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.

                       Of course I want to show the world Cooper Thomas Johns, 13 months.

During this last trip to America, I did more photography than painting. Here are some young people sitting on City Hall Square in the heart of Philadelphia. We got a tip from one of these people to keep walking to Reading Terminal Market. You can eat from any culture including my native Lancaster County Amish food in that picturesque 120 yr. old railway station. It was a great way to spend the 5 hour lay-over time before flying back to Amsterdam.

This is, for me, a great opportunity to feature portraits I painted between 1997 and 2012. I exhibited the first wall of portraits at Nashawannuck Gallery, Easthampton, MA in 2000. Nearly 90 townspeople were portrayed in oil on 10 X 10 inch panels for that exhibit. It might be interesting to see again how I made these impressionistic renditions. There have been many new ones painted in these past 12 years. I paint these portraits in "conversation sessions"of not longer than 2 hours. No one is required to sit still. That brings excitement and challenge into the effort and results in

studies that are full of movement and imperfection.

It cleared up nicely this afternoon and we got these light fluffy clouds floating gently by.