Beech tree bark

 

During my painting vacation I made several reference pictures of trees and tree bark hoping I could use them that same week. One of the pictures is of a beech tree that had several dark spots at eye level (my eyes) so I made the picture. When looking at my pictures our teacher and coach Ad van Aart suggested I would make a watercolour painting of that part of the tree including a bit of the background. 

So I tried to do that, on the hottest afternoon of the month. Of course I failed being too tired with the heat and humidity and my paper (I selected Grain Torchon) would not dry because of that same humidity. At last I gave up and when I did show the work everyone mistook the tree for a birch, the tree trunk was too light and the dark spots were too dark, as you can see below.

As I wanted to paint the beech tree, I tried again at home on Grain Fin paper and I started differently. Now I succeeded to make it look like a beech tree. 

This tree stands in the shadow of other, large trees all the time and did not grow upright. 

The tree bark is dark grey with patches of green that are caused by some algae growing on the tree bark. The dark spots are not all dark brown (my mistake in the first version) but just darker grey with a touch of the green I mentioned. For this version I also changed the composition a bit, the left side of the tree - with some extra dark structures - is now visible so the structure of the tree trunk is more comprehensible.

The second painting (the one above) is what I hoped for. Beech trees do not have a very structured bark and this is the best I could do.

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

View on Dordrecht from Papendrecht (The Netherlands) made during a workshop session

 

The 'Teekengenootschap Pictura' from Dordrecht is 250 years old and that is celebrated with different activities. One of these activities is a series of workshops about drawing during the summer months. I have attended the first one and now also the last one. (the two in the middle were either booked full or inot possible to attend for me).

This one was all about the View on Dordrecht from my home village/town, Papendrecht. Following the Old Masters, we were to make a charcoal drawing of a view on Dordrecht preferably featuring the iconic buildings like the 'Grootshoofdspoort', the 'Grote Kerk' (big church) and less old, the railway bridge between Dordrecht and Zwijndrecht.

Because the weather forecast was not so great, we were on the terrain of the marina where we could go indoors if needed. So we did not have the 'classic' views of Cuyp, Willaerts and many more, but the view we had was still worth drawing.

We had a large sheet of paper and I folded it in two, so I could make two drawings on one sheet - and the smaller size did feel more comfortable to me as well.

The weather still was not bright, dark clouds were above us almost all the time and that can be seen in mu drawings. We were behind a row of bushes and these can also be seen in my drawings. The river was mostly behind these bushes and the view was limited, but I decided on two 'looking directions' that would give a view on Dordrecht.

The second, portrait format drawing is more a view on the 'Drierivierenpunt' (three rivers point) with the Water Tower of Zwijndrecht in view and the ferry from Papendrecht to Dordrecht waiting for its time to go.

Both drawings are to be seen in the Library of Papendrecht after September 26th in the exhibition of the works that were made during the workshop.

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

Sleep well!

 

During our painting vacation we were visited and sometimes encouraged by the old calico cat that lives at the location where we stayed. We were surprised to see her again, she is 18 years old now. Most of the daytime she sleeps in a nice spot and so I made a reference picture with the plan to make a drawing somewhere in the near future.

The last day our teacher and coach Ad van Aart did not have a small/short exercise for me for the afternoon so I decided to make the drawing I wanted to do.

Using my watercolour pencils I made this drawing, only layering pencil colours and not using water - I wanted to keep my brushes dry to be able to pack them that afternoon as it was the last afternoon of our stay there.

As she is old and very skinny, her fur is 'fluffy' and I tried to draw that as well. 

This had to be a quick one, there was not much time left before we were to close the week with a discussion of the works we made during the week.

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 original artwork, contact me.

Storm coming - two paintings, one storm

 

In the middle of our painting week a storm was expected in the evening. Thunder and rain were predicted and we sat at the dinner table when suddenly the wind started (what a relief from the warm and damp day) and dark clouds were coming in.

Most of us (painters) stepped away from the building to make pictures of these beautiful clouds and of course I did that as well.

The clouds were very dark but there were also bright spots of light, our pictures are really inspiring. In fact there was not much rain, just a few drops (there was more the next day) and even though we could hear thunder, the lightning was above the lowest clouds.

Of course I used my most impressive picture as my reference the next morning, painting on a large sheet of watercolour paper with a dark colour mixture that should result in dark grey or even black.

The painting is made with the picture as my guideline, but as our teacher and coach Ad van Aart always says, the picture may have inspired to make a painting, but the art happens on the paper. The painting almost painted itself, using my hands as a tool and I know that trying to correct what happened would have spoiled the whole image.

The result is even better than I hoped for.

After the first painting happened so easily and in very short time, I decided to try a second one, on a smaller sheet of paper, using a different kind of paint. This paint is made with two pigments and I hoped it would give me a nice stormy sky.

Unfortunately that did not go as I wished for. This paint works in one layer and adding more does not give me the possibility to make some areas darker. As I work on a tilted surface (both in my studio on a drawing table and on my field easel) the water that runs down the paper slowly takes the paint with it to the lowest point.

Finally I asked Ad van Aart for help, as this would never become a nice dark clouded sky and I was getting a bit tired. The suggestion he made was to let the painting dry and start drawing on it with charcoal or another drawing material. I decided on charcoal and started drawing in the dark parts of the clouds, using my fingers and a piece of eraser to get the result I wanted.

There was one last surprise, after using fixative for the charcoal, the blue pigment from the paint resurfaced a little and that gave just a bit more depth to the final result.

After all this I am really happy with both works, the watercolour that went so smoothly and the experiment that turned out great after I used charcoal.

The information about the materials I used in both works can all be found in my Tumblr blog.

If you are interested in my original artwork, please contact me.

 

Tree bark - oak

During this painting week I also wanted to do something with tree bark, like I have done before but now a bit more experimental.

For this one I made a reference picture of the bark of an oak tree and gathered some leaves. Our teached and coach Ad van Aart advised me about how to make my composition.

The watercolour under painting is as usual and I used a pencil for the structure of the tree bark, awakening the colour at the darkest spots with a touch of water. 

After that I started laying the leaves on the drawing and outlining them with pencils that will show bright colours when 'awakened' with water. By allowing leaves to overlap and using the nagative space between the leaves I got irregular shapes of colour. Only the red shapes might be recognised as parts of leaves. In the end I added some more colour to some parts of the structure of the tree bark.

Of course this is only a first experiment, there are many more possibilities I want to explore in the future.

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

Sequoia

 

Very close to our location, on the grounds of a hotel, is a sequoia tree. Last year I painted the tree bark, this year I wanted to paint the whole tree. After making my reference picture our teacher and coach Ad van Aart and me decided on the composition of the painting.

It really helped that I had bought a block of 'panorama' paper that can of course also be used for large trees.

Painting this tree was a nice challenge and I really enjoyed it. The result is what I hoped for.

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

If you are interested in my original artwork, please contact me.

Branches in the wind

 

During my painting vacation I have worked as much as possible and that means that sometimes I used a spare hour for a charcoal drawing. This drawing was inspired by a question our teacher and coach Ad van Aart asked me. In my previous work there is a movement as if there was a lot of wind and so I was asked to do a charcoal drawing of wind in the branches.

Only branches in the wind, so that is what I put on the paper. Some loose twigs suggest a lot of wind, almost storm (but not yet).

We decided that the connection to the tree trunk had to be visible to make sure which side of the drawing had to be 'up'. 

Making this drawing was fun and the result is what I hoped for.

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 original artwork, please contact me.

Woodland

 

Last week, during my painting vacation, I have been experimenting with my materials and with atmosphere. Our teacher and coach Ad van Aart encouraged me to do so and this work is one of the results of my experiments.

The reference picture is made at the location of our vacation, a small patch of woodland opposite the parking place provided a nice enough scene to paint.

My colour scheme is experimental, yellow, orange and red for the background with the plan to 'go wild' with other colours to change the atmosphere from serene to something more dramatic. I used my water soluble graphite for that, layering dry upon washed graphite for depth.

This may not be the best I ever made, but I enjoyed working on this one. And experiments always have the chance of failure or at least being not really great.

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

Vines - two watercolours and a charcoal drawing

 

Last week I had my painting vacation and this time I did not really have a goal like last year. So when our teacher and coach Ad van Aart showed me a book with the landscape paintings of Paul Citroen I was inspired to paint in his style - adapted to my preferences of course. In fact my own 'style' is not so very different from the paintings and drawings from the book.

Our location was at 'De Holdeurn' again and after the first morning of 'blind contour drawing' I had a very nice drawing of the vines. I left out the foliage and the grapes, drawing only the stems and the main branches and that gave an interesting start to work from.

My first adaptation was this charcoal drawing

following the lines of the 'blind contour drawing' but adding some emphasis on the stems of the vines and the pole on the right. We (Ad and me) decided that the horizontal lines were important for the composition. In reality these lines are there, the vines are tied up to these lines.

After that I made a watercolour painting, inspired by the atmosphere of a work by Paul Citroen but adapted to my subject (the vines).

Like the example in the book I used ink over a watercolour background, making the front row of vines stand out strongly compared to the ones in the background.

Again we decided on the horizontal lines of the structures that hold up the vines and I used the ink for those as well. Later I added some lines in the background, using light pencil lines.

At the end of the week I decided to close the circle and make the watercolour painting that is shown on top of this post, using only watercolours and following the original composition that can also be seen in the charcoal drawing.

These three works are very different even though they have the same subject and even share one reference sketch. Varying colours, materials and even the orientation on the paper resulted in three works of which each has a very own atmosphere.

The information about the materials I have used, the sizes of these works ant their availability can all be found in my Tumblr blog.

If you are interested in my original artworks, please contact me.

Pendulum with shells - a watercolour painting

 

The drawing of the little pendulum with shells I made 'en plein air' in a nice garden last week inspired me to a watercolour painting. Using the drawing as my reference I made a painting with a bit more colour in the background, just like I sometimes do when painting flowers or mushrooms.

My palette is different from the landscapes or my tree scenes, I wanted to use the pinks I have for this painting. 

The dimensions of the paper are just right for this pendulum and I enjoyed painting it.

The information about the materials I used, the size of this painting and its availability can all be found in my Tumblr blog. If you are interested in my original artwork, please contact me.

Along the high tide line

 

The reference picture for this watercolour painting has been waiting a long time before I used it and I only did that now because of the August challenge of 'Goed Gezien - Goed Bekeken'. The theme is 'along the high tide line' and this is about as close to a high tide line as you can get.

Of course the high tide was some hours ago at the moment the picture was taken, but where the water has been is still visible. This was at the beach at the Maasvlakte, just before sunset, three years ago. Of course I would have painted this scene in the near future, but the challenge made me paint now.

The reference picture was made from a low angle, just above the sand - avoiding to get wet but as low as I could get. This makes the light on the water a bit more special.

The details on the foreground - shells and the footsteps of seabirds - are only suggested, not every detail made it into the painting.

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