Renault Estafette 1959-1980

Pen, ink & watercolour

220 x 140 mm

300 grs Canson

Illustration Friday - Water

Reflections in the water - pen and ink and watercolor

Ben l'Oncle Soul

Sometimes you come across the work of a very talented person on a unexpected place or at an unexpected time. In this case I heard a very nice tune sung by a candidate on a television talent seeking show called 'The Voice of Holland'.
It took me some time to figure out who was the original artist who sung this touchy song. I just had to buy this guy's cd! It turned out to be a young French artist, called Ben l'Oncle Soul. According to his biography "Ben l'Oncle Soul is a French soul singer with a retro style who made his eponymous Top Five hit album debut in 2010. Born Benjamin Duterde in 1984 in Tours, Indre-et-Loire, France, he took his name and look from Uncle Ben, the fictitious elderly African-American man dressed in a bow tie who serves as the brand image of Uncle Ben's Rice. The moniker Ben l'Oncle Soul was chosen rather than Uncle Ben to avoid any charges of trademark infringement."
So the next time you'll eat your rice, put on his music and enjoy!

Illustration Friday Atmosphere

In this sketch I've tried to catch the atmosphere of a sunny morning in a quiet French village. What you see is a little service station, with the Citroen 2CV AZU in front of it.

Streetview

A house somewhere in the middle of France, in a little village near Millau. I stopped by this house during a bicycle tour. It was hot, I was thirsty, and I've ran out of water. Luckily there was this house-owner who was so kind to let me refill my waterbottles.
Ink and watercolor.

Col de Peyresourde

One of the most hard to climb mountains on your bicycle is the Peyresourde in the French Pyrenees, some people told me. Somehow that's always a big motivation for me to try out something. A couple of old cyclists told me the night before I've planned the trip terrifying stories of guys who didn't made it and had to stop on the so called "Field of Death", stranded just with the pass in sight. Well, as you can imagine, that aren't the stories you like to hear before what is supposed to be a nice ride through the countryside!
Anyway, I must admit I was a bit scared the more I reached the "Field of Death" only to find out it's a nice green field and I was almost whistling when I drove by. So far, so good. The climb turned out to be a long, but manageable one. Although I was a bit worn out when I reached the top. It's just a pity that this years edition of the Tour de France don't pass this pass...

Tourmalet

One of the prettiest climbs I've ever made, was the climb to the top of Col du Tourmalet back in the summer of '96. It was the last day of our stay in the French Pyrenees and the weather was just perfect: sunny, no wind and nice temperatures. Although I'm not a great climber on the bike and will never be, I enjoyed every bit of it. I can even remember a great part of that day. For instance the paragliders who've started on one of the slopes near the top. That was the first time I saw paragliders and I felt immediately for that sport. Or the fellow cyclists I spoke during the climb. There were even Americans from California, trying to ride the famous mountains of the Tour de France: Peyresourde, Col du Menton, Aubisque, Tourmalet, Portillon and so on and so on. A bit to much, I guess, but that's what Americans are known for ;-). At least they were cycling their way to the top. Unless the numerous guys that passed by in cars with their bikes on the roof, only just to make the descent. Cheaters!

Illustration Friday Unfold

I find it always one of the greatest rewards about reaching the top after climbing a mountain, by foot or by bicycle. The view you get when you're almost completely exhausted: a landscape which unfolds to a breathtaking panorama. That is: if the weather cooperates. Mostly the top of the mountain is hidden in clouds, so you're lucky when you get to see the tip of your nose through the fog. And it's so freezing cold that you're only thinking about one thing: the quickest way to get down into the warm weather in the valley below.
Once I climbed the Col d' Aspin in the French Pyrenees, by bicycle. One thing I remembered about that climb was the great amount of campers passing by on my way to the top, leaving me behind in their exhaust fumes. Struggling to reach the pass and for some fresh air. So the drawing is a bit more romantic than reality was: no campers in sight, only a clear blue sky!

Col d'Aubisque

As I was looking through some old sketches and photographs, I found a set of photographs I took in 1996 while touring the French Pyrenees by bike. As a sort of reward after a long and hot climb upwards, I made photographs of the signs that are standing on the highest points.
We were riding through the Pyrenees on our bikes and tried to climb all the famous cols the riders of the Tour de France have to take. Of course we weren't as fast as the professional cyclists ride, but I'm sure we had much more fun during our "Tour de Force"!
Just a few weeks and then the Tour de France starts again. I can hardly wait.

Grocery store

An abandoned grocery store in the Cevennes, in France. This drawing is not made "on the spot'', but made from a photo I took back in 1993. It was in a little village of which I don't know the name anymore, but I do remember the old guy sitting in the shades of a big tree next to a War Memorial. When I sat behind him to drink and to rest a bit from the long drive in the boiling heat that day, he told me he survived the two big wars, WWI and WWII. By the looks of his face that couldn't be a lie. In my best French I tried to tell him that I've found that a big achievement, but he was more impressed when he heared where I came from. All the way from the Netherlands. On a bicycle! I can still hear him say: "Incroyable!" (unbelievable).
Of course my French wasn't that good that I could explain that I transported my bike by bus to the south of France. But that would have killed the wonderful story he could tell that day at home or at the local bar about the lonesome cyclist who came all the way from the north to their small village.
Ink and watercolor on 300 grs Canson, 30 x 40 cm.

Canned

This weeks topic of Illustration Friday reminded me of our search during our recent holiday for fresh mushrooms. Although we were camping in France, we just couldn't find fresh mushrooms. Only canned mushrooms. And to top it, we didn't have a can opener in our luggage so I had to use my old armyknife to open the can. Of course that didn't work out well also, I'll spare you the details, so we were glad that our meal at least tasted as it was supposed to be.
And we couldn't find the wine we liked last year so much, either! Not to mention the weather. It was once again a remarkable holiday.

Short stay

We were in France for a short stay. After two days on a really busy camping, we left and went looking for a small and quite camping. My wife directed us up in the hills, to the borders of a small lake where there would be a small camping. And finally, there was indeed a little, tiny, quite campingspot...
The place belonged to a very old hotel, which was apparently balancing on a cliff. According to the hotelmanager, madame Michelle (age: 250+), there was absolutely nothing to worry about. The hotel has been there since her parents founded it and it was supposed to last there for at least another hundred years. So the civil engineers had assured her after a landslide a few years before World War II had formed the cliff.
Although she was very firm in her statement we didn't mind to sit in our tent on rainy days, instead of booking one of the available rooms. Strangely enough the hotel didn't have any crack or other signs of disasters to come. It only needed an update in the bathrooms (authentic French, if you know what I mean!), new plaster on the ceilings and some fresh paint on the outside (as most buildings in France, if you know what I mean!)
Anyway, after a few days we left and we now even sort of miss madame Michelle and her 65+ son Christian.