The Dunes at Rockanje (Netherlands)

 

Our North Sea coast is special, but I only learned that when I realised that other coast lines have rocks, cliffs, pebble beaches or..   no sand beach and sand dunes. For me all this sand was 'normal' but now I really appreciate our coast much more.

Last week we were at the beach in Rockanje (The Netherlands) and we started walking from the parking place called 'Tweede Slag'. In the evening the beach is almost empty so it is a nice place for a walk in the wind, we enjoyed the fresh air, the views, the birds and had a great time. 

Of course I made some reference pictures, this time I wanted to paint our dunes - a seascape would be too easy, we had a blue sea and a blue sky with some clouds. The dark bushes, the grasses and the wind-blown shapes of the dunes inspired me.

Because it was getting late and the sun was behind me when I made the picture the plants on top of the dunes were dark, almost back lit. The clouds were getting dark as well. The slope has many shells or remains of shells as the birds nesting there feed on them. There is not really a path, that area is a reserve for the birds. Of course there are grasses growing on the slopes, on the tops there are small bushes.

In my watercolour painting I wanted to depict the height of the sand dunes at that point so I chose a high horizon and a 'portrait' format for my painting. Showing the contrasts between the dark vegetation and the light sand was one of my goals, and I am really happy with the result.

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 work, please contact me.

(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.

Sandpipers at the North Sea Coast

 

Last winter we walked along the North Sea Coast as part of a long walk at 'De Kwade Hoek' (Netherlands) and on the shallow mud flats close to the tide line we saw some sandpipers looking for food in the mud. My husband made several reference pictures, but as we could not come very close to them  we are not sure which kind of sandpiper we did see.

Most of them only visit our coast line in winter and they have the same 'winter coat' so I could not find the exact species of sandpiper that visited that stretch of our coast line that day. Maybe there was more than one kind of bird, that is also possible. 

The reference pictures have been waiting a few months before I found the time and inspiration to use them. 

I tried to differentiate the colours of their feathers by zooming in on the picture. There are differences between the heads and the wings and that is all I could find, so that is how I have painted them. The natural light of that day did not help either, we had lots of clouds and some hours of rain during that walk so the landscape was sombre and the little birds were streaks of grey and white with legs and a bill. 

The information about the paper and paints I have used, the size, the price and availability of this watercolour painting can all be found in my Tumblr blog.

North Sea Coast, Ouddorp

 

This week we had really warm days - when we had to work - and some cooler days - when we were free from work. On one of those cooler days this weekend we (my husband and me) went for a walk in the dunes and along the beach near Ouddorp (Netherlands).

It was a grey day, lots of clouds, a cold wind but no rain and not many other people around so walking was nice. The landscape is also great as we passed by some creeks just behind the dunes, the dunes themselves with their specific vegetation and walking back along the beach. There were no large waves as the wind did not come from the west and we think it was near low tide.

The only birds we saw at the waterline were oystercatchers and some seagulls, most birds were at the creek we passed earlier during our walk - more sheltered from the winds by the dunes and some trees.

There were some irregular spots at the waterline, as if there had been dunes a long time ago. A bit further on the beach there were reconstruction works going on, adding sand to the beach so we will stay protected from the sea as good as possible.

I made some reference pictures with that irregular spot as my subject and used these for a large watercolour painting. There is only sea and shore in my painting - and two very very small oystercatchers at the end of the small stretch of land that had some grasses growing on top (only to be seen with the camera zoomed in to the maximum). Unfortunately the beach was too wet to walk out there and see the details so I made the best of the reference pictures and my memory.

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