Tuesday 25 August 2015

Looking for a blue sky


For this watercolour I got inspired by a photo my daughter Mariska made. There was something interesting about the abandoned building and the holes through which the blue sky was visible. But before this painting was finished, I had to do a lot of thinking and I had to make some changes.
First of all I had not seen the place. The photo was showing a little piece of building with parts of walls almost everywhere. As it was really sunlit, there was no shadow or perspective to reveal te actual structure. So I 'took down' another wall and simplified the part of the building I was going to paint.
Second was the decay. I like to exaggerate that a little, letting plants grow over walls and through windows. And yet I had painted so many green vines over the last weeks that I wanted a change. Autumn maybe? With yellow, red and orange for my foliage. 
So that was the plan!
I started painting the sky and the walls and planned to fill in the plants after that. When the walls were dry, I started to paint the vines on the left and at that moment I decided it was already winter in my painting. So there are some leaves left on the vines and on the branches of the tree we see through the door opening, but they are painted with the same colours  the vines and branches have.

More information about this watercolour (size, colours used, etc.) can be found at www.jannekesatelier.co.nr

Saturday 22 August 2015

Abandoned Sanatory - by day

 

An abandoned sanatory is an intriguing subject to paint, so I decided to make two different scenes with one reference photo my daughter Mariska made.
She made the photo at night looking out from the windows of the abandoned Sanatório de Valongo in Portugal.
This is the daylight scene as I imagined it to be several years from now.
The original photo had a lot of backlight so I had to guess where the wall stopped and the floor began, with a little help from perspective lines that was easy to do.
Then the walls themselves, were they high or not? I decided on high and damaged so I added cracks and green algae.
The floor would also be dark with algae and moist from the incoming rain.
The plants outside would have taken the opportunity to overgrow the walls and windows, so there will be vines coming in. But not too far, once inside they are devoid of sunlight and can't grow any further.
I had a lot of fun imagining all this and of course painting it!

More information about this watercolour - and the nighttime version - can be found at www.jannekesatelier.co.nr

Abandoned Sanatory - by night


An abandoned sanatory is an intriguing subject to paint, so I decided to make two different scenes with one reference photo my daughter Mariska made. 
She made the photo at night looking out from the windows of Sanatório de Valongo in Portugal.
This is the night scene and it depicts the situation as it is now. 
There was a strong backlight so the structure of the building was not to be seen, only the light coming in from the windows and the reflection it made on the floor.
This scene inspired me to paint on very black paper, so the contrast between the dark and light are increased.

More information about this painting - and the daylight version - can be found at www.jannekesatelier.co.nr

Thursday 6 August 2015

The path along the church


The church of Maboge (in the Ardennes) is in fact a very normal church, only the weather vane is a bit out of balance. Walking down towards that church you pass by  a weeping willow, a fence, some walls around the gardens of the houses in that street and of course the churchyard.
I was attracted by that church, the wall around the churchyard with the streetlight and that weeping willow at the other side of the street. So I made my sketch and started to think about my painting.
Using the complementary colours yellow and violet gives a colour range from the pure yellow via all the brownish grey shades in between them to pure violet. As the image is very simple, the limited palette gives a very surrealistic atmosphere to the path along the church.

More information about this watercolour (size, colours used etc.) can be found at www.jannekesatelier.co.nr

Wednesday 5 August 2015

Weeping ash - my first charcoal drawing


I like the idea of trying something new, especially when it's about my art.
This time it's charcoal drawing, something I don't remember having done before.
Looking for a subject I found a weeping ash in a courtyard. The branches were pruned down last year but the tree was doing all the better (I was told). As a result of that work all the curves that had grown in the branches in the previous years were visible. 
Those forms really can be intriguing and I decided to select a nice one to draw. 
After a first sketch in my sketchbook I started to work with charcoal on a large sheet of paper. While drawing I decided to add some of the leaves that were visible on the tree. After adding some background I was realyy happy with the result.
It was a nice change to be working this way and I will certainly do more charcoal drawings in the (near) future.

More information about this work (size, material) can be found at www.jannekesatelier.co.nr

Tuesday 4 August 2015

Hubermont - where the wind blows


There are many facets to a landscape like that of the Ardennes. There are valleys with small rivers and so there should also be hilltops - where the wind blows!
Because of that wind I only stopped to make sketches and photos, my fingers became too cold to hold my pencil too soon. The slopes may be steep, the hilltops are round and used for cornfields and grasslands to graze sheep and horses. Trees are used to shelter the farms from the worst of the weather. I found a spot where the grass and corn fields are divided by the road and a farmhouse is just visible between those sheltering high trees.
That view inspired me and so I made my sketch with some notes to use later, in a warm and sheltered place, to make my watercolour painting.

More information about this watercolour painting (size, colours used etc.) can be found at my website: www.jannekesatelier.co.nr 

Monday 3 August 2015

L'Ourthe


In the Ardennes rivers are very different from the ones we have at home, so it is a nice challenge to paint one. At the point where we were, the river Ourthe is very shallow at some places with little waterfalls and rapids. Nothing you can't wade through if you'd want to.
The stones of the riverbanks were overgrown with brambles and there were more bushes in the background. In the riverbed were either large stones creating little rapids or shallow beds of pebbles that were partly above the water.

I wanted to paint those stones and pebbles, the flowing water and the restful mood of the area.

More information about this watercolour (size, colours used etc.) can be found at www.jannekesatelier.co.nr