Last October we were for a short vacation in the small German village of Reifferscheid, in the Eiffel region. On the day of our arrival we went for a walk around the high part of the village, mostly to stretch our legs a little after the drive from home. The high part of the village is the ancient castle area, surrounded by walls and on a high hilltop. Our vacation home was close to the old gate, a few minutes walking brought us to the other end where the white church was.
As it was autumn, the days were short and our walk was made at the hour of sunset. The light was beautiful and I really enjoyed being outside at that moment. We made a lot of pictures and I started painting that same evening after dinner.
The reference pictures I made from the church and churchyard had to wait a little longer, but today I wanted to paint this view.
I was inspired by the shadows on the building, the almost random placement of the graves and the view on the hills opposite the village, all in that wonderful evening light.
Painting all that was a bit of a challenge for me, especially the graveyard with the graves. Because there were so many shadows the shapes were to be guessed in some cases, only the difference in colour made the gravestones stand out against one another.
I have (again) chosen to suggest most of the shapes of the stones, some graves and the plants between them.
More information about this watercolour painting (size, colours and paper used, availability, contact information, etc) can be found at my website www.jannekesatelier.webs.com
Another watercolour painting with the little chapel we saw close to Reifferscheid (Germany) in an imaginary landscape.
This time a snow scene with a warm feeling to it, like one of those days with sunshine and some clouds. The winter sun is low, so its light is really almost gold in these days.
The inspiration for the colours I have chosen comes from a step-by-step demonstration in one of the magazines I subscribed to. I decided to try this combination - as far as I have the colours that are used in the demonstration in my own palette. There is a small difference, but that does not matter for the result.
I have changed the location of the chapel, now it is a bit hidden behind a line of bushes and some snow.
The winter trees are added and there is another hilltop behind the little chapel.
The shadows on the snow, indicating uneven spots hidden underneath are a bit experimental, I still have to learn how to do this. We do not often have that much snow in The Netherlands so I cannot really work from observation. Once again I have looked at some tutorials for guidelines.
More information about this watercolour painting (materials used, size, contact information, etc) can be found at my website www.jannekesatelier.webs.com
We did stay in Reifferscheid long enough to make some signposted walks. We chose some short walks of five to seven kilometers and after those walks we would take time to rest and relax in our vacation home. That was also the time for me to paint, making the most of the daylight. The evenings were for reading.
The walks started on the parking place where our car was, not far from the vacation home. We just had to pack a lunch, close the door and start walking.
The first walk we chose went downhill from the hilltop and followed a little valley towards a neighbouring village and then back again through a small forest area and the village of Reifferscheid, which is more than just the hilltop with the remains of the old castle (where our vacation home was located).
There were lots of great views and my husband made the reference picture for this watercolour painting.
The 'horizon' is high in the painting, a change compared to my usual compositional choices.
I made the ruins with the white tower my point of interest and chose to add some drama to the bushes in front of the hill that has the ruins on top.
The path uphill and the sloping fields are suggested, not detailed.
Nowadays a lot of cityscapes are painted in a composition like this and I tried to adapt that style so I could use it 'my way' for this scene. Of course I had to think a little more while painting this one, but I am pleased with the result of my efforts.
More information about this watercolour painting (materials used, size, availability, etc) can be found at my website www.jannekesatelier.webs.com
Now I am back to the vacation memories of last October. We made a long walk through the Forest of Anlier and the views inspired my husband and me to make lots of photographs. I have been making several paintings yet and this is the next in that line.
After we had been walking over the hills and descended into the forest area we found traces of beaver activities. First we saw the trees that were gnawed at and had fallen down, later we had to leave the path because it was flooded. We could continue our walk easily because we only had to step a little higher on the hillside to pass by the flooded area.
This scene is where the small brook was flooded and some of the trees were 'with their feet in the water'. This brook is part of the river basin of the river Sûre and we could not find a name for it on the maps. We were still close to Fauvillers at this point of our walk.
The scene was quite a challenge as the water was standing still, but there was not much light to be reflected. The colour of the water is really muddy here and only the trees standing in the water have a bit of reflection. In the middle of the water is a row of stones that might have been the river bank but now is surrounded by the muddy water.
The day we were walking there the sky was not clear because of pollution from forest fires in Portugal brought here by the wind. We did not see much of it, more to the west the sky was yellow that day. I think we had a much lighter version of that - in some of our photographs the discolouration of the sky can be seen.
In the reference picture I used (made by my husband Peter) for this painting the water was not 'standing out' very well, still I have tried to make the most of it. This was the best picture of that watery scene we could make and even though I am not completely happy with the result, my husband tells me the painting shows the atmosphere of that scene very well.
I have made some finishing touches with the Iridescent Medium my daughter gave me, hoping that it would give some sparkle to the water and some of the leaves in the foreground. Maybe I was too careful or the medium simply does not reflect enough light for my camera to see the effect in the picture. More experiments will have to follow.
More information about this watercolour painting (paper and paints used, size, availability, etc) can be found at my website www.jannekesatelier.webs.com
The path we were following was curved around the hills of The Ardennes and we were expecting to descend into the Forest of Anlier very soon. But behind every bend in the path we had new views and I could not resist the temptation to make some more pictures. Especially because the light was changing fast - from misty to a clear sky with lots of sunshine. Once inside the forest that would not make so much of a difference, but now on the hillside the landscape looked much warmer.
To paint a landscape in warmer greens is not that much of a challenge when you mix your greens from blue and yellow colours. In this case I just used French Ultramarine (as I have used Payne's Grey in the previous painting and got a much colder landscape) with some shades of yellow to obtain the desired greens. Or some greens that are very close to what I had in mind.
For this painting I used a larger piece of paper to express the vastness of this particular part of our walking route. We really did have some nice views while walking this path.
Painting this scene was a nice way to spend a rainy afternoon and I am glad I finished painting before the daylight was fading away. These are the shortest days of the year and the hours of daylight seem even shorter when the sky is overcast like we had this last week.
More information about this watercolour painting (size, materials used, availability, etc) can be found at my website www.jannekesatelier.webs.com
We have been walking the first day of our short vacation in The Ardennes. On the Internet we found a walk of 12 km that started in the village of Fauvillers and went downhill, passed along the river Sûre, crossed some more hills, the Forest of Anlier and returned to the village of Fauvillers again.
At this point we were still full of energy, as we had just left the village behind us. Looking back I decided to make a picture of the view we had on the village church and some of the houses. Most of the village is hidden behind the bushes and trees but what is visible is just nice for a painting.
Fauvillers is situated on top of the hill and we had to walk down to the valley of the Sûre.
This is very close to the village, so the hillside is filled with fields where at some points cows were grazing.
The light was a bit strange that morning. By the sea the sky had been grey all day, due to Sahara sands and dust from forest fires in Portugal and Spain blowing over with an autumn storm. We just had a little bit of the dust and a grey sky in the morning, some of my pictures show a grey sky with a yellow shade, depending on the angle of the camera. Later that day the sun would be really warm and the sky was blue again.
The fields were still green, the bushes and trees are beginning to turn orange and brown.
For my painting I only used yellow and blue colours, with Burnt Sienna for the autumn colours and to mix the grey colours of the buildings.
As the sky was overcast, there are no strong shadows, only under the bushes and in the uneven parts of the fields some dark areas can be found.
I am still experimenting with mixtures of blue and yellow colours, for this painting I have used a yellow paint I had just bought and had not used before. With every painting I make in this way I am learning and enjoying my decision to 'forget' the ready-made greens more and more.
More information about this watercolour painting (paper and paint used, size, availability, etc) can be found at my website www.jannekesatelier.webs.com
