Rooted and tenacious (for a challenge)

 

The October challenge of 'Goed Gezien - Goed Bekeken' has Deep-rooted as its theme, with references to trees in the description. That subject is all I could wish for, trees are my most important inspirations. Though I had some difficulty in selecting which tree I would draw or paint for this challenge. It had to be a living one and this tree, in the 'Alblasserbos', very close to my home (walking distance) is the chosen one.

This tree and another one of the same kind are lying on the ground in a small section of the forest area that used to be an orchard. It looks like the trees have been pulled down when the orchard closed but tenaciously stayed alive and are still bearing their fruits in autumn - now for the passers-by to pick and enjoy.

It has been a while since I made a Conté drawing, so my contribution for the challenge is a Conté drawing of that tree as it is at the end of winter - when the reference picture was made.

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

Green!

 

The October challenge of 'Goed Gezien - Goed Bekeken'  has the same theme as the Children's Books Week: Gi - Ga - Green!

So a green painting is what we have to make and fortunately it is only the beginning of Autumn, so a green spot can still be found. This spot is in my home town Papendrecht (Netherlands) close to a very busy roundabout and a school. There is a small field of grass, some trees and a line of bushes in front of the school building, all the green I could wish for, because even the sky is not very visible.

On a small sheet of paper I did start with a blue-grey for the bits of sky that were to be seen and after that I used some blues and yellows to make the shades of green I needed to paint grasses, bushes and the foliage of the trees.

This is not my usual way of painting a landscape scene, but the theme of the challenge caused this compositional choice. In fact I liked working on this painting, so perhaps in the future I will paint a forest scene like this again: mostly ground, bushes and trees, only small patches of sky. Just like I practiced during my painting vacation.

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.

Autumn in the foreground

 

For this month's challenge I had to paint for the theme "My little sister can do that too" so there was a bit of thinking before I could even find any inspiration. The theme is the same as this year's School Art Project of 'Goed Gezien - Goed Bekeken' and we have to try to paint like little children. Not an easy task...

Looking back to my painting vacation I decided to make an abstract background with poured watercolour, using two shades of blue. It took some time to dry, this time I made my background indoors and with lower temperatures. I have also chosen to use a different quality of paper, adding another uncertain factor to the experiment.

During a short walk I picked up two autumn leaves in different sizes and I drew their outlines with pencil on the dried background. Using some autumn colours I painted the leaves, letting the colours mix on the paper. The blues of the background also mixed with the colours of the leaves. On this paper that happened easier than on the cotton paper I used last summer. 

After this had dried (with a little help from my hair dryer) I added another layer of leaves, outlining them with a pencil and filling the shapes with two shades of Graphitint pencils.

If I had a little sister, she probably could do this too, but I am not certain if I have painted like a child. I did have fun though, maybe that counts as well.

The painting was not really planned in advance, I started with the blue poured paints and the leaf shapes, placing the leaves on the surface and creating the final composition happened while working. The pencil layer was added to cover the white of the paper without adding more colour that would have been 'too much' and ruining the nice composition of the painted leaves.

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

Autumn in mixed media

 

The October challenge of 'Goed Gezien - Goed Bekeken' is 'Against the rules' and the Dutch word for rules can also be read as lines.

So I had a choice for my work, because against the rules (of anything) has already been done, so I could not do anything original at all. 

I discussed this with my mother and daughter for inspiration and I combined the ideas they gave me with some inspiration that grows in my garden.

Against or crossing the lines is a nice option so I made a drawing of chestnuts and dried grape leaves, both from my own garden but not in the same spot and added lines from Autumn - related songs.

The text lines are not complete, I made them 'fall of the paper' and of course they are not written on the lines that are made to write on. I copied the idea of an exercise book used in school to learn writing and made lines using blue and red pencils - just like there are blue and red lines in the school notebooks I am referring to.

Unfortunately it was not possible to make the perfect picture - the lines I made are straight, as I used a good ruler and the paper is white. There is some change in colour and deformation in the picture that I cannot correct without losing the colours of the drawing.

The information about the paper, ink and pencils I have used, the size of the work and its availability can all be found in the link at the 'Galerie' page of my website www.jannekesatelier.webs.com 

Wintertime

October has arrived a few weeks ago and there is a new challenge for the members of 'Goed Gezien - Goed Bekeken'. We have to make a work of art with the theme 'Silent night, white splendor' and there are other art groups involved in this challenge too.
Some of the works will be seen in the month of December in museum 'Het Stadhuis' in Nieuwpoort (The Netherlands).

Because I always make something new for a challenge I had to improvise a bit. Winter is not here yet and I had to imagine a snow scene.
For this one I took the watercolour I made on the plein air painting day that was organised last May (by 'Goed Gezien - Goed Bekeken) in the area of Meerkerk (Netherlands).

The water tower may have some snow on its roof and on the ledge below and the row of bushes has got a different colour because they do catch a lot of snow.
The pollard willows have lost their foliage in autumn and the branches do not hold the snow so these trees are dark shapes now in a mostly white landscape.

The theme of the challenge is all about atmosphere - exactly what I want to depict in my paintings and the challenge for me was to find a scenery I had not done as a winter scene before.
There are some more landscapes I can convert to a winter scene, and probably I will paint one or two other watercolours that can be used for the challenge that continues until the end of November.

The details about paper, paint, size and availability of this watercolour can be found at my website www.jannekesatelier.webs.com