Last lily of the summer, 2014

Maybe all these waterlily paintings look like each other. I don't know. Everyone, to me, was a new challenge=composition, color and what do I want that lily to be saying. All considerations before I charge and let it go where it wants. in this case, I started in sun light and ended yesterday in a soft rain. I keep painting until I am dead tired or the lily has folded her arms and withdrawn. This one, the very last in the basins, just kept going. We still don't know why they open and why they close when they do. They will mostly blossom for 4 days. There are always surprises, just like the rest of life. And then the water lily pads. they are also different, unique. The paint has to flow from one day to the next when the scene is completely different.
Closed the paint box for now. Will be back in two weeks. Time to look at what is going on in America.

last water lily in the rain

Two days ago I started this painting. Nice soft weather at the time. Today I knew I had to finish it. This lovely absolutely- last- water lily of the season was saying farewell and we both knew it. Herman brought the paraplu when the rain got heavier and I think I have finished it. don't want to polish it up and loose the surging loose strokes to the end. Music on my earphones was Russian and very good. tomorrow I will look at it with a fresh eye and then let it dry two weeks while we are in America. Hands off, Jeanne!

Five waterlily beds

Two weeks ago every kind of water lily Herman grows was bursting with joy in the polder behind the gardens. I couldn't resist trying to get it all down. too much? it just felt like it all must be included in this last breath of summer.

fall

Today the fall has set in. Wind through the reeds and birds on the island. Actually this small vignette was painted several years ago when we still had the pair of geese and the old pram had not yet fallen apart. The atmosphere is the same and I am still painting that scene although it is a bit different now. another view next time. thanks for looking.

A Dutchman

Gerard Hoveling has a typically "Dutch kop". Frans Hals and Rembrandt would have loved having him stop by as he often does here. He is brilliant with plants as well as having a bottomless knowledge of insects which he has photographed and put on the Internet. Some years ago Gerard started us on growing blue berries. We now have a field providing us every day a bowl of these healthy berries for a whole year. Thanks, Gerard. Have a good trip to America.

late summer blast

This is not a new painting, but the energy in it remains for me. The berries and sunflowers were in a bouquet given to me and I had to honor them in paint. Not a large painting= 50 x 50 cm. I would like to see it blown up on a wall. Pow! enjoy this day.

Water Lilies in the Shadow

Never ending inspiration for the water lily basins these late summer days. Endless deep reflections.
It's hard to know when to stop. When the energy has pulled the plug, I sit back to look and enjoy the paint, thick and thin, washes and impasto. This size has been my favorite one for this series. Probably because the "Men in Blue" portraits are lying in the depths. Yes, there is a portrait of a Dutch man beneath the water lilies-an Ophelia idea but with men." Hamlet, Oh Hamlet,where art thou?" Dreaming away is part of the process.

Oil on linen, 60 X 80 cm. €1,800

Summer again

We are having a spell of beautiful summer weather. every day painting the water lilies which are having a revival. We are endlessly sitting beside the waters watching the hundreds of tiny frogs blundering about while several really gigantic older frogs sit on the Herman rafts waiting for a tiny one to swim by. Gulp. gone.

Cumulus Magnimus

I am feeling like a ping- pong ball bouncing from the living room studio to the water lily bassins. These big clouds sometimes full of wetness are rolling over the land. They prompted this small study and a number of others. I love to paint these quickies on a deep red carton background. full of movement. got to go. have a good day.