In the end, it's all about the paint

This is the phrase I used in a discussion with a Dutch painter/friend of mine about what makes a painting a good painting. He did not agree.
As a painter you cannot help but think about what defines a good painting, is it the contents (story/idea), the composition, the colors? Surely all of these elements are important to a painting, but I came to the conclusion that even if all of the aforementioned elements were there but the paint was not right or in the right place (this is a difficult definition, I know) then that would decide it to be not a good painting.
You can imagine my joy when I came upon an interview with the painter James Rosenquist (in Vogue of all magazines) and read his words: "The object is just to get the paint out of the tube and on to the canvas in the right place."
And that's it, exactly!
No matter how meaningful your idea is, if the paint does not feel right it just does not make a good painting. To me a good painting has to have a living and breathing skin, one that you want to touch (which unfortunatley is forbidden in musea and most galleries) and the paint has to have this almost sensual quality in the way it has been applied to, or moved around on the canvas or the panel.

Two new paintings that I spent quite some time on moving paint around untill I thought it was in the right place:

Low Horizons # 1 & 2, both are based on abstracted memories, the rainstorm is based on a road trip through Holland after I had moved to the United States, the mountain ridge on a recent trip to New Mexico, where things happen in the landscape that don't happen anywhere else.

Size 18" x 14", oil/cold wax on linen

The first will be the last....or when to stop painting

Finally it's done! This was actually the first painting I started after visiting the Kickapoo Valley, but it became the last one to finish. As I wrote in an earlier blog entry, this one has spent a lot of time sitting close by, in the corner of my eye while I'm at work, just to see if it will stand the test.
This was one of those paintings that immediately had a strong presence, in just the first layer of color I put on over the colored ground.As the first layer dried, I started the two other paintings but somehow this one was so strong already that I became reluctant to work on it further. There is this strange thing that sometimes happens, I could see myself that the painting looked great but because it was just the set-up in my opinion, I had trouble in accepting that it might be really done.
And there is also the experience built up over many years of painting, that even though a painting may look great from it's first sketchy set-up, it will look even greater after it's been worked on for many more hours.
This pictures very well what process is going on between the painter and the painting, you start out with an idea and after that the idea/painting get's a life of its own and an ongoing conversation starts between the painter and the painting. Do I stick with what I had in mind or am I going with the unexpected possibilities that are being offered by the painting?
Often I feel the dilemma of calling a painting finished when in my eyes it's just the beginning versus working on. There are pro's and con's for each choice. First set-ups are usually beautiful in all their spontaneity, focused on the big picture instead of the details. But sometimes they are also too representational for what I'm after, which is a more distilled/abstracted view of the landscape.
Famously, what looks great at the start often gets lost in the process of adding more layers, but many years of painting also taught me that almost always something better comes out. Adding more layers makes the colors richer, as I work in very thin, almost glazing layers of oil colors, and colors from the underlying parts shine through the top layer, giving the painting a deep glow of color as well as movement. The con on this can be a sometimes too polished look, but that is easily undone by adding some more glazes and using a palette knife and a rag to scrape and rub off paint.
Anyway, this time I decided to go with the first one, I did not add too much more to it, just cleaned up some rough parts in the sky and added some more light in the foreground.

Kickapoo valley #1, 30x40 oil/canvas captures a mid-summer day in late afternoon where clouds provide a dramatic light effect.

An inspired art weekend, part two

The second part of our weekend trip (now already some weeks ago) consisted of delivering some more small paintings to The Commercial in Alma. The first batch was already there but the ones I delivered now had been waiting for their frames.
The paintings, of which you see three here are part of a series of small abstracts in oil/cold wax. It's only over the past few years that I developed a taste for exploring small size paintings, and I like the idea of combining a couple of small paintings to create a collage like art work of its own. As in exhibitions, by arranging art work in different ways, you get a new result every time, which I think is interesting.

The (museum quality)floater frames are from Metropolitan Frames from Minneapolis. I order them unfinished and finish them myself in either a whitewash or tinted wash, depending on what the painting asks for, then they are finished with wax.

The Commercial is one of the most interesting gallery/stores that I know here in Wisconsin. Owner and friend Kristine Kjos is a multi talented artist herself and her space breathes her very unique and individual style throughout, both in the layout of the store as in the choice of artists she represents. Her way of displaying and arranging objects and art invites you on a journey through the whole store,where moods are created from playful to dreamy and from tactile to serene.
This weekend (November 24/25)is Holiday Open House at The Commercial, but all through the remainder of this month and December you will be able to find artful and one of a kind gifts there. Some of Kristine's creations will be part of the Polderland = Wonderland show in my gallery on December 7,8 and 9.

A very inspiring art weekend

Last weekend we made a very inspiring trip. My husband had to pick up something in the Minneapolis area for our bulb business and I had to deliver some more small paintings to my gallery in Alma, The Commercial. My friend Rebecca Crowell happens to live in that neck of the woods too, so we made her the first stop on our trip. This was the perfect opportunity to catch up on art talk and studio visits. We do email each other regularly and exchange photo's of works in progress asking for comments and critique, but nothing compares to the real studio visit!
Now, maybe I should explain that I have something with artist studio's, maybe all artists have, maybe not. I just love to be in art studio's.
Rebecca's studio is one I love in particular - you have to go down the steps from her house to the big barn that is her studio. Rebecca always puts smaller works in progress on the right hand wall and it was full of jewels. A series of small squares and rectangles, mostly in warm colors, a medium sized painting consisting of three panels in a wonderful combination of blues and rusty reds, the top panel being an esoteric pale blue with a vague imprint in foggy red. I just wanted to take them all for the Polderland = Wonderland event on December 7,8&9!
Then it was on to the larger works, now all beautifully lit by new daylight lamps, installed by her husband Don. What a difference that makes. No folks, we do not all have that perfect northern light exposure studio you always read about, most of us have to make do with what we can find.
As you may have read from Rebecca's blog, the demand for her work is growing, which places her in a position that is both wonderful and demanding. We've talked a lot lately about how to keep the integrity in your work while at the same time producing more of the same. Rest assured, she can do it! I've seen some wonderful new paintings, the one that is behind her in the picture is my (now) favorite, a panel of pale blue and white embedded in panels of deep earthy colors and golden yellow and coppery tones. Wonderful textures, lots of depth. Much more was in progress and looking very interesting, some new colors that I have not seen from her before. And then we had to talk paint of course...
The next morning we woke up to a beautiful sunny and mild day that lured us for a walk in the fields and over the hills, taking in many beautiful fall vista's, one of those I include.

the Kickapoo Valley

 
 

More time has passed between the last entry and this one as I planned, but sometimes sitting at the computer is not as appealing as putting paint on canvas....
These two paintings are a result from a trip in July through the Kickapoo Valley in Wisconsin. A friend told us about that area and on our way back from a visit to friends in Alma we took this scenic route back. Meadows and roadsides were in full bloom, the trees still had very fresh greens in them, not the sometimes tired dark green from late summer and the time of day was a perfect one for the late sunlight. I made quite a few 'photographic' sketches and worked with those and my memory on a series of landscapes over the summer. These are the first two that I consider really DONE, another one looks like done? but I'll have to live with that one for a while longer before I know for sure if it's really done. This is the 'corner of the eye' period in which the painting sits within my view all the time - if it irritates me or if I get bored with it, it moves back to the easel, if not, you'll see it here very soon....
In September we visited this area once more and it looked very different, it had been hit by late August's heavy rainfalls and many areas had been flooded as we could still see. Lots of old trees had come down and there were still mud traces visible. Landscapewise this is a very beautiful area, rolling hills, fresh meadows and trees in the valleys, diverse agriculture, Organic Valley's headquarters are here too so I'm assuming a lot of organic farming goes on here, and we also saw some Amish farmers. The last ones provide the landscape with their wonderful traditional haystacks. I only remember those from my very early childhood when they were called 'hooi oppers' in Dutch. Think of Monet's series of paintings of haystacks at different light settings to visualise the shape of a soft rounded mound of hay.

 

 

Tim Erickson at Polderland gallery

Friday october 19 opens 'Fields, Trees and Lakes' oil paintings by Tim Erickson in Polderland gallery. We're in the middle of installing the show and it's already looking beautiful.
Tim has had a prolific summer and this time we chose to hang the works in the 'salon' way, in blocks three rows up and wide. As almost all of the paintings in this show are about the same size and the themes are so connected this adds an interesting dimension to the show. Of course in all art shows a dialogue between the art works is created, but by bringing the works even closer together an even more vivid conversation takes place. it's very nteresting to see how different a singled out piece looks against the groups we have up now. As always, installing the show is as much fun as the opening will be.
For all of you in the Milwaukee area, please feel free to come and take a look, visit my website for the exact address and contact information.

Open House at Vision-First

Yesterday I installed my show at the office of Vision-First here on W. Vliet Street in Milwaukee. It surprises me time and again how much paintings fit in what at first sight looks like a small space. Without making it look crowded I was able to hang over 20 paintings there.
I selected a series of landscapes and abstracts that work well together and the end result was that you really were drawn in by the work.Hanging art shows, whether it be my own art or that of others, has always been very interesting to me. There is no better way to see that actual interaction between art work and space and art works among themselves. The outcome is different every time.
And of course getting the enthusiastic response that I got yesterday from the business owner is very rewarding also!
As Vision-First will have an open house reception on Friday September 21 coinciding with the West Side Art Walk, I will be there in person too, for all of you in the Milwaukee area, feel free to walk in during office hours to take a closer look.

Into the landscape: A closer look

Although I have been concentrating on landscape paintings lately, there are times when I take a closer look in the landscape and pick out some details. The seed pods of these hollyhocks I had in my garden intrigued me very much. Their shape is exceptionally beautiful and intricate and they have a paper thin texture.
It took me a while to find the right fit for them in my way of painting, I did not want them to look too realistic, yet in order to capture what intrigued me there needed to be some detailing.
To add some sharpness to their brittle appearance I used charcoal that I washed over with a very fluid layer of white paint. With that,an element of chance is added to a painting because you can never predict how exactly it will work out. I find that I really like to invite chance into a painting as a way to open up the process. This painting is build of many thin layers of paint, allowing earlier versions of the seeds to show through, they are set over a pale blue color field that softly melts into the surrounding background color.It's a 20x24", oil on linen.

Almost Gallery Night in Milwaukee again!

July is almost over again (way too fast) and we're heading towards the summer Gallery Night and Day event here in Milwaukee. Although painting hours have not been as regular as I'd hoped they would be, I still got some new paintings done and have several in diverse states of progress.
The one on top is one that I've completed last week. It was inspired by the rolling hills of north-west Wisconsin in mid-summer, strong contrasts caused by intense sunlight were drawing my attention to this spot, plus the bright orange Hemerocallis. I like the almost over-exposed light of the grasses in front against the deep dark of the shadowy trees on top of the hill and behind.This is the first painting I completed with a, for me, new medium. In an effort to free my studio or better yet, myself, of toxic fumes (I have always been painting with rectified turpentine as a medium) I now use a mixture of Galkyd lite and odorless mineral spirits, mixed with a teaspoon of cold wax medium as a matting agent (I don't like my paintings too glossy) So far it's going all right, although the fast drying of the medium in the jar is something I have to get used to.

I always get a lot of comments on my brushes during open studio nights, how big they are, and interesting looking with their copper buses. It took me a long time to find a thick brush that really works the way I like it. Over the years I've tried many types of them but now I finally have some that are to my likings. I like a full brush with a lot of movement or flexibility, flat "Lyons" just don't do it for me, they make me feel to confined in my 'handwriting' on the canvas. For the longest time too, I did not know how to handle big brushes or a lot of paint, so it would take me hours to cover larger size canvases with small brushes. Apparently some things cannot be rushed, they just have to grow on you through long practise.
The brushes I now use are from the Spanish brand Escoda and I found them at Good's of Evanston, one of the nicest art stores I know. The brushes I use are from the 'economy' series, they make the same ones with a wooden handle, but they are a lot pricier and these work just as well. The hog hair has a lot of flexibility and gives a nice flow, I like to put my paint on in fast moving strokes, sometimes blending colors wet in wet. Unfortunately there always comes a point when the hair is worn of and the flexibility is gone and you have to work in a new brush.I always regret that as I grow very attached to my certain brushes, it's like they become a part of your hand, and will almost always work with just two or three out of a bunch because they have that nice feel and a great hand. In the pictures you can see how small the difference is between 'well working' and 'ready to retire'

summer show at gallery jaja

The last weeks I have devided my time over work in the garden, enjoying the warm weather and all that grows and blossoms, and painting in the studio, where at these temperatures it tends to be on the hot side as I am on the 4th floor under a flat black roof. By two in the afternoon it's like having radiant heat but then from the ceiling!
A good reason to keep a summer schedule with lots of outdoor breaks.
In the mean time 6 of my landscapes are on show at galerie jaja in Amsterdam, Holland, together with the intriguing work of late artist Leonie Cohen. The show will run all the way through August and it's worth the stop if you are in Amsterdam. Located in the historic Kerkstraat, the gallery is a very interesting example of integrating modern updates in a centuries old house.
The Kerkstraat and surrounding Utrechtsestraat are chokfull of interesting stores, cafe's and restaurants. It's close to both theater Carre and the Music theater a.k.a Stopera; a selfmade Dutch word that contains Stadhuis (City hall) as well as Opera.
And......all in walking distance!

Back to painting

After all the busy weeks preparing the opening of the show with Rebecca Crowell's paintings, it was now time to go back to painting. After all, this is also my studio, not only a gallery.
The tables that served as a wine bar were put back to working positions, the big easel was rolled back in, the palette table was allowed back in from it's hiding place and when the pots with turps were opened and the familiar fragrance filled the studio I was back on track again.

What a luxury to paint in a gallery! I'm surrounded by Rebecca's softly glowing paintings and whenever I allow myself a tea and/or contemplation break there is all this art to look at. It was raining all day yesterday and cold and unfortunately that meant that no visitors stopped by.

Having been distracted by all the show related work it took me some time to decide on what paintings to continue, I had several in progress. Wednesday I worked on a large abstracted painting, yesterday I took out the two landscapes that were inspired by the landscape near the Mississippi valley in Wisconsin where I spent several wonderful weekends last summer. I loved the green grasslands on the planes there, grass waving in the wind under warm summery clouds. These two paintings depict a moment where first you see only a small triangle of a yellow field pop up, coming closer it unfolds into a full size triangle.
When I left yesterday it felt like they were done, let's see what they tell me today when I come in....

What an opening!

Looking back at Friday night's opening of Rebecca Crowell's show I can only be pleased, what a terrific turnout we had! People kept coming in till far after closing time - lively art conversations were going on all around and we had a lot of fun also.

Of course we could not have hoped for better weather, it was great to be on the go from gallery to gallery without mittens, hats and umbrella's. It looked like a lot of new people found their way to our building. Let's hope they'll spread the word.

For all of those who could not make it this weekend, the show runs through May 19 in Polderland Gallery, open Thursdays-Saturdays from 12 pm - 5 pm.

Almost Opening Time!

It's almost done, all the paintings are hanging, clutter has been removed, floor sweeped, wine chilled, a couple more hours and we are ready to open the doors on Rebecca's show.

Of course there are a few more things we need to take care of, put the inlay on the sandwich board that goes outside, glue the letters of the new name on the door but I trust we'll get it done in time.

Here are a few installation views that will give you an idea of how things are looking. I love how the off-black floors work, especially when the sun comes in and paints a graphic design of light and shadow.

A shady deal?

It has been a while since my last blog entry, mainly because I was extremely busy preparing the upcoming show of Rebecca Crowell's work in my gallery (Polderland Gallery).

The show will open next Friday, April 20, and runs through May 19.

First there were the press kits to get ready, then the invitations and posters - and getting them out of course and then the famous one thing leads to another projects. After running a gallery in part of my studio for about two years I felt I could use some help in marketing the gallery, and asked help from the talented Linsey Sieger. As an 'artist run' gallery I have to do without an advertising budget and I asked her for some ideas on how to get the name out. One of her suggestions was to change the name from MB Gallery into something that would resound my being Dutch and that is how I came up with Polderland Gallery. There is probably nothing more uniquely Dutch as a polder, a piece of land won on the water by putting up a dike and then milling the land dry. The new land is consequently below the water level. This is how the former Zuiderzee (South Sea) became the location for towns such as Emmeloord and Almere and what was left of the former Zuiderzee now is Ijsselmeer (Ijssellake). When thinking of polderland I see a (very) flat landscape with a big sky in my minds eye.

Having decided on the new name I needed to remove the slightly oriental looking red logo from my black door - painted the door gray (we have a lot of overcast in Holland) and ordered new signs. Now... a gray door would definetely look better against a shiny black floor I felt. Although I've always loved the look of the old wood floors in my studio, the gallery part of the floor had a strange broad strip of some tar like filler on it and made that part look narrower as it was. For a long time I had been toying with the idea of a black floor and one of the first things that triggered it was my visit many years ago, to the studio's in the 'Wilhelmina Gasthuis' in Amsterdam, an old hospital turned studio/living spaces for artists, where one of the studio's I visited had this beautiful black floor, actually everything in this studio was white, black or gray, and it made such an impression on me that I promised myself that if I'd ever have an old wood floor in my studio I would paint it black. So here you have it, many hours on hands and knees later my wish became reality!

Then Rebecca's work had to get here too of course, so that was the next project to tackle. As she lives on the other side of the state we agreed to meet halfway in Madison and trade loads. It was a bit like on of those shady parking lot deals, you know: the kind that cannot bear the light of day, but fortunately the sun was out brightly so we did not attract any suspicion at all.

By now the paintings are all unpacked, unveiling their superior beauty, the first five already on the wall, many more to go - I've got my work cut out for me till Friday 9.30 pm!

PS Professional packing is an art in itself, see photograph on top on the creative use of spacers!

Adding to the collection

Here's what I found at the Noordermarkt in Amsterdam during my recent trip, two old coffee bowls to add to my collection. And I bargained for them too!

I started collecting these bowls in the mid seventies when I was still in art school and used them often in my still lives. Somehow, from the start of my painting career I was always drawn to still lives. I felt very comfortable painting still lives composed of diverse objects, I could just quietly contemplate their shapes, the mood changing with the change of light, playing around with forms, proportions and color.

From the start on this type of (French) coffee bowl has always been one of my favorites. I've purchased them in France, new, from little old Quincaillerie stores in tiny villages, on flea markets, from antique stores in Holland and now again on a market in Amsterdam.

I love the round shape, the foot of the bowl and the straight line of the top when you place them on eye level, they're almost like a perfect half moon. In the early days of my painting I composed my still lives in reality, with backgrounds and all. Nowadays I use the shape of these bowls in my paintings just the way I see them in my minds eye, I allow myself to play with them, make them look flat, shift them around or let them dance. Ah, to be God in the universe called studio!

The dark red painting is one of a series I did in the mid-nineties, the others all found loving homes but I could not let go of this one...

Opening night at gallery JaJa

After a walk through the dunes on Sunday afternoon we headed for Amsterdam to attend the opening of a new exhibition in gallery JaJa and visit with the gallery owner Janneke Graamans, whom I have the pleasure of knowing and working with since the mid nineties.
Brigitte Bauhuis was showing a series of paintings in a combination of oil, wax and ink. You can see the wall directly behind the entry with a collection of her work.
The building is one of those typical old Amsterdam stores/homes, very narrow but deep and over several levels. A few years ago Janneke had it remodeled and now it has a tremendous clever use of space. believe it or not, this small gallery can easily fit up to 25 paintings and not just small ones.
Monday we visited Art Line gallery where Jupp Linssen was showing recent works. Gallery Art Line is another wonderful gallery to visit while in Amsterdam. After entering through one of those stately old doors you enter into the front part of the gallery that has a wide window overlooking the Bloemgracht, the back part probably was some sort of open workshop but has a roof now that lets the daylight in making it one of the most wonderful gallery spaces I know. Jupp Linssen is a German artist of international fame and this is a beautiful show. He works in mixed media in a palette of off-whites, grays, beiges. The works are very textural, sometimes incorporating sheets of lead and other found materials, shapes seem to come about in a very organic way. Sometimes there is a hint of a still life like form in a sharp outlining carved in the textural paints. If you are anywhere near Amsterdam make sure to go and see this show! Unfortunately the links that I added only show you one painting and no views of the gallery or more works by Linssen. The show lasts till May 2007.

Back home again....

We left the snow and the cold behind to make a visit to our home country in early spring. Well... it is not as springlike as we had hoped with a lot of stormy winds and heavy rains but it makes for some wonderful cloud formations, the ones you can find in so many paintings of the Dutch Old masters. This picture was taken on our trip to one of the best flower bulb shows (in Breezand) in the northern part of the country and it combines the old and the new in a wonderful way. On the left there is a taditional windmill, on the right a very modern architectural building that looked like someones home (from where we were we could not be sure) but it did look fascinating. This part of the country is still somewhat empty, meaning that you can see a horizon once in a while and some unobstructed meadows and dunes.
An important part of the flower bulb growers have moved up here from the area they used to be in, around Lisse and Hillegom, because the price of land is getting too high there. The first fields of daffodils were in bloom already as were the Crocus fields, providing strokes of intense purple, white and warm yellow to the surrounding straw covered fields. Big clumps of Snow drops grow in lawns around farms, under trees in wooded areas and next to the ditches and roadsides. What a difference with my snow covered Milwaukee yard where it has been too cold to even remove the Christmas tree from the back patio!
So far it has been a relaxed trip and although most of it is reserved for business visits for the flower bulb part of us, there is also time for art. later today we will attend an opening at gallery JaJa, a gallery I have been working with since the 90's. Later in the week I hope to have enough time to visit some more galleries in Amsterdam and get some updates on what is going on. For now I'm just very much enjoying myself, taking in the famous Dutch light (more silvery and veiled as the Midwestern) and compare the differences in landscape once again, I do not favor one above the other, it's just very nice to be able to compare.
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Kicking up the speed

Maybe it's the time of year, maybe it's because I wanted to get over an impasse in painting that I had been in the last couple of weeks but I decided to try and get out of it by kicking up the speed of painting. The week before last I worked on all the (oil) paintings that were in progress: some larger and smaller landscapes and some abstracts in large and smaller sizes. By the end of that week I considered one of the larger landscapes done, the smallest, that you see on the foot of the easel here, took a lot longer (amazing how long you can puts around on such a small painting)

The next week work started on a storage rack for paintings in the backroom of my studio. because I did not think it wise to continue oil painting with all the sawdust in the air I changed to watercolor. Without much of a set image in mind I just started on a pile of leftover paper from different makers, just to see what would happen - and before I knew it i was deep into the process of making one water color after the other. Starting with a continuing theme from one of the oil paintings, branches against a vibrant blue evening sky I soon found myself working on another favorite theme - the french 'bol a cafe' that I'have painted many times in my 'still lifes' on some smaller size papers.

Usually I change to watercolor after a series of oil paintings is done and I find myself in one of those 'in between' periods where I have to figure out what to do next. Early on in my painting career these periods could feel rather scary, like I stepped into a deep black hole. Wow, no inspiration, maybe it will never come back....end of career. Drifting away from the studio and all that has to do with paint did not help to get things started again either. After a while I found my solution, just be in the studio, set myself a chore, like organizing the drawers of the flatfile, cleaning the floor, would eventually spark my inspiration again. And although I'm still not comfortable in 'in between' periods, I now know that only one thing really helps, just paint through it.

Because the technique of watercolor is so different from that of oil paint, I use a different kind of imagery there, which can result in new ideas for oil paintings or just in independent series of watercolors. Either way, it's a highly inspirational change of views!

Getting started again....

Late November, after my trip to Holland and before the busy season in our business would hit, I started a group of paintings with a landscape theme. It had been unusually warm, or balmy as the American expression is, with a hazy kind of light, the color of the grass a tender almost springlike green while the tall grasses were dry and pale and the trees already bare. I wanted to catch some of that haziness in a combination of the pale-end of season- colors.
Then I got interrupted by the Xmas season, a trip to New York (to see Brice Marden's work), another trip to Chicago and here I find myself again trying to pick up the mood of the paintings at the moment I left them. Not easy!

On top you see the paintings, the one on the left was the furthest, but when I started working on it again I was not happy with the proportions of the color fields at all. Somehow the brown field towards the bottom of the painting bothered me.The paint just did not sit right there, not natural. Reworking it I went through all the familiar phases : Yes, this is much better - Now I should change this a little - Hmm, not sure if I like this at all. By the end of the day I got out my rag and washed away all that I'd done, caught my large tube of underpainting white and covered all that still was bothering me and went home unsatisfied.
The next day I changed the proportions, added more 'sky', let down the fields toward the bottom of the painting - it feels a lot better now.
Years ago I would have had great trouble doing this but over the last decade I discovered that 'fearless painting' does the trick. I used to be very careful with paintings that did not totally work, especially when people had made remarks like: 'but that is such a beautiful part' and I'd try to preserve that part and only rework some other parts. Wrong! It always ended up being an awkward painting with some beautiful parts. Somehow over the last years I managed to let go of that cautiousness, now I just turn the painting upside down, cover parts with underpainting white and continue, it always ends up being better as it was before.
It does need some re-stretching to get rid off the pleats in the corners.

The art of story telling

While in Chicago for business reasons we visited the Art Institute to see the show The Silk Road. This show is mainly a tour through the museum, highlighting pieces from the permanent collection that have a connection to the Silk Road - a wonderful way to take a closer look at some of the departments of the museum we sometimes skip in order to see the show of the moment.

Leaving the museum a brochure about upcoming concerts caught our eye with the announcement of a concert the next morning by the Yo Yo Mah Ensemble. It sounded exciting enough to return the next morning by 10 am. The concerts would take place throughout the galleries of the museum, not just in one place and it turned out that there would be story telling too. We started out with a small group at the starting point of the exhibition, the narrator was joined by two percussionists and started with a centuries old Chinese story about how silk was discovered. Now this was story telling at it's best, it took us back to the long gone days of childhood fairytale telling where you would sit speechlessly entranced in the story, following the voice of the narrator through magical landscapes and adventures.
The morning developed with several performances and very diverse and wonderful music, there were a Japanese and Persian flute player together with a Persian Shanu player who played in an almost dark gallery where all artefacts of a Japanese interior were displayed, they improvised and you really felt like you were inside a Japanese house. Musicians talked in an informal way with the ever growing group of people following them from room to room, while the ensemble grew to a group of ten with violins, a double bass and more percussionists performing music that varied from old folk music to modern classics.
The (world famous) story teller performed two more times capturing both young and old with his performance. Experiences like that make you realise how much is getting lost in an age of technology where hardly anybody takes the time to tell a good story anymore. Just like when I was a child, his words evoked pictures in my mind, pictures that are way more special as any movie can show me because they are mine and mine alone. Probably this is where my painting started, to paint the pictures that my mind made inspired by words...