Case

Today I awoke with a mission to make some observational work. I began with some rough sketches of the Westerkerk Cathedral, then went to breakfast at a local cafe, and drew a lovely miniature street scene. The drawings were frustrating at times, but began to come together in their own time. I met a beautiful young woman named Gemma, as she was glancing over at my drawing. Gemma was English. She moved to Amsterdam directly after graduating from university, as she landed a great directing gig at a production house. I got the impression that Gemma was on top of it. We exchanged info and went our ways. Back in the studio, I gave some more attention to the envelope paintings from Berlin, then studied drawings of Heinrich Kley. 

In the afternoon, Case, an exceptional craftsman and restorationist, came by the house to fix a broken crib which he had made 18 years prior for the Dennis Family. Case and I enjoyed conversation and coffe. He inquired as to what I was working on, so I showed him a majority of my smaller paintings. He had some lovely things to say about the work. I found that we got along quite well together. We went down to where the crib sat and he realized that he'd forgotten his glue at his studio. We had at that point talked extensively about the studio and it seemed like the perfect time for a field trip. Since I left my bicycle at the Rijksmuseum, I jumped onto the back of his bike, (the true local way to get around). We rode to the red light district, where his studio was. Inside was one of the finest studios I have seen. The orginization was superb. There were space limitations, so it had to be clean. He noted that he had 650 wood planes, each distinct from the next. The walls were filled with refrence sculptures from different architectural periods. He took time to demonstrate to me some staining techniques, of which he has catalogued extensively on plates of wood around the shop. He mixed all of his stains from powdered pigments and different vehicles. He explained the differences between alkali and acidic vehicles in cohercing natural colors from different varieties of woods. He showed me how to make glue and shellac into vehicles for delivering opaque pigments, and how to combine chalk and shellac to make a paste that hardens into stone for many applications. He taught me about creating a key from one layer to the next, to minimize risk of layers separating ( in application to painting and sculpting alike). The privelage to be in his studio and learn form him was incredible. I valued his advise highly.

We rode back to the house, where Case got to work on the crib. I read and drew and kept him company. He applied glue to the broken piece and brushed away the excess with warm water. He then brushed on a coat of raw linseed oil, explaninig his process as he went along. He worked into the evening, and we parted ways. I made more study drawings from Heinrich Kley, as well as some imaginative scene drawings, then called it a night.