Twins

 

A few weeks ago we went for a nice signposted walk in the 'Mastenbos' (Belgium) where I made several reference pictures of trees, dead or alive. These birch trees are very alive and I really wanted to paint these.

The July challenge of 'Goed Gezien - Goed Bekeken' is about a favourite place in summertime. My favourite places in any season are the forest (for a walk) and behind my panting table or easel to paint. I thought this work combines both as it is a painting I made after I had a nice walk in a forest.

These twin birch trees were really very close together and I made more than one reference picture to select the nicest one for a painting.

I enjoyed painting these trees and the result is what I hoped it would be.

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.

Tree collage - for a challenge

 

This month the challenge of 'Goed Gezien - Goed Bekeken' is called 'Papier hier!' translated to 'paper here!', the words that come from the large trash collectors in the famous theme parc 'De Efteling'. A fairy tale figure - always hungry - cries for the paper (and other trash) and answers with a 'thank you' if he is given something.

For the challenge we were asked to do something creative with paper - not an ordinary material, but in fact really versatile.

This was a bit of a challenge for me, I'm not much of a crafter anymore - especially since I started painting. So I had to think about what would be best to hand in.

For this work I tore up old printed matter (with a collection of watercolours of mine) and pasted it on a sheet of A3 paper. On the back I very roughly drew an indication of the annual rings of a tree stump and cut the rings out.

I traced the structure of wood - but as planks - on a sheet of watercolour paper and coloured it with watercolour markers.

I glued the cut-out collage on top and the rings that I did not use immediately were applied upside down at the top right. Because this turned out va bit too white I glued narrow edges of collage on top.

So I did some crafting, some drawing and I used trees as my inspiration again.

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

Hat(s) in the lead role - for a challenge

 

The theme of the July challenge of 'Goed Gezien - Goed Bekeken'  is 'Hats in the lead role' where a pun can be found in the Dutch title (lead role = hoofdrol and  head = hoofd).

I only have a straw hat that I mostly use when painting outdoors, to keep the sun from my eyes and still see the right colours - something sunglasses cannot do. This hat is in my possession for many years now and I have changed the decorations several times. This times it is a small ribbon and some crocheted flowers. The ribbon is not exactly in the angle between the brim and the bulb, it never is because I did only sew it in a few spots, afraid of damaging the straw.

So for this challenge I put on the hat, asked my husband to make a reference picture and use that picture for a small watercolour painting.

Because the hat had to have the lead role, my composition is all about that hat and both the background and me (the person wearing the hat) are mostly suggested. 

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

If you are interested in this painting or any other work I made, please contact me.

High Tea (mixed media with collage)

 

The July challenge of 'Goed Gezien - Goed Bekeken' is 'Aan Tafel' or At the table. There are many ways to find inspiration with this theme, beginning with the call for lunch or dinner when we were young. Those who have seen a swarm of starlings coming to a feeding table can understand what my first thoughts were.

But a nice ending of a day out was what made me try this one: a collage with (parts of) tea bag packages, the sweet treats and the glasses with tea of a High Tea that was enjoyed after a nice walk in our beautiful nature (paintings of that will be made later).

Using my watercolour markers - and a brush with water - I made the illustrations of the sweet treats and the tea, drawing parts of the lines with a fine liner. Parts of the packages of the tea bags are cut out and  glued to the paper, completing my composition.

The result is not only a contribution to the challenge, but also a nice memory of a special day.

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

The Red lantern

 

The July challenge of 'Goed Gezien - Goed Bekeken' had the Red Lantern for its theme. The red lantern is always on the vehicle at the end of a convoy - or the last cyclist in the race gets the red lantern to mark his unfavourable position.

The sports - related explanation of the theme did not inspire me, so I went through the archives and found a picture taken almost nine years ago in a narrow street in France. The lantern was high above us and because of the narrow street the picture had to be made at an unusual angle (for us). There was a very thick fog coming in from the sea which made the reference picture very special.

For my contribution to the challenge I have only looked at the perspective, made some changes to the amount of windows, added some lanterns and only suggested the trees and the fog in the background. 

Usually I try to change my style or technique when I paint or draw for a challenge and that is what I have done again this time. Well, maybe I have done this so often that this has become a 'second style' that is already customary for me.

The initial pencil drawing was coloured in with watercolour and I made sure I used a sketchy style. The paper is not really watercolour paper so I used as little water as possible to distribute the paint. The lanterns and some other details were drawn in using watercolour markers. I have used a little water to let the lines made by these markers flow where needed.

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

Sleepy

The July challenge of our regional amateur art association (Goed Gezien - Goed Bekeken) was 'on the edge of sleep'. There were a lot of hints in the description of the theme, but the first thing that came up in my mind was this.

The innocent models are my brother's two cats that yawn very  ...  inspiring.

Of course I thank my brother for the pictures he made for me. I intend to use them to work on my skills as a cat - painter. This drawing is good for the challenge, but does not suffice as a portrait of these two Asian brothers. As mentioned, I will work on it.

Because one of the brothers is almost black and the other is almost white, I had chosen charcoal for this drawing with the use of some pastel pencils for the colour inside the ears and mouth.
The sheep skin they use as their 'living room bed' is only suggested.

After I had shared this drawing with my brother he sent me the pictures of their reaction - so I have a lot of practice material now.

The information about the materials I have used for this drawing, the size and availability can be found in the link at my website www.jannekesatelier.webs.com 

And then it started to rain a little....

The weather in The Netherlands can be challenging. Today we planned a day of plein-air painting in the beautiful landscape of the 'Alblasserwaard' (where I live) and every time I set up my field easel it really started to rain a little. After a few attempts I gave up completely and went home. Another member of the group also gave up and most of the others were still inside the restaurant talking. Of course the sun started to shine and the rain stopped completely after I started painting in my studio.

If we had stayed on the spot, my painting probably would have been an interesting experiment in wet-on-very wet painting. Of course I was also getting wet and I quickly lost the inspiration needed for such an experiment.

The title is all about the July challenge of 'Goed Gezien - Goed Bekeken', the regional  amateur art association of which I am a member. The coincidence that our day of plein-air painting had exact the kind of weather that we had to depict for the challenge made me decide to submit this painting.

The landscape is imaginary, but based on a scene near the restaurant where our group planned to meet. In the middle of the 'polder' so there are fields, paths, trees, bushes and several ditches. There were some windmills at walking distance (even with my painting stuff to transport) and cows and sheep were visible from our standing point.

I decided to paint a scene with a tree (no surprise here), some fields and the dark clouds that were over the landscape all morning. Because my paper had been wet from the rain, I had a bit of a struggle to get my dark shades in place but in my studio I can speed up the drying process when needed so this turned out the way I wanted it.

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