Month: January 2015

(Self) Portraits

a171-self-portraitI’m slowly cataloguing Dad’s creative output, initially his paintings and drawings. Among them are some surprises. This self-portrait is different from most that he has done. A great likeness, from an unusual technique.

a81-johcoomansAnother surprise is to see some work by others among Dad’s “collection”.  Herman Mees was a well regarded artist who taught at the Academy in Rotterdam. At that time (1942), he was the head teacher there. Here is his entry in Wikipedia. His portrait of Dad is a little gem.

[as usual, click to enlarge images]

Leede

leede1944I’ve been sorting and archiving Dad’s artwork after capturing most of it digitally in December. While I was familiar with most of the works, it’s nice to discover  drawings and paintings with which I wasn’t  familiar. For example this sketch of the Leede (“tuindorp” in Rotterdam), done in 1944. It shows that confident hand and “eye” for which he should be remembered.

Leede2014Out of curiosity, I looked up the location on Google. The church tower is hidden by the leaves of the tree, but it’s pretty much the same 70 years later.

{click the images for larger versions]

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