Payne's Grey · 2026

“Mulino di Kinderdijk”

A windmill at Kinderdijk, alone against the wide Dutch sky — a few lines of ink and one grey, which was all that place needed.

Details

TitleMulino di Kinderdijk

PlaceKinderdijk, Netherlands

Year2026

CategoryPayne's Grey

Dimensions14.8 × 21 cm (A5)

TechniqueInk and Payne's grey watercolour on Clairefontaine paper

Palette of the work

Request information

This piece is part of my collection. Originals will soon be available to buy online — write to me in the meantime.

The subject

The Windmills of Kinderdijk

On the flat wet land south-east of Rotterdam stand nineteen windmills in a row — Kinderdijk — the largest group of old mills in the Netherlands, and a monument to a country that made itself out of water.

Built around 1738–1740, the mills pumped water up out of the low polders into the river so the land could be farmed and lived on. For two centuries they held the sea and the rivers at bay; today, a UNESCO site, a few of them still turn.

I drew a single mill, close and solitary, rather than the famous line of them — the great sweep of the sails, the brick body, the reed-thatched cap.

A grey Dutch sky is half the picture, so grey was the natural choice.

Where: Kinderdijk, Netherlands
Mills: nineteen
Built: ~1738–40
Job: pumping the polders dry
Status: UNESCO site

The line of windmills at Kinderdijk along a canal — The windmills of Kinderdijk — the largest group of old mills in the Netherlands.Photo: Michielverbeek — CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons

A single Kinderdijk windmill under a dramatic sky — A single mill against the weather — a machine for keeping a country dry.Photo: John Samuel — CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons

A machine for keeping a country above water — I drew one, turning alone under a wide grey sky.

Ink for the lattice of the sails and the planks of the cap, a soft grey wash for the body, the water and the enormous sky.

It is a humble, practical giant — and, turning against the weather, strangely moving.

See also · Payne’s Grey Hallstatt sul lago · Faro di Beachy Head · Ciminiera vittoriana