On a cold evening in March i saw huge fire near the Rijksmuseum. black smoke against a purple grey sky. The fire started in a constructing pit . It was frightening to see that fire was so close to our temple of art with all the treasures of painting. The fire brigade needed fifty of its men to stop the fire. Eight of them ended up in hospital.

Now that i am asked to join an exhibition about the construction pits in Amsterdam "Graafwerk" I am making a pastel of this event. Working mostly from direct observation it is challenge to do it from my memory. I could recall the fire, the smoke sky and how the fire lighted the museum facade, but it was hard to draw a complicated architecture like the Rijksmuseum from visual memory. Also using photographs of this building did not work out for me.

So I took my bike to the museum to make sketches on the spot and afterwards i went to the Museumplein where Uitmarkt the annual cultural market took place. There i attended a recital of Ties Mellema a highly talented saxophone player who I know well. At the stand of the Rembrandt house i was lucky to get a free poster of my favourite Moses Ter Borch sketch (see my post of August 10th). Back home, the poster turned out to be super sized: it was bigger than my carpet, bigger than the door. Where I could hang it? Finally i covered the wall of my basement with it. Also in museums the best art is often stored in the basements.

The painter who was a master in depicting fire was definitely Turner (see also my post of August 15th) . Like no other artist he could paint fire on ships reflecting in the sea. He was witness of the famous fire of the House of Parliament.

to be continued

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