Watching the World Cup, Mechelen. 20 x 30 cm, oil on panel.
Here are a few plein air landscape paintings from the past weekend in Mechelen, Belgium.
The Fair in Mechelen #1. 20 x 30 cm, oil on panel.
The Fair in Mechelen #2. 20 x 30 cm, oil on panel.
Palace of the Margarets in the Rain. 30 x 20 cm, oil on panel.
A couple of years ago I lived on the Belgian border with Holland for a few months and I really enjoyed painting in the countryside here. For landscape painting, Belgium has an incredible variety of subject matter. A painter would never get bored working here.
Sunday Morning. 20 x 30 cm, oil on panel.
Update: One more from Monday morning. I also made the local paper.
The Dyle. 30 x 20 cm, oil on panel.
Update #2: One last one from Brussels before the airplane home.
Entrance to the Musée Fin-de-Siècle, Brussels. 30 x 20 cm, oil on panel.
We had 48 hours of rain in Brussels so I didn’t get much work done. Walking around though I felt the city had a tremendous amount of subject matter for plein air painting. Again, like Belgium as a whole, the variety is terrific. The spaces are often great for cityscapes, as the streets aren’t too narrow, or too wide. The parks have a huge variety of design, and the buildings are from every conceivable period of architecture, with many being wonderfully picturesque (there are also some sections of the city with more architectural harmony if that’s what one is looking for). There are also flags everywhere, which are always fun to paint. The people were very receptive to the plein air painter too. I was only working for two hours but twice people asked if they could bring me a coffee. Lastly, the art in Belgium is great, and I’ll try to do a post about some of their great realist painters when I get a chance.
