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.

'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.