After the lightning - for a challenge

 

The theme of the January challenge of 'Goed Gezien - Goed Bekeken' is taken from a book by one of the members: "Bliksem" or Lightning in English.

What do we do nowadays when there is a thunderstorm? Do we look at the lightning or do we hide in fear? 

This does not inspire me, so I looked a bit further. What does it look like after the lightning?

In our country we can still find oak trees standing alone in a field and these are in danger of being struck by lightning. Sometimes a tree survives and we can see the damage. More often the tree is killed by the lightning and cleared away before the remains can bring danger to people passing by.

Based on the silhouette of an oak tree in winter I imagined one side to be broken and fallen to the ground while the other side is still alive. The time is set in the end of Autumn, some leaves have not fallen yet.

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 artworks, please contact me.

Cleaning - for a challenge

 

The new year traditionally began with cleaning - some people still have time for a thorough cleaning of the house and even do it. We (my husband and me) spread the cleaning chores over the year which we think to be a better way of fitting them in our working life. Opinions may differ 😉

The January challenge of 'Goed Gezien - Goed Bekeken' is about that cleaning tradition. We were allowed to take the traditional approach or decide on another kind of cleaning like cleaning up the mind, getting fresh ideas etc.

Nothing really inspired me much, but the traditional cleaning round, combined with the call for more natural methods of doing that resulted in this work. These more natural methods include using soda and household vinegar instead of more aggressive chemicals and that gave me some ideas.

For this work I made a drawing of a bucket, washing cloth, sponge, bottle of household vinegar and a bag of soda using two graphite pencils. A floor was added, wallpaper and a plinth was indicated so the equipment had a room to stand in. I washed that drawing with watercolour, only one layer of paint so the pencil drawing is still visible.

After that had dried, I added the chemical formulas of acetic acid (vinegar), soda, bicarbonate of soda and of course water using a fine liner.

This is what I had planned so I am happy with the result. Using pencil marks first and washing in colour with watercolour was an experiment for me (the pencil marks could have been washed away too) but all worked out really well.

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

(Not a) selfie

 

The January challenge of 'Goed Gezien - Goed Bekeken' is "Selfie" inspired by the many self-portraits of the great painters and the many self-portraits made with the smartphones nowadays. We are challenged to make some kind of self-portrait this month.

As I am not a portrait painter, I do not even paint people if I can avoid it - most of the times I can avoid it - I had to come up with an idea. A few weeks ago we were at our North Sea coast and I made some reference pictures of the coastline with waves, wet sand and water. My husband made some pictures of me, while I was squatting for the best viewpoint. I have used one of these paintings for the challenge.

On my paper I did first draw the outline of myself before starting to paint. The water, the waves and the sand were painted and after that I mixed some shades of grey from Sepia and Indigo for my figure. I painted the coat, the phone, my glasses and my grey trousers. For my hands, face and hair I mixed a lighter grey with Cobalt Blue and Sepia. Shapes are only very slightly suggested, my first plan was to paint a monochromatic dark silhouette, but that would not have worked. So I changed my plan to create a better painting.

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.

Daily meals

 

This January the challenge of our local Amateur Art Association  Goed Gezien - Goed Bekeken  was 'daily meals' , meant as a returning to normal after the weeks of Christmas and all other festive days.

Of course there is a lot of inspiration in our daily food choices, but of course i wanted something different, not 'what all other people do'.

My mother came up with the idea of eating cats - as they do eat the same meals every day, no special Christmas food for them with the exception of a special treat when we are having coffee or tea. She had the idea, but there are no reference pictures of her cat eating, so I asked my daughter and she had some pictures.

This one, where the oldest cat is eating from the food bowl of the youngest was my favourite. The other food bowl has the same cat kibble, but the portion in the bowl that is not for him is more appealing.

So Tamlen is eating and Regalyan seems to be looking for help from my daughter. 

I still have to practise a lot before I can make a 'purrfect' cat portrait, but I am happy that my daughter liked this one.

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

Reeds in winter

This January our regional Amateur Art association 'Goed Gezien - Goed Bekeken' chose 'Blue Monday' as its challenge. 
Next Monday, the third Monday in the new year is thought to be the most depressing day in the year. All good intentions have failed and the weather is usually grey.

Normally that does not bother me so much. I choose my good intentions a bit better (I never did smoke, I know losing weight takes time and so on) so they cannot fail in two or three weeks and the weather....  

This year I had to think about a painting or drawing for the challenge and it took some time before I had decided on this scene.
The reference picture was made by my husband during our recent walk in Natural Reserve 'De Biesbosch' and I would have used it for a painting or drawing anyway, but now it is in time for the challenge.

I painted a blue-grey watercolour background and for my drawing of the reed plumes I used my watercolour pencils. The structure of the paper helped me in the drawing of the plumes, especially where the seeds and the fluffy bits are.
The result is what I hoped for and of course I will continue experimenting with this mixed media technique.

The details about paper, paint an pencils used, size and contact information can be found at my website www.jannekesatelier.webs.com