Roode Beek (The Netherlands) - Conté drawing

 

Last Autumn we (my husband and me) were in the Natural Reserve 'De Meinweg' in The Netherlands and the signposted walk we were on passed by the 'Roode Beek'. This small river is part of the border between The Netherlands and Germany where we were walking.

The reflection of the trees in the water was nice and after making some reference pictures I was sure I wanted to make a painting or drawing using these references.

For this Conté drawing I did buy a light blue pastel stick first, to add to the shades of grey, black, white and some earth colours I had used before. The blue is a nice one for landscapes, indicating the sky colour or the reflections in the water.

The sky was mostly grey that day but somewhere there must have been a patch of blue between the clouds as it is reflected in the water of the river. The trees, bushes and grasses are drawn in the earth colours that are my usual palette when I work with Conté.

The result of my work is what I had hoped for, the touch of blue helps defining the river.

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

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.

Snow along the route

Two weeks ago my husband went to a congress in the South of France and he travelled there by high speed train. Along the route he saw lots of snow and made a lot of pictures from the train, for himself and for my paintings.
The pictures are of an unexpected good quality considered that the train travelled at a speed of 300 kilometres per hour.

The first snow scene, in my previous post, was completed before he was home again. Now I have seen all the pictures he made and I asked for some to be transferred to my laptop computer so I could use them as reference pictures. (very often my husband needs the desktop computer, both for his work and the charity work he does)


This snowy scene is a bit different, the trees are much closer to the railroad and the snow really needs all the shadows I painted to achieve the depth that was needed in this scene.

These scenes are a nice challenge to paint, snow is not completely white, certainly not when the landscape is uneven. 

I enjoyed painting this one and the details about paper and paint used, size etc, can be found on my website www.jannekesatelier.webs.com

Viburnum in autumn colours

For this Viburnum painting I have used a sketch I made and painted from a year ago, but this time I added the lessons I learned last summer.
The colour scheme is yellow and brown and I have added a 'square of light' by leaving this part open when I applied the second, darker layer of my background.

This time the tape did not completely stop the paint from flowing into the square I wanted to create, but the lines are only slightly blurred and I think I like this even more than the sharp, straight lines that I created the first time I tried this technique.
Still I think there is a lot more to learn and practise - and I will enjoy every minute of it!

The leaves and berries were painted in end-of-autumn colours, when even the shades of red have faded from the leaves. The berries stay on the branches for a long time as they are slightly poisonous and the birds don't like them.

The composition was drawn on the paper before the dark background colours were added and I changed and adapted it while the painting was taking shape.


The details about the used materials ,the size of the painting and the availability can be found at my website www.jannekesatelier.webs.com 

Pathway of Dreams

This watercolour painting was made for a challenge in one of my Facebook groups. 
The January challenge in that group was "Mountains" and for a long time I thought I could not enter, because there are no mountains in my country and I do not visit mountainous landscapes during my vacations. This means that mountains are something I will have to study first, before being able to make a good painting, worthy of entering in a challenge.

But then I thought of the many 'views of Mt. Fuji' (by the Japanese ukiyo-e artist Hokusai)  and decided to do something inspired by that theme, executed in my own way.
I made up a nice composition, with some trees and bushes, a road or path, a gate, some stone markers and of course the mountain.
This I painted in my own style, using a colour scheme that suggests the end of autumn or the beginning of winter.

The title of this painting refers to the gate which is a marker between the normal world and the spirit world and to the mountain itself because that is a holy mountain and an object of pilgrimage. 
Dreams or wishes are connected with the spirit world and I think that those who undertake a pilgrimage also have a dream or wish they want to be fulfilled.

More information about this watercolour painting (materials used, size, availability, contact information, etc) can be found at my website www.jannekesatelier.webs.com