Study of tree trunks - watercolour, charcoal and ink

This year my painting vacation was in Milonga, in the Northern part of France.
Our teacher and coach was Ad van Aart who really did a great job.
The first day we started with an exercise in 'blind contour drawing', a difficult thing for me. We were finding our subjects in the beautiful garden of Milonga.
After a discussion about the results and a lunch we started painting, using one or more of the drawings we made that morning.

This is the first one I made, only watercolour. (the white edges are caused by the tape)
The background was made quickly, wet-in-wet and soft. The tree trunks were added after the background had dried. I have taken care to suggest (not show) all details of the cracks in the dried wood and the structures of the little mushrooms that were on the right trunk. The left trunk is the one in front, so I have chosen another, lighter mixture for the browns and greys of the wood.

On a background of bright colours I have been drawing the tree trunks with charcoal for my second study. This time I have added more details to the drawing, as charcoal has only one colour. This study does have a different atmosphere than a watercolour painting and I like the contrast between these two.

This is the third and final one for this week. I made it one day later than the previous two so there was a bit more time to think about my approach of this one.
Our teacher suggested a background in only one colour and I wanted to paint the tree trunks a little different, not exactly as in the first study. 
I placed the tree trunks a bit to the left on my paper and used a pen and calligraphy ink for the details of the cracks in the cut off edges where the branches used to be.

I really liked doing this and it was a good start for the rest of the week with more and more challenges, lessons and coaching to come. I will write about that in my next posts.

More information can be found at my website www.jannekesatelier.webs.com  

Ardennes, this time some good photographs

The last week I have been posting the paintings I have made during my week of vacation in the Ardennes. The photographs were not as good as usual and for a reason. I did not have the opportunity to give the published pictures my usual watermark which is meant to prevent abuse of my artwork.

Today I have made some good photographs at home and I have given them the watermark.

So they are ready for proper publication now.

For the story of each of my paintings I refer to the blog posts I have written last week.

Some additional information may be necessary.

These painting vacation are group activities with two teachers, both ladies are qualified. Each teacher accompanies half of the students each day and they change groups every other day. Unfortunately they have decided to stop giving these classes and focus on one-day-workshops instead.

The paintings I have made this week are very much my own idea, I have had some guidance, but not much. With one exception, the bottle in expressionistic style could not have been completed as it is without help from my teacher. I am not ashamed to say so, expressionism is really not my style. The lamp was easy using the hints I needed to finish the bottle.

More information about these paintings (paper, paints, other materials used, size, etc) can be found at my website www.jannekesatelier.webs.com