Renzo Bossi

Father Umberto Bossi, leader of the Lega Nord in Italy, has a shadow, his son  Renzo.  Here's a picture of Renzo.

Rutte Verhagen cabinet????

The new government will be called the Rutte Verhagen cabinet after the leaders of the participating political parties, Mark Rutte and Maxime Verhagen.  The name leaves the elephant in the room unmentioned.  You can also see it as a comfortable seat for the third player, Geert Wilders, who gets all the power without the burden of the corresponding responsabilities.

Winsemius: "Is this really what you want Mark?"

Today Pieter Winsemius asks Mark Rutte in NRC Handelsblad whether the choice for CDA and PVV does justice to the principles and ideas of their  party, the VVD.

Joseph Pulitzer

After all sorts of jobs, dead poor immigrant Joseph Pulitzer (1847 - 1911) started as a journalist at the age of 21, bought his first newspaper 4 years later and was a wealthy, influential newspaper man at the age of 36.  He was bigger than life, always on the look out for corrupt politicians and other wrong doers.  As you can see here, little escaped his eyes.    

Arthur Japin & Adriaan van Dis

The new books of the gentlemen-authors Arthur Japin and Adriaan van Dis are reviewed in Vrij Nederland.  My literary portraits usually refer to the last book in atmosphere or theme.  With more than one person in the frame that approach tends to lead to messy pictures, so I opted for a simple straightforward portrait, that looks nice in the magazine.  

Jan Kees de Jager

Jan Kees de Jager, the Dutch minister of Finance, has just presented the budget for 2011, with substantial cuts in a number of sensititve areas.  His handling of the presentation and the press was very professional.  And his eagerness to be minister of Finance in the next cabinet came through loud and clear as well.  It looks as if he can't wait to cut a lot more.  NRC Handelsblad 23 Sept 2010

Joran van der Sloot

Joran van der Sloot (1987) has become a celebrity in the US, in Peru and in his native country, the Netherlands.  He was first arrested and later released in connection with the murder of Natalee Holloway on Aruba (2005).  He surfaced again in Thailand in relation with a women trafficking deal and he now sits in a Peruvian prison after being  for the murder of Stephany Flores  (31 May 2010).  The press has covered his story like a gruesome real live soap, with new! shocking! spectacular! developments on a weekly basis. 

Here's a picture of the babyfaced star of the soap.  NRC Handelsblad 12 June 2010.  I kept the face simple, without much colour and no background so that all attention goes to the eyes.

time for a different cabinet?

Over 100 days have passed since the election and there is no new cabinet yet.  Maybe in a couple of weeks.  Maybe.  Some people think that the political parties wil not be able to come up with a powerful team and argue that a cabinet of outsiders should be selected.  Here's a potential line-up:  Alexander Rinnooy Kan, Saskia Stuiveling, Yvo Opstelten, Jaap de Hoop Scheffer, Beatrix, Louise Gunning, Louise Fresco, Bernard Welten, Ben Verwaaijen.

authors for the summer

Fall has arrived and here's a retrospective bouquet of authors for the summer of 2010:  Bret Easton Ellis, David Mitchell, Don DeLillo, Yan Martel, Siegfried Lenz and Rolf Bauerdick.  

Nicolas Sarkozy's anatomy

There is something strange about Sarkozy's anatomy: he's developed one part of his physique much more than the rest and the public apparently loves it. NRC Handelsblad 17 Sept 2010.

Robert Bolano's novel El Tercer Reich (the Third Reich)

Robert Bolano's posthumously published novel El Tercer Reich (the Third Reich) has now been translated into Dutch. The mood of the portrait reflects the mood of the book   (Dark, spanish beach resorts, German war gamer, 1980's, WW II and a hint of fascism). 

Those were the days (Femke Halsema)

It seems so long ago that Femke Halsema took part in the negotations about a new cabinet, but in fact it's only been a few weeks.  Here's a snapshot of one of the meetings in the stately government halls.  Femke shows the way, swinging in her typical Dutch outfit.

Mijn workshops Portret Tekenen

Er kan worden ingetekend op mijn workshops portrettekenen. Iets voor jou? mooi cadeau voor vriend(in)? De keus is uit tweedaagse masterclasses voor ervaren tekenaars en eendaagse workshops voor mensen die meer over portrettekenen en hun materiaal willen leren.  In het mooie Giethoorn, voor maximaal 15 personen per cursus. Zie voor meer details workshop.

Aaaagghh!

Geert Wilders, our self-proclaimed ayatollah, will speak at New York today to protest against the building of an islamic centre close to the World Trade Centre site. He promises a 'nice story'.  On 9/11 (!).  The Dutch news media have been following his every move in anticipation of his message.  Will he deliver his usual scandalous rant, hyped by so much attention?  Or will he tone down in order not to hurt the changes of a coalition needs the support of his party?  In any case, he has hypnotized the media once more and so I pulled out this old portrait (dec 2007)once more.

Remco Campert

Just a simple watercolour portrait of one of the old masters of Dutch literature, Remco Campert.  I kept the colours in his face bright and contrasted them with a dark background, to reflect the moods in his writings. Published in Vrij Nederland 11 Sept 2010.

Lust for power

Interesting to see how people behave when power  is within reach.  Here's a picture of Rutte, Wilders and Verhagen in that situation.  Their faces remind me of Bush and Blair when they led their countries to war with beaming eyes.  The eyes and glances towards each other gave away how much they enjoyed it.

No face

Some faces have many characteristic features. For a portrait painter this is wonderful news because it gives a lot of freedom to pick any combination of these features, and not worry whether the portrait resembles the owner of the face.  You can play with lighting, leave out the chin, emphasize or deemphasize the eyes, etc, etc: the resemblance is always there.
On the other extreme we find those lamentable souls that have no identifying characteristics at all, men without faces.  Their bland features are extremely hard to portray.  Gerrit Zalm, the former Dutch Minister of Finances is a good example.  I have yet to see a good portrait of him.

Interestingly, people do recognize him without problems.  How can that be?  Well, everything in his face is usually twitching and it is the constant movement that makes him recognizable.  Good for him, but useless for a portrait painter!

The Hungarian author Dezso Kosztolanyi wrote 'Nero, the bloody poet' in 1922. He breathes live into the failed artist that emperor Nero was and invokes atmosphere of the Roman empire. The novel has now been translated into Dutch which is why I made this portrait of the author at work to accompany a review in Vrij Nederland

Those who have finished Renate Dorrestein's writers course, can continue by colouring her portrait. 

Willem van Maanen, the old master of the short story,  says goodbye to his readers with Bagatellen,  his farewell volume.

Margriet de Moor's latest novel is titled 'de schilder en het meisje' (the painter and the girl) referring to Rembrandt and  Elsje Christiaens, a Danish girl executed in Amsterdam of who he made two small drawings.  Margriet de Moor doesn't mention Rembrandt by name in the novel, so I kept the reference low key as well.  I used  Rembrandtesk colours for this watercolour and pencil portrait and put Margriet de Moor in a pose similar to one that Rembrandt used in a drawing of his wife Saskia Uylenburg.

During the seventies Prof Wouter Buikhuisen was under permanent attack, particularly by Piet Grijs (pseudonym of Hugo Brandt Corstius)  in the Dutch weekly Vrij Nederland.   It eventually ended his scientific career. Buikhuisen has a continued interest in the workings of the amygdala as a potential source of criminal behavior.  On this picture he locates this important organ in the brain of his nemesis Piet Grijs. Published in Vrij Nederland 4 sept 2010.