Last October we were for a short vacation in the small German village of Reifferscheid, in the Eiffel region. On the day of our arrival we went for a walk around the high part of the village, mostly to stretch our legs a little after the drive from home. The high part of the village is the ancient castle area, surrounded by walls and on a high hilltop. Our vacation home was close to the old gate, a few minutes walking brought us to the other end where the white church was.
As it was autumn, the days were short and our walk was made at the hour of sunset. The light was beautiful and I really enjoyed being outside at that moment. We made a lot of pictures and I started painting that same evening after dinner.
The reference pictures I made from the church and churchyard had to wait a little longer, but today I wanted to paint this view.
I was inspired by the shadows on the building, the almost random placement of the graves and the view on the hills opposite the village, all in that wonderful evening light.
Painting all that was a bit of a challenge for me, especially the graveyard with the graves. Because there were so many shadows the shapes were to be guessed in some cases, only the difference in colour made the gravestones stand out against one another.
I have (again) chosen to suggest most of the shapes of the stones, some graves and the plants between them.
More information about this watercolour painting (size, colours and paper used, availability, contact information, etc) can be found at my website www.jannekesatelier.webs.com
About two years ago I visited the Abbey of Postel (Belgium) with a group of people and I had some time alone which I used to walk in the area and sketch.
The Abbey has a nice church and a garden around that church and both are inspiring. Because there is not much space and there were a lot of tourists as well, I did make only one sketch I was not really very happy about. So I have not painted the scene until now.
When I made my sketch I was inspired by the trees and the backside of the church that was surrounded by them.
To make the sketch I had to stand in the back of the herb garden and I did draw the path I was standing on in my initial sketch but I only suggested it in the painting.
When I was there, it was almost summer and the trees and bushes were full of leaves, hiding most of the church and the other buildings of the Abbey were not visible from that standing point, most of them were hidden by the tall trees.
For this watercolour painting I have mixed lots of greens for the trees, the bushes, the small hedgerow and of course all the shadows and I really am happy about how I manage to do that now. As I have written a long time ago, I do not use green paints any more, I mix my greens with blues and yellows and the results are really satisfying - for me.
More information about this painting can be found at my website www.jannekesatelier.webs.com
Another Chapel painting inspired by the season and the weather we are having now in The Netherlands. Over the last few weeks we have had a lot of thunderstorms, heavy rains with (temporarily) flooding and the view I have from my little studio inspired me to paint.
The little Chapel we saw on the top of a hill in Germany during our short vacation last October is a 'willing subject' for paintings like this.
The weather and the colours that will appear in the landscape are my starting point and I create an imaginary landscape according to the atmosphere I want to depict.
There always are a hilltop, a path and the Chapel, but everything else can and will be changed according to the needs of the painting I want to make.
This time there is a hill with some trees and bushes behind it and another hill further away in the background. Summer has arrived, so there are a lot of greens in the grass, combined with some dry areas where the grass turned to straw and I have added some brighter yellows for the flowers that have to be there.
The dark clouds also darken the landscape, only the flash of lightning makes the details visible - for a short time.
More information about this watercolour painting (size, materials used, availability, contact information, etc) can be found at my website www.jannekesatelier.webs.com
Last summer I have been sketching the waterfall in the Japanese Garden of 'Dierenpark Amersfoort' (Netherlands). A few months later I have made a watercolour painting, using the colours that are naturally there in that scene. That is mostly brown for the rocks, green for the plants and trees in the background and a bit of blue for the reflection of the sky in the water. I was not really happy with the result but I could not really see what went wrong, so I let it rest, trusting that one day I would know how to make a better version.
When I am really taking time to make a sketch on the spot, that sketch usually is detailed and made only with black pencils, so the result is monochromatic. These sketches can be 'better' than a multi-coloured painting, because sometimes the use of colours does not represent the values that make the black and white sketch such a strong image.
That is what I thought to be 'not so great' in my first watercolour painting.
Now I have made a second version, using only Indigo for the landscape with a hint of yellow to paint the bright green plants that are at the bottom of this waterfall.
I have used my initial sketch as my reference again, but now I have not used the memory of the trees in the background (I had used a reference picture for that). The sketch does not have the trees either, and I wanted to stay close to the sketch.
The choice of Indigo was made mostly because the brown shades of the first painting were disappointing me and I wanted to do something different.
I like this one better than the first painted version and I don't think there will be a third painting or drawing made with this sketch as my reference.
More information about this watercolour painting can be found at my website www.jannekesatelier.webs.com
The June challenge of 'Goed Gezien - Goed Bekeken' (the amateur art association of which I am a member) is Father(s day) and that meant some thinking for me.
Painting or drawing people is not what I really want to do so I had to think of something else. Animals are not my best subject either, but I am a bit more confident about my skills with that.
As it is springtime now, there are lots of father birds having to feed their young or a breeding mother bird so that was to be my subject for the challenge.
The scene is made up with a breeding mother bird and the father bird bringing in a nice fat caterpillar or something she would like to eat.
The whole scene is imaginary, I have used a photo reference for the silhouette of the father bird and I have given the birds the colours I like. The mother in brown shades to be camouflaged in her nest and the father has some violet, my favourite colour.
I emphasized the branches and green of the tree they chose for their home not as much as the birds, because they are my subject and I wanted them to stand out a bit.
Again I have used a challenge to get 'out of my comfort zone', and even though I did not 'get out' far, I did have some thinking to do here and I had to find a reference for the bird before I had the confidence to draw it.
More information about this small drawing (paper and colours used, contact information, etc) can be found at my website www.jannekesatelier.webs.com
It's Amateur Art Month again (in The Netherlands) and almost all amateur artists are showing their art this month. There are a lot of concerts by choirs and music ensembles and those that make visual arts show their work in their own windows or in shop windows.
This year I was allowed to display two of my watercolours in the shop windows of Foto Schievink, our local photography store again. I did not even have to ask, last year had been a good experience for them too.
Again it was difficult to make a good picture of my watercolour paintings in the shop window as these face south and have a lot of sunshine - which means a lot of reflection.
The address of the shop and the duration of this very small exposition can be found at my website www.jannekesatelier.webs.com
My garden has a lot of beautiful plants and I really love to see them grow bigger and bigger each year. One of my favourites is the bunch of peonies that grows each spring - and fades away with wonderful autumn colours.
Of course the flowers are great, but somehow I enjoy the flower buds even more.
They are very colourful and invite me to make a painting or drawing each year.
This spring I have accepted that invitation and made some reference pictures of the most inspiring flower buds and combined these into one drawing.
The sun was shining when I made the pictures, but the colours were still visible.
When the flowers are 'out' they will be various shades of pink, but the buds have a lot of carmine.
Somehow I prefer drawing when it is about flowers, the budding leaves of my chestnut tree and other slightly botanical subjects. Maybe because of the control that pencils give me, and my wish to be a bit more accurate with these subjects than I am when painting a landscape.
I have used a lot of different colours on a study quality watercolour paper and I am really happy with the results. Unfortunately I still cannot make great pictures of my art, the paper I used is white and I have trouble to remove the blue haze . I have chosen for the best colours for my drawing as possible and accepted the blue haze on the paper.
More information (colours used, size, availability, etc) can be found at my website www.jannekesatelier.webs.com
