School is out, zomervakantie is in. After spending a morning at the Van Gogh museum last week, I decided that adding serious drawing to my artistic practice is key. To that end, I’ve made a point of sketching every day, and today I had the opportunity to visit the lake in Sloterplas where my eldest is enjoying a week of sailing camp. It’s a lovely park and provided picturesque scenery for sketching. Above is my photo of one of the docks, and below is a sketch overlaid on a photo of the lake. I need to work on my proportions and perspective a bit, but it’s not a bad start.
Sketch overlaid on photo for comparison 20210712 ©2021
I spent last week applying papier maché to my first large-scale Protoa and making ring bands in silver for the Shadow blossoms collection. The papier maché is slower going than I expected, and the silversmithing is improving. I have been broadly productive, which is good, because I’m off to the U.S. next weekend to visit family for the first time since December 2019. Thanks to covid, it’s been a long time since we’ve seen our parents. The Delta variant is a now a severe threat in Amsterdam, increasing with the most explosive growth rate since the pandemic began, and the boys and I are crossing our fingers and hoping for clean PCR tests so we can get on the plane next Saturday.