Noordwijkerhout – meldrum art

A tulip field and a puzzled local

Yes, like I mentioned in the previous post, my wife was at a conference in Noordwijkerhout, Holland. I tagged along for the chance to discover a new place and to find inspiration to paint a watercolour.

I left the hotel after breakfast with my easel and painting gear. It was day two, what should I paint? I wandered around for a while and then decided to make it easy for myself. There were only flat fields, as far as an artist could see. It was a hot, sunny day, so when I found shade, it decided the view of the tulip fields.

While painting, a local carefully asked, why was I painting the field? It was empty after all, the tulips had been harvested two weeks before. She smiled, mounted her bike and cycled away. I had no choice did I! I had missed the harvest and was in the middle of nowhere. I probably made the fields redder than they really were, because of that little encounter with the lady on the bicycle.

A painting challenge, south of Amsterdam

I have just returned from a two week holiday. Sylvie, my wife was attending a conference in Holland and I just hung along for the ride. Later, we took the train to Paris and then visited her mother in Brittany, France.

I didn’t look at the exact location of my wife’s conference on the map. It was in a place called Noordwijkerhout. A farming region, flat as a pancake, south of Amsterdam. Small towns dotted around but mostly just farmland. No windmills. What could I paint? A field? A field that once had tulips? And, they had been harvested weeks earlier …

It’s fascinating how, when one stares long enough at a seemingly mundane landscape, one can find beauty. I did my best to capture it. I had walked around for hours with my easel. It was late evening when I settled for this scene.