Winter fantasy - Ondenval

 

During our short vacation in the small village of Ondenval (Ardennes, Belgium) I was looking for inspiration for the Christmas card for this year and I asked my husband for a picture of the church of the village, taken from a path we were walking at that time.

The picture was made with the camera, so the focus was on the village - not on the surrounding hills, forest areas and fields as my phone-camera would have done. 

The church had to be the subject for the card, so I selected a nice part of the reference picture for my painting. For a Christmas card the season had to be changed, so I added some snow, dropped the foliage of the trees and bushes and added light to the church windows.

The browns for the trees are chosen because there are no evergreen trees in this part of the village so there will be no green in winter time. In this village the roofs of the buildings are made with slate and the buildings are made using bricks and natural stones, all in shades of brown. That gives me a nice limited palette to work with, which I really like very much.

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.

Please contact me if you are interested in my work.

Church on the river - winter mood

 

The little church on the river Waal did inspire me to paint it in more than one composition, as I wrote in my previous post. In that post I also wrote about the church itself and why I decided to paint it more than once.

This time the reflections in the river are not important for my composition, instead I painted the church in a winter mood using the colours of the sky to get that particular atmosphere. Of course I could have painted a very dramatic skyscape, but our winters often have very calm days with only a few clouds in the sky that disappear within a few hours after sunrise. 

That was the calm winter mood I wanted to paint and I chose my colours carefully. The trees are bare now so there is a tangle of branches in different shades of brown. The bushes, both beside the church as well as in the foreground are more dense and I chose different shades for them. The riverside still has the dyke but most of its vegetation is resting in winter, only some bushes and shadows are visible. There is a reflection in the river, but that is not the most important part of this composition, so it is only suggested with a minimal amount of colour.

It is a winter morning and the lights in the church are on - maybe it's a Sunday, maybe the volunteers are cleaning up or decorating for a festivity, everything is possible.

Painting a winter scene from imagination while it's end of summer (all the trees I can see from my window are still green and the sky is mostly grey) is challenging but I am really happy with the result.

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.

Church on the river

 

During my painting vacation we went to the river Waal for inspiration. We stayed a few hours to make sketches and pictures for future reference. Last painting vacation I did chose a theme for myself and I used the picture I made of a wild teasel for a drawing.

Of course there was more to see than only a wild teasel and I have made reference pictures and sketches inspired by the views of the river and a side stream with beautiful trees and bushes. On the other bank of the river I could see a small church - when I was in the right spot - and I made a sketch of that church as well. It was too far away for a picture, so I only have the sketch and my memories of the scene. I have tried to find the church on a map and I found that it is in fact very far from the riverside. To compose a landscape using the sketch as my guide I will have to use the church, the trees and bushes behind it and a bit of the dyke in front of the building and create an imaginary scene with these elements.

When I was there, it was still summer, with a blue sky and the trees and bushes were in shades of green, hardly distinguishable from each other. The paintings I want to make will have the colour scheme I feel like at that moment and I will be using the black-and-white sketch to determine the proportions of the church, the trees and the bushes I have been drawing.

Today I wanted to paint after that sketch and I have chosen to paint some reflections in the river as well, so the horizon is high in my composition and there is a lot of room for the water of the river.  I wanted some colour in my painting so I have made an imaginary autumn scene.

The results are what I hoped for - and even a bit better - so I will make more paintings using this sketch as my inspiration.

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.

Église St Pierre, Port-en-Bessin - evening mood

Last week we (my husband and me) were in Port-en-Bessin, on the coast of Normandy (France). We had found a nice vacation home there and we could see the little church of St Pierre just across the lawn in front of the parking place. 
The first evening we were in need of a walk, after two days in the car so we made use of the good weather and walked towards the church, made some (reference) pictures and walked some more streets in the direct surroundings of our vacation home.
We returned after sunset, in the last light of the evening.

There were some nice dark clouds when we were outside and they did give the church and its tower a great background. Because it was really late and the light in the house was not great to paint by (a bit yellowish), I decided to make a charcoal drawing. That does not give any problems with colour matching so the shade of the light did not really matter.

Of course, in broad daylight the church does have a foundation, a churchyard with a fence, a house nearby and some trees behind it, but this evening, with night falling, dark clouds and a hint of fog on the ground there was an air of mystery that I wanted to capture in my drawing.

There are some more pictures of this little church, so maybe one day I will make a more detailed painting.

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

View from the Churchyard - Reifferscheid

Last October we were for a short vacation in the small German village of Reifferscheid, in the Eiffel region. On the day of our arrival we went for a walk around the high part of the village, mostly to stretch our legs a little after the drive from home. The high part of the village is the ancient castle area, surrounded by walls and on a high hilltop. Our vacation home was close to the old gate, a few minutes walking brought us to the other end where the white church was. 
As it was autumn, the days were short and our walk was made at the hour of sunset. The light was beautiful and I really enjoyed being outside at that moment. We made a lot of pictures and I started painting that same evening after dinner.
The reference pictures I made from the church and churchyard had to wait a little longer, but today I wanted to paint this view.

I was inspired by the shadows on the building, the almost random placement of the graves and the view on the hills opposite the village, all in that wonderful evening light.
Painting all that was a bit of a challenge for me, especially the graveyard with the graves. Because there were so many shadows the shapes were to be guessed in some cases, only the difference in colour made the gravestones stand out against one another.
I have (again) chosen to suggest most of the shapes of the stones, some graves and the plants between them.

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

In the Abbey garden

About two years ago I visited the Abbey of Postel (Belgium) with a group of people and I had some time alone which I used to walk in the area and sketch. 
The Abbey has a nice church and a garden around that church and both are inspiring. Because there is not much space and there were a lot of tourists as well, I did make only one sketch I was not really very happy about. So I have not painted the scene until now.

When I  made my sketch I was inspired by the trees and the backside of the church that was surrounded by them. 
To make the sketch I had to stand in the back of the herb garden and I did draw the path I was standing on in my initial sketch but I only suggested it in the painting.

When I was there, it was almost summer and the trees and bushes were full of leaves, hiding most of the church and the  other buildings of the Abbey were not visible from that standing point, most of them were hidden by the tall trees. 

For this watercolour painting I have mixed lots of greens for the trees, the bushes, the small hedgerow and of course all the shadows and I really am happy about how I manage to do that now. As I have written a long time ago, I do not use green paints any more, I mix my greens with blues and yellows and the results are really satisfying - for me.

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

Abbaye St Michel

On the way to the location of my painting vacation I made some stops. For coffee of course but also one for taking pictures. I followed the signs to 'Abbaye St. Michel' and was very happy with the views I had on that beautiful building.
Together with our teacher Ad van Aart I selected this view to be painted in watercolour. It includes both buildings and trees, the items I wanted to pay attention to this painting vacation.

In fact the building was not giving me the trouble I had thought it would, because of the trees and branches in front of the church I could work in a more 'painterly' fashion on the architecture.
The tree on the right gave me most of the trouble here and the advice to add some dots of a green mixture over the dark shadowy shape after it had dried completely was the best I could get here. Now I have to remember this for the next times.

I am very happy with this result, I really had not thought this could be the outcome of my turning off the road and following a sign towards an abbey.

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

A brown beech tree in springtime

A few months ago I became member of IWS Holland. That is a nice group of watercolourists, both amateurs like me and professionals are in it. A few times each year a meeting is organised in a beautiful spot so that we can meet, talk and paint together.
Last time we met in the town of Vleuten (in The Netherlands) where a nice little church stands surrounded by large trees. On the side of the churchyard is a huge brown beech tree. As it was springtime, the foliage was brightly coloured and not as full and dark as it will be in summer. The sun was shining brightly so the light yellow and red shades of the young leaves were attracting my attention.
I made a sketch and some reference pictures, selected a piece of paper and started to paint. Somehow my tree was not what I wanted it to be and some of the other members of IWS Holland were giving me valuable advise. My painting of that day ended up as an autumn scene and not completely mine as I was given a demonstration of how to paint an interesting tree. 
Of course I am very grateful for the demonstration and with all that fresh in my memory I started another painting the next day. This time I worked from one of my reference pictures and really tried to make a tree in springtime.
Brown beech trees look like autumn in this time of the year: bright yellow and red colours instead of the more usual green leaves. The colours of the leaves will turn to a reddish brown very soon and stay like that all summer.

I have discovered that a tree in springtime is not an easy subject. The sun shone through the leaves, giving lots of colour but not much shadows, as the foliage is not very close yet. The trunk of the tree and the large lower branches are still very visible and that makes it hard work to suggest volume in the foliage.

This painting may be not one of my best, but I will continue painting trees in all seasons, untill I have mastered my subject.

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

Exposition in 'Kerkcentrum Holy' in Vlaardingen, the Netherlands

Last year I responded to a call for artists willing to join the summer exhibition in the Church centre in Vlaardingen-Holy. Two of my watercolour paintings were accepted and were in a exposition for about three months.

When that arrangement was made, I was also offered six weeks of solo-exposition in the same centre, beginning today March 13th until April 19th.

Last weeks I have been selecting and framing my paintings for this exhibition. 

I have chosen to show a variety of techniques and mostly the landscapes of The Netherlands as subject.

So this morning we packed the fifteen selected paintings in the car and drove to the town of Vlaardingen to hang the exposition.

This is an impression of the results of our work:

Eight large watercolours in a long row, three smaller ones on another wall and a wall with four varied works: a mixed media with pencil, two gouache works on black background and one charcoal drawing.

More information about this exposition can be found at my website www.jannekesatelier.webs.com under the button 'Expositions'

Coffee with a view

This autumn my husband and me were on a short vacation again. This time we wanted to go a bit further from home than last year so on the way we had to make some (coffee) stops. The last one was on the parking place near Monswiller in France, just before crossing the border to Germany. The coffee was nice and so was the view from our table.
Because there was a small construction zone at the end of the parking place I only made a sketch, no reference picture. 

The church tower did catch my attention. It was visible from behind some bushes and was high enough to be seen above the mountains in the distance. Houses were visible around the church and the village also has some trees. 
The village is situated in a small valley but the higher parts were showing themselves, almost asking to be sketched and painted.

I decided to use warm autumn colours again and the paper I used is new for me. 
I have bought a small size block of Arches paper in  a special offer and decided to try that on vacation. This really is great paper!

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

View on Bütgenbach - evening mood

The first time I saw the church towers of Bütgenbach I already knew I wanted to paint them as they were at that moment: far away in the evening mist. 
I made some reference pictures to remember the atmosphere of that evening and I made a sketch of the scene in the brighter light of the following morning.
The colours were still very much related to the blues and greens of summer but after a week of shades of blue and green I needed a change. So I decided on a limited palette of french ultramarine, burnt sienna and violet to give the scene a different mood.

Because of the evening mist, there are not so many details visible on the towers and surrounding buildings, but this was the view that did draw my attention. 
Adding the 'highlights' to make the foreground stand out a bit more was a bit of an experiment as I did not know whether it would work in this colour scheme, but it turned out really nice!

More information about this watercolour painting can be found at my website: www.jannekesatelier.webs.com 

Painting week in the Ardennes - view on Bütgenbach

In my previous posts I already explained I was on a painting trip, one week in the Ardennes. The trip was organised by the art teachers of Buitenatelier who always know how to find great painting locations not too far from our homes. 
The Ardennes, in the eastern region of Belgium is one of those great places to paint. 
We live for one week in a former hotel - now a vacation home - and go to different locations every day to sketch, take pictures and paint.

This view was from the 'living room' towards the small town of Bütgenbach. The towers of the church, some houses and other buildings and of course lots of trees and bushes.
I made my sketch with the thought that I could paint from it later, back in my own home, but it turned out differently. I was encouraged to make a frame on my paper - with some tape that can easily be removed after my painting is dry - and to paint my 'View on Bütgenbach' within that smaller space on my paper. I had to use all of the space I had framed, something I do not always do when painting on a larger piece of paper.

The result is really nice, new for me and really fun to do!

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

Zürich by fog - watercolour version

This scene was too much fun to make only a charcoal drawing, so I wanted to make a watercolour as well. As the foggy atmosphere gave the reference picture a monochromatic look already I decided to make a watercolour with Indigo as its only colour.

Of course there are differences between the drawing I made and this watercolour, I do not use a projector to transfer my sketches to the paper. 
The difference in techniques and my experiences in them also make a difference, of course.

While painting I decided to change the way the bridge stands out from the background.

More information about this watercolour (size, paper and paint used, etc) can be found at my website www.jannekesatelier.co.nr 

Zürich by fog

Last winter my son and his girlfriend went to see Switzerland - part of it. 
They also visited Zürich and managed to make some really nice pictures in foggy weather.

One of those pictures became the inspiration for a charcoal drawing. 
As the picture really is hazy, I had difficulties to find the outlines of all the buildings. I usually feel more confident fading lines when I know where they should be in the first place. And I really had to fade a lot as only the left side of the bridge was not hidden in the fog. 

As I was working on this drawing, I also wanted to paint a watercolour after the sketch I made using this reference picture. So there is more to come!

For more information (size, paper used etc) please visit my website www.jannekesatelier.co.nr 

View on Ptuj

As I mentioned before, my children like to travel and they bring home lots of pictures and stories. Both the pictures and the stories are inspiring me to paint although sometimes the pictures have to wait a while before I am ready to use them.

This is a scene in Slovenia, the small town of Ptuj as can be seen across the river Drava. The reference picture was made by my son Martijn.

The reflections of the buildings and the trees in the water attracted my attention here and I have been wanting to paint it several times, but I kept hesitating about what paper size to use and how to crop the reference picture - or not at all.
Today I just started sketching and ended up approximately halfway the reference picture. 
This way I could give more attention to the reflections and that is what I wanted to do here.

More information about this watercolour (size, colours used, etc) can be found on my website  www.jannekesatelier.co.nr 

View to Cuijk

Two years ago we were on a short vacation near the town of Nijmegen to celebrate some birthdays, a wedding anniversary and of course to have fun. Some of the days we split up in smaller groups to do what we liked to do and not bother the others with that. Some of us went for a walk in a one part of the area and my children rented bikes to go riding in another, more challenging part of the area. 
It was still April so not all the trees were covered with leaves yet and because it had rained a lot in the previous days there was a foggy atmosphere. 
At some point my son Martijn took the reference picture for this painting. 
Looking over the fields towards the towers of the church of Cuijk that were almost disappearing in the fog. 

The reason this picture took almost two years to get painted is mostly because of all the bushes. It is hard for me - using a wet-in-wet technique mostly - to paint bushes as they should be. This time I really took the time to make a sketch with all the shadows in it for reference while painting. And I let my paper dry completely and work on that dry paper for the dark shadows. So I had to be patient - but it worked out better than in some paintings I did before.

More information about this picture (paper and colours used, size etc) can be found at my website www.jannekesatelier.co.nr 

The path along the church

The church of Maboge (in the Ardennes) is in fact a very normal church, only the weather vane is a bit out of balance. Walking down towards that church you pass by  a weeping willow, a fence, some walls around the gardens of the houses in that street and of course the churchyard.
I was attracted by that church, the wall around the churchyard with the streetlight and that weeping willow at the other side of the street. So I made my sketch and started to think about my painting.
Using the complementary colours yellow and violet gives a colour range from the pure yellow via all the brownish grey shades in between them to pure violet. As the image is very simple, the limited palette gives a very surrealistic atmosphere to the path along the church.

More information about this watercolour (size, colours used etc.) can be found at www.jannekesatelier.co.nr

Day by day -Ardennes day five

Today is about colours. We were invited to find our inspiration for today's painting in the village. The church was a favourite subject and we all had a different approach. I painted with complementary colours. As I had forgotten to pack extra ultramarine, the blue/orange pair was not an option. Green is very present in the paintings I did the other days, so purple/yellow was today's choice.
My subject was the church with the weeping willow in front of it. There is a wall around the churchyard and a road and many more things but I decided to make my composition with only the elements that attracted me.
Later, after I finished my waterolour painting I made some postcards with my watercolour markers. Those are nice and I am still exploring their possibilities.