Kees van Aalst les

8 July 2011

A 15 minute workshop from Kees van Aalst

How would you tackle this Kees?
I asked Kees because I painted the locks in IJmuiden,
and I was not happy about the end result!
And I liked to know how Kees would solve this problem!!

Kees looked and said, yes … there’s just too much to see!
You should leave more to the viewer.
He grabbed a piece of paper, cartridge paper and his palette.
With a few pencil strokes he put down the main lines, for the painting.
On his palette he mixed three colours with water.
So … her a bit blue, red through it, a little red here leave a few white pieces,
so and so.
All this with 3 cm wide and hard spalter from Da Vinci.
And here’s some Burnt Sienna, and now let it dry.
I do not recognized my boat and my steel factory, I did not see it?
What does he try to show me now?
I looked now and then to my watercolour, which was lying flat on the kitchen table!
Kees went on, now I put dark colours on top of the boat, and the cranes so and so,
Tjak and tjak he says, and I saw the crane arise.
And my boat appeared from the red stain he did made before!
Not that I had carefully detailed my watercolor, but his crane with 5 brushstrokes,
appeared to be more credible than my brushed copy!
Then the steel factory needs some stronger lines.
A few lines and there was my factory!

Hmmm, and so on, Kees said,
As if I could paint like this further.
The painting is not finished yet, but you can see where it goes.
It is not the truth that made it a watercolour,
But it is painted with a artist eye!