Samson and Delila, mixed media

May this New Year bring raging passion directed into the calm energy of peace. We can have hope.

Christmas Maria

A relatively old painting, but still a good one, I think.
Ponder the holidays.

Brothers

Today my portraits of two brothers were accepted and taken home by their parents. These young men made me very happy by their presence in my studio. They talked openly and willingly about their lives, asperations and occupations. Then the work began. I continued the start by interpreting from photos, not my favorite way of painting. Because of their strong characters I could easily conjure up their presences. I kept going until I got what I wanted: moving paint in tones and forms corresponding with personality. Thank you Thijs and Sjoerd.
Sorry. I will have to get help to get the photos up.

Exhibition in Alphen a/d Rijn

First stage of a painting for Women From the Bible, 2013.  The canvas which was not a success was covered with tissue paper. Voilá. I am putting this up because of the BBC 3 program , music honoring those killed in wars. Don't know the connection really, just intuitive.
The exhibition in Alphen a/d Rijn is  called "Liefde". Simply = Love. Everything is about love. If I don't have it, how could I paint?
Please go see the show. Until 9 January.

Exhibition in Alphen a/d Rijn

First stage of a painting for Women From the Bible, 2013.  The canvas which was not a success was covered with tissue paper. Voilá. I am putting this up because of the BBC 3 program , music honoring those killed in wars. Don't know the connection really, just intuitive.
The exhibition in Alphen a/d Rijn is  called "Liefde". Simply = Love. Everything is about love. If I don't have it, how could I paint?
Please go see the show. Until 9 January.

Exhibit

An exhibit of a series of oil paintings titled "Love" will begin at Park Theater Gallery, Alphen/Rijn, November 7, and last until January 9, 2017. It is full of reds in passionate tones and then Eros and Psyche, a small image in nearly every painting inspired by a copy of a Roman statue from 2 A.D. found in Tongeren,Belgium.
Come see this show please!

Just two days left=Heart of the Hilltowns show

Playing

This "on the way" portrait is coming along. The spirit of the young man is in it. Nice to work in the Dutch studio on a wind-from-the-sea day. Thinking of Lucian Freud. Applying paint. Moving it around. I don't use mefium. Scrape it off if it gets muddy or too thick with dulling mixed color. I have no scheme. Joyously playing. When my energy gets less, I go down to have a bite to eat with Herman. Always listening to BBC 3. Good morning music. This start will be continued when we return from America. It will be set-up with drying. 

It will be exciting to frame and hang "The Heart of the Hilltown II" exhibit of 50 portraits next week. Come to the opening, 7 October, 7 to 9, in the Cummington Community House Gallery in Cummington, Ma.

Heart of the Hilltowns II
Opening October 7th reception 7 - 9 p.m.
Showing until October 31st
at the Cummington Community House
33 Main Street
Cummington, MA

Last painting of summer=Swan Island

A memorial gathering for Craig, Sunday, 11/9, in Noorden, 11 uur voor de koffie!

Cummington couple

Worthington couple

At The Creamery

What a painter!

Reworked

A good worker for the community

In loving memory

Memorial Service

Craig's Stairway to Paradise, 2005, made in Noorden, S. Holland. Tomorrow at 1p.m. In the West Cummington Congregational Church W. Cummington, Ma., we will honor his life. Open to the public.

Hilltown builder

One heck of a good fiddler!

A good potter among other things

Hilltown super mother

Hilltown artist

Hilltown woman

A great musician!

A real Irishman living in Nieuwkoop

Stairway to Paradise

Craig's Garden

1994

Gone

This big painting was discovered behind many more. Sold! Good for Herman.

Socks from Bosnia

Getting ready

How to make decisions about finishing paintings? This is my encampment room=our living room turned studio. Must be ready for guests by Saturday=Art show for 3 days. You are invited.

Art route

I know, this is in Dutch. What it means is that you are invited to join a big bike route connecting about 30 artists. Our little village, Noorden, has the best artists, we think.

'T Paardje

I hope I spelled that right. Dutch and English are getting more mixed up than ever. I painted this one in the 80's when I got out very early Sunday mornings and drove to a fishing village, Marken, on the Dutch Ijsselmeer. I can't paint from my imagination. It doesn't interest me.The thrill of painting is being inspired by the light and movement going on around me. Being "in" it so to speak. Now I am being like Claude Monet who, when in old age, painted what was around him. And Edward Manet who painted a lovely series you can see in a book, "Manet's Last Flowers".

Eternal

What is that anyway: Eternal love? 

For me the reason why I keep painting Psyche, Eros and red roses. it is something out of bounds for us. A wisp of a dream and longing. Maybe we have felt it ever so briefly. Not to be captured, sealed in a box. In our hearts? I hope so.

We search for metaphors and symbols. There have been so many sculptures and stories made about these two mythological lovers. Most all are classical-romantic=idealized.

Years ago a Flemish girl friend gave me a small replica of a terracotta sculpture found in the ruins of the Roman settlement, 1st to 3rd C. AD. It is in the Gallo-Roman Museum in Tongeren, Belgium. Amazing how it had survived. This small image is simple and clear=a woman and man,naked, holding each other and looking out into the world, proud and human. 

This image stays with me.

Psyche and Eros

These two eternal lovers are linked to the red rose for me. Woman and man in their nakedness, open to the world, bound to each other by their agape love, the highest form. The rose symbol of life and death. It's all here for me.

Happening

There are such good winds blowing from the West in this direction, across the ocean. I feel so honored to know stronge, courageous Hilltown women like Katy Eiseman, Polly Ryan and Rosemary Wessel. They just keep pushing on, keeping the pipeline and Kinder Morgen out.

And for my daughter-in-law, Joy, who saw a future food in a horseradish plant we put in probably 6 years ago. The Hilltowns harbor very special people.

Will I still be able to manage a stick shift when I return? Today photos of the broken bones in my left foot. Patience is the name of most games.

I want to paint today. Girl friends have given me beautiful bouquets. In the garden calla lilies white and creamy as Cararra marble are fluting into the cool Blue Dutch sky. Life is good. 

Happy sitting

Limited by broken bones in my foot, but still painting

Roses

With the slight of hand...

Hilltown commuter

Hilltown Potter and Teacher

Baker of marvelously delicious pies!

Hilltown woman activist. Yeah!

Kid's Church organizer.

Plainfield architect

Hilltown man

Again a very interesting sitter. Thank you!

Dutch Hilltown woman

Tomorrow at West Cummington Congregational Church, 9:30. Be there.

This amazing speaker will give the sermon