(This is not a) sunset - for a challenge

 

The April challenge of 'Goed Gezien - Goed Bekeken' is about to paint or draw something that is not what it seems to be. The only thing I could think of is the famous painting by René Magritte with the text 'Ceci n'est pas une pipe' and so I decided to make something like that. 

First I painted a sunset, leaving room in the composition for a text. The text is in Dutch, meaning 'this is not a sunset'. It is added just like I add my watermark, using a PowerPoint sheet that is layered over the image of the painting. Below is the work I submitted for the challenge.

Making the painting was not easy. This was one of those days and I was struggling with water, paper and paint to get an acceptable result. At one moment I even washed almost all the paint off the paper, made myself some tea, let the paper dry and started over. That did help a little, but I still could not paint as easily as I usually do. Maybe just because I had not painted for weeks?

By now I am happy with to the result of my work, other people say it is a nice sunset (I usually ask my husband and/or my mother to comment on my work) and I start to think so as well. Taking some distance does a lot for accepting the results of your work!

The information about the materials I have used, the size of this watercolour painting and its availability can all be found in my Tumblr blog.

Quickly into the tree! - for a challenge/contest

 

The third week of the television programme 'Project Rembrandt' is about movement in animals. The contestants in the show had a stuffed panther from a museum as model and they had to draw it as if it was moving. The people at home are allowed to use any animal for reference, just make the movement visible. Materials to be used are charcoal and/or crayons and white paper.

Last autumn we were on a short vacation and there were squirrels and my husband succeeded in making some pictures. I tried as well, but I only got a blur of a tail in my picture and that is not enough for this contest. One of the pictures my husband made is my reference for this drawing.

This time I used my Conté crayons and the pencils for the smaller details, I worked on a small size sheet of paper. For the suggestion of movement I blurred the tail and the shapes of the 'hands' and 'feet' even more than they already are in the picture.

The squirrel is my subject so that is where I used colours, the tree and grasses are only in black for contrast. Without the tree it would not be understandable what the squirrel was up to and without the grass the tree would have no beginning and no end.

The result is even better than I hoped I could do so I am happy with my contribution to the contest.

The information about the materials I have used, the size of this drawing and its availability can all be found in my Tumblr blog.

Asparagus - for a challenge / contest

 

The 'Project Rembrandt' competition is back on television (in The Netherlands) and there is every week a project to paint or draw at home. When the home assignment includes acrylic or oil paint I cannot join, but when it is about drawing or sketching I may have a chance.

This time it was about light and dark and the reference was the Asparagus still life by Adriaan Coorte from 1697. In the real contest the competitors had their own bundle of asparagus and a light source to make their own composition, the people who enter in hthe home assignment were allowed to use the reference from the museum (follow the link above). 

The conditions are working with black and white on grey paper.

As it is not yet completely asparagus season (they are in the shops, but expensive), I used the reference from the link provided in the competition.

The result is the best I could do with the paper, charcoal and pencils I have and I am really happy how it turned out.

The information about the materials I have used and the size of this drawing are in my Tumblr blog. 

Because I have used an existing painting as my reference (with permission as the reference is given in the competition) I am not sure if it is allowed to offer this work for sale.

Grass-lily graphite drawing

 

The reference picture for this drawing was made last May and I just had it waiting for inspiration. That inspiration came this weekend, I wanted to paint or draw something with a Springtime feeling, after all that rain we had. Of course rain is good for the flowers to grow, but the dark grey clouds can get you in a sombre mood after weeks.

So, the white flowers were found in my 'archive' and I decided to make a graphite drawing on the green paper I got just for that purpose. Some of the graphite colours are new for me - these were given to me for my latest birthday.

Finding out which flower had attracted my attention last May was another challenge, but with some help I found out that they are Ornithogalum umbellatum or grass-lily. In Dutch they are called 'gewone vogelmelk'.

For this drawing I used several layers of the water soluble graphite, only the first layer of white was washed with water. After that I started drawing details and layering white over the grey lines to soften it a little. The dark patches of shadow between the flowers were done in only one layer, no water added. 

The result is what I hoped it would be with a nice contrast between the flowers that have several layers of pigment and the shadows or background with only one layer of dark brown, still showing the structure of the paper.

The information about the materials I have used, the size of this drawing and its availability can all be found in my Tumblr blog.

On the high 'Esch' - Delden, The Netherlands

 

Last month we (my husband and me) had a very short vacation in the province of Overijssel (Netherlands) where we did stay in a hotel in Delden. Just outside Delden is a nice restaurant placed on an 'esch'. I found a definition of 'esch' and that translates like: In Overijssel, Drenthe and Gelderland a vast, fertile piece of arable land, uninterrupted by hedges or walls, surrounded by the building farms of the owners.

Near the parking place of the restaurant begins a signposted walk and in the field between that path and the restaurant were some trees that were pruned to get an umbrella-like shape. I made reference pictures of these trees, but as it was raining and almost sunset, my pictures are not so great.

Still, one of these pictures is used as my inspiration for this watercolour painting. Choosing a limited palette of blues and browns I changed the mood a bit, but not much. It really was dark, wet and desolate and that little tree was all alone compared to the other trees. The tree is still in its winter sleep, so all the branches and twigs are visible against the grey sky and I think I painted them all. As mentioned, this tree was pruned to get a desired shape.

The result is what I hoped it would be, showing the atmosphere of a rainy late afternoon at the end of winter.

The information about the materials I have used, the size of this watercolour painting and its availability can all be found in my Tumblr blog. If you are interested in my original artworks, please contact me.

Walking! - collage and Conté drawing

 

The March challenge of 'Goed Gezien - Goed Bekeken' is 'In our family...' the theme of the Books Week that is happening each month of March in The Netherlands.

In our family we like to go for a nice walk, preferably a forest walk.

For my contribution I have made a collage of walking maps, the legenda of these maps, some titles of the walks, a bit of a description and of course the icon for a restaurant (coffee cup) from old magazines on tinted cardboard and sprayed that with fixative for Conté Crayons. 

On that layer I started drawing a forest path with the Conté Sketching Crayons, but I had to use more layers of fixative before the crayons really did 'hold' on the magazine paper. For this I was prepared, I did read about it somewhere in the past.

After some layers I found that there was a difference in paper quality that could not be covered up with fixative so I let that be part of the experiment's results.

The information about the materials I have used, the size of this work and its availability can all be found in my Tumblr blog.

Tree trunk - a Conté drawing

 

As promised (mostly to myself) another drawing of the tree trunk we saw a few weeks ago during our walk on the Herikerberg. At first I made a pencil drawing or study, using the materials I brought during our short stay in the area.

This time a Conté drawing, like I have made some more: using black, grey and white Conté crayons on a grey paper for a 'portrait' of a dead tree or tree trunk.

For this drawing I made a different composition, the trunk is more to the right side of the paper so the roots on the left side of the trunk get more attention. Only the tree trunk is in the drawing, the surrounding mosses and dry autumn leaves are not here. This tree trunk was in the middle of the path we were walking and maybe that is how the roots are so clearly visible.

The drawing is what I hoped it would be, these remains of trees are still impressive and I can show that in my drawing.

The information about the materials I have used, the size of this drawing and its availability can all be found in my Tumblr blog.