Posts Tagged With: Art

A view of fishies while you eat (Or: M C Escher)

Posted on February 18, 2015 by Niki

A few weeks ago, Roger, Marco and I went to the café in Marks and Spencer for mid-afternoon coffee and cake. Yum! At some point I looked over Roger’s shoulder and finally noticed what should have been glaringly obvious as soon as we walked in. There was a fish staring back at us!

M C Escher’s Three Worlds; click to see a slightly larger version

It is a lithograph by Dutch artist M C Escher, “Three Worlds” (Wikipedia). Hopefully the picture above gives a good sense of the enormity of this copy – the fish itself is pretty much the size of an adult human!

Here is a close-up:

M C Escher Three Worlds at Marks and Spencer 2

Click for a larger version

The black and white colors blend in nicely with the the rest of the café as well. If you’re in the area (the central part of The Hague) make sure you check it out!

Categories: Culture, The Hague | Tags: Art, Cafes | 2 Comments

Graffiti of Delft (Or: On the way to Ikea)

Posted on January 22, 2015 by Niki

A few weeks ago, Marco and I went to Ikea in Delft to see if we could buy a bookshelf for me. I originally wanted the narrow, but tall version, in dark wood – but it was way too heavy to carry back on the tram. So we settled for the shorter version which still stores a fair amount.

Of course, I still need to populate it with more than junk (there’s a lot of random papers that I threw in there simply to clear off the nightstand) but it did mean that I was able to set up the earring holder I got for Christmas. Which made me realize I have a lot of blue earrings, but could use some more of other colors…

Some other random news: I started the second half of the B2-C1 Dutch course at Volksuniversiteit. Like the last one, it is 10 weeks and should be done around the third week of March. After that, my Dutch is good enough to sign up for courses (in general, not just at this school) with native speakers. Hmmm…

I’ll leave you with a few pictures of graffiti that I took on the ride over to Ikea. The owl has already made an appearance on this blog, but this picture is a bit better. The other is new.

The graffiti is always more interesting on this side of the pond!

Categories: Daily Dutch living, Delft | Tags: Art, Graffiti, Ikea | 2 Comments

Sand sculptures (Or: Art in The Hague)

Posted on October 2, 2014 by Niki

A few days ago I came across another opportunity to do a sand-related post! The Hague has been celebrating Prinsjesdag this summer. One way they have been doing this is by creating a temporary sand art tourist attraction (read more in Dutch). This is quite similar to the photos I was able to grab in 2010 while here on vacation.

This year there were three sculptures done:

landing of Prince of Orange sand art The Hague

a sculpture capturing the arrival (“aankomst”) of William I in Scheveningen in 1813.

a sculpture of Willem I, with the older look on the left and a slightly more modern full body view on the right

200 jaar koninkrik sand art in The Hague

sand sculpture about Prinsjesdag 2014, with the golden carriage in the front and the modern skyline of The Hague behind (words below are “200 jaar koninkrijk” or a celebration of the Netherlands being a kingdom for 200 years).

a sideways look at all three sculptures together

Categories: The Hague | Tags: Art, Sculptures, Tourist attraction | 2 Comments

Dutch influence (Or: The color of carrots)

Posted on May 10, 2014 by Niki

I did have my usual Dutch lesson on Thursday, however we mostly did exercises from the book and not much extra work. The class ends around mid June, so we need to finish the current chapter we are on and then start to talk about the Staatsexamen (programma II). Because we need time to cover that, we are going through the text book faster.

Thus I’ll tell you a random fact that I was reminded of when reading my copy of The Book of General Ignorance. We all know that carrots are generally orange. However, they did start not out like that – before the 17th century they were purple, white and red.

So, what changed? In the 17th century the Dutch cultivated carrots to be orange by crossing them with other colors. Some say this was in tribute to the House of Oranje and Willem van Oranje (Willem from the House of Orange). He led the Dutch to a revolution for independence from the Spanish.

Carrot mosiacs by Ilona Fried

Categories: Culture | Tags: Art | Leave a comment

Odd Sculpture (Or: A different library)

Posted on October 27, 2013 by Niki

A few days ago I took a walk to a different library in The Hague — Transvaalkwartier library in Hobbemaplein. I needed to check out a audio book (luisterboek) that was not available in the Central Library. It was recommended to me by a friend. Of course, I downloaded the tracks onto my computer but still need to put them into iTunes and transfer them to my iPhone. I always need to take that extra step due to not having a CD drive in my netbook. So I can’t tell you how interesting the story is quite yet.

But on the way there I did come across an odd looking sculpture. I am not quite sure what the meaning is behind it but it was colorful enough.

Things have been going well since my last blog post. It’s only a few more weeks until Marco and I’s honeymoon (yay) and it is almost time to start planning holiday events and dinners. And of course we have to figure out when we are going to watch the new Thor movie coming out (cool), although I am definitely more excited for the next Hobbit movie in December.

I enjoyed my week off school (due to herfstvakantie/fall vacation) but tomorrow it is back to a normal week. The best part about not having classes was not having to quickly make dinner and then rush off. But now it’s back to the grind, it seems! Just kidding.

Categories: The Hague | Tags: Art, Sculptures | Leave a comment

Blue (Or: Painting at the Centrale Bibliotheek)

Posted on August 11, 2013 by Niki

I saw this painting on display a few weeks ago at the Central Library in The Hague.

The crazy thing is you don’t see the “hidden” elements unless you are quite close by. Otherwise it just looks like blue with a hint of red.

Categories: Culture | Tags: Art, Libraries, Music | 2 Comments

Window paintings (Or: Dutch children’s library)

Posted on June 27, 2013 by Niki

I decided to take a few photos of the windows at the library where I work. It’s a small library staffed by volunteers, after the much larger neighborhood library had to close due to budgetary reasons. But at least this way the children have somewhere close by to check out books.

It is a bit hard to see from this angle, but in the right window you have a large green ‘B’ (since the word for library in Dutch is bibliotheek). The B is made up of lots of smaller Bs – look at the top to see it best.

A few random Dutch words I learned today:

coloring page = kleurplaat

glitter = glitter (spelled the same, but with the hardcore ‘g’ guttural sound)

I must also admit that the window above does not convey the prettiness of the yards (tuinen) outside the window. Very green!

Categories: The Hague, Working & Volunteering | Tags: Art, Libraries | Leave a comment

Unexpected art (Or: Car sideways on a building)

Posted on May 12, 2013 by Niki

I definitely wasn’t expecting to see this random bit of art when Marco and I were walking through Schilderswijk (= painter’s district) in the The Hague. One of the many neighborhoods.

What drew my eyes first were the arrows leading up…

Categories: The Hague | Tags: Art | 3 Comments

Muzenplein (Or: A face out of nowhere)

Posted on April 14, 2013 by Niki

Great weather today! At least 20C/68F. So Marco and I went outside later in the afternoon when the weather would be warmest. We did some shopping and then made our way to Lebkov, a café.

Along the way we found ourselves at Muzenplein (somewhat close to Central Station). I took a pretty cool picture of…well:

Slightly unexpected. It reminds me of a very (very) large statue that fell into disarray, with only the face remaining. And also of the poem Ozymandias.

And some pictures of Lebkov from a few weeks ago during another coffee visit… what can I say, I liked the florescent pink rocks.

And the seating (fixed into the ground) and the sanding down of the concrete floor, like swirling marble. Very pretty.

Categories: The Hague | Tags: Art, Cafes, Lebkov | Leave a comment

Gemeente Museum (Or: Delft blauw and other pieces)

Posted on March 2, 2013 by Niki

Yesterday I posted a picture of what Marco’s mother bought – two Delft blauw cat figurines. We went to the Gemeente Museum. Both tickets were free because I received a sleutelhanger (key ring) when I signed up for a library card at The Hague’s public library. The key ring is enough to get free admission (through March) for yourself as well as friends and family.

So we decided to make an afternoon of it, and have lunch there as well. Here are some of the pictures I took. (Mostly sculptures and other non-paintings, as you aren’t allowed to take pictures of paintings.)

First, my favorite piece, and also the first thing I laid eyes on:

Its color makes it very noticeable from across the room.

An example of Chinese blue and white porcelain, which was the inspiration for “Delft Blauw” or Delft blue. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blue_and_white_porcelain

Continue reading →

Categories: Culture | Tags: Art, Museum | Leave a comment