Here are some drawings and sketches of the Dutch.
Drawings:
Sketches:
Sketches of the Dutch
Art
Jazz Singer, painting
Jazz Singer, acrylics, A3, 16.5 x 11.5″
I was inspired by her natural warmth and the way she connected with her audience, which I hope I captured.
Tall Ships 2015: Miniatures Paintings and Drawings
[Every 5 years 3-5 masted sailing ships, most of them training vessels, come to Amsterdam. We sat on the side of the North Sea Canal where I sketched. And ate pofertjes! (Small pancakes). Here are my drawings and paintings from that event.
Cats!
One of my favorite topics! Here two kittens play in the botanic gardens in Valencia.
Paris drawings
These are pen and ink drawings together with water colors from our time in Paris. Some are from Courbevoie, famous for the impressionist paintings done on ile de la Jatte. I spent a lot of time meeting with friends at Bar de la Gare and Cafe Bert in Paris.
Music related drawings
The Zambia Series
A few of these are still available. Please contact me for information.
From our safari to Zambia, June 2014.
These paintings are mostly from my journal, which I did while we were there. Some of the very small ones I later did on larger paper, also in water color.
We traveled by train for 1500 kilometers from Dar Es Salaam, Tanzania to Zambia, and spent several days in a small village where our nephew works as a Peace Corps Volunteer. It was an uplifting experience.
It started with an hour long walk in the dark (see the painting “Heart of Lightness”). As we approached the village we heard shouts of joy, hugs and kisses soon following. Then they sang for an hour, choral harmony in which the whole village joined. We were perfect strangers yet they welcomed us as if we were long lost relatives. We lived in a small hut and watched the people work on the dam, harvest cassava and do other chores. What loads the women can carry on their heads! We ate with them, partied with them. They are sweet and innocent, these people of Lunda land.
I hope you will enjoy my portrayal of the experience, the colors, the scenes, the sense of innocence.
Heart of Lightness We walked on the path towards the village under the glow of the yellow moon. After almost an hour we saw the glow of campfires on the hill. Soon we were welcomed with shrieks and smothered with hugs and kisses on the cheeks.
The Chorus After we arrived they sang in harmony for an hour. Children in the front row would sometimes bang the rhythm on the ground. The second row was for the teens, and the adults were in the last.
They sang beautifully.
Women Dance At night the young women danced around a campfire, for which they used a brazier. The wood fire cast an orange glow. My original was just 2″x 4″. The rhythms were mesmerizing. Even some of the older women (by older I mean over 25, as the life span here is just 45) joined in. I wanted to also.
Women Collect Sand The Peace Corps project is a small dam for filling fish ponds. They need the protein and the income. They do not have much of either. They have goats but they do not eat them, they are for dowries, and they are lactose intolerant so nary a piece of cheese in the country. In this painting they collect sand for the dam.
Walking the Bush We explored the area around the village. Here are friends walk through the bush.
What I experienced gave me a new perspective, different colors, the elongated limbs, the redness of the soil.
Street With A View- The final and two previous versions showing the evolution of the piece
I did three versions of this view. The first one (bottom) was a sketch from memory. I noticed the gorgeous view as we passed by on Bus 30 on the way up the hill. I did the second from a photo in pen and ink, and the third on site in watercolor. I think you will find it interesting to see the three together. From memory- I think I did it rather accurately considering I had about 30 seconds. The first two will be up on my website shortly http://garyartista.wix.com/gary-kirkpatrick-art
Video slide shows from a small village in Zambia- my favorite part of the journey
These photos are from our June 2014 visit to Zambia. Our nephew is serving in the Peace Corps, following his brother in el Salvador and us in Panama. The drawings in the video are from my journal, which I will publish. This was my favorite part of the journey. As spectacular as the animals were, as great as Victoria Falls was, this was more meaningful, touching me profoundly.
Here’s a people with so little in material goods who are just above subsistence and yet they expressed such joy at our arrival and for the next three days of our time there.
My art: http://www.garyjkirkpatrick.com/
Water color painting of the Church at Auber-sur-Oise (updated)
July 26, 2014
Last Tuesday a friend and I went to Auvers-sur-Oise, not to far from Paris. It is here that Vincent Van Gogh lived his last months. He died from a gunshot wound, either from his own hand, as we have long thought, but perhaps one of the local teens who’d been harassing him for his odd appearance.
Gogh did a painting of this church, now a famous piece. Here is my rendition in memory of this man who contributed so much to art and who received so little in return. I’d done a pen and ink/water color one a few years ago from a different angle and in preparation I did a sketch beforehand, both below. I needed to be more or less ready to paint when I get there as I doubt I can sit long enough to start from scratch. My butt just about died that day sitting on the ground perched against a tree doing the pen and ink. The angle he did it from is the one I sketched a few days before we went. There is nothing to lean against from his angle so my friend brought chairs. And a bottle of Absinthe.
