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Mark Knopfler, sweet memories

Mark-Knopfler-madrid Ben LustenhouwerIn 1996 my daughter and I went to a concert of singer Laura Pausini. At the time, a popular teen idol. It was a birthday gift when she became 12 years old. Father & daughter going out to the Velodrome in Valencia. We really enjoyed the concert (together!), I remember it very well.

Mark Knopfler, sweet memories

For last Friday night she was alble to get two tickets for the concert of Mark Knopfler in Madrid, in Las Ventas.  For my 62nd birthday. Again father & daughter on the scene. She could not do me no greater pleasure. The music of Knopfler has accompanied me a big part of my life. During the hours that I was working behind my easel and during the long hours driving my car when I was bound once more for the Netherlands. My daughter knows my music taste like no other. And I know hers. Pausini then and Knopfler now. During the concert I mused on what happened in the intervening years. Sweet memories of the past times during a fantastic concert next to my dear daughter. Beautiful!

IMG_9271

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Self-portrait, always with a hat.

We are cleaning up the attic and I found this self portrait again, from ten years ago. Not really flattering but… Self portraits you see often with headgear. You know why? We painters are painting so many times our own head, that it is becoming boring. So a hat changes the image.

Self-portrait with hat. 2003
Self-portrait with hat.
2003
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Commercial illustrations

Shop in the twenties

Commercial illustrations

A long time ago I made commercial illustrations. Yesterday I found two paintings in the storage.

Together with five other pieces of artwork, these illustrations were published in a calendar for a spanish banking company. The theme was “History of Money“. As always I was searching for models. But this time I guess there was no time left to do so. (Always killing deadlines in commercial illustration!) In the first picture you see me and my wife. The twenties hat I bought especially for that occasion and I still have it in my studio. The counter in the shop where the shop-lady (my wife) stands behind is a piece of furniture in which I store my painting stuff already for a long time. That was pure coincidence and very useful. In the other you see me minting, in a moresque ambience.

Shop in the twenties
My wife and me as models.
Minting coins
Me as a morisque minter.

Now I see clearly the influence of the lessons of Andrew Loomis “Creative Illustration” Still I scroll through that book every now and then.

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I never miss my country but…

Jachthaventje bij Eembrugge. Watercolour 1986

We are living for 23 years now in Spain and I still enjoy our life here very much. Nice country and nice people. I never miss Holland but sometimes when I see my older watercolours I want to go for a short walk in the polder.

Jachthaventje bij Eembrugge. Watercolour 1986
Jachthaventje bij Eembrugge. Watercolour. 1986
W atercolour 1986
Eempolder tussen Baarn en Soest. Watercolour. 1986.
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Some older work that I found

moeder ziek in bed+Angela 1966

I was cleaning up my studio and I found a couple of old drawings. In the sixties my mother had to stay in bed for about two month. She suffered from sciatica. Her bed was moved from her bedroom down stairs into the living room. From there she could give orders to her eight children. I made several studies of her when she was sleeping. In the corner below my little sister. I think I was 15 years old then.

moeder ziek in bed+Angela 1966
My mother in bed. 1966

This one is in pen with blue ink.