Delft - Market place

 

Due to the Vermeer exhibition in the Rijksmuseum in Amsterdam there is another Vermeer-themed exhibition in Delft. This one is very interesting as it gives the background information about Delft in Vermeer's time. 

After we had visited the museum, we walked through Delft and had a drink (tea and coffee) on the Market place with a view on the 'Nieuwe Kerk', another church (Maria van Jesse kerk) and some of the restaurants that are there. And trees!

The trees were just getting their foliage, so the colours were between a reddish brown, yellow and green and I really like the time of the year when trees are not only green. Making reference pictures was done quickly (the tea was still hot) but then...

Painting a lot of architecture makes me unhappy, I never can get all those straight lines as they ought to be in a painting - which is not as straight as they are in the reference picture.

So I made a pencil drawing of the buildings, added sky, foreground and trees with watercolour and used two line markers to re-draw the buildings, going over the pencil lines in many places and adding some shadows where the painting needed it. Using line markers on watercolour paper does not result in very straight lines, so this is what I wanted to do.

The result is even better than I hoped for, so I hope that now I have found 'my way' of dealing with architecture in a watercolour painting.

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

If you are interested in my work, please contact me.

Bayeux - the old town

During our short vacation in Normandy (France) we visited the town of Bayeux, mostly because our vacation home was very close to that medieval town.
We did go to see the Tapestry and the Cathedral and walked back to our car by the river Aure that flows through the town. There are two watermills in Bayeux that are still working.

We did have many nice views during our walk in Bayeux, but this one inspired me to paint.
It is quite a change after what I painted before, to do a scene with all those roofs and buildings, but I wanted to paint the colours of the houses we saw in that part of Normandy.

The roofs of the buildings in Bayeux are grey, the colour of slate. The buildings are made with a yellow stone. Even the cathedral has these colours and in the villages we passed we also saw that this stone was used for houses and farms. 

While I was painting this scene I thought I made a wrong choice more than once, because this was not easy. Mostly because the scene is not what I usually paint and also a bit because I was not having ideal painting conditions like I have in my little studio at home. 
In short, this was a fight - with myself, the paper, the paint, the subject, etc.
When I was about to give up, my husband said the painting is nice and I should have a rest and a cup of coffee. That helped.

This watercolour painting is not about the architecture of Old Bayeux, but about how it feels to walk there between those yellow stone buildings by the river Aure and I think I managed to paint that - even though it was not easy to do so.

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

After Sunset - watercolour

This is the second 'After Sunset' painting, this time a watercolour.
I have used the same reference picture that was made by my husband when he was having a celebration in the city of Rotterdam. (see my previous post)

Of course there are differences compared to the 'white on black' painting, the used technique is very different and I really like to compare watercolour to one of the other techniques I use for painting or drawing.

This time the white of the paper still shines through my layers of dark blue for the clouds and the river. The city is painted in very thick paint, so there will be not much of a background colour visible. 
The buildings were painted after I had made my clouds and river and I have been able to give them some more depth by adding some brushstrokes in another dark colour. The city lights are added between the layers of dark grey and sepia and the result is what I aimed for.
The differences in colour are not only explained by the difference in background, I also use a different set of watercolour paints when I am making a watercolour painting. 
For this I am using Professional grade watercolours and for my 'white on black' paintings I am using a different palette with the white gouache on it so I cannot contaminate my other paints.

More information about this watercolour painting and the 'white on black' I am referring to can be found at my website www.jannekesatelier.webs.com 

After sunset - white on black

A few months ago (last September) there was a celebration at my husband's work. The festivities lasted until late, very late at night and all took place in Rotterdam.
My husband had a great day of course, but he also found the time to make some beautiful pictures of the views he had from the Cruise Terminal, where the evening was spent.
He made pictures at the time of the sunset, some before and some after. The sky was beautiful and of course I had to paint this.

Usually I paint the night scenes on 'all black' paper using a mixture of white Gouache and watercolour paints and as much water as I think is possible. 
The black paper still shines through the painted scene, just like the white paper does when I am making a pure watercolour painting.
This quality is what I like about this technique and it really adds to the atmosphere I want to paint.
There are some limits to this, the paint will not flow as beautifully as watercolour does on watercolour paper, so I have to follow the direction of the 'movement' in the clouds with my brush. No vertical lines to define the buildings, these will always be visible and look very unnatural in the clouds. The buildings are not painted, only the light windows.

I have thought about painting this scene in pure watercolour (on a white background) and now I am already planning this in my mind. Painting it will come later.

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

Behind the Cathedral

Between Christmas and New Year's Eve my husband and me went for a short vacation to Saarburg (Germany). I have already painted the beautifully frosted world we walked in but we did do more than that.
The first day of our vacation we started very early and made a stop in the ancient town of Trier and walked in the old city centre for a few hours. That day was already foggy and frosted, but inside a city it is always a bit warmer so we had no frost there. 
Without frost Trier is still a beautiful old town with lots of buildings that have a special history. We enjoyed our walk and made many pictures that also show a lot of other tourists. These could not always be avoided. 
We visited the Cathedral and did not have the time to see everything in there, but outside it is also a very special building, as there were chapels and crypts added to the original building over the past centuries. That can be seen behind the Cathedral, where the different architectures meet.

I made the reference pictures for this painting because the bare tree attracted my attention. It's standing in an open spot in the pavement, completely surrounded by 'city elements' and no other tree in sight. 
The tree is bare because of the winter but that adds to the somewhat alienated atmosphere I felt in that little square.
It took me some time before I started painting this watercolour painting, I needed to have a plan for the Cathedral first. There is a lot of architecture to be seen (and painted) even in this very small part of the building, but the Cathedral is not my main subject so I had to simplify. I think I have simplified enough here, I wanted the Cathedral still recognisable without all the details.

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

Skyscrapers!

According to the list of subjects suggested for this month (September 2018) by Doodlewash today is Skyscraper Day.

In The Netherlands we do not have real skyscrapers, due to the condition of our soil. For inspiration I had to go to the Internet, to find me some reference pictures of skyscrapers.  Of course I have used a vanishing point and a lot of lines (and my eraser), for the perspective has to be right in a composition like this.

I had already decided that I would make a painting 'looking up'. The reason for this choice lies in the Dutch name for these buildings; 'wolkenkrabbers' which translates to 'cloud scrapers'. I wanted the buildings to disappear in the clouds and a 'looking up' view would make painting that just a bit more challenging.

As it all had to be imaginary I have not copied the glass buildings that can be found on the Internet, but decided to use the colours of bricks for my buildings. This way they look more like the buildings that can be found in The Netherlands.

For this painting I have used the cellulose paper I had bought recently and this time the 'fight' was just a little bit harder. This could be caused by the fact I had to do buildings with straight lines this time, combined with the vague shapes in the clouds.
My hairdryer has done a good job here, more than once.

Once again I have used the suggestion by Doodlewash to try something I do not usually do. This time I have painted imaginary buildings in an unusual perspective. 

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