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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