Beginning of Summer

I still love this spirited painting painted on our island Paradise some years ago when the beached pram had not yet sunken into the reeds. It says everything about my feelings for Noorden!

Back in America until the beginning of August.
 

Next week end

This is a pretty shoddy way to advertise our Open House next weekend- 23,24 and 25 May.
Because I am not so handy with moving files about, I had to take a picture from the screen of the website page. I hope those reading DuTch will go to the website for the information or to www.Noordenaren.nl . Those thankfully following this Blog in America will have to book a flight and will certainly enjoy being in Holland at this time of the year. Forty sites in the region will be open for viewing art. You can bike over the dikes between them.We will have live music Sunday and Monday afternoons from the Brothers Kuyken. Everyone is welcome.

Paintings and flowers

 Herman is doing his best to get the gardens ready for the Art Open House happening the last weekend in May. The Wysteria is especially full, scented and nuanced with soft lilac and blue colors. Also the Camasia is at its peak. A few waterlelies have reached the surface of the bassins. It is all one very colorful blast of life here. Paintings are hanging inside and outside. Everyone is welcome to visit us on this little island.

Card Players

This series of paintings of the Card Players has a long history. On the back of one of the six canvases is the date 1989! and I keep changing them as the fellows get older. The style gets looser and I loose the intention of making a likeness. Instead I want the light flooding over the "player's field" (our kitchen table) and the intensity of the game to be the subject. Who is bluffing whom? They are character studies in van Gogh colors. The Potato Eaters painted by van Gogh in the 1880's in the south of Holland was my initial inspiration although those colors are muted. That light pouring over a table where something very Dutch is happening. Here it is also about winning money.
I have put the canvases away for the summer and will get them out in October when these outdoor hard- working men take their places here again on Friday evenings. They have been doing this for 40 years. No one would think of missing the gathering.

The House I live in in Holland

This morning, a beautiful spring May Saturday, I was taking my breakfast out to the greenhouse to eat with Herman and I saw that shots of the house might be nice to put on the Blog. So, I started in the serra (entry way going from the workshop to the interior of the house), the bathroom (I love looking at art in the bathroom!), a corner of the kitchen and then a corner of the living room (somehow the black TV screen helps the composition.
I hope you enjoy being in Holland.