It took some more time than I thought. But now it is available. Tutorial How to paint a portrait: Portrait of a little boy.
I hope that the information I give is clear and that the video is not to long.
New video tutorial
A ride through the area.
Around Chelva.
This morning we made a small trip with family from Holland. When I show visitors the region where we live it gives me always the idea that I look with their eyes and see once again the beauty of the surroundings of Chelva.
My brother in law took this picture of me that reminded me of the song Loosing my religion: That´s me in the corner.
About concentration and portrait painting
Teaching method and order.
I was talking earlier about concentration and decisions.
In portrait painting we will meet a number of difficulties such as the composition, the chiaroscuro, the colours, and last but not least, the likeness. If you want to solve all these problems simultaneously, I mean, starting the portrait without any preparation, right from scratch you will have to fight on multiple fronts. Why not separate the difficulties, and attack them one by one especially if you´re a beginner.
Your brain can only make a limited number of decisions before it slows down. That has been proven. So if you break up these tasks you will reduce the number of errors. Right. Now some people say: starting from scratch makes you more open minded, and you will make unexpected discoveries. To a certain extent I agree. But still I say, learn control first, when you have more experience, you can allow yourself more freedom in your approach: Control first, freedom later.
Better to have a controlled run-up than a hit and miss attempt.
I never miss my country but…
We are living for 23 years now in Spain and I still enjoy our life here very much. Nice country and nice people. I never miss Holland but sometimes when I see my older watercolours I want to go for a short walk in the polder.
Some older work that I found
I was cleaning up my studio and I found a couple of old drawings. In the sixties my mother had to stay in bed for about two month. She suffered from sciatica. Her bed was moved from her bedroom down stairs into the living room. From there she could give orders to her eight children. I made several studies of her when she was sleeping. In the corner below my little sister. I think I was 15 years old then.
This one is in pen with blue ink.
Trip to st.Petersburg (2)
I have already mentioned our trip to St. Petersburg. The first stop on this holiday was Helsinki. There in the Athenaeum Museum I saw some amazing paintings by Ilya Repin. In Groningen (The Netherlands) in 2002 I saw the work of Repin for the first time and I was really impressed. I admired Haulers on the Volga , but another painting , Unexpected Return. was different; he shows himself as a story teller like Norman Rockwell in his covers for the Saturday Evening Post.
Previously during the holidays in St. Petersburg we had seen the Ceremonial Meeting of the State Council also by Repin. In Helsinki a similar painting hangs in the museum restaurant. It’s painted after he changed to using his left hand. (I knew he suffered from osteoarthritis at a later age. From then he started to paint with his left hand, and his style changed dramatically.) The painting in the restaurant of the Helsinki museum was of exceptional size, and like the ‘State Council’, with a crowd of characters. However, in this painting Repin has lost all sense of drama and composition. I don’t think that it’s just because he’s changed hands. It’s a mysterious and monstrous piece of art, and hard to find in any catalogue.
Still, Repin is one of my greatest favourites!
Easter Sunday
It is the custom here on Easter Sunday to collect hallelujahs which are scraps of paper scattered from the roof of the village church. It is believed that they protect you and bring happiness.
I was able to catch eleven.
See also the video: