Aafke, Horses, and Art

My new Perfume Project

Aafke-Art — Thu, 02 Sep 2010 13:32:56 +0000

Je t’aime Dior
80 x 100cm
31,5” x 39,4”
acrylics on canvas

I love a good perfume. Ever since my teenage days I have had a penchant for the older chypre formulations. For many years Miss Balmain (1967) was my favorite fragrance, only interspersed with other scents to escape olfactory fatigue. ( The well known effect that your nose gets used to a scent when it’s always around)

At that time I didn’t know it was the special group of the chypres, but at some time it did start to cross my mind that whenever I particularly like a fragrance and read up it’s notes it turns out to be a chypre.

My chypre perfumes:
Pierre Balmain: Miss Balmain, Jolie Madame
Christian Dior: Miss Dior, Diorissimo
Chanel: Chanel no 19
Hermès: 24 Fauburg
Houbigant: Aperçu
Sisley: Soir de Lune

And somewhere in time I got a new bottle of Miss Balmain, and all of a sudden I didn’t like it anymore. Now it does happen that our sense of smell alters, but I think it was reformulated. They do that you know… They reformulate perfumes (and do not tell anybody about it) and it is never an improvement.
Now one of the basic ingredients of a chypre is oak-moss. And because some very few people tend to be a bit allergic to it it’s use is now severely restricted and all chypres ahve been reformulated (and maybe cheapened by exchanging the original ingredients for synthetics?)

Anyway, perfumes today are not what they used to be.
In comes the ”Vintage Perfume” and many searches on E-Bay… And while researching what really is the original formula, I came across many vintage advertisements, which I love, painted with a fast brush and beautiful colors! These were the days when models weren’t photographed, but send to artists who made drawings of them! The very best of these was Rene Gruau. I remember advertisements drawn by him from when I was a very small girl, and was hugely impressed by them.

I had to pay my homage. So I made these rather big paintings based on vintage ads and a famous vogue cover.

As I got more and more into vintage perfumes, I got fascinated by them, the advertisements, the mysterious worlds they invoke, the images in my mind of women wearing them… I decided I wanted to make my own advertisements, they are all meant to be from the fifties or forties.
Just wait for my next post!

I am now actually collecting these old perfumes, and wouldn’t it be fun to have an exhibition with the perfumes exhibited next to the paintings and small glass petrie dishes with a bit of chamois leather from which one could actually smell and experience these beautiful original perfumes?
I am looking for a gallery, or maybe a high end fashion shop!

The Island mosque at Jeddah

Aafke-Art — Fri, 13 Aug 2010 20:25:59 +0000

I painted this for Safiyyah, who donated big time to get Carol’s cats home.
It is the Island mosque at Jeddah which I think is very beautiful in it’s simplicity, and in the sea.
One of these places you long to be at…

Artist at work

Aafke-Art — Tue, 10 Aug 2010 13:54:10 +0000

I am still not finished with my Pasadena works. But it is always so busy as soon as you come home, with work waiting, mountains of post to go through, problems to be solved and heavy metal festivals to go to… (Yes, did some sketches and they will be posted!)

Anyway, I loved the Huntington Botanical gardens and especially the Chinese Garden! This is a proper Chinese Garden, with a balance between Ying and Yang observed in all details.

I painted the lotus flowers there, here you can see them in the background while I am making a water color sketch.

Count Moritzo needs a snack

Aafke-Art — Mon, 02 Aug 2010 15:14:44 +0000

This was sóóóó funny!
Due to the drought there isn’t that much grass in the meadow. Not that you would notice it by the Tarq’s condition which is extremely good, as per usual. (if not positively American Tourist size). But here was count Moritzo, defenitely in need for a snack, and who to our surprise turned out to be the most gymnastic, most circus-level athletic athlete in the herd.
Count Moritzo wanted the unreachable grass on the other side of the electric fence. So right in front of our eyes he stuck his right front foot out, sank down on his left knee, twisted his head and neck, and started eating away!

And this must be a long practiced habit because ever so easily he stood up, walked two steps and did it again!
I had to paint this!
Even if I had to leave my commission to work on it! (Don’t tell anyone!)

It’s a bigger canvas too: 27.6 by 27.6 inches

Count Moritzo needs a snack
Oil on canvas
27.6” x27.6”

Going home!

Aafke-Art — Sun, 01 Aug 2010 17:40:30 +0000

This aquarelle has been painted to celebrate our successful rally to collect the money needed to bring a dear friend’s cats back to her.
Carol had to leave her cats behind as she and her husband left Riyad for Houston to continue his cancer treatment. Carol is now battling her own cancer and she misses her cats very much.
Over a period of three days we managed to get the funds together to bring her her old friends, and of course many people in America and Saudi Arabia have put in lots of work to get the cats the chips, vaccinations and travel papers they need.
I was planning to made a small pencil sketch (I did those late at night) to update people on how far we got. In the end only three days sufficed and I made only two sketches.

As we succeeded in collecting the money needed I celebrated with this sketch, which is used to illustrate the post announcing our success.
The two cats, Tripod and Saheeba will arrive in America next Saturday!

State portrait of Pom

Aafke-Art — Thu, 29 Jul 2010 22:38:45 +0000

There is something about Pom, she is so very inspiring! And as it was the birthday of little I, I made this princess portrait of Pom.
It is a small oval canvas, 7” by 4” I think…

Lotus in Pasadena

Aafke-Art — Thu, 22 Jul 2010 05:08:08 +0000

Still in Pasadena, and have been at the Huntington Library and botanical gardens.
I haven’t seen all yet, but until now my favorite spot is the Chinese Garden.

Real lotuses, delightful!
Acccording to Buddhism,
”Like a lotus flower that grows out of the mud and blossoms above the muddy water, we can rise above the defilements and sufferings of life.”

Pasadena Lotus
6” x 6”
Acrylic on painters board

Pasadena detail

Aafke-Art — Tue, 20 Jul 2010 22:21:09 +0000

A detail of the roof of the Pacific Asia Museum, the plan is for a kind of mosaic of small panels painted with details of Pasadena which struck me as I roamed about.

Roof Detail
6” x 6”
Acrylic on painters board

Pasadena Pidgeon

Aafke-Art — Tue, 20 Jul 2010 05:46:22 +0000

I have spend three days in succession running around Pasadena. Although, stumbling around in the debilitating heat would be a better description.
Here is another sketch of one of the small towers of the Pasadena Town Hall.

And I have also been to the Pacific Asia Museum.
This is a nice museum, and the building alone is worth while going there.
Tomorrows painting will be a detail of the roof!

And last Saturday the Q dropped me off at the Huntington. This is very expensive, but very worthwhile, lots of great art, different pavillions with exhibits, and beautiful gardens!

In the chinese garden the Lotuses were in bloom.

And I have been to a good art-shop, Blick, in Pasadena, and brought a starter set acrylic paint, and some small painters boards. I am now making a small painting of some Pasadena detail which cought my fancy every day.

While I was making the sketch of the urn at the Pasadena Town Hall, I saw this cute pidgeon!

Pasadena Pidgeon
Acrylic on painters board
6” x 6”

Pasadena

Aafke-Art — Sun, 18 Jul 2010 22:17:22 +0000

At the moment I am in Pasadena, and I have been roaming around and finding some good things to draw. I have brought a new diary/sketchbook, And here’s my first entry, the courtyard of the Pasadena Town Hall. I wanted to paint the fountain, but wehen I started looking at the scene I was mesmerized by the light and reflections on one of the urns around it. This only happens between 9.30 and 10.30, so I had to come back a second time to finish the sketch.

5” x 7”
aquarelle on paper