Tree bark - Poplar

 

Close to our home are lots of poplar trees and the older ones have beautiful bark structures close to the ground - where I can see it best and make pictures as my reference.

One of these trees also has mosses growing in the structure of the bark and that one was my model for this work.

On a watercolour background I worked with my Graphitint pencils, using one wash of water between layers of pencil. 

After a strong wind I found a fallen leaf that was used for the second pattern in this work. I traces the outline of the leaf using a white pencil, colouring the negative space between two leaf shapes. I kept on working like that until I had 'covered' my sheet of paper with overlapping leaf shapes.

The white was not standing out as much as I hoped so I added white gouache paint in several layers to the white lines and the negative shapes that were coloured white.

Once again I experimented with structures and materials and I really like doing that. The result does not matter that much, even though I like the finished piece to be balanced.

The information about the materials I have used, the size and availability of this work and - if you are interested in my original works - my contact information can all be found in my Tumblr blog.

Cedar cones - a white on black painting

 

During a nice forest walk in the 'Kaapse Bossen' we made pictures of mushrooms, of trees and of each other and we were looking out for 'Christmas Card inspiration'. We were looking for pine cones, larch apples or any other combination of needles and the fruits of the same tree and high up in a tree we could see some cones that were as good as white.

My husband (who had the camera) made some nice reference pictures for me and I have been thinking about 'how to paint these' because the background was very blue and that would not do for a Christmas card. After some thinking I decided to paint these white cones and some of the branches they were in on a black background, using a combination of white gouache and watercolour paint. 

Working on a white paper and painting a blue background using watercolour would mean that the cones would not stand out so beautifully as they did when the reference picture was made.

The black background unfortunately means that this painting will not be used for a card as the printing companies cannot handle all that black.

Zooming in on the picture revealed that the cones were not all white, but a shade of beige with a lot of white resin which created the white appearance from where we were standing. It was a tall tree, so we could not see details from ground level. I chose to paint them white, using a shadow colour to create the characteristic shape of the cones because that was what did attract our attention and gave me the inspiration for this painting.

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

Maasvlakte 2 - After sunset

Going to the beach to see the sunset means returning home after sunset. As we were on the beach of the Maasvlakte, we drove to the ship spotters point to look at the sea after sunset before going home and on the way we stopped to make pictures of the moon hanging over the port industry of the area of Maasvlakte 2. On Maasvlakte 2 the industry is mostly loading and unloading of container ships (the very big ones) so the lights come from the huge cranes that are built there. 

As the sun had just set, the moon had a pink shade and I have tried very hard to make good reference pictures of that view. Of course that was not really easy, making a picture after sunset means there is not much natural light left, but I got some nice reference pictures. I combined these pictures of the moon with the ones that had all the lights of the industry for the composition of this mixed media painting.

For this painting I started painting a dark blue background with a lighter spot where the moon was. The foreground of grasses and a bit of the road was painted in watercolours over that dark background. There is not much detail in the foreground only the suggestion of the landscape.

The moon and the lights are painted using white gouache and watercolour. As I have written before, the moon was not white, but slightly pink so I added a hint of pinkish orange to the moon. This was painted in several layers until I got the moon I wanted to paint. The industrial lights have yellow and orange shades when they are further away and I have used the same layering as I did for the moon to paint them.  There are some reflections of all those lights in the water that are painted with watery gouache and some hints of watercolour and the lines on the side of the road in the foreground are painted with very watery white gouache.

This was the first time that I have painted with white gouache over a dark watercolour background - I usually paint on heavy black cardboard - and for me the experiment turned out well. I know what to expect the next time and this small painting is just what I wanted it to be.

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

Sacred Lotus (Nelumbo nucifera)

 

 

Yesterday we went to Diergaarde Blijdorp for a visit to the animals and of course the flowers, trees and other plants, as this zoo is also a botanical garden. We are not often there in summer, but there had been a lockdown so we could not visit earlier in the year.

Of course we enjoyed the animals but we also needed a drink so we sat down on a terrace in the shade of a large parasol with a cup of tea. 

In a corner of the terrace were some pots with  Sacred Lotus (according to the information sign), mostly leaves and one large flower bud. Even though it was at a small distance, the flower bud and the leaves were clearly visible and I sketched them while waiting for the tea to turn cold enough to drink it.

Today I wanted to paint from my sketch, while the colours were still fresh in my memory and I decided to make a 'white on black' painting, using white gouache mixed with watercolour paints to paint the Lotus plant.

The flower bud was bright green and light yellow, so that was easy to paint, layering gouache that was lightly tinted with watercolour paint. The leaves are a dark green, with shadows  and these were not as easy. After one layer of tinted gouache I had to use only dark watercolour paint and that does not build up very well on black cardboard. In the end I used my watercolour pencils on the dried paint to suggest the cup - like shape of the leaves. These pencil marks are dry and do not mix with previous layers so that worked as I hoped it would.

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

Sallandse Heuvelrug - Starry night

 

In my previous post I mentioned that I live in a built-up area and the sunsets can only be seen well from a high place. In the area where I live there also is always light, from homes, from street lanterns, from industry and we can even see light from greenhouses that are far away.

So a starry sky is not visible where I live, only the strongest, brightest stars can be seen in the right circumstances.

When we were on vacation, that 'light pollution' was far away and we did take the shortcut out of the vacation parc to stand on the road at the edge of the field to watch the stars a few times. Of course there were clouds and we were close to some trees, but I enjoyed the view very much. We did not take any photographs, so this painting is entirely from memory and imagination.

In my painting I have included some trees as they are in winter. These trees help the viewer to understand where up and down are in the painting.

The clouds are placed behind the trees - so these are visible - and the stars can be seen through a hole in the cloudy sky. I have used my memory and imagination for the stars and what is in the painting is not a real depiction of the starry night in my country.

For this painting I have used a black paper for my background and painted in white gouache.

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

Moors

After a lot of rainy days we had one day with sunshine and so we went for a walk in the Natural Reserve "Kalmthoutse Heide", which is on the border of Belgium and The Netherlands, not far from where I live.
Of course there was a lot of water on the paths and in the moors and I made some reference pictures of these (almost) flooded moors. 
The first picture I took was just water and grass, no horizon, just for the reflections and what was below the water surface. During the rest of the walk I thought of how I would paint this scene and I made a plan.

On heavy black paper I painted the blue background of the water with the reflections of the sky and I indicated the grasses with some dark colours where the shadows and the wet areas are and light colours where the grasses are growing.
After that dried completely  I used watercolour pencils and a Graphitint Pencil for the blades and for extra texture in the wet areas of the groups of the grasses. This was the stage where the painting started to look right and I am really happy with the result.

The scene is almost abstract and I liked to do this painting - for a change. Usually I paint landscape scenes with a horizon, this time I focussed on a detail.

The description of the paints and pencils I have used, the size of the painting and the availability can be found at my website www.jannekesatelier.webs.com 

Mushroom - if I only knew which one this is....

We are having a nice summer here, not as hot as last year and some days, even weeks with rain to keep our nature hydrated.
Last weekend we went for some signposted walks near the Visitors Centre in Oisterwijk (Netherlands) and made some nice pictures while we were walking. Those will be used as reference pictures later.

Near the entrance of the Visitors Centre were some logs of dead wood, nor even the bark was left on it, so I have no idea what trees these used to be. Growing from one of these logs there was  a nice group of mushrooms, white, light yellow and a bit of orange. (I have not been able to find the name of the mushrooms) I did make some reference pictures and decided to paint these in my 'white on black' technique, with the use of some watercolour pencils for the details that don't want to be painted.

Of course that needs to be explained: the black paper I am using is not watercolour paper, it absorbs a lot of water and paint before the white stands out. This really takes five or more layers. The log of dead wood that provides the food for the mushroom is very dark and does not need so many layers of paint, but the few details of the log I did want to show would 'sink into the paper' if I used my paint for them. So here is where my pencils come into the process and the details are there where I want them to be.

I really like the results I get with this technique. At first, I only mixed gouache and watercolour, but the pencils really add that something I missed in some of my first 'white on black' paintings.

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

New leaves - white on black

During our visit to the 'Von Gimborn Arboretum'  I have - as I wrote before - made enough reference pictures of flowers, trees and new leaves to give me a few months worth of painting material.

This time I have painted the fresh green (a bit blueish green) leaves of the Pyrus salicifolia 'Orientalis' , a small tree and its name translates as 'willow- leaved pear tree'.

I chose to make a white-on-black painting this time because this gives me a nice dark background for the bright green of the fresh new leaves. The advantage of this choice is that this background does not ask much attention to be made and cannot be ruined. 
I have been able to give all my attention to the leaves, especially because painting on this paper is a bit different from my usual watercolour technique. 

Unfortunately I cannot get the picture I have made of my painting to have the right colours, maybe tilting the screen a little can do the trick.

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

Springtime in my garden - white on black

This year the Hellebore bloomed with a few white flowers, but to our surprise one of them came up and bloomed at some distance of the original plant. Such a brave little flower had to be honoured with some pictures and eventually a painting.
The beach tree trunk is not a real tree anymore, it is part of our bird feeding spot, a little house is made on top for feeding breadcrumbs ans other stuff to the hungry birds that visit our garden.
This is in sight of our window and I really liked the surprise of the flower under the bird feeder.

This painting was made 'white on black' using not only the gouache and watercolour but also watercolour pencils. This was an experiment with this kind of mixed media, but the result is as I hoped it would be.

I have submitted this one to the April Challenge of "Goed Gezien - Goed Bekeken", the amateur art association of which I am a member. The theme of the challenge is 'Springtime' and I thought this to be a fitting subject.

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

Poinsettia - white on black

Sometimes I make a second version of a watercolour painting in white-on-black, because I like to see the difference.
This Poinsettia is a very welcome subject for such an experiment. 
I have adapted the composition to the paper size and made a slightly different background.

Because I am mixing my watercolours with white Gouache paint and have to work in many layers (the paint is absorbed by the paper and I have to 'build up' the image) there are differences in the colour values, mostly in the largest flower.
Of course I have used this to my advantage and did not have to add shadows afterwards - as is necessary in watercolour painting.

This painting is not available, my mother has it now and when she does not like it any more, my daughter is waiting in line. They both like these white-on-black paintings and drawings very much and encourage me to paint more using this technique.

More information about this painting and the watercolour I have made with the Poinsettia flowers can be found at my website www.jannekesatelier.webs.com

The white tree - white on black

A few months ago we walked a long signposted walk in the area called 'Huis ter Heide' and near the end of that walk we spotted several white trees. This was the first and I quickly made a reference picture. Later we saw more of these dead trees, totally white, standing between the other trees and bushes, making a very special sight. These trees were at some distance of the path, so we did not get near enough to guess what kind of tree it was. This walk was before the dry and hot summer we had this year so the rhododendron bushes were in bloom and the fields had lots of flowers.

At the moment I made my reference picture I had already decided that I would use it for one of my 'white on black' paintings.
I have not only used white gouache and watercolour paint for this painting, for the tree I have been drawing with silver metallic and white (Graphitint) pencils.

The pencils are a nice addition to the gouache and watercolour, they allow me to show the details of the smaller white branches. 

Painting this dead white tree and the surrounding landscape was a nice challenge for me, especially because it had been a few months ago since I had painted a 'white on black'.

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

Our chestnut tree in springtime - mixed media

The flower buds I have been drawing have come out of course. (The moment I am writing this, the flowers are all gone and little chestnuts-in-the-making have appeared)
The flowers of my chestnut tree are not the easiest to draw and paint for me, maybe also because I did not climb a ladder to make a close-up picture.
I did want to give it a try so I have made some reference pictures and selected one to work from. I could have chosen one with the flowers nicely back-lit, but that would look very much like my previous drawing and I want to show a bit more of my chestnut tree.

For this drawing I decided to make a watercolour under painting in the colours of the leaves that are fully grown now. With a white pencil I have tried to make the white flowers 'pop out' and that did not work as I hoped it would. So I used white gouache and achieved a result that is much more to my liking.
The leaves are done with different pencils and I have used a line marker for some of the outlines of the leaves, mostly the leaf tips.

This was another experiment getting to know my materials and exercising my drawing skills. I learned that drawing on this paper after I have applied a watercolour under painting is not as easy as drawing on untreated paper. It felt as if the paper 'rejected' some of the pencil marks, especially the watercolour pencils. Maybe I will have better results using a different paper.

More information about this drawing (materials used, size, availability) and the other paintings and drawings I made about my chestnut tree can be found at my website www.jannekesatelier.webs.com

Bananas!

Once again I have used one of the sketches that are published in 'Plaisirs de Peindre' to paint a still life. Most of the still life examples are about apples, oranges and other fruits, this one with bananas got my attention. I wanted to paint it using my 'white on black' technique and my new Metallic pencils.

The sketch was copied, not transferred so the dish is not as round as the example shows and there are some other 'mistakes' but my paintings are not meant to be an exact copy of the example given with the sketch. I am using my 'artistic license' here to make my own interpretation of the sketch that inspired me.

For this painting I have been using several layers to build up the colours of the bananas and I have added pencil lines in the end for the dark markings that appear on a banana peel when the fruit ripens. The dish was a bit easier as I have used only a few layers of paint. I did want the black of the paper to be shining through and I have used two of my new Metallic pencils for the lines on the dish, trying to give it a 'handmade' appearance.

This is a small size painting (again) because I have been experimenting with the combination of gouache, watercolour and pencils. The things I have learned while working on this little still life painting will be used again in other paintings.

More information (paints and pencils used, paper used, size, availability) can be found at my website www.jannekesatelier.webs.com 

Easter Eggs!

A few months ago I got myself a subscription to 'Plaisirs de Peindre', a French magazine about painting, not only watercolour. The magazine is about learning, information and a lot of inspiration for all painting techniques. In every issue there are some sketches that can be used and for every sketch one to three examples are given with a step-by-step description. I like to read those descriptions because there is always a bit of information that can be used in my watercolour paintings.

In the last issue there was an example of a bowl with Easter Eggs, painted by three different artists each using a different technique. I did like the idea, so I used the sketch for one of my 'white on black' paintings. This is a small painting and I have also used some watercolour pencils for the straw and I have tried two of my new Metallic pencils on the bowl.
The use of the watercolour pencils was a good idea, I did not expect the result to be as nice as it turned out. I will remember this!
The metallic pencils do not stand out as much as I hoped, as this is the first time I used them I still have to learn about their possibilities and limits. I am looking forward to that!

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

In the Caves of Han

Last autumn we visited the Domaine des Grottes de Han. The caves are famous,we would be passing the area on our way to the Black Forest in Germany, so the decision to visit these caves was easily made.
The tour in the caves lasts over an hour and there are many beautiful stalactites and stalagmites to be seen. My husband Peter had the camera and made lots of photographs. Most of the formations are not easy to paint - for someone who is used to water, clouds, trees and that stuff - but this one was challenging me. 
This formation was lit by one strong lamp and the shadows in the deeper parts are very, very dark. There are some stalactites hanging from a ledge in the wall  of the cave. The whole scene is not very large, maybe less than one m2.
The colours are real and are caused by various salts that dissolve in the water and mix with the limestone that shapes the stalactites.

Of course I decided to paint a white-on-black painting. The fading of the light on the edges of the area the lamp shines on was a bit of a challenge. This is easier with watercolour paint on watercolour paper.

This time I made the picture after the painting myself and I used a 'not so very good' computer program to edit that picture. So what I am showing you could be better, but this is the best I can do for the moment.

More information about this 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'

Walking around 'Naardermeer' - 2a

This is a second version I made from a sketch I used earlier and this time I wanted to do a painting on a black background. Using white gouache and my watercolour paint I can create a painting that is very different from a watercolour on a white background. 
Until now I used this technique only for night scenes, with this painting I tried a daylight scene.
I am really pleased with the result. 
The technique is something I still am getting used to, but my experience is growing and problems are solved much more easily than in the first paintings I did this way.

These paintings are not so easy to picture for the purpose of showing them in this blog and other things. The light has to be good enough and my daughter has to be home to make the picture for me, my camera is not up to this task.

More information about this spot along the walk around the 'Naardermeer' is found in the blogpost with the watercolour painting I made earlier.

More information about this painting (paint and paper used, etc) can be found at www.jannekesatelier.tk 

Mushrooms - now in white on black

This is a painting I made over a month ago. I am posting it just now, because these white-on-black paintings are hard to take a picture from. 
Using flash is making the black paper look grey so that's not a good idea. The last few months we had very little daylight, just short days with lots and lots of clouds..... and my simple camera is not perfect for this kind of picture.
Both the reference photo and the picture of my painting were made by my daughter Mariska. She is a much better photographer than I am!

I have done these mushrooms in watercolour and I thought it to be a nice exercise to make a white-on-black of the same scene. I really liked doing this one. The result is different from the watercolour of course and that is what makes the fun here.

More information about this painting (and the watercolour I mentioned) can be found at www.jannekesatelier.co.nr 

Hong Kong - by night

Hong Kong (by night) has been painted before and will be painted many times more. 
Some years ago I made a watercolour showing a very, very rainy day and this time I used a nightly scene.
The reference pictures for both paintings were made by my son Martijn, who visited Hong Kong while he was in South Korea for an internship. 
The pictures for this painting have been 'waiting to be painted' for almost four years now.
I am not very at ease with a cityscape but over the last few years I have painted them more often and I am learning to really appreciate them.
Working like this, with white gouache and mixing it with my watercolours is really fun for a change. I also have to work with a different painting technique so I learn a lot while working like this.

More information about this painting (and the watercolour I mentioned) can be found at my website  www.jannekesatelier.co.nr