Friday 19 February 2010

Waal river, near Tiel


Schuit aan De Waal, Tiel
oil on canvas
30 x 40 cm
painted on location - Wed 17 Feb 2010


This painting really falls in with the theme of this blog. Water everywhere, the moisture is so thick I can feel it cooling my bones, even with 3 layers of clothing on. This river is the main distribuary branch of the Rhine, one of Europe's most important rivers. Originating from various sources in the Alps, it is just amazing the volume this river carries, an average discharge of more than 71,000 cu ft/s (I believe the s stands for the time configuration, a second!)

I and two other painters were invited to a paint out, hosted by my friends, Leida and Sylvester, we all had a nice day. Arriving at this location, just after 12pm, I thought to myself, what could I make of this dull overcast Benelux grey situation? I was taken by the traffic flow of all these barges, going in both directions. Of course I spiced up the colors somewhat, and I choose not to paint every crest of wave but for the rest, what you see is pretty much accurate.

Had fun painting this barge, check out the flags.

1 comment:

Unknown said...

Ciao Alberto,
Questo e' un quadro bellissimo, I really like the background I/o low land and sky, is very harmonious and the simply rendered foreground direct the attention to the barge that is masterfully painted with the correct bow wave center wave and the churning white trailing wave indicating that the barge is in ballast(not loaded-or empty-going to get some cargo). 3 layer of coating eh! that must be pretty tough for painting , and still no way you can worm up your hands. You Guys and Girls had a great outing! Alberto you really got a nice oil here! Un'abbraccio,
Mariano