Valta's Blog | valta.nl

Another pantry The ninth interior painting in the Downstairs series goes about a small pantry that is situated literally under the stairs in the manor house of Fraeylemaborg estate.        Oil on panel 30 x 40 cm, alla prima, limited palette. View the finished painting in my  gallery .

An appeltaart to be Last autumn, our friend who lives nearby picked some beautiful apples from her garden and left them at our front door, as a gift. I placed the apples in an old French bowl on a small table under the kitchen window. The soft autumnal light from above created interesting shadows, and I added some essential ingredients such as eggs, lemon, cinnamon sticks and sugar for a Dutch appeltaart . I took a couple of photographs of the setting.      Several months later, it could be used as a good exercise at the painters club, which was founded by Eveline (who had given us those apples). I have been invited to speak at the club from time to time, sharing my knowledge of painting techniques and composition. We all decided to attempt to paint this particular still-life setting, resulting in several different versions. I am certain that all of these paintings are beautiful in their own way. I will call my own painting "Eveline's Apples".   Oil on canvas 24...

Another cellar The eighth in the series, this painting depicts one of the vaulted cellars in the Doorwerth Castle, which we visited last autumn. A dark and cold storage room with an ancient water pump and some hunted game hanging on an iron wild crown. An old iron-cast lantern illuminates the space, casting strong shadows on the vaulted ceiling and walls. Small pumpkins have been harvested from the kitchen garden and stored in the aisle leading to the next room, which is probably closed and unused. Winter season is approaching. I was intrigued by the atmosphere of this little space in the downstairs quarters of this house. Now it's in my painting.       Oil on cardboard 21 x 25 cm, alla prima, limited palette. View the finished painting in my  gallery .

  Historic cellar This time I only had to cross the backyard to visit the house from 1751, now the Sorgdrager Museum . There is a well-preserved original cellar underneath the house floor that was used for cold storage. The walls and floor of the cellar are covered with traditional orange and green glazed tiles which makes the light reflect in a unique way.  I love the way the natural light spreading and reflecting through the only small window mixes with the artificial light from the lamps, creating nice and deep shades and changing the colours of the tiles.  This is the effect I tried to capture in my painting. This will be the seventh interior in the Downstairs series.        Oil on panel 25 x 35 cm, alla prima, limited palette.    View the finished painting in my  gallery .