Forest walk - Kalmthoutse Heide

 

Last weekend we visited the Natural Reserve 'Grenspark Kalmthoutse Heide' again and followed the signposted walk 'Bos' (forest), a walk we have not done for years. 

Things have changed along that walk, it is much more interesting now after the forest area has had some maintenance. Trees have been cut - several of these are still on the forest floor providing food and shelter for smaller animals - and more light and bushes are growing now. We enjoyed our walk very much, not only because the trees give shelter from the sunshine and it is always cool in a forest area.

Of course I made several reference pictures, the dead tree trunk has been posted earlier, this time I made a watercolour painting of that nice forest area, with lots of trees and a forest floor with lots of different plants and bushes. A bit of sunlight was also visible in the reference picture and I hope it can also be seen in the painting.

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

Dead tree, Kalmthoutse Heide - Conté drawing

 

Last weekend we were walking another signposted walk in 'Grenspark Kalmthoutse Heide', a Natural Reserve that is in Belgium and The Netherlands. Border-crossing nature it is called and we love to go there for a walk. 

This time we had a walk in a woodland area that is on the edge of the moorland (heide) that gives the Natural Reserve its name. Under the trees we had a nice cool walk with some great views. The reference pictures I made there will be used for watercolour paintings. 

This area has a lot of dead trees in it, either because of the fire that destroyed a part of the nature several years ago or because the trees just die and are left in the area to provide food for insects - who attract birds, who attract predators, etc.

This tree stump was standing in an empty field beside the path and I just wanted to draw it. So the picture was made and the drawing as well. Because this stump really is very dead, I used grey paper and the corresponding colour combination.  As written before, I have selected colour combination for dead trees and another combination for the living ones.

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

If you are interested in my art, please contact me.

Pisces - for a challenge

 

The June challenge of 'Goed Gezien - Goed Bekeken' is all about Colourful. So first I thought of a stained Glass window, then of a colouring book image, then of Mosaïc, then of...

Finally I picked my Zodiac sign as my subject and tried to make the painting as colourful as possible. I did not use all the colours in my palette, but the ones I used  have more layers to make them as strong as possible.

The background is made with my new paint, a highly granulating colour from Daniel Smith. This paint has more than one pigment in it and the results are better than I hoped for.

Last thing added was the constellation of the Zodiac sign using white watercolour paint.

For the picture, the contrast are a bit changed - the natural light is very unkind now, too much sunlight, direct and reflected to make a good picture of my 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.

Tree (trunk) - Conté drawing

 

A month ago Springtime was just beginning in The Netherlands and we made a nice signposted walk in the 'Rucphense Bossen' a natural reserve not too far from our home. We have walked there before and we have seen all the signposted walks at least one time and many of the walks twice or more. Returning in a different season really makes us look at the landscape with renewed attention.

This time I saw some tree trunks, starting to grow new branches and showing that cutting a tree does not have to mean that it dies. These were growing into bushes but as spring was just beginning, there were not many leaves yet.

Of course I made some reference pictures with the intention to make a Conté drawing, using only three crayons and the naturel paper I have since my last birthday. (thanks again to my brother and sister-in-law for that paper) 

The tree is still very alive so my choice of paper is 'naturel' and the crayons have shades of brown and white. Compared to this, dead trees are portrayed on grey paper using black, grey and white crayons. 

I am building a nice set of Conté drawings these past months and I really like working like this. Scrubbing my fingers afterwards is the only 'not so great' thing about this technique.

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

Rose - pencil drawing

Last weekend I was part of the 'Af en Toe Kunstroute', an Art route not far from my home. Showing my art to visitors, talking to other artists and making a drawing was what I did that day. The weather was great, we had over 60 visitors at my location.

Just sitting for over six hours is not what I like to do, so I made several reference pictures of one of the flowers of the climbing red rose in my garden. Pencil drawing is relatively clean (no need to wash my hands every fifteen minutes or more often) and I can put it down, talk to visitors of the Art route and pick it up where I stopped without getting in any kind of trouble.  I selected some paper and pencils and packed these with the art I wanted to show. 

For the drawing I used the first two reference pictures, the flower bud still closed and the same flower bud opening a little bit. I took my time - there was no hurry at all - and after I had finished the two flowers I decided to add some leaves that were not to be as detailed as the flowers - just to suggest a background. 

In reality these leaves are there and many more, but this drawing just needed the ones I added to make sure the rose buds/flower are my subject.

The other reference pictures (the flower is completely opened now) will probably be used in later drawings.

The information about the materials I have used, the size of the drawing and its availability can all be found in my Tumblr blog. If you are interested in my art, please do contact me.

Moving house - for a challenge

 

The May challenge of 'Goed Gezien - Goed Bekeken' is about moving house. May traditionally was the month to move house (I did not know that and I think I rarely did move house in May) so that's why we have this theme.

That theme is a bit out of my comfort zone, so first I thought of boxes - but within days after the challenge was announced paintings and drawings with boxes were submitted, so I had to think of something else.

This is a bit 'the story of my life' as I used a print of the map of The Netherlands to point the places where I lived and made small drawings of what happened there. Of course I did not draw everything, things should still be visible.

1 is Venlo, I was born there, but did not live there very long. My father got a job far away so we moved to Zwijndrecht, where we lived in three different homes (2, 3 and 4). I grew up there, played and went to school. 5 is Spijkenisse, another change because of my father's work. I got my diplomas for the secondary school and my professional training there. 6 is Hilversum, 7 and 8 are Amsterdam. There I moved for my own job. I married my husband and the children were born in home no. 8 as well and after that in got too small we moved to our first bought home (the others were rental) in Zaandam, no. 9. Finally, 10 is Papendrecht where we moved for my husband's job and we still live here. I discovered my passion for watercolour painting and drawing here.

That was not really much about my submission for the challenge, but a bit of information about me. Of course there is much more to tell 'about me' but I am a painter, not a novelist. So for this time you will have to do with what I wrote about moving house in my life.

Kalmthoutse Heide - moorland

 

A few months ago we (my husband and me) went for a walk on the Kalmthoutse Heide, a Natural Reserve we like to visit as often as possible. This time I made reference pictures of the small peat bog opposite the 'Putse Moer', a large moorland pool and very easy to find on the maps of the area.

As usual I needed some time to gather courage for a painting, because this is not an easy subject for me. All those tall grasses - do I have to paint them all or just a few - and which ones need to be in the painting? 

Also as usual I just had to start painting and these questions answered themselves and I just have to do what looks right when most of the paint is on the paper. The tall grasses I added in the foreground and in the middle ground are not really painted, I used water soluble pencils.

Before all that I also decided on the cropping of the reference picture, what to do with the horizon (the trees on the horizon are 'replanted' for the painting) and my point of interest. These choices were not the ones that I need to gather courage for, so I made them after I chose the reference picture I wanted to use for this work.

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