Three days in Antwerpen

Chantal Siebens and Jan Lhermitte are two Salon friends. They have been running a school, Ideefiks, in Antwerpen for many years and last year they invited me for one of their masterclasses.

Belgium is a fabulous country of painters. From Van Eyck and Rubens to Magritte they have given birth to major painters and they also have the strongest tradition of classical european decorative painting ( marbling and graining in particular). I was glad and honored to go there and teach for the first time.

The plan was to organize a short class, I asked them to pick up a "three day" panel their students would like me to teach. They chose the "Vase and Drapery" , a painting I had created a few years ago for a class at the Mural School.


Chantal and Jan live in a typical house they bought years ago and skillfully renovated...

The group of 12 peolple filled up the classroom  but the teacher's spot is big enough to have everyone comfortably installed for the demos.

We began with the landscape in the morning, were finished by the end of the afternoon  and had time to get started on the vase ...

Most of the second day was spent painting the vase and again , by the end of the day we were able to move to the next element : the drapery...

...we have had a perfect weather, the food was very good and the backyard of the school is ideal for outdoor lunches...

Views of the classroom on the third morning...

The traditionnal group picture.

Jan, Pascal, Chantal...

My panel after three days of fun and efforts.

On Sunday morning, before I drove back home  Jan and Chantal took me for a quick tour of the city.

Of course we went to Rubens house ( I guess I will post about it some day).

In the main street of Antwerpen there are statues of Teniers and Van Dyck and  Rubens ...painters are definitely rockstars over there!!