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.