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.