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
It has been a few years since I had seen them, but this year they are back: almost every evening I can see starlings swarming and looking for a good place to sleep.
They do this in the last half hour before sunset and some time after, while there is still some light.
Maybe this is only seasonal so I am enjoying these swarming birds as often as possible.
Of course I have also been watching them with the idea of a painting somewhere in the back of my mind. Making photographs of these swarms is not easy, the birds are too small to see in a picture made using a camera with average possibilities.
Looking and remembering does work and I have made up a swarm of my own, checking it for credibility with some of my family members.
The landscape is imaginary, but it's based on/inspired by the view from the window of my little studio. The colours used are the muted colours of the evening twilight, short after sunset.
At this time of the year we are in the last weeks of winter, some of the trees are starting to show some glimpses of green and some are still bare, waiting for warmer weather.
In the fading daylight the structures of the bark of the trees disappears, most trees are just dark shapes against the sky at that time of the evening, like they are back-lit.
More information about this watercolour painting (size, materials used, availability, etc) can be found at my website www.jannekesatelier.webs.com
The reference photo for this watercolour painting had been waiting for almost two years now. My son Martijn lives in Almere, which is in what we call 'the New land', one of the polders made in the IJsselmeer. His birthday is in September so when we drive home after a visit the chances of a nice sunset are good. Usually my daughter Mariska makes a picture from the car when I ask her to.
Because of the poor light circumstances the fields were very dark and without structure in the reference photo so I have changed that part a bit. I had to do this from my memory because since the photo has been made, parking places have been made there.
The railroad is still the same. On the right is the little railway station, unfortunately its structure is mostly on ground level. Behind the railroad only one building is visible. There are plans to build more of course as the town of Almere will be developed further in the next decades.
Maybe it is due to the rainy weather but painting this was not without struggle. It can also be caused by the fact that I did not soak and stretch my paper before starting to paint. The surface of the paper reacts differently to water and paint when the coating from the mill is not removed by the soaking and stretching. It's easier to remove paint this way and I had forgotten that - I remembered quickly though.
Nevertheless I made a painting I like very much.
For the first time I used Chinese White in this painting - only to highlight the moon a bit. After I had removed the masking fluid I tried to soften the edges and the result was not good, so I tried to hide that behind some clouds, and still I was not happy about it. The white paint did the trick, as it is not very opaque (like gouache) the clouds are still there, but my moon is round again.
More information about this watercolour painting (size, paper and paint used, etc) can be found at my website www.jannekesatelier.webs.com
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
