Forest Bath

 

The last day of my painting vacation had arrived and I wanted to make one more painting with an unexpected addition to the landscape. A forest scene was what I wanted to paint and then there was that 'What if...' moment again. What if I place a bath tub in the forest? Our teacher and coach Ad van Aart loved the idea and references for both the forest and a bath tub were found.

This time I had a vision of what I wanted to paint so I did not make any thumbnail sketches. The composition was sketched on the paper with the plan to paint the bath tub last, adding this unusual item to my forest scene.

Painting a birch forest in watercolour is a bit more challenging than any other forest - we have to keep the trees white and cannot paint them dark over a nice background - so that took some time and attention. I enjoyed every moment!

For the bath tub I selected a special set of colours so it would stand out between the natural colours of the forest. 

The result is what I hoped for. Not my usual kind of landscape, but I had a lot of fun painting this one.

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

The ladder

 

During my painting vacation our teacher and coach Ad van Aart gave me the challenge to add something unexpected to my landscapes. That started a lot of thinking, some crazy ideas and of course it resulted in some paintings.

The idea of adding a ladder to a landscape was suggested to me and after I accepted the idea, we went through my reference pictures to find a 'matching' landscape. This very empty looking landscape with a single sunlit (winter) tree at the side of a path was perfect. The original landscape is in The Netherlands, close to the town of Deventer and because of the emptiness I never really used the picture as a reference before.

First I made some thumbnail sketches to find the right ladder in the right position for the best result and after that I started painting. The colour of the ladder was decided after the landscape was finished, it had to stand out but not too much.

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

In the wind

 

While the painting vacation was continuing, I had to think of more landscapes with a surprising element to paint. One thing that came up was a real memory of an Autumn leaf blown in front of the lens while we were making a picture of a group of buildings.

When I told our teacher and coach Ad van Aart that memory he suggested to make some thumbnail sketches first to find the best composition for this work. In these sketches I varied with the size and place of the city/village skyline, the size and place of the leaf and the filling of the shape of the leaf. We both thought that a big leaf, only outlined with the landscape still visible was the best composition.

I tested this in a larger drawing

using water soluble graphite in a very limited palette. 

I went looking for a real leaf as big as I could find and that is the one I outlined in both the drawing and the painting. If a bigger leaf would have been found, I probably would have made the watercolour painting larger, now I adjusted the size of the paper to the size of the leaf - which is a maple leaf.

The information about the materials I used in both works, the sizes and availabilities of both works and - if you are interested in my original artworks - my contact information can all be found in my Tumblr blog.

Traces (in the sand)

 

During my painting vacation our teacher and coach Ad van Aart gave me the personal challenge to add something unexpected to my works. Or to paint something unexpected.

This work is about traces in the sand. The reference picture was made (by me) on the beach and that showed the lines the water had made in the wet sand and some traces of birds and human footsteps.

We made a selection of all that information for the painting. The human footsteps are unusual for me to add to a work, so they had to be in the painting. The lines the water made were to be there as well.

With these restrictions I started making studies for the composition and we decided on the one that looked the best.

While painting, the work evolved to the result you can see above.

The footsteps are very present in my work and the other traces are 'only' lines now, given some structure by adding shadows and highlights. 

This composition works well and the result is even better than I expected.

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

Studies with a very black charcoal type

 

The second day of my painting vacation started with a workshop. We all got a piece of Chunky Charcoal and were challenged to test it first, followed by making drawings after some reference pictures provided by our teacher and coach Ad van Aart.

That was fun - until we had to clean our fingers but a bit of perseverance with water, soap and a brush had the desired result.

I started with this one:

testing the marks I could make and how to continue after the marks were made.

The work on top is my second one, I selected a landscape with salt marshes and a grey sky. The sky darkened as I was working because it is really hard to soften the marks that are made using this type of charcoal. Only using more charcoal - darkening the paper - can hide the initial marks.

Having said that, I am really happy with the dark result I got here. To help the composition I also darkened the landscape and I managed to suggest some rain falling from the clouds.

My third work was another challenge, also using a reference picture from the large supply our teacher brought with him:

This is a waterfall and the reference picture was really soft, taken with a long exposure time. Doing something like that with a really chunky stick of charcoal is not possible - at least not at a first try. The result does show a waterfall and I have learned more while working on this one than I learned working on the other two landscapes.

The information about the materials I have used, the sizes of these drawings and their availabilities and - if you are interested in my original artworks - my contact information can be found in my Tumblr blog.

Dark clouds, light and a sunset

 

Last week I was on Painting Vacation again! Every year a very happy week with a lot of fun, a lot of painting and a lot of learning. This week our coach and teacher Ad van Aart had a special 'challenge' for me: do something unexpected to your work.

The first works I have made are more about an omission (compared to the reference picture) and letting the light become the subject.

The picture above is the last one I made, I will show the steps leading to that one first:

It all starts with a study, in this case a charcoal drawing to get the 'feel' of the darkness of the clouds, the light and the landscape below.

Next is a watercolour painting in the colours of the reference picture

and to challenge myself I painted on a larger sheet of paper than usual.

Both works are about the white line of light between the dark clouds and the landscape which is also a bit gloomy under that dark sky.

Then I thought 'What if....' and the idea of the sunset was born.

For that painting I had to use the same shapes in the clouds and the landscape, leave the same line of light between them but I had to find the right colour scheme, starting with the orange-red colour of the sky. The colours of the clouds and the landscape are all based ton that choice and the result is at the top of this post.

This was a nice start of this week and I am happy with the results of this day's work.

The information about the materials I have used, the sizes of these works and - if you are interested in my original artwork -  their availabilities and my contact information 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.

Tree roots 3 - a watercolour painting and a study

 

The last result of my painting vacation. This scene proved to be very challenging to make a good charcoal study, the charcoal is not as subtle as the watercolour.

Our teacher and coach Ad van Aart encouraged me to use the reference picture for this watercolour, a very grey looking scene with sand, some tree roots and just a few other elements in it. The roots had the same shade of grey as the sand, this was a very open path, too well-travelled for any mosses to grow or dead leaves to stay in place. Only the tree roots in the foreground showed some brown. 

For the reference picture I kneeled down as low as possible (I had to get up again without embarassing either myself or my husband who was with me on that walk) so the shadows of the roots on the ground were very strong.

The composition is mostly decided by the darkness of the shadows.

For the watercolour painting I painted the background first and after that had dried I started to paint the lines of the tree roots, using as little paint as possible. The dark shadows were painted as dark as possible. Some of the gathered bits of wood on the right side of the large root and some large shadow areas (clouds or other trees) were painted and after that the composition was perfected with more shadows and more areas that might contain smaller branches.

The study was helpful for the placement of these areas, but I did not copy it exactly

As you can see, the charcoal study is much darker than the watercolour painting, giving more contrast in the lines, which was not what I wanted for the painting.

The painting is even better than I hoped for, thanks to the helpful comments of Ad van Aart.

The information about the materials I have used for the watercolour painting and the charcoal study can all be found in my Tumblr blog. There you can also find information about the sizes and availabilities.

Tree roots 2 -watercolour paintings and a charcoal study

 

During my painting vacation I wanted to focus on the structures made by tree roots, visible on well-travelled sand paths. For this I made several reference pictures and this scene is the second we picked to work from. The reference pictures were chosen by our teacher and coach, Ad van Aart, together with me. Compared to the first one, this reference picture offered more and different challenges for me as an artist.

After I had made the charcoal study

the composition of the watercolour painting was decided. In this case I had to fill the whole sheet of watercolour paper with the composition of the drawing, not leaving extra white areas.

For the painting I worked on dry paper, leaving the lines of the roots untouched. The mosses and grasses were painted and the shadows on the forest floor were painted using darker mixes than the sunlit spots on the top left.

After these first layers were painted, the shadows on the tree roots were painted and after that was decided that it was a good idea to indicate the structures of the roots as well.

A second painting was to be made, with a more 'dramatic' atmosphere than the first one.

To make a painting look more dramatic, a monochromatic painting always works good. For this one I decided to use Indigo, because of the possibility to work from very light to really dark. Again I worked on dry paper, leaving the structures of the roots untouched. The shadows of the roots on the forest floor were painted and the shadows on the roots themselves, where they crossed, were also indicated.

This painting is much more abstract than the other ones I had made this week. One of the other painters liked it so much that the painting was sold.

The information about the materials I have used for the watercolour paintings and the charcoal study, their sizes and availabilities can all be found in my Tumblr blog.

Tree roots 1 - Watercolour and charcoal study

 

For this painting vacation I planned to make watercolour paintings inspired by the patterns of tree roots in the paths we take when walking in the forests. We always use signposted walks, so the paths are very well travelled. Several reference pictures were made during our last walk in 'De Soesterduinen'.

Our teacher and coach Ad van Aart helped me to select the reference pictures I was to work from this week and this one is the first. They get more difficult after this one, although tis also was a nice challenge.

After I made the charcoal study

we decided that the composition was good, so the watercolour painting had to be placed on the paper in the same proportions. The initial sketch on the watercolour paper took some time, but painting was relatively easy. During the painting process we decided on adding the shadows of the roots and some more patches of green, to complement the green moss in the top left corner. In this way the painting is not really abstract, but the result works very well.

The information about the materials I have used, the sizes of the watercolour painting and the charcoal drawing and their availabilities can all be found in my Tumblr blog.

Sequoia (detail) three paintings and a study

This summer I had my painting week again and out teacher and coach Ad van Aart did send me to a beautiful sequoia tree for my first painting. The tree is too big to paint completely, but I wanted to concentrate on details this summer, in this case the beautiful structured bark.

First I made some reference pictures, then I made a charcoal study:

After that I made the watercolour on top, using the original colours as good as possible. Something went wrong with the composition, the study has the tree placed nicely on the paper, leaving white spaces but the watercolour ended up on the whole paper, the wite spaces at the bottom of the tree were gone. The difference in proportions of the watercolour paper and the paper I use for the study made the mistake possible.

So we decided that I had to make at least one more watercolour painting and I changed the size of the watercolour paper I am using so the composition would be placed better on the paper.

The first watercolour was made using only shades of brown - not the original colours of the cedar tree, but the result is really nice.

For the second watercolour I used a very different idea, I made a monochromatic painting using indigo.

The results are nice, this is mostly done as a series of studies, to compare the effect of different paper sizes, composition and colour schemes.

The information about the materials I have used, the sizes of the study and the watercolours and their availabilities can all be found in my Tumblr blog.

Shadow Play

 

During our painting vacation, the weather was nice and dry, but really hot. Too hot to make two watercolour paintings a day, so some afternoons were used for other things, like drawing in the shadow.

This work is all about drawing the shadows. I took a place under a walnut tree and tried to draw the shadows of the leaves using my Conté Sketching Crayons. There was some wind, so it was not easy. After the first, dark layer I added a second and a third layer, each one a lighter shade. The final layer was just the outline of the shadows in white.

After I had done this drawing, I changed to another tree:

My colour scheme for this drawing was more simple, only one black and the final layer in grey.

With the first sketches on paper I asked our teacher and coach Ad van Aart how to continue because this was a first time for me. He advised me to add colour to the layers in the first drawing and to work on the composition of the second one.

The first shadow play is now stronger in colour, the shapes are better defined and the white lines are visible and a bit intriguing now.

The second shadow play is more balanced now the shapes are connected and the grey shapes are more scattered over the whole sheet of paper.

This was a first time for me, but I really wanted to do this at least once. In fact I love the result and knowing what to do to make the composition stronger / better I will certainly try this again, with different shadows and perhaps different drawing materials.

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

Misty landscape

 

For the last day of my painting vacation our teacher and coach Ad van Aart asked me to make another misty scene, this time with some reference pictures. After searching on the Internet, I found some nice misty landscapes that are not so close to where I live so I could not have seen these myself. 

It was still hot, so I started with a wet paper, painting a background colour and adding the structures in the background as soon as possible with a very thin mixture of a grey shade. Adding the rest of the landscape in darker shades of grey layer by layer was not easy as the paper dried very fast, but I managed to get a credible result. 

The next stage was the lake and the mist coming from the water, but I have painted the reflections as the landscape that is painted has to reflect in the water and the waves or ripples are also only suggested, not copied from any of the pictures I used for inspiration.

My landscape does not look like the references I have used as my inspiration any more. The high temperatures and the short drying time of my paint and paper forced me to improvise and create a landscape that could be existing somewhere.

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 roots - a charcoal drawing

 

The days of my painting vacation were not completely filled with my watercolour paintings, in the afternoons I occasionally had a few hours for something different. Of course I wanted to stay close to my chosen subject (the forest) so one afternoon our teacher and coach Ad van Aart  asked me to make a drawing of the complex roots of a large oak tree that was on the terrain of our residence.

With this drawing I had to fill the whole page as good as possible and create a work that was as close to abstract as the subject could get me. I did make a drawing as accurately as possible, filling the page with the roots of the tree and only the roots. So no little branches, no grasses in the background and even not the little mouse that came looking what I was doing in front of its home.

Making this drawing was nice, I could sit on a small chair in the shadows of the tree - it was a very hot day - and concentrate on what I did see and what I wanted to draw without having to worry about drying paint, colour choices and other difficulties. The result is even better than what I thought I could make, so I am very happy that Ad challenged me to do this.

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