Deelerwoud - Along fields and roads

 

The September challenge of 'Goed Gezien - Goed Bekeken' is 'Along fields and roads' and we are asked to paint our vacation pictures, only I did not make nice pictures of fields and roads, only fields...

So I selected a nice picture of our signposted walk in the Deelerwoud last October (2021) with a field and the path we were walking in a nice composition. The background is a forest area and the trees next to the path are a welcome addition to the view, even though some of them died a long time ago. 

The grasses were already yellow, the trees still had most of their foliage and there was a nice dark sky, it rained lightly during our walk. Together this had a very nice autumnal mood and we enjoyed being there at that time. Now I am happy to remember that walk, using the pictures I made as reference for my watercolour paintings.

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

Fields and a forest edge

 

This scene is what I wanted to paint when I made some reference pictures during our nice signposted walk near Bathmen. The second reference picture, about the details of the building has already been used for a drawing and this was meant to be a watercolour.

The building is still visible in the forest edge but as this is 'the whole landscape' and not a detail, the atmosphere is more open, with the fields in the foreground. At the end of winter, there are not many details in a field of grass, so the fields are mostly green with a few shadows. Later in the year there will be grasses that are higher, other herbs growing and some bumps in the field where animals have been rooting the ground.

The large trees are still bare, just like the little bush in the foreground. The whole fence is visible now, not much more than I had in my drawing.

Making this watercolour was as pleasant as the walk itself and did bring back the memory of this nice, open landscape not very far from the river IJssel.

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.

And then it started to rain a little....

The weather in The Netherlands can be challenging. Today we planned a day of plein-air painting in the beautiful landscape of the 'Alblasserwaard' (where I live) and every time I set up my field easel it really started to rain a little. After a few attempts I gave up completely and went home. Another member of the group also gave up and most of the others were still inside the restaurant talking. Of course the sun started to shine and the rain stopped completely after I started painting in my studio.

If we had stayed on the spot, my painting probably would have been an interesting experiment in wet-on-very wet painting. Of course I was also getting wet and I quickly lost the inspiration needed for such an experiment.

The title is all about the July challenge of 'Goed Gezien - Goed Bekeken', the regional  amateur art association of which I am a member. The coincidence that our day of plein-air painting had exact the kind of weather that we had to depict for the challenge made me decide to submit this painting.

The landscape is imaginary, but based on a scene near the restaurant where our group planned to meet. In the middle of the 'polder' so there are fields, paths, trees, bushes and several ditches. There were some windmills at walking distance (even with my painting stuff to transport) and cows and sheep were visible from our standing point.

I decided to paint a scene with a tree (no surprise here), some fields and the dark clouds that were over the landscape all morning. Because my paper had been wet from the rain, I had a bit of a struggle to get my dark shades in place but in my studio I can speed up the drying process when needed so this turned out the way I wanted it.

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

The Entrance

In  my two previous posts I have written about the estate we visited a few weeks ago and the different wrought iron fences that were to be seen from the road and the parking place. This fence must be (or may be) the main entrance to the estate of Singraven (Netherlands) as there is a road towards the building. It was closed like the others and my husband made some great reference pictures for me.

In my first post about these fences I have painted a side entry - or exit - where no road or path was blocked by the fence.
The second post was about a fence at the other side of the road, where we could enter a nice lane for a short walk.


For this painting I have made up my own composition again, so the building may be the same as in the first painting, I have changed its position again and I have also changed the amount of bushes and trees in the garden between the estate building end the fence.

The reference pictures were made when there was a lot of sunshine (for a few moments) and I have used the shadows of the small poles and the fence to create a different atmosphere for this watercolour painting.
I have used the same paper size and colour scheme as in my other paintings to connect them in more ways than only the subjects.

More information about this watercolour painting and the others I have made with the fences of this estate as sources of inspiration can be found at my website www.jannekesatelier.webs.com 

Starlings swarming

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 

White world - 5

Although I keep naming the paintings 'White World', there is a lot of colour to be seen in the landscape I am painting. That is of course because the white colour in the landscape is frost, frozen fog that forms ice crystals on the branches, grasses and tops of the humps of clay in the fields. There has been no snow in this landscape.

All the reference pictures I have used so far were taken during one walk of five kilometres in the hills above Saarburg, as we walked from our vacation home to the village of Ayl and back. Down in the valley there was no white at all, the temperatures were just above freezing point there.
The views were great in spite of or maybe because of the light fog we had in the beginning of the day. Taking good pictures was not easy, the camera saw too little contrast between the foggy, grey sky and the white bushes. 
This contrast could be seen with the eye so I have added my memory to the pictures when I was painting the watercolours that I named 'White World'.

Once again I have chosen a small size paper and I have used a limited palette of three colours. When we were walking the world seemed to have only two colours, white and gray but closer observation revealed browns and greens as well. I have tried to reproduce the atmosphere of that lightly foggy, cold white landscape without losing the colours that were really there.

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

White world - 2

Last weekend we were near Saarburg (Germany) and we found ourselves in a beautiful  white world. This was because the temperatures were low and the fog had made ice needles on all the branches, humps of clay, grasses, wires, and many more things.

My husband and I were walking in the hills surrounding our vacation home and made many pictures of this beautiful white world. The day after this the weather was warmer and all the ice had gone.

In the afternoons I painted in our vacation home and these pictures were my inspiration. After the first painting I had chosen another beautiful scene, with some pine trees in it. Their darker shapes make the white trees and bushes in the foreground stand out even more.
The tree trunks were dark against all that white and that gives depth to this scene, together with the hilltop in the background.

In this painting I have used paint from one of my watercolour sticks. The result is of course exactly the same as the results from paint in pans or from tubes, it is an extra that the sticks can also be applied like crayons. 

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

White world - 1

This past weekend we were on a short vacation, to the German town Saarburg.
We were in a vacation home on a hill above the town, surrounded by vineyards and some cornfields that are now bare.
The weather was a bit foggy and as the temperatures were low, everything had a layer of frost. We really were in a white world, or almost white. The fact that the original colours of the trees and fields were still showing made this landscape extra beautiful.
We made lots of pictures while we were walking over the hills to the next village (Ayl) and back to our vacation home.

The afternoons were for painting, my husband Peter was enjoying the swimming pool so I could do as I pleased.

Because I never painted a landscape like this before I chose a small size paper and I decided that only a few colours would suffice to paint the atmosphere of that slightly foggy day.
Everything just seemed white, as I said before, the original colours of the fields and trees were visible. The fog made everything that was a bit further away into a gray mass. The pure white is only at the ends of the branches and the tops of the clay in the fields. This means I had to paint much more than just a few outlines. Of course i was prepared for that and I enjoyed painting this scene. 

This is just the first one, I have painted more of this white world in the next days.

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

View on Burg Reifferscheid

 

We did stay in Reifferscheid long enough to make some signposted walks. We chose some short walks of five to seven kilometers and after those walks we would take time to rest and relax in our vacation home. That was also the time for me to paint, making the most of the daylight. The evenings were for reading.
The walks started on the parking place where our car was, not far from the vacation home. We just had to pack a lunch, close the door and start walking.

The first walk we chose went downhill from the hilltop and followed a little valley towards a neighbouring village and then back again through a small forest area and the village of Reifferscheid, which is more than just the hilltop with the remains of the old castle (where our vacation home was located).

There were lots of great views and my husband made the reference picture for this watercolour painting. 
The 'horizon' is high in the painting, a change compared to my usual compositional choices.
I made the ruins with the white tower my point of interest and chose to add some drama to the bushes in front of the hill that has the ruins on top.
The path uphill and the sloping fields are suggested, not detailed.

Nowadays a lot of cityscapes are painted in a composition like this and I tried to adapt that style so I could use it 'my way' for this scene. Of course I had to think a little more while painting this one, but I am pleased with the result of my efforts.

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

Highland Cattle in the 'polder'

This year we have a very dry, very hot summer and now (halfway August) lots of trees and bushes have begun to change to their autumn colours. The colour change varies from subtle to very visible and even loss of foliage and an early shedding of fruits (acorns, chestnuts, etc.) is happening now.
Our walks in parks or nature reserves are colourful and inspiring me to make reference pictures so I can paint later.

We made a short walk in the area of the 'Broekpolder' near Vlaardingen (Netherlands) and a large part of that area is being grazed by Highland Cattle. They can be seen almost everywhere and they are not shy at all. This mother and child were in one of the lower fields, following the path that was made by some other members of the herd towards the water.
They are partly hidden by the high grasses and make a nice point of interest. 

Sketching them on smooth paper is easy, I had to do that to explore the forms of the cattle as I do not often draw or paint cattle. To copy that initial sketch to my watercolour paper is a bit of a challenge as the surface of my watercolour paper is textured. In fact this took me more time and use of the eraser than the initial drawing in my sketchbook.

Once again I have tried to focus on atmosphere in my painting, so the Highland Cattle  had to be recognisable but not very detailed. The field has many grasses and herbs and that gives a very colourful view. The bushes are very close to the water and have not started to change colour but the trees are further off and already changing to their autumn colours.

I am still exploring this 'new path' I have chosen for my paintings and I am looking for variation in my choice of subjects in order to find out what suits me best.
So my travelling along this 'new path' will be continued, but I do not really know where it will lead me.

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

Landscape studies - clouded sky using different materials

The last days of my painting vacation were dedicated to my own work, concentrating on my 'strong points' and trying to improve those.
Our teacher and coach Ad van Aart advised me to concentrate on atmosphere - in a landscape - and try to limit myself to atmosphere only without adding too much details. 
One of the mornings I had seen and photographed a very cloudy sky over the fields opposite our vacation home, Milonga and we decided that that memory would be the guideline for the next studies.

I had found a set of Conté Sketching Crayons, bought it and wanted to try that in my first studies. In that way I could 'explore' the landscape and the atmosphere I wanted to create and get used to working with these crayons.

These crayons work almost like charcoal and it was easy to get to know the material.
The atmospheres of both my drawings are different and I liked doing both of them.
The foggy effect on the horizon is made with the grey crayon, that was a very nice surprise for me.

The next day I was going to make one large watercolour study but there was a bad spot in the paper, so after I had started the cloudy sky I decided to divide the paper in two parts, sticking tape right over the bad spot. In this way I had two studies, beginning with a lightly clouded sky, a green horizon, some bushes and....

The largest one became darker and darker, adding gray to the sky and to the bushes and fields. You don't want to be outside in this weather!

The smaller one had to remain lighter so I used a different brown and less gray colours. I also suggested more details in the fields by adding shadows. This suggest that you have a chance to get home before the rain starts to fall.

There was time left, so I tried the same study, now with a very different palette. The heat of the day was not in my favour, so the paint would not flow as nicely as it had done in the morning. The fields changed into a lake, the cloudy sky into a clouded sunset and the whole picture is friendly and nice now. 

Doing studies of the same landscape for more than one day was a great experience. Every version did teach me another lesson and I really think I can continue on this path when I am painting at home, without guidance of a teacher. I do still remember the tips I was given and will use these advices to my benefit - and the benefit of my art of course!

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

Plein Air painting in the Alblasserwaard

Another day of painting together with members of 'Goed Gezien - Goed Bekeken', the amateur art club that is active in the area where I live.
This time we were close to my home, in the 'Natuur- en Vogelwacht Alblasserwaard'.
We had a nice walk on the grounds and were given a lot of information about the gardens of the Natuur- en Vogelwacht. This is an educational garden with information for adults and children about the area of the Alblasserwaard.

After that and after our lunch we looked for a shaded spot to paint. 
We were standing under some trees. looking on the canal and the fields behind it. That really is a nice spot to paint and we all enjoyed it.

As I had forgotten to stretch my paper, I taped the edges only and I like the result of that action. It looks like the old photo edges we used to add our photographs to an album.

This is not a large size painting, the temperatures are still high and paper and paint would dry too quickly on a large sheet to make the soft edges I like to paint.

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

The ramparts of Nieuwpoort (Netherlands) - a watercolour painting

After a very little bit of thought I decided to make a watercolour painting after the Conté drawing I had made on the ramparts of Nieuwpoort. 
I had not made a reference picture, so for this painting I have been using my memory to paint the right colours.

In summertime that means lots of shades of green for the foliage of trees and bushes and another green, sometimes mixed with a hint of blue for the different grasses. 
The tree trunks are a very dark brown. Some trees have a dark brown colour while others are almost white. These are the dark ones.

The houses stand out a little more, as they do in reality. In fact it was the view of the roofs and the tops of the houses that made me choose this spot to make the first drawing.
Usually I do not select a spot with lots and lots of rooftops, but painting in a town and not having buildings in one of my drawings did not feel right. So I compromised and this is the result.

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

Summer

This is another painting that is inspired by a sketch that was provided by the magazine 'Plaisirs de Peindre'. 
The landscape with the buildings, lines of trees and some bushes or mountains in the background is a nice challenge for me. The sketches given by the magazine are mostly basic outlines, so the colours, time of year and other details are left to the imagination of the artist.

The landscape is presumably not situated in The Netherlands, but that does not really matter. It could be here in a part of this country, in that case the shapes in the background are bushes.

I chose to make a summer scene out of this one. So that means I had to make trees with all their foliage, fields that are a bit yellow because of the heat and drought of summer and warm colours in the buildings. And some clouds in the sky of course, even in summertime we do have lots of clouds where I live.

Using sketches and references that are not my own (or given to me by my husband and children) is for me a chance to challenge myself and paint something I would not have chosen in other circumstances. By doing this I hope to increase my skills.

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

The sides of the road - at 'Landgoed Visdonk'

A few weeks ago we were walking a twelve kilometres long signposted walk along 'Landgoed Visdonk', a new area of protected nature near the town of Roosendaal, in The Netherlands. 
The first part of this walk passes by the agricultural parts of the estate. We passed by cows, horses, fields with leeks, fields with grass and this one. The field at the right hand side of the dirt road was unevenly planted with very young plants that could be almost anything.

My attention was attracted by the trees, their shadows on the dirt road and the puddles in that road with the reflections of the sky and trees in them.
The road around the puddles was wet and a few shades darker compared to the dry sand.

I have painted the planted field with some more variations in colours, shadows and the shades of green of the little plants than my reference picture was showing.  As this field was very uneven in the first place, I have only accentuated it a bit more.
The reference pictures do in fact show a very small part of the planted field, I made sure the tree and the road were clearly visible.
The colours of the sand are still a challenge for me, but I think I did well this time. I am learning which colours to mix to paint that very pale sand by trying again and again. In fact I am using some very dark colours and for this pale sand they are diluted with lots of water to obtain a resulting colour that is almost white.

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

At the Reservoir of Bütgenbach - Ardennes

For this painting I have been searching my 'archives' of reference photographs in order to get inspired by one of them.

This scene is at the reservoir of Bütgenbach, in the Ardennes (Belgium) where I was on painting vacation twice. This scene we saw in the first year and although I did not paint it that day I made some quick pictures for later use. I have been making a charcoal drawing of a bridge that day and this was at the other side of that small bridge. 

There was a grey sky that day and only minutes after I took the pictures I used here we had to save our artworks-in-progress from a heavy rainfall. The whole group packed everything in the cars and drove back to the house where we all finished the paintings and drawings we had started 'en plein air'.

The water is a side arm of the reservoir and it is partially covered with plants of all sorts. In the background there are lots of trees and bushes, a field of magenta coloured flowers and the marshy left side of the background is filled with grasses or something that looks very much like grasses.

As this is summertime all the bushes, trees and grasses are in shades of green, only the water plants have a shade that is more distinctly blue-green. So I had a nice challenge here, but if I don't paint scenes like this at all I will never master those green, wet landscapes. I have been struggling to create depth in all that green and in the dark parts of the water, where the trees are reflected.

The water did not move much, so the reflections of the tree lines and the clouds were clearly visible. 

The bushes on the foreground were a tangled mass with some small flowers in between. I did not give them much details as that would attract too much attention.

Working on this watercolour painting was fun, even though I had set myself a challenge.

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

Still near Fauvillers - behind each bend in the road.....

The path we were following was curved around the hills of The Ardennes and we were expecting to descend into the Forest of Anlier very soon. But behind every bend in the path we had new views and I could not resist the temptation to make some more pictures. Especially because the light was changing fast - from misty to a clear sky with lots of sunshine. Once inside the forest that would not make so much of a difference, but now on the hillside the landscape looked much warmer.

To paint a landscape in warmer greens is not that much of a challenge when you mix your greens from blue and yellow colours. In this case I just used French Ultramarine (as I have used Payne's Grey in the previous painting and got a much colder landscape) with some shades of yellow to obtain the desired greens. Or some greens that are very close to what I had in mind.
For this painting I used a larger piece of paper to express the vastness of this particular part of our walking route. We really did have some nice views while walking this path.

Painting this scene was a nice way to spend a rainy afternoon and I am glad I finished painting before the daylight was fading away. These are the shortest days of the year and the hours of daylight seem even shorter when the sky is overcast like we had this last week.

More information about this watercolour painting (size, materials used, availability, etc) 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 

View on Fauvillers

We have been walking the first day of our short vacation in The Ardennes. On the Internet we found a walk of 12 km that started in the village of Fauvillers and went downhill, passed along the river Sûre, crossed some more hills, the Forest of Anlier and returned to the village of Fauvillers again.
At this point we were still full of energy, as we had just left the village behind us. Looking back I decided to make a picture of the view we had on the village church and some of the houses. Most of the village is hidden behind the bushes and trees but what is visible is just nice for a painting.
Fauvillers is situated on top of the hill and we had to walk down to the valley of the Sûre.
This is very close to the village, so the hillside is filled with fields where at some points cows were grazing. 

The light was a bit strange that morning. By the sea the sky had been grey all day, due to Sahara sands and dust from forest fires in Portugal and Spain blowing over with an autumn storm. We just had a little bit of the dust and a grey sky in the morning, some of my pictures show a grey sky with a yellow shade, depending on the angle of the camera. Later that day the sun would be really warm and the sky was blue again.
The fields were still green, the bushes and trees are beginning to turn orange and brown.

For my painting I only used yellow and blue colours, with Burnt Sienna for the autumn colours and to mix the grey colours of the buildings. 
As the sky was overcast, there are no strong shadows, only under the bushes and in the uneven parts of the fields some dark areas can be found.

I am still experimenting with mixtures of blue and yellow colours, for this painting I have used a yellow paint I had just bought and had not used before. With every painting I make in this way I am learning and enjoying my decision to 'forget' the ready-made greens more and more.

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

The end of summer - a nice day to walk in our beautiful nature!

Summer has ended rather suddenly this year with storms, rains and cold weather in the early part of September. That is not the way it was in the last years but it does give me time to be in my little studio and paint.
We spent one of the last beautiful afternoons outside.

We went to a small Natural Reserve near the border with Belgium, the "Oude Buisse Heide" near the village of Zundert. This is a nice spot for a walk, we chose a signposted walk of about 4 km and we passed through a lot of different landscapes. I have made several reference photographs for later use and this is the first watercolour painting I have made.

We had been walking in between fields and a part of the heath that gives the Reserve its name. Looking back to where we came from I decided the view was worth a painting and stopped to make several photographs for reference. 
The bushes on the left mark the ending of the heath, the fields on the right are grazed by cattle and have an uneven surface with several kinds of grasses, some flowers and small bushes. The path bends to the right and the different fields are separated by lines of wickets that have some higher grasses growing under them. I think the wires between the wickets are under electrical voltage to keep the cattle inside.
We had a cloudy day and most of the time no direct sunshine, so there were no distinct shadows on the path.

Again I have mixed all the green colours in this scene from yellows and blues. This is getting easy as I am having much more experience - and not to mention much more blues and yellows on my palette.
For the grey colours in the sky I have not mixed a grey using blue and brown, this time I used small amounts of Payne's Grey, just to see if that would give a satisfactory result. For this scene it proved to be perfect, so I will certainly do this again.

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