maandag 23 september 2024

Jan Hendrik Scha


 

The older I get, the more I realise, that my father had quite an influence on the interests I developed in my life. I'm talking about subjects such as nature, music, photography, creativity and beauty in general.

Of course, everyone in his or her own way is special and different from someone else. But some people seem to be more special than others (loosely to Orwell's Animal farm). I think that my dad was such a person.

He was creative, original, authoritarian, introvert, modest in his work, but a dandy in appearance. He had a special taste in music (such as Shostakovich and Weill), improvised on his violin, worked with enthusiasm in his own designed garden, loved my mother and spent endless hours drawing and painting in his spare time. By the way, he was completely self-taught.

For me as a young girl, it wasn't always easy, he was difficult to estimate and quite strict. But especially when I got much older, I discovered that he inspired me though.

As you can see, he used his drawing art and water color paintings in design jobs (fifties style) and artistic work. He also enjoyed using his talent for irony, such as creating fake stamps (or money ;-) and fantasy birds. His style varies from pointillistic to graphic and (sur)realistic.

All this in due memory of my father, who lived, as far as I know, an interesting and long life.




Nature fantasy



Triangles fun




Fantasy birds



The Buchstabenfresser and thistles


Design for our garden (with cute little pond)



Fantasy of printing house, my dad worked for


Endearing portrait of my brother and me ...



Still life



Old fashioned advertisement



My favourite doll, little Richard


                                                      
                  A home on Texel I lived in with my family, long long time ago


            My dad with slightly ironic smile and the fake stamp that sent the letter anyway ...


                           






maandag 1 juli 2024

La Provence en mai!

It's certainly not the first time we drove all the way to the south of France to enjoy springtime there. We visited a small piece of the Camargue, the Luberon and most of the Provence.

The weather is always an adventure, but this time we were lucky. Nice mild temperatures, little rain and beautiful cloud formations. Magritte would have loved it!

As you can see, there was an explosion of plants and flowers, especially orchids. Small wonder we could also observe many insects, like beetles and butterflies. And we were happy to be able to admire and capture amazing birds like the European roller, the purple heron and birds of prey. 

All together a nice experience and beautiful memory!





















donderdag 18 januari 2024

Florida in December

There never seems to be a dull moment in Florida's nature!

My son and I made a nice round trip in a funny time of year: the last week of December. We went from Atlanta airport and Tallahassee to Tavares and along the coast and Sint Augustine back to Georgia.

We especially took and enjoyed the back roads, from where we saw nice rows of trees covered in beard moss. And because of this time of year, colours in this natural environment were soft and warm. 

We saw many forms of settlements, most of them cute and attractive and in beautiful harmony with nature.

Everywhere we stopped, we could observe animals and especially birds in their natural habitat and behaviour. We saw many sorts of fish lovers, such as wood storks, herons, egrets, anhingas and birds of prey such as the bald eagle, Harris's hawk, ospreys and vultures. Last but not least we saw and heard many limpkins and sandhill cranes. Very impressive!

Just a week in December, but one we won't easily forget.
















donderdag 2 november 2023

Ria Formosa, a birds paradise

In the South of Portugal, close to Faro, you'll find a vast nature reserve, partly surrounded by fancy golfcourses. It's called Ria Formosa, a wonderful and quiet area for bird lovers. I also spotted some gorgeous dragonflies.

Because of the bright weather, we had a good view of all the lovely waders in the inland lakes and the songbirds in the bushes and trees around them.

We were amazed to see so many species of birds in this time of year. What a rich nature! After less than a week we counted and admired some sixty species, quite a happy experience!

Little egret and turtle

Parasol pine

Little grebe

Black-and-red-bug on Golden star of Bethlehem

Black winged stilt

Violet dropwing

Salines near Tavira

Little egret

Lychens on a wall near the sea

Black faced weaver

Common wall gecko

Whose feather is this?

Nice bird area near Vilamoura

Scarlet dragonfly

Glossy ibis