Butterfly - end of summer

 

Several weeks ago I started painting the visitors to the flowers that inspire me to paint. That resulted in two paintings with bumble bees and a question to my daughter for reference pictures of butterflies (as these are not waiting for a picture to be made using my phone). She sent me some beautiful pictures to begin with and this one inspired me very much.

This beautiful butterfly (Vanessa atalanta) is not on a flower, but surrounded by dry, fallen leaves as happens in the end of summer, when the trees are already losing their foliage because of heat and drought.

Using the reference picture (thank you Mariska) I made a composition with the butterfly ant the leaf it was sitting on and surrounded them with leaves from the picture, but not exactly as was shown in the reference. 

I took great care to make the leaves look fallen and dry and keep the butterfly in the center of attention. Some of the leaves are not as detailed as possible but to my idea this improves the composition of my  painting.

The information about the paper and paint I used, the size and availability of this painting can be found in the link at the 'Galerie' page of my website www.jannekesatelier.webs.com 

City vs Nature - 2

 

When I was looking for inspiration and references for my first 'City vs Nature' work, I was looking for a city skyline and trees. I found something much more inspiring and I used the images I found but the first idea was still there, wanting to be painted.

So today I looked at city skylines and city scenes for inspiration and painted a city scene that is imaginary, but inspired by a lot of real cities. Once again I did not paint a lot of details because I wanted to draw over this painting with charcoal.

The trees in this scene are not there, which is exactly what happens in reality when big cities are built. I have outlined the foreground branches and the trees in the background on the left and filled in the 'negative space' with charcoal. 

The watercolour painting behind the charcoal had to stay visible, I have used the right amount of charcoal to reproduce that feeling of greyness that seems to be present in all big cities.

This mixed media was an experiment for me, it is the first time that I have been filling the 'negative space' with charcoal. 

Covering all those sharp angles and staying away from the spaces that had to stay untouched by the charcoal was a challenge. It made me use a piece of tissue instead of my fingers to rub out the charcoal.

The information about the paper and paints I have used, the size of this work and the availability can be found in the link at the 'Galerie' page of my website www.jannekesatelier.webs.com 

Heat

 

The August challenge of Goed Gezien - Goed Bekeken was 'heat' and we have had a lot of that.

Of course I had to find a way to paint that and during the week of my painting vacation I did see leaves falling from the trees and bushes, as if it were already autumn.

The inspiration was there, now I only had to paint it. 

The monochromatic indigo watercolour of a branch I made in my vacation week had the image I wanted, but it was not 'hot' enough, so I decided to make a fiery red version using a red and two orange shades.

The leaves are almost shaped like flames and I added some falling leaves to emphasize the effects of the hot and dry weather we were having these past weeks.

The information about the paper and paints I have used, the size of the painting and the availability can be found in the link at the 'Galerie' page of my website www.jannekesatelier.webs.com

The mud flats of Voorne (Netherlands)

 

The last day of our week full of lessons and advice from our teacher Ad van Aart I wanted to make a watercolour painting after the reference pictures I made during a walk in our beautiful nature.

My husband and me went for a walk at the South end of the Maasvlakte, where over the last decades some new nature has formed where the sea used to be. The mud flats are not accessible for public, these are resting areas for birds and seals. When we were there, the seals were out, but some birds were feeding near the water.

The lesson of using only two elements in my painting (water and one other) is applied here as well, so I have only painted the mud flats with the streams and the sea in the background. The horizon is at the top of my painting.

The advice I got from Ad for this painting was mostly about preserving the light in my painting, the sunshine on the water and on the wet sand in the background were important features to remember while painting. Where there is sunlight, there also are shadows and that is what I used to define the shapes of the sand banks and mud flats. 

This painting took me almost a whole day to paint, drying time was long as the air was damp and I had chosen a larger size paper.

The information about the paper and paints I have used, the size and availability of this watercolour painting can be found in the link at the 'Galerie' page of my website www.jannekesatelier.webs.com

Reflection, Iceland

 

Improving my skills in painting water also means painting reflections in water and our teacher Ad van Aart had the perfect picture for me to paint from (thank you!). 

This is another scene in Iceland and looking at all these pictures (to select the perfect one to paint from) made me want to visit Iceland as well. Maybe that can happen in the future.

The reflection in the picture was almost a perfect mirror image, so the challenge was to show that slight imperfection in my painting, but I should not overdo it. The black volcanic rock still is another challenge, as I should not overdo that either.

Of course things were not perfect at first, but watercolour can be forgiving and I could remove some of the blackness that was too much and the result is a landscape painting of which I am proud.

The rock in the foreground was added last, we decided this rock should be in the painting (it was there in the reference picture) because it improves the whole scene.

This painting was quite a struggle, it took me a long time to complete this one. Because of the hot weather we had all week I took my time, there was no need to rush things and ruin a painting. Maybe the weather was also slowing me down for another reason, the drying time of a wet surface was longer than expected on such a hot day. 

As said, I am happy with this painting, the result is worth the effort I put into it and I definitely have learned something while painting this scene.

The information about the materials I have used, the size and availability of this watercolour can be found in the link at the 'Galerie' page of my website www.jannekesatelier.webs.com

Branch, summer

 

During our week of lessons there was an afternoon off, but it was too hot to go for a walk in the surrounding forest. So I stayed at our residence and painted a small watercolour using one of the 'blind contour drawings' of the first day for inspiration.

It had been hot and dry for weeks now and the trees were already losing their leaves. Those that did not yet loose leaves, had them hanging down from the branches.

For this small watercolour I chose to use only one colour, make a light background first and then paint the shape of the branch and the hanging leaves with a stronger mix (of paint and water).

Only when I saw the painting like it is now, I decided that it did not need any additions like the berries that were on the branch I had been drawing.

The information about the materials I have used, the size and availability of this watercolour painting are in the link at the 'Galerie' page of my website www.jannekesatelier.webs.com 

Waterfall, Iceland

 

The plan to improve my skills in painting water also led to half an hour viewing pictures our teacher Ad van Aart had made in Iceland, with waterfalls, melting ice and more.

I was allowed to make some 'screenshots' from his laptop with my camera and use them to paint from.

This beautiful waterfall was the first to be painted and the mist beside it was an extra challenge. 

Ad told me that the foreground plateau ended abruptly and that the waterfall dropped much deeper than was visible from the point where the picture was taken.

The black volcanic rocks of Iceland are another challenge to paint, the dark colour is very different from any other landscape I have ever painted.

So I did take my time for this one, also because we still had very hot weather and the heat could not be avoided, the shadows of the trees did not bring any refreshment.

Of course I needed some guidance with this one - that is why I go to a week of painting lessons - but I learned that painting a waterfall is just looking good at the reference and reproducing that on my paper. Of course this is not an exact copy of the picture, but I have got the rocks behind the water in the right place and that what matters most.

Again I was surprised, honoured and happy that one of my fellow students wanted to buy this watercolour. 

The information about the paper and paints I have used can be found in the link at the 'Galerie' page of my website www.jannekesatelier.webs.com

And there was light....

 

During the week of painting with teacher Ad van Aart there was a day with a lesson about a 'surprising turn' in a painting or drawing. While looking for inspiration for the work in my previous post I found printed pictures of pages taken from the King James Bible and I wanted to use these in a mixed media work. Of course I discussed my plans with Ad first and we came up with a nice composition.

After cutting out the parts I wanted to use, I glued them to a sheet of watercolour paper with a transparent paste for acrylics and waited for it to dry.

I was inspired by the way these pages were printed, dark below and more light at the top of the pages. 

The part below the pages had to be a dark and unforgiving landscape, the part above the pages was to be much more friendly. The acrylic paste did influence the way my watercolour paint was to be applied to the underground, but in this case it only enhanced the atmosphere I wanted to create.

I was surprised and happy that one of my fellow students wanted to buy this work.

The information about the paper and paints I have used can be found in the link at the 'Galerie' page of my website www.jannekesatelier.webs.com 

City vs Nature

 

During the week of the painting vacation, our teacher Ad van Aart always has some special lessons prepared. This week we were instructed about the 'Surprising turn' or the element of surprise in our paintings and we were free to follow up on the instructions or work on our own projects.

I really like this idea so I went to look for inspiration in some very old magazines Ad brings for occasions like these.

I already was planning to do a City versus Nature work, but the picture of this built up city view was a surprise for me, and I decided to use it. At first I thought to do something with the trees that were everywhere in the area of our residence, but then I found a partial drawing of a lion skull. I looked on the Internet for further information about the shape of the skull and started to work.

The cityscape with lots of different buildings almost on top of each other and lots of colours was painted with watercolour.  I chose not to add the details of washing lines, antennas and power wires because this was to be a background. Our teacher Ad agreed with me on this.

The skull was drawn in with light pencil lines first and then in a dark brown Conté Sketching Crayon, adding layers until I had the image I was looking for.

Of course I used fixative in the end.

Do I need to explain the thoughts and ideas that made me create a work like this? I hope not.

The information about the materials I have used, the size and availability of this work can be found in the link at the 'Galerie' page of my website www.jannekesatelier.webs.com

Water - lakes and rivers

 

This painting vacation I wanted to improve my skills in painting water - rivers, lakes, sea and more. 

Our teacher and coach, Ad van Aart, advised me to choose a reference picture that could be used to paint the water plus only one element - sand, rocks, a tree line in the distance and try to paint different  atmospheres. He also told me to make more small paintings, so I divided my stretched sheet of paper in two using some tape and painted two small paintings that are from the same reference picture on one sheet of paper.

I have chosen two reference pictures, one picture shows a small lake, with sand in the foreground and some shallow parts  the other picture shows a fast flowing river close to my home, with basalt rocks in the foreground and the other side has some bushes.

The scene with the lake is painted twice, on Grain Fin paper and on Grain Torchon paper.

I used this exercise to compare the two papers and learn to paint on the Grain Torchon paper.

Of course these paintings are exercises, not meant to be real pieces of art, though I have done my best to make the little scenes as beautiful as possible.

Painting on the Grain Torchon paper for the first time was not really easy, but I got used to it very quickly. It was hard for me to leave 'hard egdes' in the scenes that are having a foreground, the ones with the background - that depict water that is further away - were more my usual style. Still I think I did not do too badly.

The information about the paper and paints used and the availability can be found in the link on the 'Galerie' page of my website www.jannekesatelier.webs.com

The forest edge

 

Last week I had a warm but wonderful painting vacation on the edge of the village of Holthees, in the Netherlands. Our teacher and coach was Ad van Aart.

This year I wanted to work on my skills in painting water, from lakes to rivers, from reflections to waterfalls and this little trench on the edge of the forest near our residence of the week is my first project of the week.

We started as usual with some exercises in 'blind contour drawing' and I made some of this trench. I also made some reference pictures. The pictures did show a lot of light at the end of the trench, where reality did show more landscape. I like the light effect and decided to combine that element of my picture with the lines in my 'blind contour drawing'.

Of course I did return to the scene in the afternoon to check on the trees and bushes to make the forest ground beside the edges of the trench more lively. There were some grasses and herbs on the foreground - where I was standing - and I have suggested these as well.

Combining a very loose draing with a reference picture and reality was a nice challenge for me and I am happy with the advice given to me by our teacher Ad to improve my painting.

The information about the materials I have used, the size and availability of this watercolour painting can be found in the link on the 'Galerie' page of my website www.jannekesatelier.webs.com