The very beginning of a painting of Lilith, the first wife of Adam. It can go anyway after I pasted the papers over a rejected oil on steel plate. keep looking for the results.

The first affiche for the exhibit called "Sirens"! Annet Tersteeg and I are working hard with tintilating results. My theme is essentially : "Women in the Bible". There are quite a few sirens there. To mention a few: Eva, Delila, Salome, Sara, Bathseba and Potifer's Wife. I am using my tissue paper over and under oil paint technique. Keep watching, please.

In December I delivered this pastel I made in Cornwall some years back to friends in Somerset. Portscatho Beach on Roseland Peninsula is so inspiring. The cliffs, sea rushing in and those white houses on the headland. Two painter girl friends were with me. You could say that the beach nearly belongs to painter Lynn Golden. I am happy with its destination, back in England.

Christmas holidays seem to last forever in Europe. Because of the soft weather and lots of rain the ArondsKelk or Callas are trying to push up out of the earth. I am afraid they will get a shock one of these days when the cold is bound to hit. Hyacinths, crocuses and daffadils are also daring to poke their heads up. I hope they will survive until March. I love to paint the Callas which bloom in the wild all over Ireland. Everytime I paint them in my garden I think of them surrounding the Holy Wells in Ireland.

Herman does the cleaning up. I get to paint the results. Yes, the fall is turning slowly into winter. Small birds are going for the sunflower seeds and we are bedding the garden down for the cold weather.

Here in Holland if you have achieved some unbelievable feat, you get flowers. Always flowers no matter what. Here you are Barak Obama. Congratulations with flowers. We are very happy with you and your family.

In 1980 I painted this book cover for a Dutch publisher. The book is "Adriaan & Olivier met Oerkoendoe" by Leonard Huizinga.
For art lovers the painting I used is obvious=Le Dejeuner sur l'Herbe by Edouard Manet, a painting I have always loved. Copying masterworks is a century-old way to intensely study the work of an artist one admires. Once again, as in the 19th Century, you can now see students painting in museums. I take my hat off to anyone who dares this. Sorry to say I did not go to Gare D'Orsay in Paris to copy this Manet and to substitute the lovely woman bathing with a cave man. I did enjoy painting it in my studio and I still have the original.
I Blog this because I have begon a new series of paintings based on paintings by old masters. My next Blog will show the process.