Poppy - and visitor

 

There are poppies everywhere now, the reference photo for this watercolour was made by my husband during our short stay in a vacation home in Kortgene, but it could also have been made more recently, close to our home.

My husband made pictures for me and I have combined two pictures to make one watercolour. 

This poppy had a visitor, probably a bee but I do not know what kind of bee - there are many bees and I can't tell them apart.

Behind the poppy with the bee there I placed another flower and I have taken care to give that poppy more muted colours.

There was a lot of sunshine that day so there was a lot of shadow in the flower, only the outer petals were bright red. The inner petals were curving inward and had shadows cast on them by the other petals. It was not easy to paint all those curves and folds.

For this painting I have mixed a shadow colour first and painted the shadow areas on the white paper. After that had dried, I applied several layers of red, in different mixtures to obtain the fiery red colour of the poppy. The background flower got only two layers of red so the shadow colours are more dominant in the final result.

The flower stems are quite light green and I made them stand out a bit in a darker green background.

The bee is painted with a small brush to get the stripes right.

The information about the materials I have used, the size of this watercolour painting, its price and availability can all be found in my Tumblr blog.

Oosterschelde

 

The day we were walking along the Northern coast of Noord-Beveland, along the Oosterschelde we had sunshine most of the time. As there was not much wind, the water was relatively calm and clear. At the end of our walk there was a row of poles in the lowest part of the dyke. The poles are very close to each other and a human cannot pass between two of them, but there were some openings. I walked down, went through an opening and made some reference pictures. 

The construction of the opening is visible, both in the placement of the poles and in the shadows they cast. 

The row of poles is still 'closed', protecting either the dyke from large things being blown onto it or protecting the water from large things rolling down the dyke. The Oosterschelde is a Natural Reserve and has to be protected. 

The row of poles and their shadows inspired me at first to go down and make pictures, but when I was there, the colours of the water were more beautiful than we could see from the dyke (where the path was). 

Looking at the pictures I had made, I knew this was a great subject for a watercolour painting with all those beautiful shades of blue and aqua green in the water.

Looking at the pictures again I decided to make a mixed-media work using my watercolour paints for the landscape and water-soluble pencils to add details to the poles and the basalt blocks of the lowest part of the dyke and in the water.

The information about the materials I have used, the size of this work and its availability can all be found in my Tumblr blog.

The test of time

 

As I mentioned in my recent posts, during our short vacation in our province Zeeland my husband and me made some nice walks and we made lots of pictures during those walks. The landscape is different from where we live, even though we are used to wide rivers so close to the sea. The Oosterschelde is a bit bigger, almost like a lake, it's as good as impossible to see the other side in some areas even on a bright day.

We made some pictures near the 'Oestergat', a place where the oysters were kept fresh and alive after the catch and before they were to be sold and transported.

This drawing was made after a picture my husband made, I went more down towards the water to make my reference pictures. The drawing was again made with charcoal, but I added some colour using my watercolour pencils. These have brighter colours than the Tinted Charcoal pencils and for a sunny day in spring I needed the brighter green that I have used in this drawing.

The title is a bit inspired by the May challenge of 'Goed Gezien - Goed Bekeken' which is about demolition. 

In this place time caused the demolition of the structure in the foreground. Mosses and lichens grow on the wooden structure and some of the metal caps of the poles are missing. These poles are the ones that are the most weathered.

The information about the paper and pencils I have used, the size, the price and availability of this drawing can all be found in my Tumblr blog.

The Drowned Land of Zuid-Beveland -- watercolour

 

Last week we were for a very short vacation in our province Zeeland and we made some nice walks near the shorelines of the Oosterschelde. Of course we (my husband and me) made lots of pictures and I have made some charcoal drawings during our stay in the vacation home. 

Now that I am back in my own home, where my little studio is, I can make watercolour paintings using the reference pictures I have made.

I started with one of the pictures I have made during our walk along the Drowned Lands of Zuid-Beveland. I have written about this beautiful but fragile piece of nature in my previous post.

This scene with the salt marshes and a bit of the mudflats in the background would not look very good in a charcoal drawing - the tones of the vegetation of the salt marshes are similar so that would be a lot of the same shade of grey. The same goes for the mudflats and the water in the background.

In reality there are  shades of blueish green and violet in the vegetation of the salt marshes The mudflats have the colours of wet sand and the water looks grey because we had a day with a grey sky without any contrasts.

For this painting I wanted to show the creeks in the salt marshes. Some creeks can be seen easily, the other ones can only be found when looking at the shadow lines in the vegetation. 

The information about the materials I have used, the size, the price and the availability of this painting can all be found in my Tumblr blog.

The Drowned Land of Zuid-Beveland

 

During our short stay in a vacation home in Kortgene, we also went for a walk along the Drowned Lands of Zuid-Beveland. This area was drowned by the sea long before the great flooding of 1953 and several villages have disappeared over time in the water.

Now the mainland is protected by dykes and dams and along one of these dykes is a walking path along the mudflats, salt marshes and creeks that are there now. Of course there is some tidal action as the Oosterschelde is connected to the North Sea, the creeks were almost empty when we walked there, but the salt marshes have vegetation. The area is fragile and protected, we were only allowed on the path and on the dykes.

Because I had only brought along my drawing materials for such a short stay, this is another charcoal drawing, made in the vacation home using a picture I made during the walk as my reference. This time I added a little bit of colour using my watercolour pencils to draw attention to the green colours in the landscape. The creek in the foreground was a bit wider and there were lots of dark remains of plants (seaweeds?) but in the background the salt marsh was higher and had vegetation. Even further away there were only mudflats and water while on the horizon is one of the dams that protect the mainland.

Some of the scenes I photographed will look better in watercolour, as the vegetation there was not only green, but had shades of violet as well. The dark shadows of the creeks will also make more sense in a coloured painting so there is a lot of work for me during the weeks to come. In fact I am looking forward to that!

The information about the materials I have used, the size, the price and the availability of this drawing can all be found in my Tumblr blog.

At the 'Oestergat'

 

During our short stay in a vacation home in Kortgene we also walked in other areas of the islands. This scene is on the North coast of the island of Noord-Beveland, at the Oosterschelde. These waters are still connected to the North Sea, but the inlets are protected now, after the huge flood in 1953 dams were constructed. Not all dams are permanently closed and the Oosterschelde still has salt water and tides.

This scene is a remainder of the past, the 'Oestergat' or Oyster Hole was made to keep the oysters fresh and alive before they were sold and transported inland. The basalt blocks and stones have different textures and the hole is protected by a small harbour-like structure with an inlet for the water and of course for the boats that brought the oysters in from the sea. The seagulls and oystercatchers are still finding oysters and the coastline is scattered with broken shells - the birds drop the oysters from the air to break the shells so they can eat the flesh.

Nowadays we are only allowed to walk on the stones, the mudflats are forbidden for people, this is an area of very fragile nature. I walked down as far as was allowed and made some pictures to have references for my drawings and maybe for some future watercolour paintings. For this drawing I tried to show the shapes and textures of the basalt blocks contrasting to the mudflats and the dyke in the background. 

The information about the materials I have used, the size, the price and the availability of this charcoal drawing can all be found in my Tumblr blog.

Dark clouds over the 'Veerse Meer'

 Last week we had a very short vacation in our province of Zeeland, not very far from our home. We had booked a vacation home close to the 'Veerse Meer' and the first day we went for a walk starting from the small town of Kortgene along the shoreline of the lake.

The walk was passing through a woodland area with lots of poplars and bushes and herbs on the forest floor. From time to time we could reach the shore of the lake and I made several (reference) pictures of the opposite side of the lake. Some of these pictures had a really dark cloud and its reflection in the lake (it would start to rain a little later) and I chose the best of these for a charcoal drawing as I had brought my drawing materials with me.

There are more pictures that need to be painted in watercolour, the colours of the sky, the water and the land were beautiful but the value contrast was not enough to make a good charcoal drawing.

The information about the materials I have used, the size, the price and availability of this drawing can all be found in my Tumblr blog.

Longhorn beetle

 

These past few years there is a lot of attention for the insects, as they are very important for plants and for us. Most insects are having hard times with climate change, insecticides, other types of pollution and so on. So a bit of awareness can do no harm.

My sister-in-law Yvonne makes beautiful pictures of these little creatures and I have asked for some reference pictures. These have been waiting 'in the archive' for almost a year now but as it is springtime again I just wanted to paint one of the beauties that are outside now.

Looking in a small book for its name I found a clue and the internet helped me with the determination. This is a Longhorn beetle or Leptura quadrifasciata. In real life they are 11 to 20 mm long and this one was on a plant (maybe feeding on the fresh leaves) when the picture was taken. The larvae live in trees, feeding on the wood. They can live two to three years.

Painting this beauty was a nice challenge for me, this really is different from painting a landscape but I like the change.

The information about the paper and paints I have used, the size of this painting and its availability can all be found in my Tumblr blog.