Friday, 09-Sep-11 22:30:00 CEST

Castle Muiderslot

The spring of 2011 was productive indeed. Among all ambitions of learning all sorts of things I was also busy making outdoor paintings. Sometimes I take the bike and try to find a place to paint but other times I go further away by car.

In October 2010 I had painted a windmill "Meermolen / De Onrust" along the highway / motorway A1 at Naardermeer. Not far away from this windmill is a little city Muiden and it has a medieval castle. This city is as authentic as Holland can get I suppose. I have that castle in the neighborhood so I thought I give it a try to paint it.

I went to the castle with my car but it is a popular place. It is not like a solitary windmill, when you park here you pay. So the cheap method is to park outside the city and walk to the castle. I just have a wood tripod, plastic mixing palette, wooden panels, shoebox with paint, camera, water, wooden wet panel box, chair, towel and more stuff so that is easy. After hundred meters it is noticeable. Halfway through the city I had to put down my stuff and take a short break. By the time I had reached the castle it was awfully heavy.

Since I have a membership in a museum association I could enter for "free". I walked over to the spot that I had in mind and already on the way I could notice I was not the first artist to paint the castle this day. I had a little chat with the other artist. It was a lady that made drawings of the castle. She was particularly interested in painting this specific castle.

I settled with my stuff. Actually it was more difficult than anticipated. Previous years windmill had been more rewarding to paint.

In the afternoon the lady with the drawings came and had a chat with me. After that she had planned to go home. Was it not that she forgot her pencils next to me. I found out when I was packing my things. On the way out I found her searching for her pencils. She also had to walk through the city because she had a bus to catch to go home to Amsterdam.