Misty landscape

 

For the last day of my painting vacation our teacher and coach Ad van Aart asked me to make another misty scene, this time with some reference pictures. After searching on the Internet, I found some nice misty landscapes that are not so close to where I live so I could not have seen these myself. 

It was still hot, so I started with a wet paper, painting a background colour and adding the structures in the background as soon as possible with a very thin mixture of a grey shade. Adding the rest of the landscape in darker shades of grey layer by layer was not easy as the paper dried very fast, but I managed to get a credible result. 

The next stage was the lake and the mist coming from the water, but I have painted the reflections as the landscape that is painted has to reflect in the water and the waves or ripples are also only suggested, not copied from any of the pictures I used for inspiration.

My landscape does not look like the references I have used as my inspiration any more. The high temperatures and the short drying time of my paint and paper forced me to improvise and create a landscape that could be existing somewhere.

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.

Weeping willow - Autumn colours

 

It has been a while since I painted an imaginary landscape with the little weeping willow in it, so I made one today.

There are three weeping willows in this painting, the landscape may be imaginary, yet I wanted to paint a scene that might be realistic. So there are three trees on the bank of a pond that is situated in a small parc in a town. The town's buildings are suggested in the background. There may be a path in the parc and there are reeds in the pond.

As autumn is very very near, I wanted to paint the autumn colours of a weeping willow and I added a strong wind to complete the autumn mood. The leaves of a weeping willows turn yellow before they fall and turn brown so I have used several shades of yellow and a brown to paint the foliage that is still on the trees. Some leaves are already blowing in the wind, I have splattered paint to suggest that. The reeds are also bending in the same direction.

To suggest the reeds I have not only used a very small, almost dry brush with some of the colour mixes that are also used for the grass, but in addition to that I have used some watercolour sticks in their dry form to draw some sharp lines. Some of the lines in the trees are also a yellow watercolour stick.

The watercolour sticks are pure paint of the same quality that comes in pans and used with a wet brush there is no difference between the paint from a stick and the paint from a pan or tube. These sticks can also be used to draw lines and I like that idea very much so I have a few of these sticks in shades that can be used in landscape paintings.

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

Weeping Willow - 2: Almost sunrise

 

This is the second watercolour with the weeping willow as my model. In my previous post I have written about Tonalism and my plans to make a series of paintings using the weeping willow as my model, placing the tree in various landscapes and weather conditions.

This time I have placed the tree in an imaginary landscape, it has a nice pond to stand next to, there are bushes and trees in the background and I have added the suggestion of buildings, as this tree stands in a city park. 

In fact, in The Netherlands weeping willows are usually planted next to ponds or wide ditches as they thrive in moist or wet soil. That does limit my options for the next paintings a little bit, but it is great for my water-painting skills.  

This time I have painted a 'before sunrise' mood, with clouds in the sky and the red of the rising sun beginning to fade away.  The orange and yellow colours of the rising sun are yet to come, we are still in the blue hour. The colours of the grass are already visible but the trees and bushes have backlight so these are mostly dark shapes against the sky.

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

Air

 

One of the Facebook groups where I regularly post my artworks does have challenges. In fact, there are a lot of Facebook groups with challenges, but many of those do not inspire me to go to my studio and paint. This group however does have challenges that inspire me to think about the theme, make a painting and post it.

This time the challenge was about Air. In Dutch, 'air' is translated to a word that also means 'sky' and after some thinking I decided that this was to be my approach of the theme.

How to combine the two interpretations of the word came to my mind easily. Hot air balloons in the sky was to be the subject of my painting.

What makes the balloons float is 'air' and they can be seen in the 'sky'.

During summer and autumn they can be seen floating over our flat country when the temperature, the wind and other conditions are right and I really love to see them.

The composition is completely imaginary, the landscape is what can be seen in The Netherlands and the balloons are from the memory of having seen them.

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

Storm - a september challenge

September has begun and with that comes not only the end of the summer vacation for our schools (my husband is a teacher) but also the new challenge of Goed Gezien - Goed Bekeken. In January I had decided that I would participate in every (monthly) challenge so this is my contribution for September.
The theme is 'Storm' and I had to think of something new. I have painted lots of stormy skies but I want to make something new for every challenge.

As I am still in the mood for leaves, fruits and flowers this is a combination of a stormy sky and a composition of leaves and some fruits of one of the sycamore trees (Acer pseudoplatanus) that are growing in a park area near our home.

The landscape is imaginary, in the sense that I have not really seen this, but the line of trees, the bushes and the field are something that really can be found in our landscape. The leaves and little 'helicopter' fruits that are blowing in the wind are a sight that can be seen here also - when the winds are strong enough.

This was fun again, painting an imaginary landscape combined with things I learned about composition during my painting vacation and I am really happy with the result.

Details about the materials I have used for this watercolour painting can be found at my website www.jannekesatelier.webs.com