Fagne de Poleur - 2

 

Last October, during our short vacation, my husband and I were in the Hautes Fagnes, Ardennes, Belgium, for a nice walk. The landscape is special for our part of the world and we enjoyed the walk very much. With us there were many others enjoying the great views of this Natural Reserve, but it was not difficult to make beautiful landscape pictures. In that landscape we all have to stay on the path, the peat moor is a dangerous place. Next to the boardwalks there is a lot of water, if you step down, you get wet and you never know how deep it really is. So pictures of the landscape will automatically have no other walkers.

The beginning of our route passed by the Fagne de Poleur and I have made several reference pictures there.  One of them is already used for a watercolour painting, and this painting is the next one. Looking West, the sky was really dark and cloudy - we did not have rain though - and I wanted to paint these clouds over the landscape.

The colours of the landscape are beautiful, the grasses are almost golden in autumn and with the light coming from behind, the bare trees and bushes are really dark. Amongst the grasses are some small bushes, but not much, as the plants here have to survive the acid water of the peat moor.

Painting this was a small challenge as it was about two months ago that we were there - and I am a bit in a winter/Christmas mood - and because of the weather conditions now, which are dark and wet. Of course a challenge is good for me, that is how I improve my painting skills. The result is even better than I hoped for.

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

If you are interested in  my work, please contact me.

Leaves - frosted

 

Some weeks ago - but it could also have been this afternoon - my husband and I were walking close to home and we passed by a bush that had not seen the sun yet. The tips of many leaves were still white with frost which contrasted beautifully with the dark green of the leaves. Of course I made some reference pictures and today I wanted to paint these leaves.

For the watercolour painting I selected a small size paper (hoping to finish the painting before it got too dark, the days are really short now) and made my composition drawing with a watercolour pencil, so I would not have to erase the pencil lines after I had finished painting. 

The background - which was made up with more of the same kind of leaves - was painted first using a blue and a yellow to mix some shades of green. After that I mixed more shades of green using a different blue and another yellow. This was used for the leaves I wanted to stand out, but I also mixed win the colours used in the background, so a lot of greens were made with two blues and two yellows. 

Leaving the frosted edges completely white was not right here. so I let the shades of the leaves flow into the paler areas, taking care that only a hint of the colour of the leaf was visible on the paper. In this way I suggested the frosted edges and also some light falling on the waxy leaves.

Painting a scene like this was new for me, but I really liked the challenge I set myself. The result is what I hoped for.

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

Please contact me if you are interested in my work.

In the middle of the winter night - white on black

 

The December challenge of 'Goed Gezien - Goed Bekeken' our regional Amateur Art association has the title of a Christmas song: In the middle of the winter night.

This does not mean we have to create a Christmas painting, lots of things happen in winter nights so we are free to find our inspiration where we like it. My husband Peter has made some nice snow pictures several years ago in our own garden. In the night and the snow does really suggest winter.

So using these pictures as my references I decided to make a 'white on black' painting, using white Gouache and some watercolour paints to create the image. 

As I have described before, the black cardboard is really heavy compared to my usual watercolour paper and of course it does react differently to paint and water. The challenge of that is a nice one as I have experienced it many times before. Lots of layers of white paint are needed to get the snow covering the bird feeder and the snow on the ground, but the change is fun and welcome.

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

If you are interested in my work, please do contact me.

Dead tree - Kalmthoutse Heide

 

Last week, as we were walking a signposted walk on the Kalmthoutse Heide, I saw a dead tree that inspired me to make reference pictures. On the bark - what was left of it - were lots of colours, white, shades of brown and orange and more so I tried to capture that in my reference pictures. And I wanted a picture of the whole tree, standing alone against the sky. 

While I was trying to get that right my husband told me to try from the other side, where he was still standing. The colours that inspired me at first were not visible from there, but the tree looked great from the viewpoint he advised me. The sky suddenly looked more cloudy and dark and the tree did stand out beautifully.

Last week I experienced that it could be too dark to paint really early in the afternoon, so now I started my painting in the morning, choosing a large size paper for this scene. Still the weather was against me, something with the humidity, drying time, paper staying very wet and that stuff. The struggle was not very long, I soon found out what was the matter and I have used my hair-dryer very often for this painting.

After one layer was dried, I added more paint, dried it again and repeated until I was happy with the result. Normally I don't need to dry my paper so often in between layers and I can keep adding paint much longer. So today was different, but no problem.

After the sky and foreground (a piece of moorland in autumn) were what I wanted them to be I started painting the tree. As the tree was in backlight, there are only shades of dark and darker brown in the shape of the tree and the remaining branches. Many of the smaller branches have fallen off long ago and what is still standing may stay like this for a long time. Or not, the tree may be very weak by now and fall in the first storm that comes.

I am really happy with the result of my work, I tried to paint the loneliness of that dead tree and I think I succeeded well.

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

If you are interested in my work, please do contact me.

Holly

 

Last weekend we (my husband and me) went for a nice signposted walk in the 'Kalmthoutse Heide', a beautiful Natural Reserve on the border between Belgium and The Netherlands, not too far from where we live. 

Very soon after I left the car, my attention was caught by a nice holly bush with lots of red berries. Of course I made some reference pictures and added some more holly reference pictures during our walk.

The holly inspired me to paint, so that is what I did. Mixing greens for a background, adding violet for contrast was the first step. After that had dried I used a watercolour pencil for the drawing of the holly branches and then I had to paint them.

At first, I wanted to add a special effect I had seen in an online short video, but after the background was made I decided otherwise. That special effect will be used once, in another painting. The green of the leaves was mixed with a blue, a yellow and sometimes a touch of violet for the darker areas. It was fun to create all these colours and to let the leaves at the edges of the painting fade away into the background.

The red berries were the finishing touch, a nice contrast with the green of the leaves and background, just as they were when they caught my attention.

This watercolour will not be used for a Christmas card this year - I already have them waiting for the right moment to send - but painting these leaves and berries did get me in a nice festive mood, forgetting the grey weather for a few hours.

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

If you are interested in my work, please contact me.

Shards bring good luck...

 

The November challenge of 'Goed Gezien - Goed Bekeken' is 'Scherven brengen geluk' which translates as 'Shards bring good luck' - a saying that means that after bad moments (shards) always better ones will come (good luck).

Inspiration did not come at once, but after some thinking I remembered the Japanese 'Kintsugi' tradition of repairing broken cups, plates, saucers, bowls etc with gold.

So I searched for a nice reference picture of a saucer - mostly to help me find the right places for the shadows - and used that for my work.

The saucer is painted in watercolour and the cracks are a combination of watercolour paint and a metallic pencil. After having finished this, I made a photocopy, cut out the shards I had indicated and placed these around the painted saucer. Using a pencil I marked the outlines of these paper shards. I used my pencils for the shards, so the difference is visible.

This still life was a change for me, I usually paint or draw landscape related subjects, but  did enjoy the challenge.

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

If you are interested in my work, please contact me.

'Les Hautes Fagnes' - Fagne de Poleur

 

During our short vacation in The Ardennes (Belgium) we made a signposted walk in the Natural Reserve area "Hautes Fagnes" that led us past the various views that area has to offer. From our starting point at the Baraque Michel we first walked to the 'Fagne de Poleur' named after one of the many rivers that spring in this moor. 

This part of the walk had some trees and bushes and a nice treeline on the horizon and I made several pictures so I will stay inspired to paint for weeks to come. This is one of the views we had, a bit of the moor can be seen behind the trees and bushes in the foreground. As this Natural Reserve is very wet and partly re-flooded for conservation of the peat moor there are only small trees and bushes that may die early because of all the water. 

For my painting I have used my reference picture as my inspiration. The horizon and trees are placed almost according to the reference and I have tried to show the variation in grasses and reeds that attracted me to this view in the first place. Because of the damp atmosphere (it had been raining the day before) the trees look almost black. In this time of the year there are some leaves left on the trees, but most of them have fallen yet and cannot easily be seen between the grasses and reeds.

The result of my work is what I had hoped for, a nice autumn scene in a very unique piece of nature.

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

Please contact me if you are interested in my work.

Winter fantasy - Ondenval

 

During our short vacation in the small village of Ondenval (Ardennes, Belgium) I was looking for inspiration for the Christmas card for this year and I asked my husband for a picture of the church of the village, taken from a path we were walking at that time.

The picture was made with the camera, so the focus was on the village - not on the surrounding hills, forest areas and fields as my phone-camera would have done. 

The church had to be the subject for the card, so I selected a nice part of the reference picture for my painting. For a Christmas card the season had to be changed, so I added some snow, dropped the foliage of the trees and bushes and added light to the church windows.

The browns for the trees are chosen because there are no evergreen trees in this part of the village so there will be no green in winter time. In this village the roofs of the buildings are made with slate and the buildings are made using bricks and natural stones, all in shades of brown. That gives me a nice limited palette to work with, which I really like very much.

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

Please contact me if you are interested in my work.

Parasol mushroom (Macrolepiota procera) - a pencil drawing

 

Last week we (my husband and me) went on several signposted walks during our short vacation in The Ardennes and it is the season for mushrooms, so we made some pictures of the most beautiful ones.

This large Parasol Mushroom stood in a field, close to the path we were on and as it was so tall, my husband made a picture from the side, so the whole stem is visible. The mushrooms that do not grow that tall often cannot be photographed like this without special equipment - which we do not have.

As I had my pencils with me, I used the picture as a reference for a drawing. The large mushroom had to fill most of the paper for my composition. I added the grasses and a few of the fallen leaves to make a small scene out of it. If I had not done that, it would have been a 'portrait' of the mushroom and that was not what I wanted. 

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

Please contact me if you are interested in my work.

'Les Hautes Fagnes' - a glimpse

 

Last week, during our short stay in The Ardennes, we also visited the 'Hautes Fagnes' which is a very special bit of microclimate in The Ardennes. At about 700 metres high it is a flat and cold region, with raised bogs (see also the link to the Wikipedia page I added above) and early snowfall. As the temperatures were extremely high for the time of the year, we did not have any snow, but the weather for a signposted walk was great.

During our walk we made several pictures, many to be used as reference for my paintings. As I had only a minimal amount of painting materials with me and the conditions in a vacation home are not always good for painting, I chose a relatively simple subject for a watercolour painting.

As expected, there was a struggle with drying times, light conditions and more, but the result is even better than I could hope for. Of course, now I am at home again, I will use more of our pictures for watercolour paintings during the weeks to come.

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

Please contact me if you are interested in my work.

Quarry, Ardennes - a charcoal drawing

 

Last week we (my husband and me) had a short vacation in The Ardennes and we planned some nice walks, some shopping and I planned some drawing and painting moments. The weather was great, in fact too warm for the time of the year, but great for our walks.

Very close to our vacation home was the first planned walk and we went there directly from the house - for the other walks we had to drive several kilometres to reach the starting point. This walk passed by some nice views, mostly of the river Amblève but we also passe by a small quarry, probably of the slate that was mined in that area.

This small quarry inspired me to make a reference picture and experiment with the composition in a charcoal drawing. I selected a nice area with some difference in colour and texture in the stone and some colour accents by the small birch trees that grow between the stones.

By choosing this composition I tried to apply the lessons I learned during my paining vacation last summer: fill the whole paper with your subject, don't leave room for ground or sky (if possible) and look at the shadows to define the shapes. 

The stones of the quarry alone would give only diagonal lines and would need a lot of explaining to those that would only see the drawing, so for the vertical lines I added some of the trees and crawling plants that grow on these rocks and stones using my pencils. The pencil colours do not stand out very much, as they are placed on the charcoal background.

Shortly after finishing this drawing I really thought that I had better left out the trees and plants, but after looking at the drawing several times, I started to like it much more as it is now. The touches of (autumn) colour make the drawing 'feel' how it was at that spot, dark stones and rocks, but not sombre because of the life that is represented by the trees and plants.

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

Please contact me if you are interested in my work.

Looking out...

 

Looking out of a window on our first floor I did see our chestnut tree in its Autumnal splendour, looking great in the bright sunlight. Because there are blinds I had a fragmented view on the tree and its colours but exactly that inspired me to paint.

So I made a reference picture of the tree from that first floor - a bad picture as we have double glass windows - and made plans to paint the next day. 

I used parts of that picture to draw my composition, leaving out the cars parked in the street, the opposite houses and more. After I had a nice composition of leaves I used a ruler to draw the lines for the blinds and masked these shapes using masking fluid.

After the masking dried, I used a neutral brown for my background, painted the leaves, using my memory and imagination to get a nice colour pattern and after that had dried completely, I rubbed away the masking. Next step were the blinds, looking at the real ones I established where the shadows were to be painted and I added the vertical element of the 'thread ladder' that keeps the blinds in the right shape.

It really surprised me that all went right with the masking fluid, as I do not use it often, the bottle is rather old and only half full. But there were no problems at all. 

Of course this was an experiment, but I really like the result.

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

Green!

 

The October challenge of 'Goed Gezien - Goed Bekeken'  has the same theme as the Children's Books Week: Gi - Ga - Green!

So a green painting is what we have to make and fortunately it is only the beginning of Autumn, so a green spot can still be found. This spot is in my home town Papendrecht (Netherlands) close to a very busy roundabout and a school. There is a small field of grass, some trees and a line of bushes in front of the school building, all the green I could wish for, because even the sky is not very visible.

On a small sheet of paper I did start with a blue-grey for the bits of sky that were to be seen and after that I used some blues and yellows to make the shades of green I needed to paint grasses, bushes and the foliage of the trees.

This is not my usual way of painting a landscape scene, but the theme of the challenge caused this compositional choice. In fact I liked working on this painting, so perhaps in the future I will paint a forest scene like this again: mostly ground, bushes and trees, only small patches of sky. Just like I practiced during my painting vacation.

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

Beware of elderly ladies!

 

Last summer, during my painting vacation, I made some reference pictures of one of the resident cats. The other cat was a mostly hiding, but this elderly lady enjoyed all the attention our group of painters gave her. She is sixteen years old, which makes her an old lady. 

The first evening, while we were having a late supper, she also found herself something to eat and I was able to make a picture of her holding the unfortunate mouse. It was getting really dark, so the background lost all detail, only the path she is on has some highlights. I think my phone used the flash while making this picture, the cat and mouse are very well visible, so the picture is a good reference.

It took some time before I had gathered the courage to make a drawing using my reference picture, but here it is.

For this drawing I selected a light grey tinted cardboard and I have used my watercolour pencils (again only as pencils, on this type of paper it is not wise to use water) for the drawing. The cat is a calico, so I used my black, white and some other pencils for the cat and its prey and by applying at least three layers of colour I had them stand out as my subject. 

The path and the background are only suggested and light grey of the paper is part that. I have added some highlights on the path and darkened what is behind the cat (a hedge, but without details because of the darkness).

The result is maybe even better than I hoped for - I really am improving my cat-drawing skills.

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

Almost Autumn!

 

After a hot and dry summer my chestnut tree is dropping his leaves early - as many other trees do - and the chestnuts are ready to fall off the tree. So it is time to paint an autumnal watercolour painting using my own tree as my model. 

For this painting I decided to make a brown background by letting two shades of brown flow on my wet paper. This did not cover the whole sheet and that is exactly what I wanted.

The composition is made using my two reference pictures. After the initial drawing was made I have used my memory for the colours and because the leaves, branches and chestnuts are painted over the background these colours are part of the end result.

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

Deelerwoud - Along fields and roads

 

The September challenge of 'Goed Gezien - Goed Bekeken' is 'Along fields and roads' and we are asked to paint our vacation pictures, only I did not make nice pictures of fields and roads, only fields...

So I selected a nice picture of our signposted walk in the Deelerwoud last October (2021) with a field and the path we were walking in a nice composition. The background is a forest area and the trees next to the path are a welcome addition to the view, even though some of them died a long time ago. 

The grasses were already yellow, the trees still had most of their foliage and there was a nice dark sky, it rained lightly during our walk. Together this had a very nice autumnal mood and we enjoyed being there at that time. Now I am happy to remember that walk, using the pictures I made as reference for my watercolour paintings.

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

What remains...

 

During our short stay in the Northern part of Germany we spent one day visiting the dolmens in that area and making several pictures of these ancient structures.

Most of the dolmens we saw were surrounded by trees, even though there was some open space - sometimes even a fence - around the stones, but I wanted to paint one of these dolmens without the nice springtime mood that these trees were bringing to my pictures. The inspiration to make a painting in a misty autumnal mood came during my painting vacation, but that week was too short to make all the paintings I wanted too.

So I imagined the dolmen standing alone, in an empty area as if the trees are yet to grow and I created a misty autumn day. The sky is grey, but not too dark - we have these days in autumn - and the ground is dark as well, only greys and earth colours.

While painting, I did not look at my reference picture any more (I had used it for my preliminary drawing) and worked from memory, creating dark and light areas on the stones, creating cracks that in reality are not there (yet) and suggesting some kind of structure in the ground the dolmen is standing on. That last bit was the most challenging, as I did not want to introduce any bushes or other greens. Finally I decided on the possibility of a circle around the dolmen and some indications of the small hill it sits on.

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

Shadow Play

 

During our painting vacation, the weather was nice and dry, but really hot. Too hot to make two watercolour paintings a day, so some afternoons were used for other things, like drawing in the shadow.

This work is all about drawing the shadows. I took a place under a walnut tree and tried to draw the shadows of the leaves using my Conté Sketching Crayons. There was some wind, so it was not easy. After the first, dark layer I added a second and a third layer, each one a lighter shade. The final layer was just the outline of the shadows in white.

After I had done this drawing, I changed to another tree:

My colour scheme for this drawing was more simple, only one black and the final layer in grey.

With the first sketches on paper I asked our teacher and coach Ad van Aart how to continue because this was a first time for me. He advised me to add colour to the layers in the first drawing and to work on the composition of the second one.

The first shadow play is now stronger in colour, the shapes are better defined and the white lines are visible and a bit intriguing now.

The second shadow play is more balanced now the shapes are connected and the grey shapes are more scattered over the whole sheet of paper.

This was a first time for me, but I really wanted to do this at least once. In fact I love the result and knowing what to do to make the composition stronger / better I will certainly try this again, with different shadows and perhaps different drawing materials.

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

Misty landscape

 

For the last day of my painting vacation our teacher and coach Ad van Aart asked me to make another misty scene, this time with some reference pictures. After searching on the Internet, I found some nice misty landscapes that are not so close to where I live so I could not have seen these myself. 

It was still hot, so I started with a wet paper, painting a background colour and adding the structures in the background as soon as possible with a very thin mixture of a grey shade. Adding the rest of the landscape in darker shades of grey layer by layer was not easy as the paper dried very fast, but I managed to get a credible result. 

The next stage was the lake and the mist coming from the water, but I have painted the reflections as the landscape that is painted has to reflect in the water and the waves or ripples are also only suggested, not copied from any of the pictures I used for inspiration.

My landscape does not look like the references I have used as my inspiration any more. The high temperatures and the short drying time of my paint and paper forced me to improvise and create a landscape that could be existing somewhere.

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

Tree roots - a charcoal drawing

 

The days of my painting vacation were not completely filled with my watercolour paintings, in the afternoons I occasionally had a few hours for something different. Of course I wanted to stay close to my chosen subject (the forest) so one afternoon our teacher and coach Ad van Aart  asked me to make a drawing of the complex roots of a large oak tree that was on the terrain of our residence.

With this drawing I had to fill the whole page as good as possible and create a work that was as close to abstract as the subject could get me. I did make a drawing as accurately as possible, filling the page with the roots of the tree and only the roots. So no little branches, no grasses in the background and even not the little mouse that came looking what I was doing in front of its home.

Making this drawing was nice, I could sit on a small chair in the shadows of the tree - it was a very hot day - and concentrate on what I did see and what I wanted to draw without having to worry about drying paint, colour choices and other difficulties. The result is even better than what I thought I could make, so I am very happy that Ad challenged me to do this.

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

The Forest Floor

 

After I had painted different seasonal moods using only one reference picture it was time for something different, still based on the 'forest' theme. 

Together with our teacher and coach Ad van Aart I selected a step-by-step tutorial about painting the forest floor in Pastel to use as my guideline for this watercolour painting. The result does not look much like the reference in the tutorial. What I have taken from the reference are a background, trees, a light spot and some growing plants on the forest floor. Making a watercolour painting is very different from making a pastel painting, so the step-by-step instructions could not be followed by me.

Because of the light spot. I had to decide the direction of the light to place my shadows and the dark sides of the trees. Some shadows are not included, these are behind the unevenness in the forest floor. 

The result is a mostly imaginary landscape and I am really happy with it. The experience of painting a landscape, using a reference only as a guideline was a nice one and I love to repeat this way of working in the future.

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

In the forest - four different moods

 During my painting vacation our teacher and coach Ad van Aart invites us all to find a theme for the week and try to improve our skills in drawing or painting using that theme. My theme was painting the forest and I wanted to improve my skills in painting different moods. To achieve that a reference picture was selected with only a forest ground and trees in it. The trees are much taller than the paintings and the forest ground is not really that empty, but it is very close to the reference. The different moods are created using different colour schemes. 

The first painting was not the first made, but as there were more paintings, we started to create a sequence - without much success as there are many possibilities here.

So the seasonal sequence is used in this blog post and this one, with some dark greens where the branches might be and on the forest floor is the end of Summer.

This second painting, with shades of yellow where the branches might be and on the forest floor is Autumn. In fact, this one was painted without blue colours as I wanted to investigate that possibility. Brown and blue is a combination I have used before so I wanted to try something different. The result is a gentle Autumn mood.

The third painting of this blog post was to be a November mist day, as we have often in The Netherlands. This was quite a challenge as I painted trees, made them fade with water, dried this all and repeated this two more times before painting the big dark (wet trees are very dark) trees in the foreground. I noticed that I have lost the trees of the background, the first layer, in the process. Then I realised that during one of these misty days this is exactly what happens - the trees that are a bit further away ar not visible any more. So I think this is what had to happen in the painting too.

The fourth painting is Winter, the dark shade of blue that is chosen for the background does suggest that time of the year.

Painting this series of four moods was a nice challenge. It was great to see the difference a shade of blue or yellow could make and these four paintings are an important part of my learning process of the painting week.

The information about the materials I have used, the size of the watercolour paintings and their availability can all be found in my Tumblr blog.

Now and later, waiting...

 

My painting vacation was great fun again and I have learned a lot. My subject this time was all about painting a forest landscape and I have been working hard all week.

The first day however was more about the direct surroundings of our location in Berg en Dal (Netherlands) with 'blind contour drawing' in the morning and painting in the afternoon. After I had found my work spot for the week - under trees, lots of shadow and a cool wind from time to time - I painted the view from that spot, a tree trunk, a bench and a tree. The foreground was a typical forest floor: grasses, leaves, acorns (there were oak trees), all dry because of the lack of rain in the past month.

At first the painting was higher, a portrait format, but the background was too empty. Our teacher and coach Ad van Aart had advised me to keep the background empty and fill it in later. So I added some branches and foliage above in the painting and that was too much. So the best solution to the problem was to cut off the upper part of the paper and create an almost square painting, as it is now. 

For this painting we picked the subject and composition, I made the painting and then we investigated how we could improve the result. In this case we just needed to cut off the excess empty space to get a good painting.

These first days on location are always an investigation of 'what shall we do this week and how shall we do it' so I did not expect much of this watercolour painting. The road towards  the final result of this day is more important than the painting itself. I have learned a lot in that short afternoon and used that the rest of the week.

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

Sunset in Hoek van Holland (Netherlands)

 

Summer is the time to go to the beach and when the weather is good, it is nice to stay until sunset (or later) and drive back home in times of 'not much traffic on the road'. My husband took our two young guests to the beach of Hoek van Holland and made me some reference pictures of the sunset while the young ones were enjoying themselves with beach things.

The reference picture only had shades of yellow, gold, orange and brown so I wanted to make a painting using only those colours. The result is a nice sunset scene with colours that are not often seen in The Netherlands - usually there is some grey or blue visible in the sky and sea.

As this was in Hoek van Holland, the Pier and the radar post at the end of the Pier are also included and far away there is a large ship, barely visible.

Painting a realistic seascape using this limited palette was new for me, but I am really pleased with the result.

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

Small mushroom in summer - a pencil drawing

 

During our latest walk in the forests near Rucphen (Netherlands) we noticed a small brown mushroom and of course I made some reference pictures. The little brown mushroom was standing on the dry forest floor, between pine needles, broken branches and old mosses. Some fallen leaves were there as well, they did give some colour to the forest floor at that spot.

The single mushroom was a bit too small for a watercolour painting, so I took my pencils and made a drawing on a small size sheet of paper.

For my birthday I was given a full box (a beautiful wooden box) with all 72 colours of the watercolour pencils I usually use for my drawings and I enjoyed the new colours I could use now. 

Again I have not used any water to bring out the watercolour qualities of my pencils because I love the way my paper still shows in the areas where I have not applied many layers of pencil. The hood and stem of the mushroom are saturated with colour, mixing my colours on the paper to get the result I am after.

Buying another set of pencils just for dry drawing seems to me a waste of money and materials, I know exactly what I can do with these pencils and I like the results I get. As an extra I can also use them wet if the drawing I am working on needs it.

The type of mushroom is unknown to me and determination is difficult (I tried and failed), so it's just a small mushroom this time.

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

In the woodlands near Rucphen (Netherlands) - under the trees

 

The woodlands near Rucphen do not only have hidden fields to surprise a hiker, under the trees there is also beauty to be found. The woodlands are parts with oak trees, chestnuts and other deciduous trees and parts with mostly coniferous trees, as in this watercolour painting. The forest floor has fallen needles, fallen pinecones and there are grasses and ferns growing. The management of the forest area is going towards a mixed forest with both deciduous and coniferous trees growing together, in this part there is some work to be done though the bushes on the left are in fact young trees growing nicely. 

By removing some older trees the sunlight can reach the forest floor again and that is important for the young trees.

The patches of sunlight are the reason I made a reference picture on this spot and of course also why I painted the scene. There was a lot of shadow under the trees - the walk was really agreeable - but these bits of sunlight made a nice pattern for a painting.

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

View towards Schoonhoven (Netherlands)

 

Our amateur art association 'Goed Gezien - Goed Bekeken' does not only have a monthly challenge, in the springtime and summer there are also days with plein-air painting. Today was such a Plein-Air painting day and we were located in the old town of Nieuwpoort. 

Nieuwpoort is at the river Lek and today I wanted to paint a river view and a part of the (also old) town of Schoonhoven was included in that view. I took a position on the fortress wall of Nieuwpoort, a nice high spot with great views to all sides of which I painted only one.

There was a lot of traffic on the river, but there were also a lot of quiet moments, so I could see the trees and the church towers on the opposite river bank very well. I also added the groynes of the river side I was standing on to create a foreground to my painting.

Later in the day these groynes were almost flooded, there is some tidal movement as far inland as Nieuwpoort. It was a bright sunny day and I had to adapt to fast drying paint and wetted paper, but  after I did that I finished my painting without any real problems.

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

A walk in the woodlands near Rucphen (Netherlands)

 

Last week the weather was great for a walk in our beautiful nature so we went to the woodlands of Rucphen and made a signposted walk, passing by the woodlands, the moorland and some small fields with flowers and grasses. 

Of course we enjoyed our walk and made several (reference) pictures. The sunlit fields were looking great so I decided to make a watercolour painting using one of my reference pictures. We were standing under some large trees and the overhanging foliage is really important for the composition. I know that because that is what I painted last and I have seen the painting without that foliage. The small bush on the right and the one on the foreground are equally important to 'frame' the scene.

The colours of the grasses are a nice challenge and I think I got them right. The pale, almost white stems and the pinkish shade of the grains are not in my palette, so I had to mix something. The result looks like summer and that is what I wanted, so I am happy with it.

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

High Tea (mixed media with collage)

 

The July challenge of 'Goed Gezien - Goed Bekeken' is 'Aan Tafel' or At the table. There are many ways to find inspiration with this theme, beginning with the call for lunch or dinner when we were young. Those who have seen a swarm of starlings coming to a feeding table can understand what my first thoughts were.

But a nice ending of a day out was what made me try this one: a collage with (parts of) tea bag packages, the sweet treats and the glasses with tea of a High Tea that was enjoyed after a nice walk in our beautiful nature (paintings of that will be made later).

Using my watercolour markers - and a brush with water - I made the illustrations of the sweet treats and the tea, drawing parts of the lines with a fine liner. Parts of the packages of the tea bags are cut out and  glued to the paper, completing my composition.

The result is not only a contribution to the challenge, but also a nice memory of a special day.

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

Visbeker Bräutigam (934)

 

 

During our short stay in the North of Germany we used one of our days there to visit dolmens and the 'Visbeker Bräutigam' was a pleasant surprise. Not one, not two but five dolmens in different shapes and sizes were to be seen. The one that gives the name to the site is a long one, very impressive. There is one dolmen that is as good as completely destroyed, one that is still buried in its mound and two others. All information is found through the added link to Wikipedia.

The dolmen I painted this time is number 934, sometimes named 'Brautjungfer' or bridesmaid. The names are taken from the legend that connects this site to another one.

The reference picture did not include all of the dolmen, but an important part of it is visible. These dolmens are a bit large for a good picture in the woods, surrounded by trees and more dolmens so I have made the best I could get.

Before I started painting, I made a detailed drawing of the placement of the stones, I had to get the perspective right - and keep it right while painting. The trees in the background hide the highway and the forest floor is still covered with the fallen leaves of last autumn. We were here in Springtime when the beech trees were not yet having all their foliage and these leaves were still a fresh, yellowish green. 

For the stones I took my time, that is my subject and should look good. Many of the stones are covered in moss so I had to mind their shapes very well or they would have been a large greenish shape without any definition at all. Here the drawing - and the fact that I painted each stone separately - helped to get the result I wanted.

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

Ahlhorner Kellersteine II - a charcoal drawing

 

A few months ago we (my husband and me) were for a short vacation in the North of Germany, where we visited the beautiful landscape but also went to see the dolmens in that area. We followed the guidelines of the 'Strasse der Megalithkultur' and we did see a lot of these beautiful sites.

One of the sites we visited was the site of the Ahlhorner Kellersteine and of the two dolmens at that site I have painted only one. So today I have made the second one the subject of my work.

As it was already afternoon I did not have time to stretch and dry a piece of watercolour paper so I decided to make a charcoal drawing instead. There were two reference pictures, one from the side and one directly from the front, looking down into the inner chamber of the dolmen with the broken cover stone in a nice angle in front of the chamber. 

For the drawing I have only used my charcoal, so no watercolour under painting, no added colour using pencils, just the black and white of charcoal and paper. Of course I would have added some pencil work if the drawing needed it, but it is good as it is now and I am happy with the result.

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

Polder landscape - Netherlands

 

Last week, on our day of plein air painting I did not make any extra reference pictures, so I decided to make an imaginary polder landscape combining the usual elements.

There is a horizon line with trees, bushes, a church tower and some buildings. Of course there are fields of grass, divided by ditches crossed by little bridges. A dirt road and a fence must be included and for this part of the Netherlands I cannot forget the pollard willows.

This scene is made up with elements that are very close to my home, but cannot be seen together in one view. For example, to see that little church tower with the ditches running towards it you would have to stand on the pylons of the power lines for the railroad track. The railroad track is half underground and there is no road beside it. As that is not encouraged in The Netherlands I have used my imagination.

Making up this composition was fun and I enjoyed painting it. The colours used were selected to get a summer sunshine atmosphere to the painting and for a change I painted on rough textured paper. The result is what I hoped it would be.

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

Weeping Willow 6

 

Another experiment with the working sketch of the weeping willow as my reference. This time I have used oil pastels on watercolour paper and painted with watercolour afterwards.

The oil pastel lines are suggesting some branches and leaves of a weeping willow tree, like when the viewer is standing under such a tree. The oil pastel lines are broken because of the structure of the paper and that is what I wanted. 

After the oil pastel lines were in place I painted the weeping willow is very familiar to  me now with colours that suggest a sunny summer day. Some of the branches are in the water of the pond where the tree is standing. Weeping willows are always beside a pond or a larger area of water that is how they like it.

Some smaller details in the foliage were added with a smaller brush this time and the background is only suggested. It could be a large field of grass on the other side of the pond with a few bushes in the distance.

The experiment with the oil pastel did not work out as I hoped, the lines do not contrast the painting as much as I wanted them to, due to the colour choices I made so there is more experimenting to be done in the future. Despite that, I am happy with the result.

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