One of my favorite things to do was to walk on the beach, regardless of the weather. Enjoying the sound of the waves and the cries of the seagulls, feeling the cool and often damp sea breeze on your face, smelling the scent of the sea, and tasting the salt on your lips...
Do you also love walking along a quiet beach and breathing in the fresh sea air?
Two new sunset artworks, with just under two weeks to go before summer arrives. An intens cloudy sunset above the Limfjord, and a pastel colored sunset above the North Sea...
It's early in the morning. A beautiful iris opens its flower and turns toward the sun. The petals bathe themselves in light, seeming to dance in slow motion.
Iris is a flowering plant genus of more than 300 species with showy flowers.
Iris is not only the scientific name, but is also widely used as a general name for all Iris species.
I sit on a stone,
on the west side of the pond
Staring at the water,
waiting.
Nobody understands why.
After a few beautiful and warm, but very dry spring weeks, almost all the plants are in bloom. With bright sunshine in the middle of the day, it seems as if summer has danced in to replace spring.
Rain is forecast for the coming week, a very welcome change in the weather...
The previous owner of our house had a huge fondness for rhododendrons. So we have them in many shapes and sizes. And we love the poisonous tea that comes from it 🙂
Spring rain passed
A cherry tree in bloom
Sketched by morning light
Sketched By Light is a series of artworks of flowering branches in bright sunlight...
Tall firs squeeze the
morning wind
Bright sunrise, the light
embraces the trees
Soft rustling tells me
you're awake...
What if I could paint the city
in cheerful colours, plant trees
as tall as skyscrapers, have concrete
foundations intertwined with roots,
have leaves be a canopy against the bright sun
and give shelter to millions of birds.
Midnight
a memory, a dream
A moonlit silent scream
Confused, a handful of
tears. We forgot ...
As Clouds Before the Wind
... When she wakes
she lifts the shade, impatient for a glimpse
of flight: a sparrow, a swallowtail—
something with wings she can memorize.
I have the right to fly
To grow, to prosper
The right to be
To raise offspring
Feed you and others
To be fed myself.
Who defends our rights?
...
I lift my gaze to the stars, it doesn’t matter. There’s so much more out there, up there than my tiny, confused self, yet I’m a part of it. Getting lost becomes something wonderful.
...
Always silent, seemingly staring into nothingness
What tales would they know and share?
Intertwined roots, touching branches
How do I listen in, share in their wisdom?
I walked in the woods, on a path I walked
many times before, completely lost in thought
not noticing that darkness was falling, that stars
appeared in the sky, that moonlight
brightened my path. A sound brought me out of my musings...
You ask why I live
alone in the birch forest,
and I smile and am silent
until even my soul grows quiet...
...I will lie down on the wet grass and look at the swaying tops of the thirsty young birch trees...
A special calm comes over the evening when the sun disappears behind the horizon and the light of the day slowly dies. Nature awaits the night, the trees lean against the darkening colors.
I love that intens, quiet moment of the day...
And early on a beautiful bright spring morning, I go outside and take a deep breath of the birth of a spring day...
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.
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...
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...
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...
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