Slagroomijs

Slagroomijs is like no ice cream you've ever tried. It is somewhere in-between whipped cream and Ben and Jerry's vanilla. When you add fresh-picked blackberries from the back yard, and slather it with cassis syrup, you have yourself Dessert, with a deliberate capital "D". So much fat it hardly stays frozen. As they say in Dutch, "God zij dank voor slagroomijs!"

A bike ride in the country

Sunday, Tamara and I went on a 45 km bike ride along the numerous bike paths around the Hague. The ride began in a very boutique neighborhood similar to Washington's Potomac area. Sunny and hot, we shared the paths with legions of fellow bikers. The urban setting quickly gives way to a more pastoral landscape set off by old and new windmills/turbines. We biked through a very small town (Voorschoten) and past some recreational man made lakes (Vlietland) connected by canal to the Hague. Huge estates can be seen in the vicinity of the Hague. The largest (Duivenvoorde) was built in 1632. (Third picture from the top.)

A grand day out at Scheveningen harbor, plein air painting

Inspired by yesterday's sketching, I went back to Scheveningen harbor to do some plein air painting. So, while I was painting this I was approached by a German tourist, who told me how to fix it, mooned by one of the offshoreman who thought it would be a good addition to the painting, and generally harassed. I was sunburned and dehydrated by the merciless hot sun (yes, a miracle for here I know). BUT, I was outside, and painting. Not bad.

A day at the harbor

Yesterday, I sketched and took pictures at Scheveningen's port. Here is what I saw and drew.

A day's work

The weather today was fabulous. 65 degrees, and the sun came out occasionally. Enough to take off one's jacket, anyway. Inspired, went to the dunes to do some tonal studies of the water tower.

The last picture includes the first income received from doing art (in 17 odd years.) Bringing home the bread, if not the bacon. Sure feels good.

A quiet evening hanging by the pool

Shiva knows where the party's at.

Success!

My first art opening in the Hague was great fun. Food and wine were great, and everyone was delightful. Most really did like the paintings and drawings, and I managed to sell a couple of drawings which felt great. The sun even came out, and we all moved outside to enjoy the last few afternoon rays.


The photos below give a sense of the house and the artwork that was in the show.

Clair gets excited about the campaign! (video clip may only work in Firefox, not in Explorer)

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ART SHOW!

My big news is that I am planning an art opening for this Sunday.

It sort of fell together... we are members of a wine tasting club organized by our friend Ingmar Loof, who is a former art gallery owner and now owns a wine shop. We offered to host the party at our place since it is such a great spot for an outdoor Sunday afternoon party - and Ingmar suggested that I do an art show during the party. So, why not?!

Since this idea germinated on Tuesday, I have less than a week to get ready. I am frantically buying frames, revisiting and retouching artwork, re-painting frames, getting matts made etc. And, it's forcing me to do some more art, some of it o.k.. I've heard that shows force artists to pull it all together on deadline, and it seems to be working for me.

For those of you in the states, I will post the art opening on my www.potamoi.com website. There will be a virtual gallery, so you can see exactly what is on display in the show. The website will go live with the gallery on Sunday.

Mud-wasp nest

So, I was at my parents replacing some windows, and in the course of doing so I had to destroy a mud-wasp nest. These are really interesting critters. I'd only read about them, and this was the first time I've seen the inside of one of these nests. The female mud-wasp builds a nest out of you-guessed it, mud. She fills the nest with paralyzed spiders. She hunts the spiders, and with her sting not only paralyzes the spiders but also reduces their metabolism. This allows the spiders to live (if you can call it that) in a state of suspended animation. She stuffs the spiders into a tunnel in her mud nest. She lays a couple of eggs, and seals up the nest. The blind grubs hatch, and begin sucking the blood of the nearest paralyzed spiders, leaving behind empty spider husks. The grub works its way through the dark tunnel, eating spider after spider and incorporating the spider venom, eventually emerging from the nest as a fully formed mud-wasp with the potential to give a nasty sting. No word on what the grub does with the extra spider web. These wasps are huge, and scary looking. Below you can see pictures of the spiders and the opened nest.

Tamara being cool

But then again, she's always cool.

Some more sketches

These were done yesterday - cat on a lap (Shiva) and a copy of a Leonardo da Vinci sketch. I am trying to learn anatomy so that my drawings of people will be better informed. Thanks to Leonardo for doing the dissections, saves me a lot of time and effort.

Family pictures Oshkosh

So, for a belated birthday present I received a blond Rasta wig. You can see my niece's reaction for yourself. Me, I thought I looked handsome with hair. Oh well.