Amsterdam Watercolour: Two Sheds in Autumn

At the end of last October, my partner and I departed Amsterdam and returned to York. The cause was my commencing a PhD in literature at the University of York. While there were possibilities for undertaking doctoral research at a university which would have enabled us to continue living in Amsterdam – including an excellent opportunity with the University of Antwerp – we ultimately decided that York presented the best scenario for study. Preparations for the move occupied much of late October; there was the fact of the move itself; and then followed the process of finding and inhabiting an apartment in York while also developing a working habit at the University.

That serves as a loose explanation for my lack of posts between last September and mid-March; but as much as I was preoccupied with other things, I simply fell out of the habit of posting. More, during September and October, I began and wrote significant portions and passages for articles which were intended for the site, but never finished. Aside from no longer possessing a surfeit of time, and aside from the diminishing of a regular article-writing habit, the existence of these unfinished pieces served to further pervert the end of publication. As those articles which I had begun became less and less relevant, the inclination was to consider how their material could be repurposed – rather than focusing on what else I ought to write. What had been written became a barrier to further work. The situation in Ukraine and Crimea compelled several pieces last month, and marked my return to posting.

In the last few weeks before we left Amsterdam, I painted a small number of paintings comprising views from the rear balcony of our apartment, in the ‘Oud-Zuid’ of the city. The paintings are in watercolour and ink. Some of their views will be visible in earlier collections of photographs posted on this site; or else via my Instagram account. This first painting looks down upon two sheds, and contains all of the relevant fallen leaves and foliage.

A Redesign of My Various Tumblr Pages

Towards the end of last week, I revamped those various tumblr. pages which relate to this site. The ‘tumblr’ link in the menu at the top of the site serves as a gateway to these; and they are all linked at the very bottom of the site, in the section suitably headed ‘My Other Sites’.

culturedarm serves to summarise and link to the pieces published here; it contains shorter and slightly looser posts on topics from music to comedy to architecture; audio and video files; and occasional photographs. visualarm provides a sort of visual compendium of what is posted here, at culturedarm, and less frequently amsterdamarm: it allows me to expand visually on whatever I’ve posted elsewhere. audioarm and poetryarm are collections of poetry and music.

My revamp essentially saw me replace the four distinct themes which characterised each of the four pages in turn – and which were drawn and edited from various sources – with a single theme, consistent throughout with minor visual differences. I owe to ‘blink and it’s over’ from http://themecloud.co/ for the new theme. I felt like a change, I appreciate the consistency, and I really like the theme’s layout: I think it is lively and engaging yet still structured and clear, and it supports all manner of posts and insertions faultlessly.

culturedarm:

visualarm:

audioarm:

poetryarm:

The appearance of amsterdamarm remains the same:

Amsterdam Photo Series II: Schinkel and Nieuwe Meer

Amsterdam is most often defined pictorially by the canal houses which line the canals in the centre of the city. I have sought to encapsulate Amsterdam in something of the same way, with the ink drawing which heads my updated blog and guide to Amsterdam. Yet there is a great variety of housing across the extent the city, with modernist architecture abounding on the islands and docklands, to the north; with the Oud Zuid, Jordaan and De Pijp areas each possessing their own architectural styles and features, distinct from the canal belt; and within the centre and without, there are both isolated and collected houseboats.

I took a series of pictures recently, starting around the Schinkel river, with its concentration of houseboats particularly along Jachthavenweg; moving then towards the Nieuwe Meer, a lake at the top of the Amsterdamse Bos – a large landscape park which extends into Amstelveen – where people can row and boat, and eat at a restaurant, Het Bosch, overlooking the water.

There are fourteen pictures below; fourteen others over at amsterdamarm; and the full set of fifty-two may be viewed via my Flickr account.