They fell too early....

 

The chestnut tree in our garden had a lot of flowers this spring and there were many little chestnuts growing on the branches of the tree. Usually there are more little chestnuts than the tree can feed so over time some fall. That begins at the end of spring and it will end in a few weeks. The ones that are still in the tree by then will grow to be beautiful large chestnuts.  

What falls now is at least three to five centimetres in diameter and when they open, a very little chestnut is already inside.

For this watercolour painting I have dripped some paint on a stretched watercolour paper, like I did during my painting vacation,. This time the paint I used was not very concentrated so it would dry faster (I work indoors now) and it could also be painted over without disturbing the background layer. 

On my background I have made a composition of chestnuts still inside their husks and some of the empty husks, that have opened after drying. Some are exactly the right size, but most of the chestnuts are painted larger than life. The fallen chestnut shells dry quickly and turn (dark) brown so I used the real colours of my subjects to paint them. Adding shadows to these dark brown colours was not easy, but I managed to suggest their round shapes and add some depth to the composition.

The information about the materials I have used, the size of this painting and its availability can all be found in my Tumblr blog.

Our chestnut tree - end of summer

It's about time for an update on the chestnut tree in my front garden.
The chestnuts are falling off early this year, probably due to the hot and dry summer we had here. They fall inside their shells this time, sometimes in small groups with a part of the branch they were growing on.
Most of these will end in school, as my husband is a (primary) school teacher. 
I have 'saved' some of them and used a chestnut in its shell and a bit of a branch for a drawing.

For this drawing I have not made a sketch, the model was on my drawing table and I have used it directly. 
I have chosen some colours from my Graphitint Pencils and my Watercolour Pencils and combined them, mixing colours like I do when I am painting, until I had the results I was looking for.

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