Afternoon at home

My wife and children are in the garden and I painted for a few hours on the upper-construction while listening to The Messias of Haendel. It will take time to finish the painting.

Afternoon at home

My wife and children went to visit family - stayed at home to finish the first golden border.
During the next sessions I need to finish the border of the decagon (10-sides) on the top-level and start the golden leaves of the roof.
Completed listening to the the end of the Ring of Wagner (another 2 hours).

Morning at home

Before going to visit friends in Brussels painted a little more on the first border in gold (2 hours paint-session).

3 days at home

Took a few days off to paint. wednesday too but my little girl felt from the stairs and she stayed at home ... so no painting session that day.

The two other days went very well. I painted the rest of the background - greenish construction, brown basin for the grass and green-bleu water around it. Yes, I changed my initial idea. There will be a grass-basin and water around it (inversion of initial idea). On Friday searched a gold-color and found it by melting cadmium-yellow and cadmium-red as base, cadmium-yellow and white for the light-reflections and a bit of VanDyck-brown for the dark-side. Tried it out on the pallet and it gives a good result. Started to paint the first border on the top-construction - a golden tube ...

Listened to the complete Ring des Nibelungen of Wagner (till the first act of Der Götterdämmerung - which gives a idea of the number of hours worked on it : 12 hours in 2 days).

Evening in Brussels

Went to a concert in the 'Paleis voor Schone Kunsten' (translation: Palace for Beautiful Arts') On the program : symphonic orchestra of the opera house 'De Munt' with choir and solo conducted by Antonio Pappano. They played first 'Le tombeau resplendissant' of Olivier Messiaen (superb piece) and the 'Messa di Gloria' de Giacomo Puccini (a bit to easy for me).

Morning drive to office and early at the office

Thinking about the three painting I need to finish before October.

The first will be the current one (220 cm x 60 cm) :
A water basin with grass around it (that's new) and a bronze wood surrounding it holding a golden-leaves roof. Around the water basin ten columns of metal plants.

The second one could be (same size 220 cm x 60 cm) :
The same as before but the air will be in the basin and the water in the sky .. the ten columns should be more coral and other underwater plants like algae's ... (yes I know corals are no plants but animals)

The third one could be (150cm x 150 cm) :
A grass basin surrounded by air (so you can see the roots of the trees that surrounds the grass-basin) golden-leaves sky and water-roof ...

I think this could be nice ... we'll see ...

Late at home

At last ... I started with the oil paint on my new painting (the water basin). I think I needed the walk this afternoon. It perhaps childish to say but I think I did not started to paint because I needed to see those trees in the forest and all the greens this afternoon !! Worked for two hours and painted almost completely the sky ... used cereliumblue, sky-blue, a bit of cadmiumbleu and a lot of white ...

Listened to Dreamtime Return from Steve Roach (real floating music) during the session ...

Afternoon

Made a 10 km (a little over 6 miles) walk through the wood and fields ... question to breath the spring colors and forms into my brain ... I feel that I shall paint tonight ... there will be a metal (I think bronze) wood around the water pool of my painting with golden leaves making the roof ...

Late at home

Worked on the new painting with pencil on the canvas.
I've drawn part of the upper construction (roof) of the architecture, there will be leaves overlapping each other forming the roof of the construction. The columns will hold the roof up by holding it at the top or by going through the roof. The roof will be transparent, so you can see the light shining lightly through. Around the water-pool there will be views under the construction (roof) and in the distance there will be more of these pools. The subjects of the columns seem right except for one which I'll change when painting.

Thought about the next painting too. Will have the same format but instead of having the water in the pool, there will be air in it (so we assume that we are in the water). And the columns will not be plants but water creatures. The roof will be closed, so we will be in a sort of cave.

Listened to Tosca with La Callas after my session.

Late at home

Worked on the new painting with pencil on the canvas.
I have drawn 9 of the 10 columns of the construction, all plants.

Evening in Longueville

Talked about the next exhibition in October 1999. I've seen the walls where my big paintings will be exhibited ... if they are finished ...