There were a lot of trees with flower buds that were not yet opened when we were in the 'Von Gimborn Arboretum' or Tree Museum. One of these was the Prunus serrulata 'Pink Perfection', a tree that has a Dutch name which translates as 'Japanese cherry'.
Of course I have made some reference pictures, only to find that the camera had made all the branches sharp and most of the flower buds a bit blurry.
So I have tried to make the best of it with this watercolour painting.
The background was a tangle of branches with some light spots, some green and some pink spots where more flower buds were. I have tried to paint the branches - not all of them of course - by suggesting most of them and painting some of the ones that were most dominant in my reference pictures.
In fact it was not really possible to see where all the branches were beginning and ending, even if I compared all my references. So I gave up the idea of an exact reproduction of the scene and opted for suggestion.
More information about this watercolour painting (materials used, size, availability, etc) can be found at my website www.jannekesatelier.webs.com
During our visit to the 'Von Gimborn Arboretum' I have - as I wrote before - made enough reference pictures of flowers, trees and new leaves to give me a few months worth of painting material.
This time I have painted the fresh green (a bit blueish green) leaves of the Pyrus salicifolia 'Orientalis' , a small tree and its name translates as 'willow- leaved pear tree'.
I chose to make a white-on-black painting this time because this gives me a nice dark background for the bright green of the fresh new leaves. The advantage of this choice is that this background does not ask much attention to be made and cannot be ruined.
I have been able to give all my attention to the leaves, especially because painting on this paper is a bit different from my usual watercolour technique.
Unfortunately I cannot get the picture I have made of my painting to have the right colours, maybe tilting the screen a little can do the trick.
More information (size, colours used, contact information, availability, etc) can be found at my website www.jannekesatelier.webs.com
Today, Easter Monday was the date for the 'Af en Toe' art route alongside the river Lek. The name is related to the foot-ferry across the river and translates as 'So now and then'.
My stand was in a home for the elderly in the village Groot Ammers and I was one of four artists in that place. I shared the room with a photographer, a lady who demonstrated her etching technique and a pencil artist. Me being a watercolour artist guaranteed a nice variation in what was offered.
My husband made some pictures, unfortunately they are back lit, but they show the atmosphere very well.
Due to the great weather we did not have too many visitors but over the day there were people coming to see our art, asking questions and some of them were even buying cards. In fact we had only a few really quiet moments.
In my previous post I had already promised that I would paint another Star Magnolia after the reference picture I had made in the 'Von Gimborn Arboretum' during our last visit.
One of the flowers in the picture had not opened completely and did really look stunning in front of the dark green background.
I have simplified the background again, in reality there are lots of trees and bushes making this a very crowded scene while I just want to show the beauty of the flower.
In the vicinity of the magnolia trees we had the illusion of snow falling, all the petals of the flowers that had faded were falling around us. I have used some salt in the wet paint of the background to try to recreate that illusion.
In the past I have always said that I am not a flower painter, and I still think so but by now I am learning to paint flowers 'my way' and I really like the results of the last few paintings I have made.
As I have written before, there were a lot of reference pictures made during our visit in the Tree Museum, so there is more to be painted. But I have painted enough Magnolias for now.
More information about this watercolour painting (materials used, size, availability, etc) can be found at my website www.jannekesatelier.webs.com
Our visit to the 'Von Gimborn Arboretum' gave me the opportunity to make a lot of reference pictures and I have also made pictures of the name tags of the trees that inspired me.
This is a Magnolia x loebneri 'Raspberry Fun' and we call it a Star magnolia.
At first I have made the picture for the tree's name, as I had painted a magnolia from the area where I live without knowing which tree it was. Looking at the picture I decided to paint the beautiful flowers.
There is only one flower in this painting, so here is my promise: there is another painting planned, but not painted yet.
For this watercolour painting I have really tried to challenge myself by including some of the branches and placing them before a dark background.
The suggestion of a dark bush in the background is usually easy to paint in watercolours, now I had to keep the branches and most of all the flower white. I have used some masking fluid for the flower, but not on all parts, so I really had to be careful here.
Painting a white flower is also not just leaving the paper white, I had to place the shadows very carefully to be able to show the structure of the flower.
I think I have succeeded with this one.
More information about this watercolour painting (materials used, size, contact information, etc) can be found at my website www.jannekesatelier.webs.com
Last weekend we visited the 'Von Gimborn Arboretum' or Tree Museum again. We were there four years ago and loved the place very much. my brother invited us for a walk through the tree museum again and we were very happy to go.
As it is springtime now, there are lots and lots of magnolia trees full with flowers, new foliage is growing on the other trees and there are even some blossoms beginning to show.
I have made lots of reference pictures, taking care to make a picture of the 'name tag' of each tree so I can give the name of the tree (most of the times in Latin) when I make a drawing or painting after my reference pictures.
Unfortunately the name of this tree could not be found, but I still wanted a reference for a charcoal drawing.
The tree is very back-lit so there are not much details visible, just some highlights that are green with moss.
For this drawing I have also used some tinted charcoal pencils, to make a difference between the dead tree trunks I often draw and this one, which is still very alive.
The tinted charcoal is only in the highlighted details, so it's hard to see in this small picture.
Unfortunately I did not get the colours right, the paper really is white.
Of course the tree is much taller than this drawing shows, but I liked this composition much better than a whole length portrait.
More information about this drawing (size, colours used, contact information, etc) can be found at my website www.jannekesatelier.webs.com
This year the Hellebore bloomed with a few white flowers, but to our surprise one of them came up and bloomed at some distance of the original plant. Such a brave little flower had to be honoured with some pictures and eventually a painting.
The beach tree trunk is not a real tree anymore, it is part of our bird feeding spot, a little house is made on top for feeding breadcrumbs ans other stuff to the hungry birds that visit our garden.
This is in sight of our window and I really liked the surprise of the flower under the bird feeder.
This painting was made 'white on black' using not only the gouache and watercolour but also watercolour pencils. This was an experiment with this kind of mixed media, but the result is as I hoped it would be.
I have submitted this one to the April Challenge of "Goed Gezien - Goed Bekeken", the amateur art association of which I am a member. The theme of the challenge is 'Springtime' and I thought this to be a fitting subject.
More information about this painting (size, materials used, contact information, availability, etc) can be found at my website www.jannekesatelier.webs.com
