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For me one of the reasons to paint is the light. And light makes the difference. I am totally captured by the atmosphere of backlight with its long shadows, warm colours and crispy contours around walking people in town. These wonderfull moments are allways short, but in this video I try to keep one of them in a watercolour. Later in this video I explain why I don't make video tutorials. I am curious if you (dis)agree. My studio is in the centre of the Dutch city The Hague, and that's where the cityscapes are made, you see in this video.

On a sunny day I went to Amsterdam for the next houseportrait. I show you two sketches, and I am curious which one the client will choose. Then I start a new watercolor. A cityscape showing Noordeinde in The Hague with the statue of Prince Willem on his horse, in front of the workplace of our king.

I start the next houseportrait, a villa in Bloemendaal (Holland) where I made some sketches in video nr 2. As I tell in this video, this is not a watercolor of a villa with trees, but it's a watercolor of trees with a villa. The plan is to start with a certain background. I paint this background wet in wet for soft contrasts and transparant effects. Over the uppe layer I paint the branches and twigs in gouache in stead of watercolor. In the video I will explain why.

This week I had to pick a few watercolors at the gallery after a good exhibition this month. I visited a few clients for new houseportraits and there was some time to start a new watercolor.

Schiedam is prachtig. Ik was er voor een grote opdracht in de binnenstad.

I visited two locations for commissioned houseportraits this week. I went to Schiedam and I drove to the south for a house in the country. You see me working on a commissioned houseportrait in oil. For me this is a large size. It's a lot of work but I like it. After building the composition in angular shapes it is great to paint the movements and reflections in the water. While the paint is drying I make a quick watercolor from the city of Schiedam.

I was quite busy these weeks. I had to do all the framing for my 25th anniversary exhibition. I brought 40 paintings. I had to finish two commissioned paintings at the same time and my first (Dutch) podcast is streaming now. Everything was fun and in this video you will see me painting, framing, packing and you see the party in the gallery!

This week I continued the painting from last week; a houseportrait of a farm in the country. In the meantime I have to take pictures from my watercolors. The gallery owner needs them for the posters and flyers, because I am having my 25 anniversary exhibition next month.

I start with a commissioned painting from a farm in the country. This summer I visited this lovely place and took several pictures from the farm. I start with the underpainting in oil. An underpainting is the first layer on the canvas, it will be covered by the next layers. I let it dry for a night and the next day I continue the painting by the next layers, the colors.

The gallery owner was visiting me in my painting studio. We selected 25 watercolor paintings for my 25 anniversary exhibition next month. Some were painted plein air, on the spot. The most paintings were painted inside the studio. Later this week I retouched some watercolor paintings before they went to the framer.

In this video I finish the crispy winterlight watercolor I started in video 4 last week. Then I decide to make another (fourth) watercolor from the Royal Concerthall of Amsterdam. I have three reasons for this.

I made a third watercolor from The Royal Concert Hall (Concertgebouw) in Amsterdam. The next day I started a watercolor for myself, a monday afternoon scene on a crispy winterday here in The Hague.

I started this week by finishing a watercolor from 1 or 2 years back. Suddenly I saw what it needed. ThenI started a new cityscape, trying to use more wet in wet technique. I went to the framer and tried out a new synthetic brush from Da Vinci, the Casaneo series.

This week was quite busy. But fortunately I found time for making a small cityscape watercolor. I went to Bloemendaal for a next houseportrait and I tell you about a new project, my first podcast.

It's getting colder and darker. I decided to paint a free chosen subject after several commissioned paintings. It's going to be a watercolor from an alley, not far from my studio. When this one is finished I start another commissioned watercolor, from The Royal Concerthall in Amsterdam.

This summer I painted two panorama's from The Hague. One for a customers home (see last video) and this one for an office. After making some watercolor sketches on location I made a composition sketch for my client. I worked this one out on a 60 inch paper. Leter we photographed the work and printed it on wallpaper for an office space downstairs. In this video you'll see me: - working from sketches and pictures in my studio. - watercolor in layers. - watercolor wet in wet.

I made some commissioned child portraits this week and in this video I show you how I work and I talk about child portraits. Actually I do not paint from my pictures, but I paint the children using the pictures and memory. First I was expecting to paint these portraits in oil, but the first watercolorsketches showed me the bright light effects I could use very well for these portraits.

You often find details in the important pieces of a painting. And they make you think you must paint all of them. But I believe that when you don't, and you concentrate on the more interesting pieces, you will be surprised how unimportant those "important" details turn out to be. In this video you see me working on a commissioned watercolor for an English client who is leaving Holland after 5 years. She asked me to paint her Dutch adress as a memory.

While I am working on a watercolour of a Dutch village scene I come up with my "review" of Joseph Zbukvic' "Mastering The Mood". After studying his watercolour clock I must admit that I already used it a lot before, wthout realizing I did so. But I never thought about the possibility to use much more water for the wet parts and use much more dryer paint for the dry parts, to achieve more steps in my work. After reading Mastering The Mood I am using this possibility and it creates more depth and contrast in my watercolours.

Painting Magic winterlight

In fact, throughout the day it is evening in wintertime, because the sun doesn't reach the higher level like it does in summer. The lower level brings long shadows en more intense colours. So fall and winter are my favourites. Take a look over my shoulder while I'm working on a series Amsterdam cityscapes in winterlight.

Eigenlijk is het de hele dag avond in de winter, omdat de zon nooit zo hoog staat als in de zomer. Het lagere zonlicht geeft langere schaduwen en intensere kleuren. Daarom zijn de herfst en de winter mijn favoriete seizoenen. Kijk mee over mijn schouder terwijl ik werk aan een serie stadsgezichten van Amsterdam in winterlicht.

The Moment is the subject

The subject is less important than the moment I was discovering this subject. This moment causes the intensity of sunlight, de length of the shadows, the season, the climate, in fact it makes the mood. So that's why the moment is the main subject in a painting for me.

Voor mij gaat het bij een schilderij niet zozeer over het onderwerp, maar wel over het moment waarop ik het onderwerp ontdekte. Het moment bepaalt de stand van de zon, de schaduwen, het seizoen, het klimaat, kortom de sfeer. Daarom is het moment het belangrijkste onderwerp in een schilderij.

Timelapse of a Amsterdam cityscape

This is a timelapse of a watercolour I made for a client in the centre of Amsterdam. We can see him standing in his doorway. A visit in these kind of very old houses in Amsterdam are a real adventure to me. Old and new come together and the view from the highest floor is amazing.

Dit is een timelapse van een aquarel die een Amsterdamse klant van zijn straat heeft laten maken. Hij staat in de deuropening, rechts. Ik vind het altijd heel avontuurlijk om dergelijke oude Amsterdamse huizen van binnen te zien. Oud en nieuw komen samen en het uitzicht vanaf de bovenste verdieping is geweldig.