Mini paintings part 2

More mini paintings

I wonder if someone recognizes these locations, please notify me!

Mini paintings

From sketch till painting, part 2

These are some of Kamiel's early works. As you can see, he didn't work on canvas yet, but made little paintings in his sketchbook!

Did anyone buy Kamiel's paintings?

Yes, Kamiel actually did get in contact with people who were interested in buying his painting. Because in his view, there were not many people you could trust in this world, he only sold works to people he particularly liked, or who were very nice to him.

In case anyone reading this blog, owns a painting or any other work by Kamiel Riske, we would very much like to know!

City views: opposites attract

The pictures we took of Kamiel's work were pretty much taken in the order he produced them.

In this way we are able to reconstruct not only the evolution of his works but also his view on life itself.

His vision of life might not seem a happy one to you.

Maybe, you are wondering if anyone was interested in his works?

Back to the ciy

Do you also recognize some elements of the early skethes?

And some figures depicted in the later works begin to emerge!

Country landscapes

Kamiel's life outside the city of Antwerp.

As you could notice before, Kamiel didn't only created city views, but also landscapes and nature views.
During Word War II, Kamiel was still being protected by his 4-year younger brother Henry while they went on smuggling trips in the country, asking farmers for food. Though Kamiel was a physically very strong man, it was his younger brother Henry who would gather most of the food on those trips...
After an hour of walking, Kamiel would claim to be tired and sat himself at the side of the road, in order to ... paint of course!
What were you thinking?

Painting, Antwerp city street leading to the museum 'Vleeshuis'

Blue ink drawing, Antwerp city view 2

Blue ink drawing, Antwerp city view

Sepia sketch of an Abbey view

More of the 1st district

More sketches

This could be a perfect draft for a painting of Antwerp's 1st district!

Sketches' gallery part 2

I like these images. They seem to be made in and around an old abbey.

Some abbeys used to provide small houses for the nuns living on their grounds.

In Dutch, those grounds are known as 'begijnhoven'

According to the information I got from Kamiel's next of kin, this could be the 'begijnhof' in Lier near Antwerp.

In case you should recognize places depicted in http://kamielart.blogspot.com, please place a comment under the place you recognize!

Sketches' gallery

Draft and original reunited!

Do you see the resemblence?

It's not quite the same, but the sketch was a nice inspiration!

Another early draft

We know that these sketches were used to create paintings afterwards.

I wonder if we'll find the painting that belongs to this original sketch....

Another early sketch

Along the river Scheldt

From sketch till painting

Three stages: a windmill from sketch till painting!

Early landscape (sketch)

A pretty little sketch, isn't this.
Kamiel used to explore the countryside between Antwerp and Lier.

Some of the nature depicted in these early sketches does not exist any longer. The little river in this drawing is likely to be the Nete.

Early sketches

Kamiel's original sketchbook which he used to make sketches and drafts of paintings. As a youngster he always this little book on his bike trips.

And now for something completely different

Kamiel's work wasn't purely erotic.
In fact he started by painting landscapes and local nature.

To find suitable locations, as a young man, he rode around the pre-war country on his bicycle.

The hunt

One might ask: 'Who's hunting who here?'

Anonymity

This lady has no face. Therefore nobody will remember here. She looks ready to disappear into anonymity ...

Lady in Red

Do you notice the wandering/wondering priest?

Man versus woman part 2

Man versus woman

Sadly this picture speaks for itself ...

Kamiel's ladies ...

Kamiel's ladies

Sadly Kamiel felt betrayed by women and probably the same happened vice versa. Overprotected during his youth, he always seemed to get the wrong end of the stick. Due to several misunderstandings, he ended up thinking al women were bad. This explains why many of his works were inspired by the Antwerp red light district ...

Though he was a strong and handsome man, he never managed to have one relationship in his life.

I think this is very sad, because whatever you may think of this paintings, Kamiel had many qualities! Personally, I even like his erotic works, even though the philosohy behind them is a sad one.

Kamiel and the ladies

In this painting here, Kamiel was being inspired by one of the Belgian surrealists.

In real life, his relations with women in general tended to be a bit of a surrealistic nature as well.

Well aware of his restrictions, when it came to making conversation, Kamiel was a little bit shy to approach women. This could lead to ludicrous situations, leaving the women in question puzzled or baffled.

In short Kamiel never got the response he wanted: to be able to ask a lady to dance was near to impossible for him. Because of the communication problems he always seemed to get it wrong somehow!

As he grew older, he sadly came to the conclusion that all women were bad. This image was often to be found in his works ...

Kamiel's world, continued from cobbler to painting houses

Kamiel was a trained cobbler and persued this trade until he was 50 years old and his boss had to stop his business due to economical reasons.

Kamiel was offered a job as a ... Professional painter ... Of houses and social apartments like the ones you can see on the picture.

By this time Kamiel still lived with his parents in a similar building. He continued to paint houses until he reached the age of 59.

At that time, his mother decided it was in Kamiel's best interest to stop working!

Kamiel's world (part2)

This is a more up to date view of the Antwerp neighbourhood called Kiel. Here you can see the Abdijstraat near to what it looked like at the end of Kamiel's life.