Kasteelpark van Brasschaat - a Conté drawing

 

The May challenge of 'Goed Gezien - Goed Bekeken' is about the colour red. After I had painted poppies for my first submission I wanted to do something with red paper as my background.

From three shades of red (all in a set with a lot of colours) I picked the darkest one and made a Conté drawing of a landscape. Because of the red background I limited the palette for my drawing.

In fact this is in a parc area where my husband and me went for a walk, the Kasteelpark Brasschaat which is a public place now and a great place for a walk. 

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

Parc Vordenstein

 

Last summer we (my husband and me) went for a walk in Park Vordenstein in Belgium. The parc is on an estate and has nice paths for walking, woodland areas, fields, a pond and a small corner with cattle. After the walk there is the Orangery for coffee, tea or a lunch. We had a nice day.

Of course I made several reference pictures for later use and I did not do much with these until today. In one of the woodland areas we saw these two dead trees - there really are two of them, the smallest one is almost hidden in the background.

Of course I could make a charcoal drawing or a Conté drawing of the dead trees, but in this case I wanted to make a watercolour painting. They stand in the green bushes with green and 'red' trees in the background and I liked the difference.

For this painting I used some colours that are new for me and the sunlight on the leaves of the bushes is suggested by using fine salt on the wet (damp) paint.

I am happy with the result. The new shades of green are nice to work with and the salt did what I hoped it would do.

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

Kalmthoutse Heide, winter

 

During our walk on the Kalmthoutse Heide a few weeks ago I made several reference pictures. Most of them have been used for paintings in the past weeks and today I wanted to paint this landscape.

At this point the signposted walk leaves the forest area we were in to enter the moorland the area is named after (Heide = moorland). Depending on the viewpoint some really beautiful landscape pictures can be made. 

Most of the year and especially in winter the moorland is empty and dark with only a few lonely trees or bushes. Of course the area is not really big, if wanted the trees on the far horizon can be reached on foot within the hour but the feeling of emptiness is not far from us.

That feeling of being in a large empty landscape is what I tried to paint this time.

The winter sky had some large clouds, almost white with some light grey shadows and the colour of the horizon was more yellow than blue or grey. Typical for winter in this part of the world and I liked painting it. The landscape has grasses that turned yellow and lots of dark plants, the remains of the heather and other plants, all suggested like I usually do.

The result is what I hoped it would be and I am happy with it.

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.

Vordenstein - a charcoal drawing

 

A few weeks ago my husband and me went for a walk in Park Vordenstein, not far from Antwerp, Belgium. The walk was a nice one, the parc area has a lot of different landscape/garden types and there is also some information to be found along the route.

At one point we were close to the chapel that belonged to the castle and I made a picture to use as reference for a drawing and or painting.

This is the first work made using that picture, a charcoal drawing showing the landscape that attracted my attention.

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

Tree stump, Mastenbos

 

A few weeks ago my husband and me went for a nice signposted walk in the 'Mastenbos' in Belgium. We passed by lots of large old trees, some remains from World War I and several dead trees and tree stumps. I did not make (reference) pictures of all of them, but this one I could not resist.

The colour of the dead wood that is still visible inside the remains of the tree bark is so bright orange-brown (like Burnt Sienna) that it stands out on the forest floor.

The surrounding landscape is only suggested, the tree stump is my subject here. That does not mean I did not make an effort while painting that suggested landscape, I have really thought about how much detail I had to paint and where I had to start suggesting shapes of trees.

The tree stump itself also was full of detail and a bit of a challenge, but I really like the result of my work.

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

Pond shore - Mastenbos, Belgium

 

These days are a very short vacation for my husband and me as the schools are closed, so we don't have to go to work. We made use of that by going for a signposted walk in Kapellen, Belgium. 

We explored the 'Mastenbos', a nice forest area that is very accessible for walks - no adventurous paths, just nice for a walk - and has a long history. The forest has many trenches and bunkers remaining from World War I and there is a lot of information about that history at the start of the walk.

We were happy to find more forest related information on the sides of the path and learned some things on the way.

There is a large pond in the forest that cuts through an old beech avenue. The pond has been maintained recently so the sunlight can reach the surface again. Looking over the pond - that has much of a canal as it is very straight - I could see the structures of the other shore and I made a picture of that.

The scene is great for my new panorama paper and I made this painting as soon as possible.

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.

Fagne de Poleur - 2

 

Last October, during our short vacation, my husband and I were in the Hautes Fagnes, Ardennes, Belgium, for a nice walk. The landscape is special for our part of the world and we enjoyed the walk very much. With us there were many others enjoying the great views of this Natural Reserve, but it was not difficult to make beautiful landscape pictures. In that landscape we all have to stay on the path, the peat moor is a dangerous place. Next to the boardwalks there is a lot of water, if you step down, you get wet and you never know how deep it really is. So pictures of the landscape will automatically have no other walkers.

The beginning of our route passed by the Fagne de Poleur and I have made several reference pictures there.  One of them is already used for a watercolour painting, and this painting is the next one. Looking West, the sky was really dark and cloudy - we did not have rain though - and I wanted to paint these clouds over the landscape.

The colours of the landscape are beautiful, the grasses are almost golden in autumn and with the light coming from behind, the bare trees and bushes are really dark. Amongst the grasses are some small bushes, but not much, as the plants here have to survive the acid water of the peat moor.

Painting this was a small challenge as it was about two months ago that we were there - and I am a bit in a winter/Christmas mood - and because of the weather conditions now, which are dark and wet. Of course a challenge is good for me, that is how I improve my painting skills. The result is even better than I hoped for.

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.

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

Dead tree - Kalmthoutse Heide

 

Last week, as we were walking a signposted walk on the Kalmthoutse Heide, I saw a dead tree that inspired me to make reference pictures. On the bark - what was left of it - were lots of colours, white, shades of brown and orange and more so I tried to capture that in my reference pictures. And I wanted a picture of the whole tree, standing alone against the sky. 

While I was trying to get that right my husband told me to try from the other side, where he was still standing. The colours that inspired me at first were not visible from there, but the tree looked great from the viewpoint he advised me. The sky suddenly looked more cloudy and dark and the tree did stand out beautifully.

Last week I experienced that it could be too dark to paint really early in the afternoon, so now I started my painting in the morning, choosing a large size paper for this scene. Still the weather was against me, something with the humidity, drying time, paper staying very wet and that stuff. The struggle was not very long, I soon found out what was the matter and I have used my hair-dryer very often for this painting.

After one layer was dried, I added more paint, dried it again and repeated until I was happy with the result. Normally I don't need to dry my paper so often in between layers and I can keep adding paint much longer. So today was different, but no problem.

After the sky and foreground (a piece of moorland in autumn) were what I wanted them to be I started painting the tree. As the tree was in backlight, there are only shades of dark and darker brown in the shape of the tree and the remaining branches. Many of the smaller branches have fallen off long ago and what is still standing may stay like this for a long time. Or not, the tree may be very weak by now and fall in the first storm that comes.

I am really happy with the result of my work, I tried to paint the loneliness of that dead tree and I think I succeeded well.

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.

If you are interested in my work, please do contact me.

'Les Hautes Fagnes' - Fagne de Poleur

 

During our short vacation in The Ardennes (Belgium) we made a signposted walk in the Natural Reserve area "Hautes Fagnes" that led us past the various views that area has to offer. From our starting point at the Baraque Michel we first walked to the 'Fagne de Poleur' named after one of the many rivers that spring in this moor. 

This part of the walk had some trees and bushes and a nice treeline on the horizon and I made several pictures so I will stay inspired to paint for weeks to come. This is one of the views we had, a bit of the moor can be seen behind the trees and bushes in the foreground. As this Natural Reserve is very wet and partly re-flooded for conservation of the peat moor there are only small trees and bushes that may die early because of all the water. 

For my painting I have used my reference picture as my inspiration. The horizon and trees are placed almost according to the reference and I have tried to show the variation in grasses and reeds that attracted me to this view in the first place. Because of the damp atmosphere (it had been raining the day before) the trees look almost black. In this time of the year there are some leaves left on the trees, but most of them have fallen yet and cannot easily be seen between the grasses and reeds.

The result of my work is what I had hoped for, a nice autumn scene in a very unique piece of nature.

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

Please contact me if you are interested in my work.

'Les Hautes Fagnes' - a glimpse

 

Last week, during our short stay in The Ardennes, we also visited the 'Hautes Fagnes' which is a very special bit of microclimate in The Ardennes. At about 700 metres high it is a flat and cold region, with raised bogs (see also the link to the Wikipedia page I added above) and early snowfall. As the temperatures were extremely high for the time of the year, we did not have any snow, but the weather for a signposted walk was great.

During our walk we made several pictures, many to be used as reference for my paintings. As I had only a minimal amount of painting materials with me and the conditions in a vacation home are not always good for painting, I chose a relatively simple subject for a watercolour painting.

As expected, there was a struggle with drying times, light conditions and more, but the result is even better than I could hope for. Of course, now I am at home again, I will use more of our pictures for watercolour paintings during the weeks to come.

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. 

Please contact me if you are interested in my work.

Kalmthoutse Heide - August

 

Now is the time of the year that the heather is in bloom so we went for a walk on the 'Kalmthoutse Heide', a protected Natural Reserve that is mostly in Belgium but crosses the border with The Netherlands in the Western parts of the Reserve. Because of the various lockdowns we had over the last year and a half, we had not visited the Kalmthoutse Heide for a long time.

We made the signposted walk that was our first in that area and we could see some differences - nature did not really suffer during the lockdowns. Of course I made several (reference) pictures of the heather in full bloom and some other nice views.

One of these pictures is used for this watercolour. The clouds were really dark, we had rain twice during the walk and because of the grey sky the trees also looked like dark shapes without much contrast. Of course I did not paint every little flower on every patch of heather, I prefer to paint an impression of the landscape and the viewer is welcome to imagine the details. 

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.

In the Abbey garden

About two years ago I visited the Abbey of Postel (Belgium) with a group of people and I had some time alone which I used to walk in the area and sketch. 
The Abbey has a nice church and a garden around that church and both are inspiring. Because there is not much space and there were a lot of tourists as well, I did make only one sketch I was not really very happy about. So I have not painted the scene until now.

When I  made my sketch I was inspired by the trees and the backside of the church that was surrounded by them. 
To make the sketch I had to stand in the back of the herb garden and I did draw the path I was standing on in my initial sketch but I only suggested it in the painting.

When I was there, it was almost summer and the trees and bushes were full of leaves, hiding most of the church and the  other buildings of the Abbey were not visible from that standing point, most of them were hidden by the tall trees. 

For this watercolour painting I have mixed lots of greens for the trees, the bushes, the small hedgerow and of course all the shadows and I really am happy about how I manage to do that now. As I have written a long time ago, I do not use green paints any more, I mix my greens with blues and yellows and the results are really satisfying - for me.

More information about this painting can be found at my website www.jannekesatelier.webs.com 

The Border Marker

Walking one of the many beautiful signposted walks in the area of the 'Kalmthoutse Heide' we found this broken stone. My husband made some reference pictures for me and I started planning a painting.
The stone is one of the border markers that line the border between Belgium and The Netherlands and our walk passed that border a few times. 

This broken stone, cracked and covered with moss on most sides inspired me to change the scene from a 'normal' border landscape to something more mysterious.

Watercolour is an ideal medium to create a foggy or mysterious atmosphere and I have been experimenting with the colours in my palette, water, layering mixtures, more water, wet - in - wet and wet - on - dry techniques and this is the result. 
I am happy with this painting, it was a great exercise and the result is very close to what I hoped it would be.

Unfortunately my picture does not give full credit to the real painting. 
The painting has a green glaze to it and my simple photo - adjusting programme cannot show that easily.... so tilting the computer screen may help to see what I really made. 

More information about this watercolour painting (size, materials used, contact information, availability, etc) can be found at my website www.jannekesatelier.webs.com 

The park of the zoo - Planckendael

The park of the Zoo usually has a lot of inspiration for me. Of course I go to the Zoo for the animals, but the park with its trees, bridges and other landscape elements also has its charms. This scene was inspired by a view in the Zoo of Planckendael (Belgium).
I was inspired by the view of the bridge, surrounded by all those trees and bushes so I took some reference pictures, not knowing when I would use them for a painting. 

We were there in the summer of last year and the reference picture shows lots of greens, but today I was in a mood to paint with Earth Colours. I have added blue and violet for the shadows and the bridge.

Once again I have painted atmosphere, not all the details. All of the foliage is suggested, as are the trees in the background. Even the tree in the foreground and the bridge are not  as detailed as I would have done a few weeks ago.

More information about this watercolour painting (size, materials used, contact information, availability, etc) can be found at my website www.jannekesatelier.webs.com 

At the Reservoir of Bütgenbach - Ardennes

For this painting I have been searching my 'archives' of reference photographs in order to get inspired by one of them.

This scene is at the reservoir of Bütgenbach, in the Ardennes (Belgium) where I was on painting vacation twice. This scene we saw in the first year and although I did not paint it that day I made some quick pictures for later use. I have been making a charcoal drawing of a bridge that day and this was at the other side of that small bridge. 

There was a grey sky that day and only minutes after I took the pictures I used here we had to save our artworks-in-progress from a heavy rainfall. The whole group packed everything in the cars and drove back to the house where we all finished the paintings and drawings we had started 'en plein air'.

The water is a side arm of the reservoir and it is partially covered with plants of all sorts. In the background there are lots of trees and bushes, a field of magenta coloured flowers and the marshy left side of the background is filled with grasses or something that looks very much like grasses.

As this is summertime all the bushes, trees and grasses are in shades of green, only the water plants have a shade that is more distinctly blue-green. So I had a nice challenge here, but if I don't paint scenes like this at all I will never master those green, wet landscapes. I have been struggling to create depth in all that green and in the dark parts of the water, where the trees are reflected.

The water did not move much, so the reflections of the tree lines and the clouds were clearly visible. 

The bushes on the foreground were a tangled mass with some small flowers in between. I did not give them much details as that would attract too much attention.

Working on this watercolour painting was fun, even though I had set myself a challenge.

More information can be found at my website www.jannekesatelier.webs.com 

A path in the Forest of Anlier - a charcoal drawing

 

The history of the Forest of Anlier is long. It is said that Julius Caesar wrote about this forest in his travel reports. The landscape is full of variations, from hillsides with fields through valleys with side rivers of the Sûre and forests with either trees that show the greatest autumn colours or conifers that stay thick and green all the year long.

This path is between such areas with conifers and there was little light when we walked here. The path is muddy, the sides are overgrown with mosses and behind the first or second line of trees there is only a grey shadowed area where the ground is covered with fallen branches. This area was planted for the production of nice straight trees that could be used in the industry. As the trees stand so close together only the top branches are green. Behind the curves in the path there is another area, where more daylight can reach the forest ground.

My husband Peter made several pictures of these muddy, dark paths and I chose this one for a charcoal drawing.  

More information about this drawing can be found at my website www.jannekesatelier.webs.com 

The river basin of the Sûre - after the beavers moved in!

Now I am back to the vacation memories of last October.  We made a long walk through the Forest of Anlier and the views inspired my husband and me to make lots of photographs. I have been making several paintings yet and this is the next in that line. 
After we had been walking over the hills and descended into the forest area we found traces of beaver activities. First we saw the trees that were gnawed at and had fallen down, later we had to leave the path because it was flooded. We could continue our walk easily because we only had to step a little higher on the hillside to pass by the flooded area. 
This scene is where the small brook was flooded and some of the trees were 'with their feet in the water'. This brook is part of the river basin of the river Sûre and we could not find a name for it on the maps. We were still close to Fauvillers at this point of our walk.

The scene was quite a challenge as the water was standing still, but there was not much light to be reflected. The colour of the water is really muddy here and only the trees standing in the water have a bit of reflection. In the middle of the water is a row of stones that might have been the river bank but now is surrounded by the muddy water.
The day we were walking there the sky was not clear because of pollution from forest fires in Portugal brought here by the wind. We did not see much of it, more to the west the sky was yellow that day. I think we had a much lighter version of that - in some of our photographs the discolouration of the sky can be seen.

In the reference picture I used (made by my husband Peter) for this painting the water was not 'standing out' very well, still I have tried to make the most of it. This was the best picture of that watery scene we could make and even though I am not completely happy with the result, my husband tells me the painting shows the atmosphere of that scene very well.  
I have made some finishing touches with the Iridescent Medium my daughter gave me, hoping that it would give some sparkle to the water and some of the leaves in the foreground. Maybe I was too careful or the medium simply does not reflect enough light for my camera to see the effect in the picture. More experiments will have to follow.

More information about this watercolour painting (paper and paints used, size, availability, etc) can be found at my website www.jannekesatelier.webs.com 

Still near Fauvillers - behind each bend in the road.....

The path we were following was curved around the hills of The Ardennes and we were expecting to descend into the Forest of Anlier very soon. But behind every bend in the path we had new views and I could not resist the temptation to make some more pictures. Especially because the light was changing fast - from misty to a clear sky with lots of sunshine. Once inside the forest that would not make so much of a difference, but now on the hillside the landscape looked much warmer.

To paint a landscape in warmer greens is not that much of a challenge when you mix your greens from blue and yellow colours. In this case I just used French Ultramarine (as I have used Payne's Grey in the previous painting and got a much colder landscape) with some shades of yellow to obtain the desired greens. Or some greens that are very close to what I had in mind.
For this painting I used a larger piece of paper to express the vastness of this particular part of our walking route. We really did have some nice views while walking this path.

Painting this scene was a nice way to spend a rainy afternoon and I am glad I finished painting before the daylight was fading away. These are the shortest days of the year and the hours of daylight seem even shorter when the sky is overcast like we had this last week.

More information about this watercolour painting (size, materials used, availability, etc) can be found at my website www.jannekesatelier.webs.com 

Near Fauvillers - walking towards the Forest of Anlier

Another memory from our last vacation in The Ardennes. At this point we have left the village of Fauvillers behind us and are almost entering the Forest of Anlier. Before we really are between the trees we just have to follow this path downhill.

This vacation I have been making my own reference pictures - usually my husband makes them on my request as he is holding the camera.
I chose this scene because I was inspired by the lines of the fencing, the bushes and the path. The electricity poles and cables add to this as well.
This picture was taken a few hours after sunrise and the sky was still a bit gray. (later that day we would have sunshine, blue skies and some clouds)

For the painting I chose a small size (1/4 sheet instead of 1/2 sheet) because the scene 'asked' for that approach.
Some details like the electricity cables, the wire in the fencing and some of the grasses are made with my Professional Watercolour Sticks. As expected I have experienced that they are great for drawing these details, like the dry brush technique they can give the dashed lines I want.

Painting this one was fun for me! More vacation memories are waiting to be painted so you can expect some great views and forest scenes in the next weeks.

More information about this watercolour painting (materials used, size, availability, etc) can be found at my website www.jannekesatelier.webs.com 

The valley of the Sûre and the Forest of Anlier - my first impressions

We have been on a short trip to The Ardennes, Belguim, to be more precise, to the Forest of Anlier and the Valley of the river Sûre. The weather was great, maybe a bit too warm for autumn but we have been walking in the forest, walking in the valley and I have been taking pictures and most of the evenings were dedicated to painting.

These are small paintings, only A4 size. The circumstances in our 'gîte' were not as good as  in my studio. Most of the times the lights were not very helpful, but I managed to get used to this set-up and made some nice watercolours.

This is the first one I made, and as we had just arrived in the 'gîte' this is the view from one of the windows. The background is the slope of one side of the valley of the river Sûre which is covered with trees, the other one is right behind our 'gîte'. The river is in fact between the fields and the background. 
I was struggling with the lights, the height of the table, the moisture of the air (close to the river) so this painting may be not the best I have ever made, but for a 'warming-up' it is a nice one.

The Forest of Anlier is a piece of land that has been described by Julius Caesar and has remained a forest since these days. We had chosen a walk of 12 km and we have just seen the northern part of the forest. I have been making some nice reference pictures and for the 'first impression' I chose to do a scene with lots of autumn colours and some fallen trees. The sun was shining and the forest seemed to be on fire with all those yellow, orange and red colours!

The next day we started out from the 'gîte' to walk in the valley of the river Sûre. The first part of that walk was following an abandoned railway track and was easy. I made some pictures showing the track and the green valley beside it. This day we returned early, we had some problems with shoes, muscle aches and so on. In the afternoon I stayed in the 'gîte' to paint as my husband decided to discover a bit more of the surrounding landscape - on better shoes. 
This time I painted in daylight and the air seemed less moist than it is in the evenings, so the process of painting was more relaxed than the other days. 

The last day of our vacation we were in tourist mode. We went to visit the town of Schengen, in Luxembourg and as we returned we drove once again through the Forest of Anlier. I asked my husband to stop in a safe place so I could make some pictures. Imagine a road of 10 km or more surrounded by these trees - I just had to have those pics! The scene was still sunny, with lots of shadows from the trees. A lot of leaves have already fallen and the foliage is not as dense as it was a few days ago, so the colours of the trees are lighter. In a few days this autumn splendor will be gone, all leaves on the ground and the trees will be as good as bare. 

Of course I will paint more, using larger sizes of paper and some other reference pictures. These will be done at home, in my studio where I can take all the time I need to complete a painting.

More information about these watercolour paintings (paper and paints used, etc) can be found at my website www.jannekesatelier.webs.com