I stuck with it today when I got the chance to paint. Here's my first in a series of at least 10. Yay!

This painting is of the grassy dunes that line the coasts of Holland. My memory of dunes comes from when I lived in Haarlem, not too far from the coastal town of Zandvoort aan Zee. I visited Zandvoort aan Zee a few times while living there and have vivid memories of walking the paths through the dunes to see some of the homes that are tucked away in the hills near the ocean. When you stand in the dunes and close your eyes you can hear the wind pulling her fingers through the grass, a soft rustle, like a whisper. The salty breezes from the incoming waves below fill the air with fodder for a lifetime of memories. In my mind it's like an old photograph that I know I'll pick up and look at in my old age. I can still see myself standing there, leaning on an old wooden post from a scraggly wire fence. I remember I was wearing a pink shirt and brown corduroys. My hair was blowing across my face. And I was smiling.

I should've been a writer. And a singer. And a seamstress. One life pursuit at a time I say!

Small dutch landscapes

Remember at the beginning of January how I said I wanted to have a theme for a new series? Well, I have been piddling around with lots of different themes since then, which has been a lot of fun, but I think I've finally landed on what I want to do. I'm going to do small Dutch landscapes! I've just felt inspired! Every 3 years or so I get very homesick for Holland. In Dutch you say heimwee (hime-vay), longing and aching for home. I feel that way right now. I've been going through my fotos and I've been remembering places and memories. So, I've begun my new series with these two Dutch landscapes.

This first one is of the polder land, land that's been reclaimed from the ocean. There's tons of polder land in Holland, just waiting to be built on. While it's in its resting state (for 10 years or more) it's very beautiful, flat, and limitless.

Polder

8 x 8 oil on board

available

This next one is of a canal, also a very typical sight in Holland. This canal isn't the typical man-made canal though. This one is natural, which actually isn't as typical there. I was inpsired by fotos of Texel, one of the islands north of Holland that are part of the country. This comes from some impressions from those fotos.

Canal

8 x 8 oil on board

available