The artistic skipper

Some readers of this blog will already know that Koos, my partner, is the son of a commercial barge skipper and that it was his childhood on the waterways that inspired me to write my novel, The Skipper's Child, a story about a similar barge family. Now, although the influence his barge background had on my book was intentional, what I didn't know when I wrote it was that his father was artistic, a talent he must have passed to his son. After all, Koos's special photographic view on the world, especially that of old industry in eastern Europe has more than a few admirers. 
Anyway, going back to father Fernhout, it's not the usual idea one has of a skipper, is it? Well, not mine, anyway. I'd never have envisaged a barge owner sitting on deck with a sketchpad and pencil drawing the views around him, or making studies of birds and people. I don't know why, but it just doesn't fit my general image of the working barge world. As a result, you can imagine it came as a huge surprise to me when at one family birthday party, Koos's sister (who is ten years his senior) produced two sketchbooks full of charming pencil and charcoal drawings all done by their father.
I think even Koos had forgotten about them, but when going through the books, he realised some of the more elementary drawings were probably his own early artistic explorations. Hendricus Fernhout usually signed his drawings with distinctive initials and the date, but these were lacking on some of the pictures, suggesting he was only too ready to encourage his son.
Below are some of my favourites of the drawings and I hope you'll agree they are really lovely.

Maastricht in charcoal


The title here is 'filosoof' (philosopher) showing
the gentle humour that was characteristic of Hendricus
Rotterdam's Koningshavenbrug De Hef
The family's barge

Ijssel brug, Kampen

In some ways I wish I'd known about his artistic leanings when I wrote The Skipper's Child. It would have given my 'papa,' Hendrik Kornet, another dimension. But then it's also added to my inspiration for the next novel I want to write: a story that will be built around a young barge skipper during the war. I rather like the idea of a somewhat dreamy, idealistic and arty bargee, don't you? So maybe it's not such a bad thing I was ignorant of this aspect of his personality.

Lastly, I don't really like pushing my books on my blog here, but if anyone does happen to be interested in my novel, there's a link here if you'd like to take a look. It's very much a cat and mouse suspense story, but it's suited to all ages, from ten to...well, let's say plenty! 

Have a lovely weekend allemaal and I'll try and do another post before Christmas and fill it with good Christmas cheer.