Sometimes, thankfully very rarely, I can't get back to sleep after I've woken up in the middle of the night. Then I get up and go to the kitchen, get some hot water from the thermos and pour it into the leftover tea from the evening before.
While enjoying the tea with small sips, I walk to the window and look outside for a few minutes...
I love this tree, standing strong no matter the weather and season. Day and night, in darkness and in full light, it tells stories to those who take time to listen.
What do you do when it storms? Do you curl up on the couch with a book and a cup of tea? Or do you go outside during a "mild" storm?
I do the latter. I like to go out for a short walk in the open field, along a lake or on the beach, to feel the power of the wind and enjoy the constantly changing skies. After that walk, when I come home, I'll do the curling up with a cup of tea... 😉
When I still lived in the Netherlands, I liked to bike to this tree every now and then, to spend some time there in the early morning silence on the bank of the river Maas, enjoying ever changing light.
For this work I used a photo that I made at the beginning of autumn. The tree was still full of leaves, and the leaves were still beautifully green.
One of the first sunny, warm spring days of this year. It is quiet in the forest, not a breath of wind, no one to be seen. And as I walk deeper into the forest, the young greenery closes me off more and more from the busy world. So I walk on slowly, as if in a dream....
We stroll along a beech-lined path in the forest, and we enjoy the winter light playing on the leafless branches and tree trunks...
Even during storms, the waves on the North Sea coast of Denmark may reach a modest height, but the current is strong and the waves break wildly on the gently sloping sandy beach with beautiful foaming crests. An impressive spectacle, as the waves follow each other in rapid succession...
Even during storms, the waves on the North Sea coast of Denmark may reach a modest height, but the current is strong and the waves break on the sandy beach with wild foaming crests. An impressive spectacle, as the waves follow each other in rapid succession.
For anyone who devotes to life, who loves the unknown, learns by trial and error, and inspires others by example....
The day after the storm, the sea is calm, the beach empty: for kilometers we don't meet a soul. The waterline guides us on our walk, showing us the way in the emptiness . . .
On a stormy day, it is wonderful to take a walk on the beach, like here on the beach of Schiermonnikoog, one of the Dutch Wadden islands...
Published today in The Ekphrastic Review, a collaboration with Laura Ann Reed based on -a little bit color adjusted version of- my artwork 'The Yellow Umbrella'.
I made the (originally black and white) photo for this artwork in the bird sanctuary Agger Tange near the town of Agger on the north-west coast of Jutland, Denmark.
The color was added using digital painting tools. The objective is to explore different atmospheres, only by adding abstract colored areas.
The photo that I used to create this artwork is made with an Eastman Kodak No. 2 Folding Cartridge Hawk-Eye Model B camera, manufactured more than 90 years ago, between the years 1926 and 1934.
The photo that I used to create this artwork is made with an Eastman Kodak No. 2 Folding Cartridge Hawk-Eye Model B camera, manufactured more than 90 years ago, between the years 1926 and 1934.
A quiet afternoon in early spring, silence lies like a blanket over the marshes. The wind whispers softly in the reeds, telling stories from around the world and of all times.
Lilac dreams in the sky,
veiled by light,
floating on the wind
After a crisp summer night, the first rays of sunlight hit the damp fields. A light haze rises and disappears to the horizon, carried by an emerging summer breeze....
It's a warm winter day, after a few sunny days the fields are gently turning green. A walk early in the morning, the rising sun just rising above the hills. A veil of mist rises from the cold lake, drifting across the fields with a gentle breeze.
Early on a beautiful spring morning I wandered through the fields along the bay Krik Vig, part of the Limfjord. Except for the rustling of the wind and a few birds, it's quiet…
The humid morning air and a fresh sea breeze blend the colors and scents of a beautiful new day.
It's a cold evening at the end of a heavily cloudy, gray winter day. Just before the sun sets, the clouds open up allowing the light for a brief but intense moment to say hello to the night.
A gray, foggy day. A day like so many, where you only see vague outlines of the path you are walking. The silence and lack of sight are oppressive at first. Until you regain peace and confidence, and let the trees guide you.
When I make a landscape artwork, I am often trying to give a minimalist view of the feeling that the landscape gives me. The photo for this work was made in the scarce light of a setting winter sun.
Do you dream in color? Or in black and white? Or both, or do you not know? Are all people dreaming in different color palettes, or does everyone have her/his own palette?
Some people are always dreaming in color, other's in shades of gray, or both in an irregular variety. Many people are not sure, or hardly remember it.
A search for my color palette, an experiment.
A hazy winter morning in a birch forest near the city of Nijmegen, the Netherlands. It is cold, a pale sun tries to dissipate the cold of the early morning frost.
A beautiful sunny winter day. A group of gulls fight each other for a piece of bread. When the gull with the bread in its beak crosses a wide ditch, the whole group follows; screaming as if panicking to lose sight of the seagull with the bread.
It's early in the morning. It has been snowing all night, there is no one else in the forest. Carefully you take a step into the fresh snow….
It is early in the morning, but it is already light when I wake up. The sunlight filtered through the curtains quickly dissipates the last images of my dream. Only vague shadows and colors…
A beautiful winter sunset in nature reserve Overasseltse & Hatertse Vennen, close to my former hometown Nijmegen in The Netherlands.
It is a small but beautiful nature reserve, a landscape of fens, small groups of trees, heather and grassland.
I have been to the sea at many different times. All seasons, all times of the day, under many different weather conditions.
Yet every time I'm surprised by the light, never the same and always providing fascinating and enchanting colors.
It is cold, the sun does not have enough power to warm the fresh breeze. The trees are still bare, but on many branches the first leaf buds are beginning to unfold.
Early in the morning the light penetrates into the darkest corners of the forest. After every night, a new day arrives…
The fields are covered with a thin layer of snow. The world waits in stillness for the night to come.
It was so quiet that afternoon, just before sunset... No wind, no birds, no cars... Nothing.
As if the world had been completely abandoned.
Even in the darkest forest, the light will find its way to the ground....
A winter day awakens, the colors growing brighter, more intense, as I slip out of a dream...
It is a beautiful, sunny and windy winter day when we climb the high dunes on the coast of the North Sea. Reaching the top of a dune, we sit down, in the sun and a bit sheltered from the wind. The horizon is barely visible because of a haze of fine drops of seawater. Even the wind tastes salty...
The part of Denmark where we live is known for the beautiful Nordic light. The sunsets over the North Sea and the fjords and lakes in autumn and winter are magical, at least: if there is not too much cloud cover. When I made the photo for this artwork, the conditions were perfect: a humid atmosphere and veil clouds.
A cold and stormy winter morning on the beach of the North Sea near Agger, North West Denmark. Seagulls hover on the wind, waiting for the sea to bring them something to eat. Diving down, sometimes landing on the water, and not always successful in catching something edible...
Winter morning, the smell of a new day. I stroll along the path between sleeping and waking, I don't want to let go of my dream yet. A cold breeze through my hair, the sunlight touches my face...
Sometimes I want to scratch and bite people (figuratively speaking, of course ;), to wake them up a bit about the predicament in which the earth and nature find themselves. And thus a predicament in which many millions of people already find themselves today. Drought, hunger, lack of drinking water, almost unbearable heat, huge amounts of rain, rising sea level, and so on and so on...
At the end of a beautiful sunny day, there are often some clouds over the sea. Does that make the sunset less beautiful? Often it doesn't, or it even makes it more beautiful. The clouds make the colors even more intense.
Early in the morning, the first light of the rising sun lovingly embraces nature's awakening...
It is very cold, the sky is clear and the meadows are frozen. The ideal conditions under which a Nordic sunset shows itself in all its splendor.
The light along the long coastlines of Nordic countries is special: clean air, bright sunshine interspersed with wind-driven clouds and rugged coastline. This light has inspired many artists, especially impressionists from more southern European countries loved to come to the Danish and Norwegian coasts.
On the same night as the artwork I posted yesterday... A quiet winter evening in a swampy area. We made a long walk through this beautiful area, and now that we are on our way back to the parking lot, it is almost dark...
The dying sun
colors the sky with a poem
to welcome this night
A quiet winter evening in a swampy area. The sun sets behind the trees and colors the sky as if it was on fire. A poem to welcome this beautiful night.
A bright white light? Eternal darkness?
It is my conviction that after our death our spirit, our soul, travels to its origin somewhere in the universe. Once arrived, our energy is reunited with the energy from which everything around us once originated.
The sun sets under a heavily clouded sky, and for a brief moment shines over a slightly frozen Limfjord near the village of Amtoft, North Jutland, Denmark.
...
All I want is to see how
the setting sun colors the garden
in the ripples
of a winter breeze.
Light. Hidden
behind a veil of silence
of the fading darkness
Celebrate this new day
Every day
The past year for us has been about tearing down, and rebuilding. Demolishing what was rotten or no longer served us, and considering what we wanted to keep and perhaps reuse.
Musing trees in morning mist,
the new day hesitates and knows
they lose themselves in memories
It's still early in the quiet foggy forest. The new day seems to hesitate to start, so as not to disturb the trees at their musing.
It is still dark, very cold and quiet, this early morning in the lightly snow-covered forest. But then the sun rises, the light plays with the frozen branches of the fir trees...
It's early on a cold, dark winter morning. At dusk, everything seems to be the colour blue. Then the sun rises, coloring the world in an amazing palette.
Just before the sun sets, the clouds open up allowing the light for a brief but intense moment to say hello to the night...
Early in the morning in a forest near the city of Nijmegen, the Netherlands. It is cold, but the autumn sun warms everything it touches.
I love Fado music and, more in general, Portuguese folk music.
One of the most beautiful Portuguese songs for me is Meu Alentejo sung by Dulce Pontes.
But even without knowing a translation of the lyrics (and I don't speak a word of Portuguese), this song really touched me the first time I heard it. And it still does...
" What if we stopped waiting for disaster to strike, creating a global safety net to protect those hit hardest?
During COP29, we asked our community: What if everyone gave just 1% of their income to accelerate climate action? An incredible 88% said they would. "
Yeah, sure...
Early morning light
Patches of an unfinished dream
floats towards eternity
It is quiet in the forest, this morning. The sun is just rising above the horizon, its fragile rays gently touching the trunks of the trees still damp from the cold night.
A dark evening in a city where it is raining briskly. The street is almost deserted, shopkeepers have just turned out the lights and closed their stores. Two people are walking down the street talking and laughing under a yellow umbrella. I feel a strange desire to know what the two are laughing about....
When Laura Ann Reed, a friend and poet from the US, sent me a new poem she had written, her words spoke to me so strongly that I immediately had a vision that for me matched her words. Moreover, I also immediately knew which two 10-year-old photos I had to put together to make the image I had in mind.
Fresh snow, as far as the eye can see. The forest looks spacious, light, and larger than usual. It is quiet, and the world feels deserted. Only the muffled crunch of our footsteps in the fresh snow.
Have you ever tried to follow the pieces of an unfinished dream as it drifts away when you wake up ?
Soft waving reeds in a chilly breeze. The ripples on the icy water make it hard to see anything below the surface. An ideal hiding place for dreams…
The sun has set, the water of the fjord rapidly takes on the cold color of the night. Thin cloud veils seem to swallow up the colors of the sunset, until it's dark.
During a long walk in a dark and grey forest, the sun briefly but brightly breaks through the cloud cover just before sunset and illuminates the forest in fairy-tale autumn colors, as only the setting autumn sun can do.
An unexpected snowstorm blinds us
Even as we squint into the sunlight
Blinded, shivering, caught in the brightness
Turning away from its fierce glare
The burning, live-giving light
The soft, chilling snow
Flirting, sparkling, fluttering
...
After many days of rain, the late afternoon sun shines almost horizontally through the damp forest. It is quiet, except for a soft rustling, a song of the last leaves of the trees…
A cold evening at the end of a heavily cloudy, gray day. Just before the sun sets, the clouds open up allowing the light for a brief but intense moment to say hello to the night.
On a beautiful morning I wandered through the fields along the bay Krik Vig, part of the Limfjord. Except for the rustling of the wind and a single bird, it's quiet…
A more impressionistic transformation of the artwork Autumn Leaves, and that one is based on a photo that I made of the forest floor in the windy northwest corner of our garden, with a great variety in trees with leaves in all kind of shapes and colors.
While I was trying to photograph a bright sunset before the sun was completely below the horizon, I realized that the beauty of light is often determined by how it is filtered, veiled or scattered.
"The ability to imagine how a country, society, industry, etc. could develop in the future..."
Here on earth the light is always filtered by something. The atmosphere, clouds, a canopy, mist…
In fact, all these ‘filters’ make the sunlight much more visible, almost touchable…
The morning light and the silence in the deserted forest, create a special atmosphere. It gives space to let your thoughts run free.
On a walk on the shore along the fjord where we used to live, the sun emerges from behind the clouds just before it sets. An enchanting display of winter colors, slowly drowning in the calm waters of the fjord.
An artwork that I made on the occasion of the exhibition 'El Duende' in 2017. I made two series of photos in the mountains near Bellano, Italy. When making those series, the theme of the exhibition inspired me. I went looking for the spirit of mountains and valleys.
'Sad Songs' is a new artwork in my collection 'Secret Places'. It is inspired by the recent fruitless attempts by world leaders to arrive at decisive measures, humane financial compensation and quick actions to combat the earth crisis.
It's early in the morning. The first sunlight touches the moss between the trees. And as if the forest had been waiting for it, immediately the most wonderful scents rise up and mingle with the nightly smell of thawing leaves and wood.
Spring. A gentle breeze takes the petals of fading cherry blossoms into the light. Although still far away, or perhaps just because, a new version of this artwork.
Yesterday the first version of this artwork, it went wrong again with the ability to comment, so grab your chance at this new, digitally transformed version 😉
"You white men are lost. You don't understand the land. Too many silly questions.
Your presence on this earth will come to an end.
It's low tide, the bottom of the fjord becomes visible. The waves have left their marks, like every intense event in life...
A special calm comes over the evening when the sun begins to disappear behind the horizon and the light of the day fades away. Nature awaits the night.
I love that quiet moment of the day and the scents that announces the coming of night.
Our birch tree in the evening light. An experiment with my iPhone....
Early in the morning, it's quiet after a night full of mysterious sounds. Suddenly the first sunlight hits the tops of the pine trees, the forest awakes.
A walk in the forest early on an autumn morning. Do you know that wonderful scent of moist autumn leaves that are heated by a shower of sunlight?
Evening arrives, turning the trees into feathers of light.
An autumn walk through the beautiful forest Dover Plantation, near the town of Hurup Thy in North Jutland, Denmark.
A wonderful sunset briefly colors the sky intens red in many shades. Soon after, it is dark. The day is over. A beautiful ode to autumn…
It is cold in the darkening forest, the late afternoon sun yet makes an attempt to warm the trunks of the trees...
A warm day early in the summer, it is windless. The dense foliage filters the sunlight. Birds sing, but are invisible in the golden-green light.
Some people dream in color, other's in black and white. Many people are not sure, or hardly remember their dreams. I am quite sure I sometimes dream in surrealistic color palettes and atmospheres. But as far as I remember, my dreams are always multicolored...
Life is precious; we only have one. But what if you had as many lives as the balloon salesman has balloons in his hand?
We are witnessing the beginning of a pitch-black period.
For all those who care about nature, about the oppressed, about justice and democracy.
And for those who care about the rights of women, of those with a different opinion, sexual orientation, of those with a colored skin...
It is the first week of November, more than 3 weeks before that terrible day. And the first advertisements are already appearing.
So it is high time that I post again the works from the series Colorful Days....
If, with this mini series, I manage to persuade just 1 person to buy less this year, or maybe even not to participate in the madness called Black Friday, the earth will have made a small victory....
A tender kiss
our dreams
entwined
In all the turmoil of the world, there are trees that remain standing perfectly straight. Offering protection and holding on no matter how severe the storm rages around them. Deeply rooted, connected to the earth and to the trees around them.
We need a lot of money to fight the crises the earth is in. So why is so little happening to combat all these crises ? Are we short of money, then ? Well no, not really. But the rich countries prefer to spend it on unhealthy food, luxury goods, weapons, even bigger houses, subsidies for disastrous crises increasing activities.
A weekend read...
Yesterday I climbed up the hill
But halfway there, the wind and fog made climbing hard
The grass slippery with moisture,
and smelling of wet leaves and autumn
I heard a song, it helped me to continue on my way
Once at the top I used the moss as a pillow
while the voices of the wind in the trees soothed me to sleep.
About two years ago were intensely enjoying our introduction to Vietnamese coffee. We only drink 1 cup of coffee a day, so when you taste a beautiful coffee for the first time and it is your only cup that day, you enjoy it with very small sips.
When my cup was empty, I looked, as always, at the "markings" the coffee grounds had left on the bottom.
I grind and brew my coffee by hand, pouring it through a metal mesh filter, so there is always some sediment in there. Mmmmmm.... 🙂
The 'drawing' I saw fascinated me, and inspired me to create this artwork.
It is a great pleasure to mention here the 3 inspiring women who, without knowing it, participated in this creation.
Niloofar Mahafel, a wonderful painter from Iran, now living in Moskow, who trusts me to be her representative AND sent me many photos of the wonderful Iranian landscape. They are a huge inspiration ! No doubt she will recognize the picture of one of her beautiful landscapes in this artwork.
Daphne Nguyen, she introduced me to the coffee coming from her company's coffee farms in Vietnam. We love this coffee, the passion she and her colleagues have for coffee and the enormous commitment to the coffee farmers. I'm sure she never expected that her coffee would become the basis for an artwork...
Karina Mosser (find her website here), a wonderful painter and a great person to work with. Some time ago she made a series of abstracts for me to use as background for my digital creations. Through a green abstract painting of hers, I managed to create a work that brings together Iran and Vietnam as a landscape for my "coffee tree".
The artwork 'Voices In The Mist' is a new work in my collection 'Secret Places'. It is a digital transformation of 3 photographs, and will be printed with high-quality ink on museum-quality, acid-free cotton/rag paper (Hahnemühle Photo Rag® 308gsm). The work comes in a limited edition of 10, signed and with a certificate of authenticity. But of course, it is also available as Open Edition print, without signature and not numbered. Available in any size you desire !
Maximum size is 250Wx125H cm / 100wx50H inches. The work can be printed in any size up to that maximum, so please let me know the size you would prefer.
I start with one or more photographs made by myself to create these artworks. Then I use digital painting, color adjusting and adding and transforming multiple artistic effects, until a surrealistic atmosphere is created that touches me and tells the story I want to tell.
Prints of 'Voices In The Mist' are available, ask for a quote or contact me through a message. Prints are also available in my Saatchi Art portfolio at the artwork page and here (smaller limited edition).
Through my artworks I ask you to reflect for a moment on the nature around you, on the beautiful feeling that nature can evoke. Thus to think about your actions to support the wellbeing of the earth and everything that lives on it. And on what humanity loses when many of us continue on the destructive path of ever more greed and consuming. And please, reflect on how you can survive in this rapidly changing world…
So do you want to know your ecological footprint?
Then visit this website: https://www.footprintcalculator.org/home/en
And do you want to reduce your ecological footprint?
Then ask me, I will help you. For free. Or simply visit my website and choose in the menu for Your Footprint.
And if you appreciate my writings and art and want to support me, you can buy me a piece of fruit here: https://ko-fi.com/jacobberghoef, thank you 🍏 !
Interested in more? Then read what I wrote about System Change, Man's impact on the earth, Organic Change, Regenerative Agriculture, Regeneration
Lying on our backs in the woods, we observe nature's symphony flying above, and the gentle dance of light amid the trees—a phenomenon known as Shinrin-Yoku, or "forest bathing," celebrated in Japan. It refreshes the body and mind, enhancing health and well-being.
When Kari Trenten sent me a poem and asked me if it inspired me to make an artwork, I immediately had a vision...
This is the result...
Sickness, loss, violence, life-threatening circumstances, dying.... There are many moments in a person's life when she/he is held captive in icy darkness.
But whatever you believe in, ultimately there is the embrace and oneness with the light of your origin.
Want to inquire about an art piece?
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