I recently biked through the Netherlands, spending the first five days deep in the Dutch Golden Age of painting ( 1588-1670). What a glorious era it was - large paintings of the merchant class and small intimate life portraits (think Rembrandt, Vermeer, Van Dyck and one of my favorites, Pieter Saenredam.) In this first image my husband took of me in front of a giant Frans Hals painting I am a mirage - floating back into the seventeenth century.

We biked through the countryside and occasionally took a moment to sketch some of the scenery and sites: vast fields of tulips and hyacinth, looming windmills and life along the river as we floated on a barge through canals and rivers (when we weren't on bikes.)

A journey providing an infusion of art, beauty, light and hue that will no doubt translate into my work in the studio in coming months.