Windmills on the Zaanse Schans | Watercolour painting

Handmade watercolor painting of the windmills at the Zaanse Schans.
This painting is a replica of one of my own photographs of the Zaan region.

Curious how I created this painting?
Watch the 'Making of film' at:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_H-zgIodscw

The Zaan windmills and the Dutch cloudy sky are the main characters in this painting. A typical Dutch scene that, partly due to the choice of high-fiber watercolor paper, has a beautiful and robust, artisanal look.
The windmills and the water are painted in watercolor using both wet-on-dry and wet-on-wet painting techniques, combined with a white acrylic pen for highlights and accents. The cloudy sky is painted with multiple layers of thinned acrylic paint.

The painting features the following Zaan windmills:
- Sawmill De Gekroonde Poelenburg.
- Paintmill De Kat.
- Oilmill De Zoeker.

The dynamic cloudy sky, with its white and light gray clouds drifting quickly by, subtly evokes the typical Dutch weather.

Creation.
This painting was a long-term project that I worked on for over a year and a half. From photographing the windmills on location and drawing them, to applying the final brushstrokes on the watercolor paper.
For this project, I took my time to recreate the details realistically and paint them in my own style.
With the creation of this work, I wanted to showcase my passion for cityscapes, the graphic arts, and my expertise in painting, as well as convey a message that creating artisanal paintings is perfectly acceptable.

Why? Because we live in a time where everything has to be fast, and people expect quick results.
Artificial Intelligence (AI) also plays a role in this, especially in the art world.
AI can be used as a useful tool, but unfortunately, it is often used to replace the entire human creative process.

And this is sad, because generating AI images that look like paintings has nothing to do with painting.

But unfortunately, these AI images are presented as paintings. And this happens on a massive scale, with the result that real paintings are barely visible due to the sheer volume of AI images that pour in daily.

My paintings are 100% handmade, so 0% AI.