This started as an experiment to find out whether I would like to paint like this or not at all. And of course I wanted to find out if this would work at all or end in a disaster.
Both questions can be answered in a positive way: yes, I like this and yes, it worked good enough.
The reference is a picture we made almost twelve years ago at Stonehenge. We were too late to enter so the pictures were made from behind the fence, showing the whole site in one image. I have used a part of one of those pictures to make my composition.
The plan was to make a sky, paint the stones and let the colours of the stones bleed down, thus forming the 'roots' of the stones. To be sure I did have enough space to let it happen I have chosen to paint on a half sheet of watercolour paper.
The edges of the stones that could get some sunlight were painted red, the rest of the stones were painted in all of my Twilight Colours and I let these colours mix and run to make some new shades.
I have used clear water to let the colours of the stones drip down - and my working surface was tilted as much as possible to let gravity help the process.
This technique is very much dependent on the circumstances of the moment and planning is not really possible. I did not interfere in the dripping, knowing that I would ruin my painting in doing so.
I really enjoyed painting this one, allowing the colours to mix on my paper and hoping for a result that can be published. The title came to my mind after I had finished the painting and was looking at it to see if I should add something (what was not necessary).
The details about the paper and paints used, availability and contact information can be found at my website www.jannekesatelier.webs.com
The challenge for the month of March (by 'Goed Gezien - Goed Bekeken' the amateur art association of which I am a member) is 'Wat vliegt daar?' - or in English: What flies there?
A lot of ideas come up, some absurd, some very common and some that are to be thought over. I decided to ask for ideas during a day out with some members of my family.
This painting is the result of the suggestions that came up and were discussed while we enjoyed a good cup of coffee.
I have made my own composition using most of the ideas that were suggested, choosing the elements from the suggestions that I liked and ending up with a painting that still has my own 'handwriting', with a little inspiration - assistance.
I have used some of my Limited edition Twilight Colours combined with colours from my regular palette to give this scene the atmosphere I wanted it to have.
The replacement of the broomstick by a more high-tech piece of household equipment is an obvious sign of Modern Times and of course the empty box is taken by the cats.
More information about this watercolour painting (size, materials used, availability, contact information, etc) can be found at my website www.jannekesatelier.webs.com
A few weeks ago my husband Peter and me were on a short vacation in the village of Reifferscheid, Germany. We were there for the beautiful nature of the Eiffel region and we made some short walks.
During the walk we made on our last day we came across a small chapel, standing on the edge of a hill, making a nice view.
Of course we visited the chapel and made some pictures.
During the rest of the walk we had nice views of the little chapel from the other hilltops we were passing.
That little chapel inspired me, but I had to think how I wanted to paint it.
Several ideas came up and this is the first painting with the little chapel as its subject.
I have changed the scene to a forested area with snow, using the limited edition Twilight Colours for the atmosphere I wanted to paint.
There will be more paintings and I really want to paint the chapel on the edge of the hill, the way it attracted my attention.
More information about this painting (paper and colours used, size, availability, etc) can be found at my website www.jannekesatelier.webs.com
Sometimes I walk to my job having a great view and this time I just had to use the opportunity to make a quick picture with my phone. The picture was not perfect of course but I have made the best of it.
The walking path and bicycle path have a bend in the distance so they don't end in the 'vanishing point'. The bushes on the slope of the railroad were dark and in the shadows so I have only suggested their shapes. At the moment I took my picture I was alone on that walking path so the scene is calm.
I have used my Twilight Colours and added a yellow and a grey-blue for the colours of the sunrise and the deepest shadows. The lines of the lamp posts and the overhead of the railroad are made with a water soluble pencil, that can be applied more subtle when needed. The Twilight Colours can also give nice dark mixtures but that would have been too dark for this purpose.
I enjoyed painting this and experimenting a bit more with the colours on my palette.
More information about this watercolour painting can be found at my website www.jannekesatelier.webs.com
As I told before, we went to our Natural Reserve 'Sallandse Heuvelrug' for a short vacation in the week between Christmas and New Year's Eve. In the four days we were there, we went hiking for three days. Each day had its own kind of weather and the differences were inspiring us to make lots of photographs.
The first day we were walking in the late afternoon, just before sunset. We had driven to our destination first and thus it was not really early as we started walking.
We had chosen a marked trail of about 6 km and because we were making so many photographs, we were not making much progress.
One of the rules about walking in the Natural Reserves in The Netherlands is that you are free to walk on the paths of a Natural Reserve, but you have to leave before sunset. Because it was winter, we made it just in time.
The sky was clear that afternoon and the colours of the sunset were wonderful. I could not help making some reference pictures for the purpose of painting later - back at home.
As this was a twilight scene, I used my Twilight Colours to paint it. I chose to do this painting on a quarter sheet (a full sheet is 51 x 76 cm, usually I use a half sheet, 38 x 51 cm). The thoughts behind that choice are not easy to explain, usually this is a decision based upon the 'feeling' of my subject and most of the times I make a decision that gives me a nice painting as a result.
More information about this watercolour painting can be found at my website www.jannekesatelier.webs.com
After having painted this little tree in the 'real' colours, I wanted to try to make a second version using my set of Twilight Colours. I decided to do a small painting this time and I chose to use paper that is very white.
While I was taping my sheet of paper down I decided to make a mixed-media using the paint for the background and some of my Graphitint (watersoluble) pencils for the tree and some details in the bushes and on the path.
I did not paint the trees on the left now so I could concentrate on the little tree in the curve of the path.
For the bushes in the background I used the granulating colours in my set of Twilight Colours: they fade away nicely, even where I applied a thicker layer of colour.
The sky, the path and the foreground are painted with the colours that do not granulate so much and I really am happy with the results.
For the path and the shadows I used the grain of my paper, lightly going over it with my pencil gives the same effect my granulating colours do. But this gives just a bit more control. The trees and bushes were drawn in the usual way and I made some accents with little strokes of a small brush with clear water.
This was a 'quick one' as it did not take much time to make, but this is one of the experiments I promised myself to do over the year: getting to know all the possibilities my paints and pencils have to offer. I will have to extend that to next year and maybe even further and that does not bother me at all!
More information about this painting can be found at my website www.jannekesatelier.web.com
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
After three paintings with blue, grey and green as most important colours, I wanted to do something different.
The scene is familiar - a small lake with reeds, some bushes and lots of clouds hanging over but now I decided to transfer that to the Twilight colours. Working like that is a bit more challenging than transferring to black and white - like when I make a charcoal drawing - but I like challenges like that.
The reference picture was taken by my son from a bird watcher's hideout overlooking the small lake called 'Hilversumse Bovenmeent'. As it was getting late in the afternoon, the birdwatchers had already left - as had the birds.
Still the view was great and worth being painted, especially with those clouds.
More information about this watercolour and the other paintings I made after our walk around the 'Naardermeer' can be found at my new website www.jannekesatelier.webs.com
There really is a story behind this one!
First of all, we did see an abandoned gate like this during a walk through Vila Nova de Gaia, in Portugal. At that moment I asked my husband to take a picture for me, if only to remember the scene but I never used that picture as a reference.
The memory of that gate remained and the plan to use the scene for a painting also kept lingering on the background of my to-do list.
A few days ago my daughter was talking to me and used the word 'gates' to explain something and all of a sudden I saw the picture I wanted to paint! Of course I made my apologies for not listening very well and got my sketchbook out and started composing my painting.
When I started doing that, I planned a charcoal drawing but as I continued sketching it 'became' a watercolour and while thinking over which colour scheme would be the best for this painting I decided on the Twilight colours.
I am still not as comfortable with that set of colours as I am with the others on my palette so this was also a nice exercise for me.
That scene keeps calling out to me, so I expect to paint more gates - with different colour schemes, maybe also a charcoal drawing and certainly with some variations compared to the first sketch I made.
More information about this watercolour (size, colours used, etc.) can be found at www.jannekesatelier.co.nr
Yesterday was my .....th birthday and I really had a great day. Last week the sun was shining almost all the time, so we could see blue skies again. That really helped getting in a festive mood!
Most people my age - and younger - don't know what to wish for, but having a painting passion gives inspiration for my wish list as well.
I am really happy with my new watercolour paper, some extra tubes of those beautiful Twilight Colours (by Winsor&Newton Artists'), paper for charcoal drawing and paper for my sketches.
I also use good quality paper for making the sketches I work from. As I mostly work after reference pictures, making a sketch is important. While making the sketch, I get acquainted with my subject and I make my first choices: what I want to show and what I think is less important. The sketch is full of details and notes.
The drawing on my watercolour paper is less detailed for I don't want to have to erase much of my pencil marks. Erasing is not always easy for sometimes it damages the painted surface - depending on the colours I used. So I have the sketch nearby when I am painting, looking at my notes and the details I put in.
I do not use my reference picture anymore at this point, all I need to know to make the painting I want to make is in my sketch and in my head....
Working like this, I can also go back to a sketch I made a long time ago and use it for another painting - sometimes to try a different colour scheme, sometimes to try to do it better and even sometimes to do a charcoal drawing.
One of my good intentions for this year is to explore my palette a bit more than I have up till now. So from time to time I will make a second painting using a sketch I made.
This time I used the scene at Borkum again (from the reference photo Katja Lemcke kindly allowed me to use) within a week after I made my first painting, but now I painted with my set of Twilight Colours.
I really like working with that set although I am not yet fully familiar with its possibilities. Never mind, the year is not over and I am looking forward to painting a lot more with these colours.
More information about this painting can be found at www.jannekesatelier.co.nr
I am still experimenting with the possibilities of my new set of Twilight Colours.
This time - inspired by all the snowscapes that are appearing on fb this time of the year - I decided to transform an autumn landscape into a snowscape. In fact that is not so very difficult; you just need another set of colours, a bit of salt and some patience.
My first plan was to make the ground dark with a few white patches and so I started out making the sky, bushes , trees and the falling snow and left the painting to dry completely. When I stepped back I decided to change that plan and make the ground white with a few dark patches and some shadows. It really didn't need much more than a few carefully placed touches.
As reference I used a picture my husband Peter made for me when we were walking in the Renderklippen (the Veluwe) last October.
More information about this painting (size, colours used, etc.) can be found at www.jannekesatelier.co.nr
Just before sunrise on the Maasvlakte 2, in the Port of Rotterdam.
The sky is cloudy and very dark, below the clouds are shades of blue.
The big elevators for the containers in the port are standing out against the sky.
I am looking towards the west, so there is no red or yellow colour in the sky, just blues and greys.
The moment I saw this I knew I had to paint it.
For my composition I relied mostly on my memories and a little on references for the correct shapes of the elevators.
So here is the second painting with my set of Twilight Colours - the set is perfect for scenes like this! I used the red only to create the grey colours of the elevators and the port side.
More information about this painting (and my other paintings) can be found at www.jannekesatelier.co.nr
The special edition colours by Winsor&Newton Professional were too tempting.
I already had the Smalt (Dumont's Blue) and I never use black colours, so I bought Sanguine Red, Quinacridone Violet, Aqua Green and Cobalt Green Deep.
It was a challenge to find something to paint for an average reference photo does not have (all) those nice colours. Last winter we were in the train that rides alongside the river Douro at the time of sunset and my daughter Mariska made a lot of pictures.
I decided to use one of them, a picture I had not painted before.
The sunset was really nice and reflected in the river beautifully, I just had to change the colours a bit. The mountains were all black because of the strong backlight, but I do remember seeing detail in them so I painted them that way.
Getting used to a new set of colours is not done with just one painting so I expect to have a lot of fun with this in the near future!
More information about this watercolour and the others I made after our winter trip to Portugal last year can be found at www.jannekesatelier.co.nr
