
Hidden delights: small animals in 17th C Dutch paintings
Elias van den broek, detail of Still Life with Roses (1670 - 1708)
Rijksmuseum (click to zoom right in on the museum's website)
The 17th century saw a keen interest in science and naturalism and empirical research of the natural…

Bread on the 17th century table
I love going back to my books on 17th C paintings time and time again: just looking at pictures provides such inspiration. I have a few books on paintings of food: while they show beautiful paintings they also provide great insight into the…

The Dutch Tulip: heritage cultivars
The Dutch Tulip: heritage cultivars
From my garden:
Zilver Standaard
Dutch tulip, 1760
One of the latest Dutch heritage tulips to surface in my garden is also one of my favourites: the Zilver Standaard, a Dutch tulip which…

Old Masters: painting tricks
Rembrandt van Rijn
Portrait of a Woman, Possibly Maria Trip (1639)
Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam I often paint dark backgrounds. Learning about old techniques, I aspire to approximate those incredible backgrounds of 17th…

Old pigments painting blog: Lapis Lazuli
Throughout history, lapis lazuli and the blue pigment that is extracted from it have have occupied a special place in the fine and decorative arts: an expensive, semi-precious stone that for centuries was exclusively sourced fron the rather…

Jan van Eyck: giant of the Northern Early Renaissance
Portrait of a Man (assumed to be a self portrait), 1433. National Gallery London
Jan van Eyck was born in Maaseik, a town in east Belgium, around 1390. He painted for John III the Pitiless, then-ruler of Holland and Hainaut…

Strange things in old Dutch paintings
Osias Beert. Still life of porcelain vessels containing sweets, pewter plates bearing sweets and chestnuts, three pieces of glassware and a bread roll on a table draped with a mauve cloth. 1600-1619, private collection.
In…

European tricks to help you through a pandemic, 14th century style
Pieter Bruegel the Elder (1562), The Triumph of Death. Museo Nacional del Prado
Pandemic tips. Now we have experienced and are hopefully recovering from this truly awful COVID-19 pandemic, it is interesting to look back…

Old pigments painting blog: Vandyke Brown
Rembrandt van Rijn, Saskia van Uylenburgh As Flora, 1641
Staatliche Kunstsammlungen Dresden - Gemäldegalerie Alte Meister
inv./cat. no. 1562; Image credit: The Rembrandt Database. Old pigments…

Skating in Holland
Winter Landscape with Ice Skaters (circa 1608)
Hendrick Avercamp
Rijksmuseum Amsterdam
Doe je schaatsen aan!
(Put your skates on!)
Skating in Holland - Hendrick Avercamp was one of many to paint the Dutch winter and…