Autumn colours

During our walk in Bayeux (France) we passed by a nice bush with a few red leaves left on it, blue berries and some very red branches. All those branches were tangled but I did like the colours and made a reference picture.

The bush was growing over a low wall and the background of my reference picture is the water of the river Aure that flows though Bayeux.
I have no idea of the name of this plant, usually the names of plants are easy to find, but this is a mystery.

My reference picture was cropped to select the section I wanted to paint.
This was done mostly to find a nice section without leaves that belong to other plants that grow nearby. And of course I have made a background that would not distract the attention from my subject.

The details about paper and paint used, size, availability and contact information can be found at my website www.jannekesatelier.webs.com 

End of summer - the Viburnum has berries

The end of the long, hot summer is here and most of the days the weather is inviting for a walk. Very close to my home is the 'Alblasserbos' so we don't have to take the car to get to the beginning of our walk. The forest area itself has lots of oak trees, willows, beech trees and poplars, but the outer edges have bushes of all sorts. 
Amongst these bushes are some Viburnums and they are showing their berries now. The leaves are changing colour and are full of small holes, that may be due to the extremely dry summer we had this year.

I made some reference pictures with the idea to paint the berries and some of the leaves.
Of course I could have used a white background, but that was not what I wanted. The rest of the bush - and the other bushes standing next to this one - are suggested by the variety in green colours and some lines that suggest more leaves.
The background is done wet - in - wet and the suggested leaves are placed on a dry surface and faded with a little water.

I had applied masking fluid for the branches and it was not easy to fade the hard edges after removing the masking fluid. Maybe next time I will try to shape the branches by taking out the paint with a moist brush, so I can compare the results of both techniques.

The leaves and berries were left white and filled in later. Finding the right shade of green was the next 'problem' and I have added a bit more yellow and a brown to suggest the autumn colours that were visible in most parts of the bush. 
The berries had different colours, some very red, some a bit more orange. Finding the right colour mixes was not difficult. I added some suggestions of berries to the background.
The leaves were still not what I wanted, so I took one of my Line Markers and drew the leaf veins with it. The result was what I had hoped for and I decided to stop at this point.

The picture may not show the painting as it is, please tilt the screen a bit to see all the shades of green I have painted. 

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

The fourth Sunday of Advent

This year I decided to paint landscapes that were inspired on the Gospel readings belonging to the four Sundays of Advent. 

That is easier said than done, because in the Roman Catholic Church in The Netherlands we read the Gospels in a three year cycle.

So I asked my mother for her old missal, published in 1957 (long before that three year cycle was introduced) and used that as my source of information.

This painting is inspired by Luke 3, 4b - 5: The voice of one crying in the wilderness, Prepare ye the way of the Lord, make his paths straight.

5Every valley shall be filled, and every mountain and hill shall be brought low; and the crooked shall be made straight, and the rough ways shall be made smooth (source of the English text is www.kingjamesbibleonline.org)

Of course I have included some other elements that are connected to Advent - at least they are connected for me.

The star is a sign we hang in our windows when Advent starts and we remove it after Epiphany. So in every painting the star is present, though hidden behind some clouds.

A star means night, so the main colour is Indigo and only where the light shines other colours are introduced. 

The landscapes are scenes that are familiar to me: I did not search the internet for the landscapes of Israel, but I chose to paint variations on the nature of The Netherlands and Belgium. Sometimes I used a lot of imagination, sometimes I did not add much to the original landscape.

Because the text of this Sunday is related to the text of the third Sunday I have tried to make the landscapes look like they are related also. I used most of the elements that featured in the other paintings, such as the bushes, the reeds, a stone, small trees, the path of course and the illusion of a forest in the background.

More information about my Advent Project can be found at my website www.jannekesatelier.webs.com 

Near Fauvillers - walking towards the Forest of Anlier

Another memory from our last vacation in The Ardennes. At this point we have left the village of Fauvillers behind us and are almost entering the Forest of Anlier. Before we really are between the trees we just have to follow this path downhill.

This vacation I have been making my own reference pictures - usually my husband makes them on my request as he is holding the camera.
I chose this scene because I was inspired by the lines of the fencing, the bushes and the path. The electricity poles and cables add to this as well.
This picture was taken a few hours after sunrise and the sky was still a bit gray. (later that day we would have sunshine, blue skies and some clouds)

For the painting I chose a small size (1/4 sheet instead of 1/2 sheet) because the scene 'asked' for that approach.
Some details like the electricity cables, the wire in the fencing and some of the grasses are made with my Professional Watercolour Sticks. As expected I have experienced that they are great for drawing these details, like the dry brush technique they can give the dashed lines I want.

Painting this one was fun for me! More vacation memories are waiting to be painted so you can expect some great views and forest scenes in the next weeks.

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

Painting week in the Ardennes - Path in Sepia

The second painting day (painting week in the Ardennes with Buitenatelier - see my previous post for details) we drove to a field not far from our vacation home. 
There was a lot to see and paint here, fields, hills, cows, a flower field, bushes...

I found a small path into the forest and decided to paint the lines of the trees, as a contrast to the round shapes of the bushes and the curves of the path.
The theme for this week was Contrast, so I decided on a contrast in shapes for today.

In order to make that very visible, I decided to make a monochromatic watercolour using Sepia. That is a colour I am not so familiar with so I worked carefully, adding colour and shapes only after the paint I already applied was dried completely. With the sun and wind I never had to wait long though.

Again I made a cadre with tape on my watercolour paper and filled that completely with paint.
Once again this way of working was not my usual way of painting, but I had a lot of fun working like this and I am happy with the result.

More information about this painting can be found at www.jannekesatelier.webs.com 

That one little red bush

Autumn colours do not come at all trees and bushes at the same time. 
So here all was still in shades of green exept that one little bush which had coloured to a fiery red and really stood out.
I decided it deserved to be painted, so my daughter Mariska made some reference pictures for me. The green foliage was still there, but it already had a lot of thin spots. 
So I decided to make a charcoal drawing, that material makes it easier to show that air through the branches. And a Cadmium Red pastel pencil for the brave little bush.

More information about this drawing (size etc.) can be found at www.jannekesatelier.co.nr