Those peaceful nights

In the Netherlands, sailing is big. Really big. Or perhaps, the country is just a tad too small to fit all those sailors in. But on hot summer days, everybody seems to get out on the water. In the evenings, even the smaller natural harbors and inlets are packed full of boats. There's the smell of barbeques, dinghy-racing kiddo's and the five other boats you have to climb over to get ashore. Mass tourism, Waterworld-style.

Winter in the Netherlands

Today, I am posting three paintings instead of one. These three are part of one whole. Together they try to capture the atmosphere of winter in the Netherlands.

Winter sailing, winter quietness

Often, I hear people say: such a shame that summer is over, I enjoyed sailing so much! Or: ‘I am glad that I live in California/Malaysia/some other warm country, so I can continue sailing all year long. Some people seem to assume that sailing is impossible during the wintertime! But they couldn’t be more wrong...

The cruising life? Oh, if only we could afford that!

You guys sailed to the Channel Islands? With your own boat? For ten weeks? Wow guys, that’s really cool! And look at those pictures you took! Amazing.. This is quite different from our holidays. Two weeks in some Spanish beach resort, that’s it. Some people are just so lucky. I gotta admit I’m kinda jealous here.

Indian summer sailing

Officially, summer has been over for about three weeks now. But we've been given some beautiful warm, sunny autumn days to enjoy. And enjoy them we did! Last weekend, we sailed off for a club meeting with Euros, the student sailing association that built our boat.

My Boeier project

As you may have noticed, I haven't been posting much art on my blog lately. I have been working on a painting of a Dutch traditional Boeier vessel. Now, she is finally finished. In this post, I will show some pictures of the whole process, from quick sketch to finished painting.

A Holland Holiday Getaway..

This year, we have been spending a lot of time fixing our boat. Last week, all this work finally paid off, when we finished the last repairs. Time to take that hard-earned holiday break! We had about eight days, so no overly ambitious sailing goals this time. We spent the week on our country's sweet water lakes.