House in Antibes

Here's a lovely house in Antibes, a commission of very nice Dutch people. They preferred a small painting and for one I found out that with my way of working, it is not faster than larger size, I just have to use a smaller brush... But I'm proud of the result!

I worked from 3 small photo's, one for the sketch of the basic shapes and the light, and two others for the plants in the foreground... and as always I started with the sky...

If you enlarge this picture you'll see that I painted the hard stone wall with the method I explained in an earlier post - wet drops in very diluted sepia, ochre and burnt sienna tones. They'll dry up with a rim -  which gives a logical and natural effect.

This is the stage in which I always want to stop, the white looks so nice here... but also unfinished and my clients will not be happy as they choose me for my love of detail

Almost finished, only a bit of contrast and I'm done... great project, enjoyed it! and now on to the next one, another house in Antibes!

Wonderful villa in Fayence

Just finished this painting of an impressive villa in Fayence, sold by friends Karin en Leo de Bruine.

I was still in holiday mood (with lots of visitors enjoying the Riviera sun - distracting yours truly) and... forgot about this painting in the planning...  oops!!

So I worked nights with the daylight lamp and luckily still could deliver in time!

Not many pictures of the how-to, lack of time... But in general a painting like this takes two 8 hour days, from stretching the paper to finished stage. And then an extra hour to cut a passepartout (mat) in the right size and attach it... On to the next one with a slightly more relaxed deadline...

House in Grasse

Just finished another aquarelle of a house, in Grasse...Thought I'd post about it so the owners who commissioned it can have a look at the end product... They'll return to France in 2 months and are interested what I manufactured of course... I made a little movie "the making of" for them too but can't seem to find a way to post that, I know it is possible but have no time to dive into it as I am traveling to my home country Holland for a short holiday!!! So that will have to wait...

Anyway, here it is: A lovely, sunny villa with lots of olive trees, a terrific pool and a flat garden to die for!!