Berchtwalder Bartmann: ready to be fired

I have spent many hours painting my Berchtwalder Bartmann jug the past three weeks. 
The design of the Jug is based on Bartmann jugs, a type of decorated stoneware that was manufactured in Europe throughout the 16th and 17th centuries, especially in the Cologne region in what is today western Germany. Bartmann means "bearded man", because of the bearded face mask appearing on the lower neck of the vessel. The English name for these jugs is 'Bellarmine jug', based on Cardinal Robert Bellarmine who lived around the year 1600 and was a fierce opponent of Protestantism,  so it might have been that the bearded face was a caricature of this man. Although the original Bartmann jugs were often glazed with a brownish salt glaze, I choose to use the Majolica technique in order to emphasize the details. It is ready to be fired now.

Route du Nord

Next weekend I am participating in 'Route du Nord'
with my sculptures Woodman's Journey 
and Last Mammoth.

Route du Nord, 7-9 June 2013.
Zomerhofkwartier, Rotterdam.
More information and location:
www.routedunord.nl

Dutch Settlement

I stick to the blue colour scheme a bit longer. For the upcoming exhibition 'Dutch Settlement' at Enriched Bread Artists Studio's in Ottawa I make two large watercolour paintings in Indigo blue.
Dutch Settlement is an exhibition together with my fellow artist from the Quartair studio's in The Hague.
www.quartair.nl

More background information about  the Enriched Bread Artists Studio's in Ottawa and this exhibition in English:
www.enrichedbreadartists.com

I also did the graphic design of the poster (below) and invitation.

Digitized

My paintings Mahmud Babar II, The Knight of prosperity and wealth and the new Lullaby 2 are photographed (digitized) yesterday at studio Buitenhof in Den Haag.
One of the specialties of this studio is digitalizing (large scale) old maps, they work i.a. for the Dutch National archive: www.nationaalarchief.nl
Now I have the high resolution scans, the original paintings can travel safely to Belgium.
 
www.studiobuitenhof.com

Dragons, flags, ships and a Peacock

Here some details of my 'Dragon Emperor' mural in museum De Prinsenhof in Delft.
Scroll down for an action photo of me painting the mural, in the Delft AD newspaper.

The Blue Revolution

I finished the large warercolour 'Dragon Emperor' mural for the Delft - Jingdezhen: The Blue Revolution exhibition. And the exhibition at De Prinsenhof started last Friday.
Adriaan Rees, me and the people of the museum have been working very hard to get everything finished on time.
We also moved my big vase "Perpetua Porseline" to her new location in the exhibition.
 
Below some pictures of the exhibition.
Lighting design by Paul van Laak
Sounds by Leo Anemaet
Video works by Henk Augustijn

Some more pictures you can find here:
http://jaar2013.middendelfland.net/delft/thebluerevolution.htm
And some more background information in English you can find in the China Times:
www.chinatimes.nl

The 187 inch tall Dragon Emperor

Busy preperations for the exhibition Delft-Jingdezhen: The Blue Revolution, 400 jaar Exchange, which is starting next week. See my previous post: http://cirquedepepin.blogspot.nl/2013/03/delft-jingdezhen-blue-revolution.html

And for this exhibition I am painting on the shalk walls of the very old Prinsenhof museum. This painting must be by far the largest watercolor that I've ever made, it's approximately 475 cm (187 inch) high.

On the first picture I am accompanied by the famous Dutch artists Hugo Kaagman and Tineke van Gils, who are also participating in the exhibition.