Reflections

 

Last May we visited the 'Veerse Meer' and made a nice walk through a woodland area with mostly poplars on the shore of the lake. We (my husband and me) both made lots of pictures as the dark clouds that were reflected in the water of the lake inspired us both. 

At some point we could access a long landing stage, pointing out into the lake. From the end of that landing stage my husband - who had the camera and could zoom in or out at will - made pictures of the tree line that was reflected in the water. As there was almost no wind, the reflection was as good as perfect. This picture is perfect to be used for a painting, I just had to find the time.

For my composition I have changed the place of the horizon, as the picture has the horizon halfway. That composition will be painted also, but I wanted to start with this one. I used the picture for a sketch and worked after that to make my painting, trying to remember the right colours as good as possible.

The reflected clouds are much darker than the ones in the sky, so I could change the mood of the painting with the modification I made in the composition. Poplar trees have red-brown spring colours so I painted the trees mostly red-brown, which gives a nice contrast with the blue-grey shades of the clouds and their reflections in the water. 

Looking back at the picture the trees were already mostly green with parts of the red-brown shades of fresh leaves, so my memory played me some tricks. The brown-red colours were what I noticed most during the walk, so that shade seemed to be the right one while working from a black and white line sketch. Another lesson learned! The painting result only benefits from this because a blue and green painting would not have the mood I wanted to paint.

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