View in Zwijndrecht (Netherlands)

 

This week I decided to make another reference picture for the contest of Project Rembrandt, this time from my mother's home. She lives on the eighth floor so the views usually are great. The Great Church of Dordrecht is in the painting, but there are a lot of buildings in front of it, both in Dordrecht and in Zwijndrecht.

The subject of the contest was a skyline or street view in black and white, emphasizing the dark-and-light contrast. That is what I have tried here, using only a black watercolour paint and the white of my paper. 

The Great Church is the most distant building. It is made in bricks and relatively dark against the sky, as the buildings in front of it are made of concrete, so they have a lighter colour. There are some more rows of buildings, mostly houses that are too far away for details. More near the standing point of the viewer is a line of (bare, it still is winter) trees and in front of those are rows of houses and some detached houses in the foreground. These have the darkest shades, the rooftops are almost black. There was a bit of sunlight reflected in the rooftop windows, giving a nice contrast. I have also indicated the fields, hedgerows and a small pathway on the left. 

The result is what I hoped it would be and I made this painting my second entry for the contest.

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.

Where three rivers meet - at sunset

A few weeks ago we had visitors and as the weather was great, we went for a walk by the riverside. Whe live near the point where three rivers meet: Merwede, Noord and Oude Maas. On the left you have a view on Dordrecht, on the right hand side lies Zwijndrecht, behind the trees of the riverside park.
In the weekends the river is quiet, not so many boats as during weekdays.
The upcoming sunset was colouring the sky in a marvelous way so we stopped for pictures. My husband Peter made the reference picture I used for this watercolour painting.

Painting a sky without clouds is a thing I do not often get the chance to do, so this was a bit of a challenge.
The colours of the sky were reflected in the water, but as there was a lot of wind the water was not  calm. As this is a point where rivers meet and the tides are still of influence the water is never completely calm here.

I enjoyed painting a view that actually is very close to my home. To us this is a beautiful spot to visit all around the year. There is so much to be seen - even when traffic is low - and the light changes every minute.
In fact this was a favorite spot for some of our Old Masters as well and I can easily understand why!

The information about size, colours used etc can be found on my website www.jannekesatelier.webs.com