Spring fantasy, Herikerberg (Netherlands)

 

A few months ago, at the end of winter or the beginning of spring we were for a very short vacation near the Herikerberg, a beautiful area in the eastern part of The Netherlands. The reference pictures we made show that end of winter mood, grey and brown are the dominant colours. Of course there is beauty in that season, but I wanted to paint springtime.

So I selected one of my pictures and turned that into springtime - or what I hope it will look like in springtime. More green on the forest floor, light green on the branches and a nice blue sky with some clouds.

The picture had a forest edge on the right side of the path, a field of moorland behind the trees on the left side of the path and a line of trees at the horizon. All of this is made more green and fresh than it was a few months ago, I even thought of some yellow flowers on the forest floor.

This was a nice painting to make, I started drawing the path and the trees and did not return to the reference picture after that. The colours of spring and even the shadows of the trees are my own imagination.

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 original artworks, please contact me.

(This is not a) sunset - for a challenge

 

The April challenge of 'Goed Gezien - Goed Bekeken' is about to paint or draw something that is not what it seems to be. The only thing I could think of is the famous painting by René Magritte with the text 'Ceci n'est pas une pipe' and so I decided to make something like that. 

First I painted a sunset, leaving room in the composition for a text. The text is in Dutch, meaning 'this is not a sunset'. It is added just like I add my watermark, using a PowerPoint sheet that is layered over the image of the painting. Below is the work I submitted for the challenge.

Making the painting was not easy. This was one of those days and I was struggling with water, paper and paint to get an acceptable result. At one moment I even washed almost all the paint off the paper, made myself some tea, let the paper dry and started over. That did help a little, but I still could not paint as easily as I usually do. Maybe just because I had not painted for weeks?

By now I am happy with to the result of my work, other people say it is a nice sunset (I usually ask my husband and/or my mother to comment on my work) and I start to think so as well. Taking some distance does a lot for accepting the results of your work!

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.

Quickly into the tree! - for a challenge/contest

 

The third week of the television programme 'Project Rembrandt' is about movement in animals. The contestants in the show had a stuffed panther from a museum as model and they had to draw it as if it was moving. The people at home are allowed to use any animal for reference, just make the movement visible. Materials to be used are charcoal and/or crayons and white paper.

Last autumn we were on a short vacation and there were squirrels and my husband succeeded in making some pictures. I tried as well, but I only got a blur of a tail in my picture and that is not enough for this contest. One of the pictures my husband made is my reference for this drawing.

This time I used my Conté crayons and the pencils for the smaller details, I worked on a small size sheet of paper. For the suggestion of movement I blurred the tail and the shapes of the 'hands' and 'feet' even more than they already are in the picture.

The squirrel is my subject so that is where I used colours, the tree and grasses are only in black for contrast. Without the tree it would not be understandable what the squirrel was up to and without the grass the tree would have no beginning and no end.

The result is even better than I hoped I could do so I am happy with my contribution to the contest.

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

Asparagus - for a challenge / contest

 

The 'Project Rembrandt' competition is back on television (in The Netherlands) and there is every week a project to paint or draw at home. When the home assignment includes acrylic or oil paint I cannot join, but when it is about drawing or sketching I may have a chance.

This time it was about light and dark and the reference was the Asparagus still life by Adriaan Coorte from 1697. In the real contest the competitors had their own bundle of asparagus and a light source to make their own composition, the people who enter in hthe home assignment were allowed to use the reference from the museum (follow the link above). 

The conditions are working with black and white on grey paper.

As it is not yet completely asparagus season (they are in the shops, but expensive), I used the reference from the link provided in the competition.

The result is the best I could do with the paper, charcoal and pencils I have and I am really happy how it turned out.

The information about the materials I have used and the size of this drawing are in my Tumblr blog. 

Because I have used an existing painting as my reference (with permission as the reference is given in the competition) I am not sure if it is allowed to offer this work for sale.

Grass-lily graphite drawing

 

The reference picture for this drawing was made last May and I just had it waiting for inspiration. That inspiration came this weekend, I wanted to paint or draw something with a Springtime feeling, after all that rain we had. Of course rain is good for the flowers to grow, but the dark grey clouds can get you in a sombre mood after weeks.

So, the white flowers were found in my 'archive' and I decided to make a graphite drawing on the green paper I got just for that purpose. Some of the graphite colours are new for me - these were given to me for my latest birthday.

Finding out which flower had attracted my attention last May was another challenge, but with some help I found out that they are Ornithogalum umbellatum or grass-lily. In Dutch they are called 'gewone vogelmelk'.

For this drawing I used several layers of the water soluble graphite, only the first layer of white was washed with water. After that I started drawing details and layering white over the grey lines to soften it a little. The dark patches of shadow between the flowers were done in only one layer, no water added. 

The result is what I hoped it would be with a nice contrast between the flowers that have several layers of pigment and the shadows or background with only one layer of dark brown, still showing the structure of the paper.

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