Nerdy Artists' Images

Doing research on Mesdag at the moment – he was a multifaceted man: painter, family man, networker, art bigwig. Which sparked off an idea that was on my mental shelf for a while: do a series of photo’s on duch art bigwigs. For starters I used a magazine called ‘Interieur – The Ultimate Dutch Design Magazine’. What’s in […]

These days I visit a museum, a gallery or another place where High Art is to be found on a weekly basis – please let me never get to a point where I take this for granted! Participating in the Art of Making Art Exhibitions remains a very special thing, to be hugely enjoyed. Being fundraiser for […]

Visited Huis Marseille this week, and had an interesting conversation with curator Saskia Asser. Who has the honor to divide her time between Huis Marseille (curator) and Rijksmuseum (researcher). Huis Marseille is a typical Amsterdam we-have-more-money-than-space 17th century house, with a stoop up front and a smallish garden behind. Such luxury! I made pics of […]

I had sunshine today, so the opportunity to photograph my art moguls was there. Did a complete series, stil think the idea has merit. Wonder what the images will look like poster-sized. Anyway, I put them side by side with the images from yesterday, and now I am undecided – do I like the blueish […]

This cubist image is a work by Lernert Engelberts & Sander Plug – its mathematical precision is astounding …… The image is composed of raw foodstuffs, cut in squares of exactly 2,5 x 2.5 x 2,5 and placed at equal distances. For a former maths junk: what could appeal more? The image is a trailer for the exhibition […]

A little while ago I went to the Hague for business reasons, and had an afternoon to spare. The day was nice, so I decided to go and have a look at the Westlands Museum, where the history of cultivating flowers and fruit under glass is highlighted. It is small but charming, and has a […]

This weekend I went to the new private museum Museum Voorlinden that is the talk of the town at the moment. Quote from Trouw 30-08-2016 (my translation): The new museum is situated on the 40-hectares estate Voorlinden and will be opened on September 10th by the king. Art collector Joop van Caldenborgh, – who made his fortune dealing in chemicals – had it built […]

A picture to capture summer bliss. For the first time in ages the weather was inviting enough to eat al fresco, and it was wonderful! For the record,we had home-made pizza, made from scratch, which is the absolute best. And for desert a pastry made with red currants from the garden, yummy! I designed the pastry […]

This morning’s surprise: an opium poppy [papaver somniferum] in flower. It is the color of a cardinal’s cap. My garden is like a jewel box today – drops of vibrant color: purple, orange, blue, yellow, pink, cherry, ochre against a green velvet background. Who cares that the sun don’t shine when raindrops make my jewels sparkle? Related […]

Photographing one’s garden on a rainy day – pretty nice, the raindrops on the flowers. Below are borage [Borago officinalis] and lavender [Lavandula Angustifolia] and love-in-a-mist [Nigella damascena]. I do love blue flowers! I converted the pics to black-and-white – easier to see if they are any good – and these three passed the test. Later: […]

A ship on the beach is a beacon at sea – the literal translation of a famous Dutch saying. We’ve never felt much need for beacons along the rivers, even though rivers carry their own threats. Witness the fact that I have – hopefully just for once in my life – been evacuated from my […]

Bulb Planting Time Last night he said the dead were dead And scoffed my faith to scorn; I found him at a tulip bed When I passed by at morn. “O ho!” said I, “the frost is near| And mist is on the hills, And yet I find you planting here Tulips and daffodils.” “‘Tis […]

Of course! Essential tulip-ness can also be expressed through poetry. Found this one by chance today: “Before they came the air was calm enough, Coming and going, breath by breath, without any fuss. Then the tulips filled it up like a loud noise. Now the air snags and eddies round them the way a river snags […]

Am still searching for a way to capture the ultimate tulip-ness. Today I used photoshop to deconstruct photos from Tulip ‘Tarda’, which I grow in containers – and very successfully, too. More flowers every year, my kind of bulb ;) I like the idea of being part of history – from the Dutch Tulip Craze onwards, we’ve […]

Forgot to blog about Stedelijk Museum Schiedam – I visited it in the slipstream of the dKvhT program, where I had to work two weeks ago wednesday (which is dKvhT day) and visited on my own the next friday. Schiedam is one of those pretty Dutch towns that nobody goes to – apart from people interested in […]

The book I am presently engrossed in is the story of Theo Jansen, Dutch artist and builder of beach animals made of yellow plastic tubing. His beach animals are known the world over – and justly so, I think. Theo is the reason I entered the world of the visual arts. I am a late bloomer, for I managed […]