This month the challenge of our regional amateur art association ("Goed Gezien - Goed Bekeken") is combined with the challenge of "Ik Toon - Molenlanden".
We have to make a new work and the theme is 'Bridge' or 'Bridging'.
In our part of The Netherlands there is a lot of water, so we have a lot of bridges but I did not want to paint one of the bridges that is familiar to everyone.
Years ago we were in Scotland for a week and we visited the beautiful nature of The Trossachs. This scene was one of the many where we all made pictures.
In these days our son and daughter did spend the vacations with us, so there were three or four cameras working hard and now I do not remember who made which picture.
For the watercolour I have used a sketch I had made long ago using one of the pictures for my reference and did not bother to look for the original picture in the album.
For the watercolour I decided to use a very limited palette, only two colours and the scene is reduced to its essentials: a background, the river, the river banks and the bridge.
The information about the paper and paints I have used, the size and availability can be found in the link at my website www.jannekesatelier.webs.com
Twelve years ago, on a short summer vacation in Scotland we visited a lot of beautiful scenery, great views and some tourist attractions.
Driving the Trossachs Trail we stopped at The Duke's Pass to see the views - and to make photographs of course. The whole family was there, each with a camera so there were lots of photographs for the album I usually make after such vacations.
From that album I selected a few photographs of the same mountains and valleys - each a bit different from the other.
The dark clouds above the mountains were great for a painting so I have tried to make them as moody as possible.
The mountains in the Scottish Highlands are not completely covered with forest and woodland, as are the high hills of The Ardennes or the mountains of the Sauerland, which are situated more southern than Scotland. In the Trossachs the mountains are not completely bare, there are grasslands and fields with mosses that give the area a nice green appearance in summer. Unfortunately I do not know anything about the other seasons.
For all that green I have mixed, layered, placed shadows until I was convinced I had achieved the same moody atmosphere as I had given to the clouds.
More information about this watercolour painting (colours and paper used, size, contact information, etc) can be found at my website www.jannekesatelier.webs.com
Twelve years ago we were in Scotland for a week of vacation. At that time 'we' meant my husband, son, daughter and me and we all had a camera, so that vacation was well documented with photographs. Two of the cameras were still analog, using films.
We did not go far into the Highlands, but we did see a lot of the area called The Trossachs, as we went for rides and signposted walks not far from our vacation home.
One day I was going through the album of that summer vacation and I was inspired by the pictures of the mountains and clouds we took that week.
There are lots of mountains in The Trossachs and at one view point we could make pictures all around us, so I just had to pick the most inspiring point of view.
Working with an album full of photographs that cannot be replaced beside me is not very relaxing, so I decided to do a charcoal drawing. Charcoal is a dry material and it can be brushed off when an 'accident' should happen.
With those precautions taken, nothing happened of course.
Looking at several pictures I came to this composition. One of the pictures showed more details of the mountains, another picture showed the clouds, a third picture showed the scene from another angle and more.
What attracted me here was the dark sky full of clouds and wide view of the mountains and the valleys between them.
More information about this charcoal drawing can be found at my website www.jannekesatelier.webs.com
