Artists and Ateliers in Amsterdam.

So now I headed down into the Jordaan which was once a mixture workers slums and small workshops. These days it’s expensive houses and little shops and galleries. The canals are smaller than the great canals and tree lined . In the sunshine it makes your heart sing.

Unknown to me it was a special day when the art and craft studios of the Jordaan were open to the public.

 

I followed some arrows which led me to a courtyard and some more arrows up a metal staircase, then down a corridor and up another set of stairs, along and into;

 

This is the studio of Hans Hellingwerf, beside the beautiful Lauriergracht canal. Painter of charming still lifes and landscapes which are all very abstract, he also had some rather nice nudes as well.

 

www.hanshellingwerf.nl will find him but nothing would ever be quite as good as watching the sun on the last day of May flowing in through the windows and lighting up his paintings.

I still needed cake but wasn’t finding it. I found plenty more art though;

 

This exhibition was on the outskirts of town and too far away for me. I’ve missed it before – but the results were out on the streets. As a port, tattooing is part of the culture – different ports would have had different designs, for sailors to buy as souvenirs. Here's some graffiti that has something of the tattoo about it;

 

On my way across to the university I met ‘The Free Architect’;

 

He will design a house for you for nothing – in the hope he might win some paid commissions as a result. Ambitously he has on display his design for a slightly wobbly skyscraper, which I rather liked.

 

And this tile, is a Dutch tradition, to commemorate the owner or the business of the house. This one is not old, some are hundreds of years old, they last as long as the house does.

Still no cake – this needs desperate measures.
Click on any picture for a better picture and a slideshow.

Neil Harris

(a don’t stop till you drop production)