"Another" Dutch Andre

Another Highly Talented Dutch André!

Hi Americans, have you ever heard of the painter André Balyon, who lives in Monterey, California? He is the oldest son from a Dutch family with seven kids. He was raised in The Hague, the city where I live! All by himself he emigrated in 1970 (19 years old) to the United States of America. His family members still live in the Netherlands. The family is very talented. Four of his brothers are painters or graphic designers. André Balyon already had build up some fame in the States, when in 1994 the Walt Disney Studios asked him to sketch the skies and the clouds for the Lion King cartoonfilm. You know, most of the Dutch painters are famous for their skills of painting seas, skies and clouds.

André said he had been fascinated as a young boy, by the "Panorama Mesdag", which is in a museum in The Hague. That panorama is a big cylindrical painting, made by the painter H.W. Mesdag. It is an impression of the historic fisherman’s village of Scheveningen around the year 1881. (Scheveningen is now a well known beach resort and part of The Hague). Want to have a closer look?? http://www.panorama-mesdag.nl/ , click for the English language.

Well, that André Balyon painted another cylindrical painting of the Big Sur, the coastal line of California where he lives. During three years it had been exhibited in California. June 2007 André and all his Dutch family members, build up the painting in the Netherlands where it stays till June 2008. We have visited the exhibition and it is great!! We could not see where the (foam) rocks, the vegetation, and some stuff washed ashore ended and where the painting began…. André Balyon is a landscape painter and he did not want to paint cars driving over Highway 1 and a very ugly restaurant over there (that is what he said). At the moment he is working on a cylindrical painting of the Grand Canyon!! Want to have a look at the Big Sur? http://www.andrebalyon.com/. I am attaching a few pictures I made. In 2008 the painting will be shipped to China.

Next to the Big Sur Panorama is the Panorama Tulipland. I think I told about that before. It is been painted by one painter: Leo van den Ende. He expects he can finish it in 2009. The visitors can see him paint and can talk to him. The painting is about the bulb area in the Netherlands, around the fifties. To complete this story about the cylindrical paintings: have a look at http://www.tulipland.nl/

Have fun,

Ineke Cornelissen