Monthly Archives: August 2025

Midday light on the Bruges harbor. Oil on panel. 23 x 32 cm or 9 x 12.5" August 2025.

Brugge Haven Middag, August 2025

Leave a reply
Midday light on the Bruges harbor. Oil on panel. 23 x 32 cm or 9 x 12.5" August 2025.
Midday light on the Bruges harbor. Oil on panel. 23 x 32 cm or 9 x 12.5″ August 2025.

I decided to transpose the watercolor composition I did last week onto a panel so that I could try out an expansive harbor painting. It took two en plein air sessions to come up with this.

The challenges: large cargo boats coming and going, obstructing or enhancing the view, what to include what to dismiss?; also the buildings on the left provided strong shifts from early morning to midday, make a choice and stick with it.

Mostly I wanted the composition to enhance the small white buildings in the distance. In order to get them to read, I needed an interesting foreground. Luckily there was a ship on the right during my first session, while the tall, sharply illumined buildings on the left provided balance. A windless day during the second session offered fantastic liquid reflections. (Take the money and run!) Later, I could include traces of its dance along the large, open channel, leaving the sky too, open and clear – as it was.

New Haven harbor from Lighthouse Park. 1979. Oil on panel. 6 x 15"
New Haven harbor from Lighthouse Park. 1979. Oil on panel. 6 x 15″

Oh yes, the session also included (for me) a sweet recognition my penchant for industrial harbors. I originally discovered my passion for landscape painting back in the 1970’s when I lived in New Haven Connecticut. I did a series of landscapes then of its harbor. Oil tanks. Industrial chimneys. Geometric shapes. So, the subject matter is quite similar, the color scheme, too. Yummm….

If you are interested in hanging this on your wall, please contact me.

Figure Drawing, charcoal pencil on white drawing paper. 30 x 42 cm or 12 x 16.5"

Figure Drawing, July and August 2025

Leave a reply
Figure Drawing, charcoal pencil on brown recycled paper. 35 x 50 cm or 14 x 20"
Figure Drawing, charcoal pencil on brown recycled paper. 35 x 50 cm or 14 x 20″

Open figure drawing sessions usually stop for the summer here in Bruges, but luckily, this year they did not. A stalwart stepped up and volunteered to organize them. So the usual cast of characters, including myself, jumped in. Hooray!

Due to the instruction I have been receiving at the Watts Atelier in Encinitas, California though, my approach to figure drawing has changed – pretty radically. The Watts approach takes you back to basics so you can build up (correctly) from there. No one (who has already been drawing from the figure for decades) signs up for this unless they have become convinced of their (classical-method) ignorance.

Figure Drawing, charcoal pencil on brown recycled paper. 35 x 50 cm or 14 x 20"
Figure Drawing, charcoal pencil on brown recycled paper. 35 x 50 cm or 14 x 20″

So I’ve learned how to sharpen a pencil (seriously!). I’ve also learned how to hold that pencil (double seriously!!). I’ve learned how to create a line firmly and succinctly, without the chicken scratch of hesitation. I’ve learned how useful cheap, smooth newsprint can be (which strangely enough is not available in Europe!!). And yes I’ve learned anatomy, but perhaps more importantly I’ve learned methods of abstraction so as to quickly locate gesture and then turn it into meaningful form and structure. At all this I am still a rank beginner, but every once in awhile, I can see light at the end of the tunnel.

Here are a few of the more successful drawings from this summer. September still beckons with regular sessions recommencing soon at the Hoeve Hangerin. We’ll see what happens.

Midday light at the Bruges Harbor. August 17, 2025. Watercolor on hot pressed paper. 23 x 32 cm or 9 x 12.5 "

Midday light at the Brugge Haven, watercolor, August 17

1 Reply
Midday light at the Bruges Harbor. August 17, 2025. Watercolor on hot pressed paper. 23 x 32 cm or 9 x 12.5 "
Midday light at the Bruges Harbor. August 17, 2025. Watercolor on hot pressed paper. 23 x 32 cm or 9 x 12.5 “

I went out Sunday morning to explore more of the scenery around the Bruges harbor. There is one area in particular that I’ve had my eye on for a while. It’s the terminus of the Zeebrugge harbor, where large cargo ships come to load or unload closer to town. Indeed, most of the heavy lifting occurs in Zeebrugge on the coast. Still, it is a large, industrial kind of place, which on the day I went did have one cargo ship resting in port.

I set up and spent about four hours. Three of them consisted in just getting down a composition in which the perspective read more or less correct. Given all the shapes it was quite a challenge. Then I had about an hour of painting, during which I was able to get almost all of the main elements in. However, the one set of objects that I did not attempt were the windmills, principally because I had forgotten to bring along my latex masking fluid(!). Their lines are far too white and too fine to attempt without putting in some blocking first, so when it came to the sky, I just snapped a photo reference and decided to finish it at home. This is the result. I like the sky!

Hot pressed paper allows for detail which cannot be obtained with cold pressed, that’s just one reason I’m such a fan. As for the subject matter, even though the main thrusts were large and simple, the composition had a lot of complexity to it, especially in the distance. There were a number of small white reflections. How to retain the white of the paper? Always a challenge. Due to all that, I am particularly happy with the results – and the windmills. 😉 No jousting was needed.

Oh, and by the way, the large buildings on the left are the same buildings depicted in Light Study on the Pathoekeweg but now 180 degrees in reverse and fronting on the water. I love recto-versos.

If you are interested in hanging this on your wall, please contact me.

Light Study on the the Pathoekeweg. Oil on panel. 9 x 12.5" or 23 x 32 cm.

Light Study on the Pathoekeweg

1 Reply
Light Study on the the Pathoekeweg. Oil on panel. 9 x 12.5" or 23 x 32 cm.
Light Study on the the Pathoekeweg. Oil on panel. 9 x 12.5″ or 23 x 32 cm.

There is an industrial area outside the center of Bruges that most tourists don’t see. Perhaps for good reason. It’s the harbor that leads via canal to the port of Zeebrugge on the North Sea and is about 15 kilometers long.

I really like the geometrical shapes you can find there – at scale – especially when illumined by light. A few years ago I noticed the late afternoon light hitting some big ugly buildings at the edge of a scrubby dry field on the Pathoekeweg (the road that runs along next to the harbor). Nothing to see here? I beg to differ.

Light Study on the the Pathoekeweg. India ink and silverpoint on panel. 9 x 12.5" or 23 x 32 cm.
Light Study on the the Pathoekeweg. India ink and silverpoint on panel. 9 x 12.5″ or 23 x 32 cm.

Last summer I did a drawing of the grouping, intending to create a watercolor first, but in the end, just transposed the drawing to a gessoed panel so I could jump right into oils. The panel-drawing was done in silverpoint and India ink. I shellac-sealed it then waited for a warm, sunlit afternoon. A few days ago conditions arose; I packed up my gear and headed off to see what might happen. On arrival, at 4 pm, the light was OK, but nothing spectacular. Yet as the afternoon waned and early evening approached, it all got glorious. By 6 pm I was singin’.

The painting you see here was created in a two and one half hour session. At the time I had treated it as an underpainting, fast and loose, fully expecting to return for a final session. But the more I live with it now, the more I recognize that there is no need to do that. Sometimes less is more.

If you are interested in hanging this on your wall, please contact me.

Olie schilderij van de Paarden Hoeve aan Fort van Beieren. 23 x 32 cm or 9 x 12.5 "Oil on panel. August 12, 2025

Midday at the horse farm/Middag op de paardenborderij, August 12, 2025

Leave a reply

Last week I created a watercolor of this sweet little landscape that I discovered just outside of Bruges near the Fort van Beieren. I’m always on the lookout for landscapes that combine nature with a few geometrical, manmade shapes. And when the light spotlights these shapes, I’m in hog heaven. This one, including the white washed sides of a red roofed farm house, surrounded by fields and a small creek had all the ingredients I’m usually on the look out for. So, the watercolor was fine, but I was particularly interested in the intensity that can only oil can offer.

I transposed the composition from the watercolor – since that saves making a ton of new decisions in the field. I used india ink and silverpoint on a chalk gesso panel, then gave it a quick shellac-seal for protection and to reduce absorbency.

Field set up of pochade box with transposed India inked drawing, ready for oil.
Field set up of pochade box with transposed India inked drawing, ready for oil.

The first painting session last Saturday involved laying in a yellow ochre tint into which I blocked in the values and tints of all the basic forms. At the end of that session I had a good, gestural underpainting, everything was understated, earthy and yet harmonized. Ever since I changed my recipe last year to egg yolk (instead of a methyl cellulose glue) for my painting emulsion, I’ve had good success – both in drying time as well as fluid paint handling. Encouraging!

The underpainting was dry to the touch after two days(!). I went out yesterday to see what might happen. The weather was perfect. Warm and sunny with a gentle breeze. I set up my traveling oil pochade box and set to work (it has a different design than my traveling drawing/watercolor box due to the requirements of the different media). The time passed. After three hours I looked back happy and decided to call it a day. (“Day!”)

Olie schilderij van de Paarden Hoeve aan Fort van Beieren. 23 x 32 cm or 9 x 12.5 "Oil on panel. August 12, 2025
Olie schilderij van de Paarden Hoeve aan Fort van Beieren. 23 x 32 cm or 9 x 12.5 “Oil on panel. August 12, 2025

I love the white building gently nested near the center, with the mirrored creek leading forward. The complimentary colors of organic reds and greens provide all the passion this kind of landscape evokes. The trees gawkily bend upwards: my kind of cathedral. Here’s hoping the weather continues to provide a few more opportunities to my Belgian muse.

If you are interested in this piece shoot me an email.

Paarden Hoeve naast Fort van Beieren. Watercolor on hot pressed paper. 23 x 31 cm or 9 x 12"

de Paarden Hoeve naast Fort van Beieren, August 4, 2025

1 Reply
Paarden Hoeve naast Fort van Beieren. Watercolor on hot pressed paper. 23 x 31 cm or 9 x 12"
Watercolor on hot pressed paper. 23 x 31 cm or 9 x 12″

Out towards Koolkerke along the Damse Vaart I found a sweet little farm house next to a creek. The whitewashed walls of the farmhouse brilliantly reflect the afternoon light, while the rows of willowy trees line the creek leading up to it. I decided to try and capture it. The first session was just for getting down a drawing for the composition. The second session was for painting.

Luckily, my new traveling watercolor box easily and firmly snapped onto my tripod while my Quacke traveling chair allowed me to sit outside for a few hours on Sunday to try and make the attempt. The light was not great and it was really windy, too. But I was too happy to even notice. Photo of my rig to the right.

This is a study. I hope to create an oil based on this composition soon. It’s such a typically Belgian landscape. So intimate. I might try to add in the horses – which did stop by to say hello. I promised I’d bring apples next time. They said: Ney 😉

If you are interested in this watercolor shoot me an email.