Artistic Explorations: Layers & Lines (2)

Recently I was approached by a community project coordinator who asked me whether I would be interested in sharing my creative skills  for a new project called Youth Industries, specifically aimed at youngsters between 16 and 20. It didn't take me long to say yes to this new challenge! Although I don't have any experience in leading groups, I do think I can give them creative inspiration and that's what it is all about.
Soon I hope to hear who would be interested in abstract photography and (mixed media) art so I can start organising the sessions. I hope the group will be as excited as I am!

With all of this in mind, I made a beautiful walk along the partially frozen river Dee yesterday and brought along my little compact camera just in case I saw something that I could use for my own artwork and for this project. Well, it was hard to miss the beautiful ice shapes on the river bank. After some tweeks in Photoshop and Lightroom, this is the final result.

Ice shapes ©Fenfolio2012

Artistic Explorations: Abstraction (3)

After having watched all episodes of BBC's programme "Frozen Planet", and experienced some beautiful Scottish winter weather the last few days, I was inspired to make a painting that would respresent the freeze-and-thaw cycle in the Arctic that is happening every year, but more dramatically in the last decades due to climate change. The way they captured the shapes of the ice plates and icebergs, the icy blue and turquoise colours and the textures that emerge during the freezing process were just jaw-dropping beautiful!

Online research gave me some good reference how to develop my concept. Here is a selection of images that worked really good for me.

Shapes:

Copyright unknown

©Arise and Rejoice

Colours:

©FilipR8

©Porbitel

  Textures:

©Jonas Elmqvist

©Holeinone207

©Sirius_sdz

I finally created this painting called "Ice Formation". It's painted in acrylics on MDF board and the size, including frame, is 61 x 61 cm. The image here shows a frame I created digitally, because the actual frame is currently being made. The rectangular shapes, varying in tones, colour and size, represent the ice plates that are being created by the melting process. The cracks, created by the relief of woodchips, represent the ice crystals that emerge during the freezing process.

This painting has been submitted for BBC's programme "Show me the Monet". Although there is little chance my work will be selected (there will be 3,000 applicants!), it's a nice thought of having one work being inspired by a TV programme and then show it in another one!

Ice Formation ©Fenfolio2011

Tour skating on the Weissensee

Techendorf am Weissensee

After some very busy weeks, with many creative projects I will tell you more about in my following articles, I've finally found some time to update my blog with our skating adventure on the Weissensee in Austria in the first week of February.

Me on my Swedish skates

My dad is a keen ice skater and I started to learn it on the frozen lake near our house when I was about 5 years old. I have fond memories of the many trips I made with him when I was a teenager, the cracking sound (is a good sign!) of the ice on lakes and canals, the "koek & zopie " stalls (cake and hot chocolate) along the way and the happy atmosphere all around us!

I'm feeling the rythm again!

Every year the Dutch ice skaters travel en masse to the Weissensee for the "Alternatieve Elfstedentocht".







 As the weather conditions in Holland are very unpredictable these days, it's very unlikely that the traditional tour in Friesland can go ahead, so many people do the alternative one to skate 200 kilometers on natural ice.

Skating suits hanging to dry

My dad has been there for many years and this year he asked us to join us.

Jaap in full gear

For Jaap it would be the first time on proper skates ever, so he was very excited (and a bit nervous on his first day). He impressed eveyone with his skills and could even manage to do "pootje-over" (cross-leg) in the corners!
After 5 days of lessons we signed up for the tour. You could decide how many kilometers you wanted to do. Eventually Jaap managed to do 52!

The beginners skating class

Jaap started his tour at dusk...

...and finished after 5 hours and 52km!

Unfortunately I wasn't able to do a long distance because of my weird feet that give me pain when doing extreme activities, but in the end I skated around the whole lake impressively quickly. Here we are showing our official document and medal!
 

We proudly present...

The whole week was just superb; the food and wine in our hotel was delicious, sunny weather the whole week, a beautiful area also for walking, nice people and being active outside every day.

Austrian puppets welcome us at the hotel

Happy skaters!

Views to the Dolomites in Italy

Me and my men