In the polder near Groot-Ammers (Netherlands)

 Our amateur art association 'Goed Gezien-Goed Bekeken' does not only  have monthly challenges, in the summer months there is also a plein air painting day. This time we were in Groot-Ammers, in the garden of one of our members and we were encouraged to find inspiration either in that beautiful garden or in the surrounding landscape. 

The surrounding landscape has the river Lek, the 'Ammerse Kaai' and a small road between two large ditches, a 'Tiendweg'. At one point along that 'Tiendweg' we (one of my fellow members of the association and me) had a great view over the polder landscape, dark clouds and some smaller ditches and we decided to paint that view. My friend used oil paint and I used my watercolours.

After we had set up and made our first sketches and painted the sky it started to rain. Not much, but enough to decide to return to the garden, where we could find shelter. Of course there was no more rain that afternoon, but we had the information we needed to paint on and so we did.

As that little old bridge was the inspiration for the painting, it had to be at a 'good' place in the composition, so I positioned the bridge where I wanted it to be and added the rest of the landscape around it. Despite the dark clouds above there was a lot of light coming from behind us so the bridge had a nice dark reflection in the water. The old fence in the foreground was included in the composition as there was a lot of grassland without much structure or details. The fence and the flowers were really there but I left them out at first, waiting for the results before I decided to add both fence and flowers. The painting needed this addition so I made it.

The result is what I hoped it would be and it is better than I expected especially after the rain had started.

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.

Weeping Willow 5 - limited palette

 

It is time to paint my weeping willow again! I have made the reference picture and a working sketch over a year ago in early Spring and used that sketch several times last year for a watercolour, changing the mood every time.

Today I wanted to revisit one of the limited palette formulas I used and I decided to combine the limited palette with the weeping willow. This limited palette has three balanced colours, placed at equal distances in the colour wheel (of twelve colours) so the resulting painting should be 'balanced' even though with my choice the primaries are not to be found in the painting. This limited palette is combined with a new toy; a 'Graphite Aquarelle' pencil or a water soluble graphite pencil. 

On my stretched paper I started painting without a preliminary sketch ( usually I mark the horizon and some important features) and the background was the first I painted, combined with the grass and the little pool beside the tree. After this had dried I added the tree and dried that again. 

Now it was play time and I started making marks with the pencil, adding a little water with my brush to make a wash effect. I soon found that I did not have to overdo this or my lines would disappear. Adding pencil lines on wet paper made them stand out more but not too much. I added lines to some of the 'weeping' branches and I darkened the tree trunk just above the ground, where no foliage was hanging over it. Some extended branches without foliage were added also with the pencil, using it dry on dry until I was happy with the result.

Of course there is more room for experimenting in next paintings, but I tend to do this step by step, so I can know the outcome of each new 'experiment'.

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

Play - Garden a mixed media experiment for a challenge

 

The June challenge of 'Goed Gezien - Goed Bekeken' is about a playground, but as the Dutch word has 'garden' in it instead of 'ground' I made a combination  of Play and Garden.

Last summer during my painting vacation we started with 'blind contour drawings' and as there was some very old playground equipment I made some drawings of these as well and never used them. 

For this challenge I used these drawings to make contour drawings with brandless wax crayons on a sheet of watercolour paper and added a picture of a flowery garden in watercolour. As expected, the wax lines were resisting the watercolour and the drawings of the swing, the football goals and the climbing device were still visible. 

Because I have used cellulose paper, I could use only one layer of watercolour so I added pencil marks to create some flower shapes. After all this I went over the wax lines again, as they were a bit weaker than I thought they would be and now the playground equipment is standing out a bit more than before.

At this point I could not hope to improve on my work any more (the materials and mostly the paper used are my limits here) so this is the result. It really is very different from my usual work, but I like the result of this experiment.

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

Sheepfold, Thülsfelder Talsperre

 

It's over a month ago that we were walking the signposted walk around the reservoir of the Thülsfelder Talsperre and made several reference pictures of the beautiful landscape.

Part of the west bank of the reservoir is adjacent to a beautiful moorland that even has room for a herd of sheep and - of course - a sheepfold. When we were walking there, the sheep were out, but the information panels were interesting as well. Of course I made reference pictures and today I chose to paint the sheepfold as it is in the moorland with some woodland directly behind it. 

On the left side of the path is moorland, with some patches of green because of the freshly growing herbs. The land on the right side is a bit different, more small trees and bushes and some wet areas as well. 

The trees close to the sheepfold are evergreen pine trees, but in the background are also deciduous trees, beginning to get their foliage.

This beautiful spot is just before the walk leads to the bridge I painted earlier.

The small trees on the right side of the path gave me some trouble, but after some corrections I am happy 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.

Lapje - a pencil drawing

 

When I am walking in our neighbourhood, to post a letter, to go to a shop or anything that might be needed that moment, I often meet the cats that live there. Saying 'Hello' is polite, so that is what I do. When I get an answer, we sometimes talk a little (me: 'How are you?' - he or she: 'Meow' and so on) and sometimes I ask permission to make a picture.

This beautiful Calico cat gave me her permission to make some pictures and I used these for a pencil drawing. I might also make a watercolour painting, but when I made the drawing I was at the 'Af-en-toe Kunstroute' and brought only some drawing materials with me.

The title is based on the Dutch name of a Calico cat: Lapjeskat, so it had to be Lapje. She was not very talkative and did not give her name, allowing me the freedom to choose a title.

For the black patches of her fur I mixed some dark colours, just like I would du when painting with watercolour paint because I had no black watercolour pencil with me.  Some of the dark hairs were more brown than black and using the mixing technique I could add brown to the fur without unnatural colour transitions.

The colour mixing may not result in a perfect black, it had to be a natural colour and I think I achieved that.

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

A butterfly painting

 

A few years ago I made some pictures of a nice little brown butterfly that visited our garden and stayed in one place long enough for a picture. A week or so later I made a black and white drawing in  my sketchbook, made notes about the colours of the butterfly and never used it.

Looking through my sketchbooks in search of inspiration I found the sketches with notes and decided to make a small painting, using only the sketch as my reference. Only after the painting was finished I looked for the name of the butterfly on the internet and found it. We - or better the bush in our garden -  were visited by a Speckled wood (Pararge aegeria) that day.

As I had made a drawing/sketch of the butterfly I had to improvise the background and made the suggestion of the foliage the butterfly was using as its resting place. Its legs were not visible in  my pictures and so they were not included in the drawing either.  

For the composition I have combined the various poses that were in my reference pictures - and in my drawing. The colours are from memory and my notes, so they may not be accurate.

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.