dinsdag, maart 09, 2010

 

Mouse Speak 07

In Mouse Speaks four, five and six i had my search engine look for pictures on ‘aa’, knowing that Aa is the name of some rivers, brooks and lakes in the Netherlands and around. As i explained, my search engine had other ideas about ‘aa’ and i used some of its suggestions. The whole Mouse Speak series is of course a mixture of the expected and the unexpected, well, as life itself is, i suppose. But, as i want something expected in life i also want it in Mouse speak. So i went to the Dutch Wikipedia to see if it has some material on ‘aa’. And naturally it has.


Reworking of this picture from Wikipedia. Click on the picture to enlarge. Copyright Villa La Repubblica 2010.

A host of Dutch waters are called either Aa, A, Ee or IJ, an old Germanic word for water. In the above picture i used a photograph of the so called Drenthsche Aa the only Dutch brook which is still meandering in its original bed. The brook is in the northern provinces of Groningen and Drenthe, taking its rise on the Drenths Plateau at the amazing height of 16 meter (53 ft) above sea level (a height which of course gives most Dutch people a sense of being abroad). To a Dutchman the picture is quite nondescript. It contains the most regular elements of the Dutch countryside: water, reeds, a dike, rows of trees along the roads, a windmill and an immeasurable heaven which is usually either cloudy or hazy. However few Dutch people are aware how rare this landscape is becoming. Waterways like these are in summer full of boats, the sound of a highway is usually near as are these horrible industrial parks. In this case i thought there would be some point in idealizing certain elements of the picture as you can see for yourself.


Reworking of this picture from Wikipedia. Click on the picture to enlarge. Copyright Villa La Repubblica 2010.

This is a picture of the Wold-Aa running from central Drenthe-province to the town of Meppel in its southwest. The brook has been canalized for most of its course and runs through a particularly pretty part of the Netherlands. However one always wants more and so i put some more volume in the picture and i added a window.


Reworking of this picture from Wikipedia. Click to enlarge. Copyright Villa La Repubblica 2010.

This is a picture of the River Pekel-Aa (or Pekel-A), a water course in the east of Groningen province near the villages of Oude Pekela and Nieuwe Pekela. “Pekel” meaning “salt” the area must have been inundated with salt water once. The original picture shows the pumping engine (for keeping the surplus of water out of the polder) along the Pekel-Aa. I gave the small buildings a Christo like treatment to give them a more organic character. The atmosphere in the original picture is a bit hazy which attracted me, but to the new picture I found a colder atmosphere was more appropriate. Also I adapted the sense of space of the original picture somewhat.


Reworking of this picture from Wikipedia.Click to enlarge. Copyright Villa La Repubblica 2010.

The old Hanseatic city of Zwolle, now capital of Overijssel province, was built on a hill in between four rivers. The Grote Aa (the Great Aa) once ran from the River Zwarte Water (Black Water) to the city centre. On the original picture you see on an old print the inlet of the Grote Aa in the City wall. Wikipedia doesn’t give any particulars about the print but i am always interested in these kind of prints. They deal with perspective in a very practical way. In the picture we see only part of the original print. The complete print probably shows the whole city of Zwolle, seen from the Zwarte Water. So perspective was used to show as much of the city as possible, enlivened with details like people and boats to make things more recognizable for the viewers. I’ve used this idea of perspective.

BP

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  • 2 Comments:

    Anonymous Anoniem said...

    I'm not quite sure what's going on in here, but it looks interesting :). By the way - what's the highest peak in the Netherlands? Do you get above 200 feet? Dous the language have a word for "uphill" ? :)

    woensdag 10 maart 2010 om 01:19:00 CET  
    Blogger VLR said...

    Thanks Andrew.
    As for the highest peak (well errr.... peak?)in the Netherlands: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vaalserberg

    As for what is going on in this series, just read article Mouse Speak 01

    BP

    zaterdag 13 maart 2010 om 02:54:00 CET  

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