"Small Painting" exhibit in Princeton

Below a picture of my hairdresser, Hosea of Hosea's Hair Design in Worcester. I went there yesterday because today (Friday) is the opening of the "small painting" exhibit in Princeton. All of the paintings we be for sale. I am in charge of the punch and I am not even allowed to spike it! I also I have to bring along tablecloth, centerpiece, cups, napkins, plates the whole deal. Hope my paintings sell, because I spend a lot of $$$ on all of this stuff. Not to mention what Hosea needed to get my hair presentable.

Tuesday's in Princeton

As you know I go to Princeton every Tuesday to paint with a group of artists. We take turns bringing a model every week and that is not as easy as it sounds. We paint during working hours and the model has to be able to climb stairs as our "studio" is on the second floor of the old Princeton Center Building. I was thinking to post the painting I make on Tuesday from now on. Here are two to start with, these ladies work at Worcester Polytechnic Institute.

Donna Damien is a medical office administrator.

And Regina Roberto is a nurse practitioner.

Portrait of the Grandson

As I mentioned a few "posts" ago, there is just sooo much to paint. The first post for today is of my grandson Christiaan. Coert sent me his school photo along with that of his sister Dana some weeks ago. I thought the pictures were so nice I just had to portrait them. The background in Christiaan's painting is an indoor climbing wall. He loves climbing and Coert takes him every Sunday to an indoor wall close to where they live. Once a month they go to the highest indoor wall in Holland, 21 meters in Amsterdam.

Disposal of the Thanksgiving Turkey Carcass

Spent much of today working on my grandson Christiaan's portrait. My cold is subsiding, last day on antibiotics.
When Peter went to the dumpster across the street, to get rid of the Thanksgiving turkey carcass, the goats and sheep had followed him without him realizing. It was so funny. He walked across the street with the three dogs and it was not until he was way away that he saw the herd coming up behind him. The goats and sheep are often running around loose now because they can not do much harm in the garden and they like to graze the lawn and eat the fallen leaves. The pictures are taken on Peter's way back home.
Hunting season has started and yesterday the first hunter was shot in Warren. We have four deer in the backyard according to Joe the logger. It won´t be long before they come in for birdseed fallen from the feeder.

North Bend Farm Logging News

Joe the logger (on the right in the photo) is doing a great job thinning our woodlot. The forester, John Clark, of Bay State Forestry Service was just here to check it out. There are no deep ruts, the slash is cut small and flattened out. The path into the back lot will be cleared of any brush by the time they are done. Joe says he will be done by the end of December. He does not work when it is raining. He observed two coyotes, they were not afraid of the forwarder (photo below). I figured it is mating season and we can expect many more soon. We are amazed by efficiency of the logging. One man cuts the trees and "limbs", another man comes and picks the 20 foot long logs up with the forwarder. In the driveway (staging area) he sorts the wood into a pile of saw wood and firewood. See Peter and our grandson Daniel next to the wood stack below. From here the hardwood is picked up by a huge logging truck. Joe says the hardwood goes to a mill in New Hampshire because there are only a few sawmills left here in New England. The firewood is hauled off to Joe's backyard, where he will cut and split it.

Family Links

My brother in-law, Just Donker recently updated the address list for the Donker family clan. More than 90 names, addresses, telephone numbers etc. All descendents of my parents in-law, Adriaan and Anna Margaretha Donker- Vallenduuk.

While compiling this list Just realized how many family members have an "internet presence" and added the links to the address list.
I thought it a fun idea to list them all here… in no particular order:

My nephew and painter Gijs Donker:

Gijs's younger brother, Justus Donker:

Thier tradically young deceased youngest brother, Adriaan Donker:

These boys father, my brother in-law, Willem runs the publishing company founded in 1936 by his father Ad. Donker:











Willem's wife Jos Exler
has been making a name for herself in "colorful couture" for some years now.








My brother in-law Frans Donker has been working hard selling books since 1976. He now owns and operates five great stores in Toronto Canada. The famous "Book City" stores.


My niece, Annette van der Hoek Phd, offers training in Sanskriet, Hini, yoga for children and many other subjects. Annette has her website locked with "shockwave" so I can't get a picture or logo for display here. This site is dutch language only.
Another niece, Anne-Margreet Bakker, started her own foundation, Moeder India (Mother India) to improve the living standards of low-income (poor) women in India by offering them an honest wage for honest work and providing a market for their product. Anne has her site locked down as well. Enough to see but no-go on the "save image as". This site is dutch language only as well.
Anne-Margreet's brother, Onno Bakker is into "Web and Mobile Messeging" with his fast growing company E-Buddy.




Please keep in mind that although I "copied and pasted" the images above they are as far as I am concerned owned by the people from which the website they come.

How the Granddaughter works the Grandmother

I had Coert on the phone this afternoon.... He hadn't shown Dana her portrait. During our talk Dana asked to speak to me when Coert and I were done. It turns out she had seen my last post and knew the painting was finished..... she put the screws to me arguing that she had already seen part of the portrait and just could not wait to see the finished painting... and she is my oldest grandchild... and they were talking about art at school... and this would be just soooo perfect - and... and... and then the meltdown. I agreed to e-mail her a photo. In the meantime Dana had gotten Coert into action and he brought up the picture I had mailed to him. Dana was breathless.
I had lent my camera to J.D. Now that I see this post I see that we somehow changed the the time/date setting.... This photo was taken on the 21st of November.

Portrait of my granddaughter

I finished the portrait of Dana yesterday.... I think it came out well and Dana's parents, Dorri and Coert, are very pleased. However, because the painting turned out to be more than a portrait of the little girl I'll only post this preview of the finished painting until she has seen it herself for real.

So much To Paint

I have been wanting to get to painting "big trees" since the fall colors have hit New England. But somehow other projects just keep coming along my path. First I spent time on the commissioned portraits for Dianne and Sam. A few days ago my son Coert sent me photos of his children, Dana and Christiaan. I just had to do something with that picture of Dana. So here we go again! I had already given up on the foliage and figured on painting tall white pines... Looks like it might be with a snowy background.

Two Portraits and a Party:

Here a picture of Diana Day next to the painting she is giving to her husband Ken for their anniversary. She posed for the painting in Princeton at the paint-group. Diana bought the vintage dress especially for the sitting. Since she now has the dress we, her friends in the neighborhood, decided we are all going to get a vintage dress and have a vintage Chrismas party.
The second painting is Sam Lipson, a long time friend. We both took our lifeguard course together way back in 1975. Sam is going to give his painting as a Christmas gift.
We had a nice cocktail party yesterday.... It turned into more of a suprise dinner party. I had baked a leg of lamb, mashed potatoes, gravy and peas. Linda Rochford made two pies, apple and cherry. It was a surprise for everyone that came. There were ten of us. Kind of a good thing that some of the regulars didn't show because we barely fit around the tables (I had a little table pushed up against the big dining room table). We all had a good time. While the women washed the dishes they all tried my quince liqueur. It should be ripe by Thanksgiving but it's pretty much gone now.