The Gronsveld Windmill
This is the windmill down the road from where I’m living in Limburg. I thought it would be fun to try one subject with a number of different points of view and weather effects. I’ll be here until June so I’ll have a couple of more seasons too. The tops of the windmills swivel, which confused me at first when I would go back for another shot on a sketch, to find it pointing in a different direction (who knew?).
The Gronsveld Windmill #1. 35 x 25, oil on panel.
Gronsveld Windmill #2. 20 x 30 cm, oil on panel.
Gronsveld Windmill, Overcast. 35 x 25 cm, oil on panel.
Gronsveld Windmill #3. 20 x 30 cm, oil on panel.
Gronsveld Windmill #4. 25 x 35 cm, oil on panel.
Gronsveld Windmill #5. 30 x 20 cm, oil on panel.
The Gronsveld Windmill, Dusk. 14 x 20 cm, oil on panel.
These are great. I really enjoy your work. Thanks for posting.
William again. I have a question. How do the blades turn with the diagonal arms attached to the blade in pictures 2,3 and 4? Artistic license?
5,not 4.
I really like # 5. Apologies for not getting my comments together before I submitted.
These are beautiful! You’ve taken a subject that has been depicted so many times and made it look fresh and modern.
Hi William, they’re attached to beams that are parallel to the blades and a bit behind them (not attached to the blades). They’re for swiveling the top I think.
There is a video here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LC95cmR-3eM
Love 3 and 6. Marc, your work is gorgeous!
I always like your work Marc and have been very impressed with your recent studies since you moved to Holland. The quality of the light is so well observed and captured in the paintings. I find your site/blog very inspiring. Thanks for sharing your work, advice and thoughts. Cheers.
Really solid paintings. Beautiful. I love the light and am thoroughly impressed by the rich earth tones in the shadows. Love these paintings. Thanks for posting.
Yeah, who knew those massive things swiveled? And, as Mr. Elston says, you’ve made them look fresh. Paintings are gorgeous and as always, look effortless. Hope it’s warmer there by now.
Wow! Another set of beautiful paintings. These have a different light to them than those done in Italy. I love the earthy neutrals in these. Do you EVER do a bad painting?
I just saw your windmill painting on Boldbrush and it blew me away! As do those I see here. Really terrific work!
Yikes! Who knew such bucolic subject matter could evoke such a dynamic response. What a wonderful series. I’m completely enthralled with no. 4: light, color pallet, chickens, COMPOSITION, chickens and oh, did I mention the way the chickens reinforce the composition? Absolutely brilliant!
Hi Marc, I was wondering how often you stand on public property when painting…and if you do go onto private property, have you had any problems with owners? Here in vancouver, canada, one has to go quite a ways out of the city in order to paint views without private property problems and without tons of curious people.
Anyway, I really like your work and thanks for sharing so much of what you do on your website.
Hi Simon, In Europe painting on private property is very different from the US. Generally they don’t care. Closer to the cities you can have problems, but in Italy the expression is ‘fences are for the animals’ and they are very rare. When a farmer finds me in his field he usually brings me a glass of wine.
Here in Holland there is more livestock and thus more fences, but when I went painting with a Dutch plein air painter we were hopping fences everywhere we went. He said no one hassles him. I’m more respectful here because it’s new to me, and I still have the American sense of private property ingrained.
Beautiful paintings Marc!