My Chestnut tree in Springtime

 

It is Springtime and my chestnut tree has lots of buds that are opening now. Some will be only leaves, many will also be flowers. Of course I wanted to paint that once again.

For this work I made several reference pictures and I started with the tree bark in watercolour. Not too much colour because that is how my tree looks in bright sunlight.

After that had dried I added a branch with a flower bud and some new leaves at the end and painted that as well with watercolour.

After that I started with my pencils, adding details and depth by layering the colours on my paper. 

One branch was not enough, so I added three more, only using my pencils, looking for a good composition.

Of course this work is not 'perfect' but with this I am continuing my series with tree bark and leaves or fruits of the trees that inspire me.

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

Boomstronk - Conté tekening

 

This is not the first dead tree or tree trunk I have been drawing and it is not the last either. I like the idea of finding as much details in a dead tree trunk as possible and trying to draw them all. Of course I cannot draw all details on such a small sheet of paper - compared to the original tree trunk - but suggesting them in a credible way is good enough for me. Just for the fun of it and while doing this I am also improving my skills.

We (my husband and me) like to make a short walk in the weekend when the weather allows it - and of course only when we did not have the time to go for a longer walk in one of our beautiful Nature Reserves. During one of these walks I saw this dead tree trunk and made some reference pictures.

The drawing is made with Conté Sketching Crayons on grey paper, I often use these materials for dead trees or tree trunks.

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

Cats in (my) art - for a challenge

 

The March challenge of 'Goed Gezien - Goed Bekeken' is about animals in art. 

In my art animals are mostly cats, so I recycled some old sketches to a new 'collage' of cats and made the painting. After that I added some parts of silhouettes using a line marker.

The whole idea was that it would be sketch-like, no real portraits of the cats, those were made earlier.

This is a very small tribute to the cats that I was allowed to paint thin the last years.

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

De Moerputten (The Netherlands)

 

Last month we (my husband and me) went for a nice signposted walk in Natural Reserve 'De Moerputten'. During that walk we made several pictures, for the photo album and for reference. Some of these pictures have already been used for drawings and paintings and here is another one.

The view point is high, here we are on the abandoned railroad and from that dyke we could see over the marshes below. As these marshes were used for peat harvesting there are some straight canals in the landscape, once used to transport the (dried) peat by barge to a road or railroad for further transport to the customers.

This also explains the horizontal lines in the landscape, that are remains of smaller canals that were also used for transport over water.

At one point we had an inspiring view of one of these canals with a very clear reflection of the sky (and some of the reeds) so I stopped to make a reference picture. The canals are not used anymore, so the banks are overgrown and at some points vegetation has taken over parts of the canal, but that irregularity is what attracted me to the view.

Making this watercolour painting was a nice experience, finding my way to recreate the atmosphere of the moment we were there.

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

Boundary Stone (Netherlands - Germany)

 

Last week we (my husband and me) were for a very short stay in a vacation home near Winterswijk (Netherlands) and the first evening we went for a walk on the boardwalk through the 'Wooldse Veen', a beautiful Natural Reserve. This Natural Reserve does cross the border between The Netherlands and Germany and at one point we passed by this old weathered border stone.

My husband made a picture for me (he had the camera and stepping down from the boardwalk is not a good idea) so I could make this drawing.

I decided on charcoal for the drawing, that is still my favourite for this kind of subjects. 

The paper is tinted, but the picture does not do that justice - maybe that is because of the winter light which is relatively cool.

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

Venkantbrug, de Moerputten (The Netherlands)

 

Our walk in Natural Reserve 'De Moerputten' started (and ended) at this bridge, the 'Venkantbrug' or bridge at the side of the fen.

This bridge is part of the abandoned railroad and we had to climb up some stairs to get on the railway embankment (or dyke) for the first part of our walk. 

As we walked towards the bridge, the view of the landscape behind it was beautiful, the colours in the sky were nice, so I asked my husband (who had the camera) to make me a reference picture. At first I wanted to paint only the landscape, but later I decided otherwise.

The landscape is still there and I also indicated the nice pink colours in the sky, but the bridge is very present in my work. For the bridge I also used a line marker to emphasize the difference between the shapes of the landscape (the fen, the trees, the grasses) and the straight lines of the metal bridge.

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

'De Moerputten', tree - a drawing

 

During our walk in 'De Moerputten' (The Netherlands) we walked over an abandoned railroad for a while, but of course we also had to return to where we started (and where we parked the car) and that part of the walk went down the slope and over a boardwalk. Where we had to go down this group of trees stood. 

Of course the trees are much taller than on this drawing but the hollow parts, the shapes and colours of the trunks just above the ground interested me the most.

The drawing is made using my Tinted Charcoal pencils - of course I should be using them more often but I can say the same about much more of the drawing materials I have gathered over the years. The colours of these pencils are mostly a bit muted, moody and not fit for every nature scene but this time I decided to give them a try.

The result is what I hoped for because justice is done to the characteristics of these trees that attracted my attention and inspired me.

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