Park Noordhoekse Wiel

 

This month there is a contest about 'the most beautiful spot' in Papendrecht, where I live. To enter the contest you have to describe your favourite spot and/or make a photograph. As I am not a photographer (I do not have nice equipment, just a phone with a good camera inside) I went out to make a nice reference picture for a watercolour painting. As I have to make a picture of the painting to enter it to the competition I still am following the rules a bit.

I chose this spot, a 'meadow mill' in the park that is very close to my home. 

I made several reference pictures, different angles, different distances, but in the end this one was the best. Of course I was lucky with the clouds on the left. My reference picture was made this month, so in winter and the large trees are still bare.

The little windmill was taken in backlight, but even in full sunlight it would be very very dark as it is painted almost black with some white spots.

The result of my work is what I hoped for and I submitted this work for the contest, hoping for....

The information about the materials I have used, the size and availability of this work and - if you are interested in my original artwork - my contact information can all be found in my Tumblr blog.

Our chestnut tree in autumn - a pencil drawing

The leaves of our chestnut tree are changing to their autumn colours now. 
During the long hot and dry summer there were already some leaves with brown spots, but now they are changing fast. Soon they will be completely brown and fall off.

I made a reference picture on a calm day, not so much wind that the branches and leaves were moving too much for a good picture.
The leaves with all the autumn colours were what I wanted to draw and here is the result.

There is still some green left, yellow, brown and dark brown are also in the same leaves.

I enjoyed drawing this scene, layering and mixing the colours of my pencils until I had the results I wanted.

More information about this drawing (materials and colours used, size, contact information, etc) can be found at my website www.jannekesatelier.webs.com 

IkToon - or I show my art

A year can pass so quickly!
Tomorrow it is June, in The Netherlands the month for the promotion of Amateur Art.
One of the ways we promote our art is by the program of 'IkToon', in English 'I show'.
This time two of my watercolour paintings are on display in the windows of our local photography shop and I am very happy to have them there.

The name and address of the shop are: 
Foto Schievink, Brederodelaan 17, 3353 GG Papendrecht

This information will also be available on my website www.jannekesatelier.webs.com 

Hanging my artwork for an exposition is hard work, but the results are great!

Near my home in the village of Papendrecht is a small forest: the 'Alblasserbos'. This is an area surrounded by grasslands and cows in the polders. A bit to the north are the windmills of the Kinderdijk, south of this area and my village lies 'The Biesbosch'.
In the Alblasserbos is an educational center, 'Natuur- en Vogelwacht de Alblasserwaard'.
In that educational center is the opportunity for expositions and this time I am allowed to have an exposition there. I have selected fourteen examples of my artwork and we have had a busy morning hanging them nicely.

I was really glad I had help, not only my husband gave his assistance, two volunteers from the 'Natuur- en Vogelwacht' and the Amateur Artists Association that work together in the organisation of these expositions were there to help and advise me.

After the frames had been touched many times, I had hard work wiping off all fingerprints!

And here is an impression of the exposition.
Unfortunately the frames with glass do reflect the light a bit too much, not only because I had been wiping off the fingerprints.

I am showing recent work here and I am really happy that the space for the exposition is such a nice one. My works look great on that wall.

More information about this exposition such as the address and the end date can be found at my website www.jannekesatelier.webs.com 

Winter evening

When I was browsing through my reference pictures looking for inspiration I found this scene. The picture was taken years ago and I could not exactly find who had taken it, probably my daughter. It was one of a series of snow pictures given to me for inspiration a long time ago, so I can use it as I wish.

The scene is not very far from our house. 
We regularly take a walk around the quarter where we live and in the winter - with snow - the most beautiful spot of the walk looks like this. 
The lights are the lanterns illuminating the highway close by. There is a screen (to block most of the noise so houses have been built nearby) which is visible in winter, when the trees and bushes are bare and the herbs are sleeping in the soil. 

Sunset is early in December and the picture was taken just after the sun had disappeared. 

I used some of my Twilight Colours again, combined with a yellow and an orange for the lantern lights.

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

The moon exposed....

As an amateur artist I want people to see my work so I participate in expositions from time to time. Each year the section of Amateur Art in my home town Papendrecht will organise an exposition in the public library where we all contribute one work. The name "Met z'n Allen" means All Together and that is exactly what it is. This year there are over forty very different pieces of art hanging together on the walls of the library. This exposition is always from the 1st of October untill the 31st of December.

This time is also the first time my daughter Mariska participates, so we chose similar works. She made a series of pictures from the moon last year and she is exposing one of them now while I am exposing a painting I made after another picture from that series.

Autumn colours the sky

As the days grow shorter I drive to work during the hour of sunrise  more and more often, and I can enjoy the wonderful colours in the sky. Most of the time there are clouds so they add to the beauty of it all. Of course I only look and try to remember in order to come home safely again in the afternoon.
The landscape of a highway with noise barriers on both sides is not really inspiring for a painting, so I only remembered the colours and the clouds and fitted them in a landscape I painted before. So in fact I re-used a sketch made from a reference photo my daughter Mariska made for me.
This scene is very close to my home, it's a view from the bridge over the river Merwede and I gave it the colours I remembered the best from those mornings a few weeks ago.

More information about this painting and the one I made before can be found at www.jannekesatelier.co.nr