In the streets close to the one I live in are trees planted next to the footpaths. These small trees blossom in springtime with beautiful flowers that disappear within a week.
Some of the trees have creamy coloured flowers and and one of them has pink flowers.
I have made some reference pictures and combined them for this painting.
The little chapel that attracted my attention last autumn in Germany is my chosen background for this spring scene.
I have created another imaginary landscape with the chapel in it, usually I try to create a landscape that is a good background for the subject of the painting, this time the branch with the blossoms. The subjects are chosen to fit the season, dark clouds and mist for autumn, snowy scenes in winter and flowers or blossoms in springtime. I have to think about summer yet, but no doubt inspiration will come together with the season.
More information about this watercolour painting ant the other 'Chapel' paintings I referred to can be found at my website www.jannekesatelier.webs.com
I have to add a note here: I have found the name of the tree I have painted here during our visit to the Tree Museum. It's a Magnolia Kobus (Latin name).
In my garden the daffodils are in bloom and they look just gorgeous. We have the smaller ones and they are close to the house, so they will not blow away easily in a bit of rough weather. In fact they inspired me to paint a springtime scene.
I have used the little chapel that attracted my attention last autumn to give the daffodils an imaginary landscape.
Or did I use the daffodils to place the chapel in an imaginary springtime landscape?
Anyway, this is the result.
The paper and paints are the same as in the other 'chapel' watercolour paintings to make the series as uniform possible.
Because I did want to paint the atmosphere of springtime and not an exact 'portrait' of the flowers I have not painted many details, just enough to define them as daffodils. Springtime also means lots of birds migrating and finding a place for their nest so I added some birds in the distance.
All together I really think I have captured the atmosphere of a nice day in springtime with some clouds and enough sunshine to make the flowers look their best.
More information about this watercolour painting and the other ones I have made with the little chapel can be found at my website www.jannekesatelier.webs.com
A few weeks ago, during a nice warm sunny day, my husband Peter and me went for some signposted walks in our beautiful nature.
The first stop we made was in Oisterwijk, at the Information Centre of the Natural Reserve which is the beginning point of several nice signposted walks.
This time we chose a walk of 3,5 kilometres passing by three fens or forest lakes. The biggest of these three is called 'Kolkven' and on the banks of that fen we made some pictures.
The sun was shining brightly and some of the pictures were very back lit, some other had the 'flare' that often appears on pictures when the sun is reflected in the water.
The sun is just left of the camera on the reference picture for this painting, but I had to 'correct' for the flares and reflections of the sun. In other words, I used my artistic licence here to paint the sky and its reflection in the water of the 'Kolkven'.
The seed fluff of the reeds did stand out nicely against the background of the distant trees and their reflection in the water, the reeds themselves were partly back lit but the light colours were showing at the edges of the plants.
The few reeds growing higher than the rest of the plant and appearing above the background trees completed the composition.
As this is the end of winter, there are mostly dark colours in the vegetation, with the exception of the yellows of the reeds and the light colours of the seed fluff.
More information about this watercolour (size, materials used, availability, contact information, etc) can be found at my website www.jannekesatelier.webs.com
It has been a few years since I had seen them, but this year they are back: almost every evening I can see starlings swarming and looking for a good place to sleep.
They do this in the last half hour before sunset and some time after, while there is still some light.
Maybe this is only seasonal so I am enjoying these swarming birds as often as possible.
Of course I have also been watching them with the idea of a painting somewhere in the back of my mind. Making photographs of these swarms is not easy, the birds are too small to see in a picture made using a camera with average possibilities.
Looking and remembering does work and I have made up a swarm of my own, checking it for credibility with some of my family members.
The landscape is imaginary, but it's based on/inspired by the view from the window of my little studio. The colours used are the muted colours of the evening twilight, short after sunset.
At this time of the year we are in the last weeks of winter, some of the trees are starting to show some glimpses of green and some are still bare, waiting for warmer weather.
In the fading daylight the structures of the bark of the trees disappears, most trees are just dark shapes against the sky at that time of the evening, like they are back-lit.
More information about this watercolour painting (size, materials used, availability, etc) can be found at my website www.jannekesatelier.webs.com
The challenge for the month of March (by 'Goed Gezien - Goed Bekeken' the amateur art association of which I am a member) is 'Wat vliegt daar?' - or in English: What flies there?
A lot of ideas come up, some absurd, some very common and some that are to be thought over. I decided to ask for ideas during a day out with some members of my family.
This painting is the result of the suggestions that came up and were discussed while we enjoyed a good cup of coffee.
I have made my own composition using most of the ideas that were suggested, choosing the elements from the suggestions that I liked and ending up with a painting that still has my own 'handwriting', with a little inspiration - assistance.
I have used some of my Limited edition Twilight Colours combined with colours from my regular palette to give this scene the atmosphere I wanted it to have.
The replacement of the broomstick by a more high-tech piece of household equipment is an obvious sign of Modern Times and of course the empty box is taken by the cats.
More information about this watercolour painting (size, materials used, availability, contact information, etc) can be found at my website www.jannekesatelier.webs.com
Last week we had a few days of really nice, warm weather and my husband and me also had some days free from work. So we enjoyed a wonderful day outdoors, walking in our beautiful nature. We revisited the Estate 'Huis ter Heide' and made another signposted walk. The landscape varied from fields to woodland and a bit of moorland, all during a walk of 6 kilometres.
Now it is the end of winter and after those warm days there is a little beginning of spring, but almost all the trees were still bare and there were as good as no flowers. We did see an early butterfly and heard lots of birds singing.
Amongst the reference pictures we made that day are a few of this dead tree trunk, beautifully lighted by the sun. Of course this one inspired me and I have made a charcoal drawing as soon as possible.
These last weeks we have been at work in our home, so I have been painting walls, doors and the sides of the stairs, they all needed some attention after all those years we are living in this house.
That is the reason why I have not been doing much watercolours or drawings and after all those weeks I really wanted to go back to my studio for some artwork.
In a previous post I have written about the policy of our Nature Preserve association to let dead trees stand where they are, so I will not explain that again in this post.
This tree looked almost white with some dark shadows and crevices so I had something nice to draw. As it stands in the middle of some undergrowth I had some trouble to make my reference pictures and of course I had to include that in my drawing.
This drawing is what I thought it would be so I am really happy with the result.
More information (size, availability, contact information, etc) can be found at my website www.jannekesatelier.webs.com
