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.

Double Joy

These are for you, Barb. thank you so much for your support.

Late last summer when I returned from America, these Fabiola waterlilies were still blooming and defying the end of long light and warmth. Rusts, oranges, ochres were a bit foreign to me. I saw how very beautiful they are and how tiny gold fish give sparkle to the water.
I am still adding and deleting here in my living room studio. flecks of light and then some deep shadows. Monet is always my master.

Old Roses

The Luxor Roses have a long life here in our house. Most people would have long thrown them in the bin. They have gone from that heavenly uplifting fragrance to a musty earthy scent.
When I am painting, I get into the revolving forms, the salty olives and ochres, and the lingering deep reds going to black. I put a black turpentine "glaze" over the right side. Why disobey the rules? seems like I love doing that. In this case, I suspect it will cracklelei - the effect being dried creasing of paint. Who knows how it will go? like these beautiful flowers, they evolve their very own way which is unpredictable and fragile. like life to me.

Progression

Around Easter I posted the first version of these anemones. I looked at the painting for some days and decided to go on. Meanwhile the flowers had made their own decisions= those long sensuous stems and green ruffs were falling down.  I wanted that effect of change and no definite still life.

This version is more the ballet of life I like.

Easter 2015

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These Anemones are drooping and going dead just as I am painting them. Fitting for Good Friday. 

I will let it dry now as there are impasto places and over-painting. actually the original canvas was a Man in Blue.