Books are magic!

 

A good book has the magic that it enables you to be at two places in the same time.

The prompt 'Magic' in the Sketch A Day app made me think of that line(I could not find the origin of the quote) and I made a watercolour painting that shows exactly that feeling.

The chair, rug, small table and books are placed in a snowy forest landscape with a large owl.

The open book shows the magic by an outburst of warm colours.

It looks like the reader has just gone for a cup of tea (or coffee, or hot chocolate) and left the book open on the table.

Of course I used the idea of placing an alienating element in a landscape that I have practiced during my painting vacation last summer.

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

Connection! - for a contest

 

This time I did not paint for a monthly challenge, but for a contest by 'Goed Gezien - Goed Bekeken'. The contest is mostly for those that like or need to work more than a month (the time for the challenges) to complete a work and last year was the first one. I did not compete last year and did not plan to do so this year but after a conversation with one of the other members made this work.

The theme is 'connection' and I really thought that I would not find inspiration for that theme.

In a forest the trees are all connected by their root system and the fungal threads in the ground. So a forest and some mushrooms (the fruits of the fungi) are a good start. 

Then, something special had to be added. Thinking back to the kind of work I made during my painting vacation it had to be a bit alienating or at least strange.

An old fashioned telephone - a very antique model - would do the trick, with the cable leading into the ground to make the connection. The listening device is off the hook, so connection is made.

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

In the wind

 

While the painting vacation was continuing, I had to think of more landscapes with a surprising element to paint. One thing that came up was a real memory of an Autumn leaf blown in front of the lens while we were making a picture of a group of buildings.

When I told our teacher and coach Ad van Aart that memory he suggested to make some thumbnail sketches first to find the best composition for this work. In these sketches I varied with the size and place of the city/village skyline, the size and place of the leaf and the filling of the shape of the leaf. We both thought that a big leaf, only outlined with the landscape still visible was the best composition.

I tested this in a larger drawing

using water soluble graphite in a very limited palette. 

I went looking for a real leaf as big as I could find and that is the one I outlined in both the drawing and the painting. If a bigger leaf would have been found, I probably would have made the watercolour painting larger, now I adjusted the size of the paper to the size of the leaf - which is a maple leaf.

The information about the materials I used in both works, the sizes and availabilities of both works and - if you are interested in my original artworks - my contact information can all be found in my Tumblr blog.

Winter in the polder

 

This week we had snow, temperatures below freezing point and great views! Driving was not too tricky so when I had to go to one of my children I drove through the polder of the Alblasserwaard (Netherlands) instead of taking the highway. In fact I prefer that route always, driving is more relaxed and it is a shortcut.

Of course I had to drive, but I could also enjoy the views of the snow on the fields and I decided I wanted to paint that. This painting is an imaginary landscape, I did not stop for a reference picture. The few parking places along that route do not have the nicest views.

A polder landscape always has some ditches, pollard willows - most of them are smaller than I am except for the branches - a line of trees and bushes on the horizon. When you look in the right direction there is a chance of a village with a church and don't forget the reeds beside the ditches.

So I arranged all these elements under a blue sky with some clouds looking for balance in the composition and I painted the landscape using the colours I remembered, dark brown for the trees, white and a nice grey for the clouds, blue sky and a brownish yellow for the reeds.

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.

If you are interested in my original artworks, please contact me.

What remains...

 

During our short stay in the Northern part of Germany we spent one day visiting the dolmens in that area and making several pictures of these ancient structures.

Most of the dolmens we saw were surrounded by trees, even though there was some open space - sometimes even a fence - around the stones, but I wanted to paint one of these dolmens without the nice springtime mood that these trees were bringing to my pictures. The inspiration to make a painting in a misty autumnal mood came during my painting vacation, but that week was too short to make all the paintings I wanted too.

So I imagined the dolmen standing alone, in an empty area as if the trees are yet to grow and I created a misty autumn day. The sky is grey, but not too dark - we have these days in autumn - and the ground is dark as well, only greys and earth colours.

While painting, I did not look at my reference picture any more (I had used it for my preliminary drawing) and worked from memory, creating dark and light areas on the stones, creating cracks that in reality are not there (yet) and suggesting some kind of structure in the ground the dolmen is standing on. That last bit was the most challenging, as I did not want to introduce any bushes or other greens. Finally I decided on the possibility of a circle around the dolmen and some indications of the small hill it sits on.

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.

Polder landscape - Netherlands

 

Last week, on our day of plein air painting I did not make any extra reference pictures, so I decided to make an imaginary polder landscape combining the usual elements.

There is a horizon line with trees, bushes, a church tower and some buildings. Of course there are fields of grass, divided by ditches crossed by little bridges. A dirt road and a fence must be included and for this part of the Netherlands I cannot forget the pollard willows.

This scene is made up with elements that are very close to my home, but cannot be seen together in one view. For example, to see that little church tower with the ditches running towards it you would have to stand on the pylons of the power lines for the railroad track. The railroad track is half underground and there is no road beside it. As that is not encouraged in The Netherlands I have used my imagination.

Making up this composition was fun and I enjoyed painting it. The colours used were selected to get a summer sunshine atmosphere to the painting and for a change I painted on rough textured paper. The result is what I hoped it would be.

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

Weeping Willow - 3: Sunset colours

 

The third painting in which the weeping willow is my model is an imaginary landscape in sunset colours.

The sky is a warm yellow, there are some clouds and there is a large pond or a lake with a distant shoreline that is reflected in the water. The wet-in-wet technique is perfect for the first layer and after that a more wet-on-dry technique will have to be used to add depth to the shoreline and its reflections without making a total mess of the first layer op paint.

To this point I had planned my painting and I wanted to let the result of these first layers of paint inspire me what to do next. The weeping willow had to be there somehow but I had not decided yet.

Because I had placed the horizon very low there was not enough foreground in the scene to plant a whole tree and have some space around it so I had to be creative here. I placed the painter/viewer under the tree, looking out over the water into the (far) distance. There are only a few branches in sight, painted with a moist brush on dry paper.

The overhanging branches of the willow tree act as a repoussoir in my painting and that is what I needed for my composition. If I had not added these branches the scene could be anywhere, now there is a sense of size and distance that can be related to the size of the branches and leaves of the tree.

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

Blessing

The December challenge of "Goed Gezien- Goed Bekeken" (our regional amateur art association) is 'Peace on earth'. We just had a challenge about peaceful snowy landscapes so I was still 'in the mood' for that theme.
Peace on earth is also one of the Christmas wishes, so the painting had to have a bit of the Christmas mood as well.
And the words (and melody) of "A Gaelic Blessing" kept going through my mind so I decided to incorporate that in my painting as well.

Of course all that did not come to my mind in an instant, I was talking to my daughter about this challenge and my inspirations and she gave me some great ideas to work with. She also gave me the text is a way that I could easily copy it in the painting. 
I have used a (sharp) watercolour pencil for that.

Deep peace of the running wave to you
Deep peace of the flowing air to you
Deep peace of the quiet earth to you
Deep peace of the shining stars to you
Deep peace of the gentle night to you
Moon and stars pour their healing light on you
Deep peace of Christ the light of the world to you
Deep peace of Christ to you

The snow scene was adapted so I would have space to write the text and I have used the shadows of the hills as lines for the writing. 

The details about paper, paints and pencil used, size and availability can be found at my website www.jannekesatelier.webs.com 

Medieval barn - a summer storm scene

In our country we have a long history, going back to the Stone Age or even sooner. Many objects were found in the earth and in old river beds and even in places where there used to be a sea. The real archaeological objects are kept in museum conditions, but in several places, most of them easy or even freely accessible some of the buildings are reconstructed.
These reconstructions are life size and very picturesque.

For this watercolour I was inspired by the reconstruction of a Medieval barn. This barn has windows that can be closed by shutters that are held by ropes to make them shelves that can display goods for sale or... I was not there in the Medieval times so I cannot be sure of the purpose of this structure. It did look nice and I have tried to sketch and paint it.

The barn was made of unpainted wood which had already turned grayish with time. The thatched roofing also turned dark and grayish, so the roof and the walls were almost the same colour. The overall impression was that of a weather beaten structure and I have tried to depict that atmosphere.
Because the Medieval times are also called the Dark Ages, I have given the sky a stormy appearance. The trees, bushes and grasses are only suggested to create an imaginary landscape for my barn.

Again I enjoyed painting this scene and I am happy with the result.

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

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 

'Dauwtrappen?' - or Treading dew?

The May challenge of 'Goed Gezien - Goed Bekeken' is about a memory of mine called 'Dauwtrappen' which can be translated by treading dew.
The custom was - and still is - to rise early on the morning of Ascension Day and walk in the fields and nature while the dew was still there. And be back in time for Church of course.
This year Ascension Day is almost the last day of the month so I have painted my contribution a bit earlier and I will submit it now it is finished.

I have made the scene a bit smaller than groups of people waling the roadsides or the fields and tried to include some dewdrops in my painting.
So I had to paint some grass, dewdrops and someone treading the dew, probably an insect, given the scale I have chosen.

I did study a step-by-step guide in a magazine before I started but the drops in that guide were much larger than mine so I had to adapt the tips and tricks that were given to the size of the painting I was making.

I started out with a drawing, masking the drops and painting the blades of grass. The drops were a bit small and they were not easy for me to paint, but I think I have made something that really gives the impression of dewdrops on the grass.

And then the insects on the blades of grass had to be introduced. In my garden there are a lot of ants, so I added some of these, using a fine line marker and a drop of water.

It took some time to decide what I wanted to paint and then I had to think of how I wanted to paint it, but I really am happy with the results.

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

Chapel - another springtime fantasy

In the streets close to the one I live in are trees planted next to the footpaths. These small trees blossom in springtime with beautiful flowers that disappear within a week.
Some of the trees have creamy coloured flowers and and one of them has pink flowers.
I have made some reference pictures and combined them for this painting.

The little chapel that attracted my attention last autumn in Germany is my chosen background for this spring scene.

I have created another imaginary landscape with the chapel in it, usually I try to create a landscape that is a good background for the subject of the painting, this time the branch with the blossoms. The subjects are chosen to fit the season, dark clouds and mist for autumn, snowy scenes in winter and flowers or blossoms in springtime. I have to think about summer yet, but no doubt inspiration will come together with the season.

More information about this watercolour painting ant the other 'Chapel' paintings I referred to can be found at my website www.jannekesatelier.webs.com 

I have to add a note here: I have found the name of the tree I have painted here during our visit to the Tree Museum. It's a Magnolia Kobus (Latin name).

Chapel - a springtime fantasy

In  my garden the daffodils are in bloom and they look just gorgeous. We have the smaller ones and they are close to the house, so they will not blow away easily in a bit of rough weather. In fact they inspired me to paint a springtime scene.

I have used the little chapel that attracted my attention last autumn to give the daffodils an imaginary landscape. 
Or did I use the daffodils to place the chapel in an imaginary springtime landscape? 
Anyway, this is the result.

The paper and paints are the same as in the other 'chapel' watercolour paintings to make the series as uniform possible. 
Because I did want to paint the atmosphere of springtime and not an exact 'portrait' of the flowers I have not painted many details, just enough to define them as daffodils.  Springtime also means lots of birds migrating and finding a place for their nest so I added some birds in the distance.

All together I really think I have captured the atmosphere of a nice day in springtime with some clouds and enough sunshine to make the flowers look their best.

More information about this watercolour painting and the other ones I have made with the little chapel can be found at my website www.jannekesatelier.webs.com 

Au bord du lac / The house by the lake

In previous posts I have mentioned that I was taking part in a contest, organised by the French magazine 'Plaisirs de Peindre'. 
For that contest we could pick a sketch from twenty suggested ones and paint with that sketch as guideline. There were three equal rounds, each giving twenty new sketches and each ending with twenty 'finalists'.
At the end of the contest there were to be twenty winners. The number twenty that keeps coming back is of course because of the twentieth 'birthday' of the magazine.

I have entered in the first round without result and I have published my entered paintings short after I found out I did not end in the finals with them.
For the second round I have painted several paintings, published the ones I did not enter and waited for the results.    I ended in the finals with this painting!
After the third round the final results and the twenty winners would be published and I waited for that to publish my painting.
I am not one of the twenty winners, but my painting was published in the magazine announcing my place as a finalist. 
Of course I am very proud that I have got this far and I am ready to try again next time.

The sketch shows a house by a forest lake or pond, surrounded by trees and bushes and there is a reflection in the water. 
I have made the house an abandoned building, as they are seen very often in France or further south in Europe. The forest is green, as in early summer (or late springtime) so some of the background can be suggested behind the foliage.
There is almost no wind, so the reflection is close to being a mirror image.

While I was working on it, the mystery came into my painting and I welcomed it of course.
I think the abandoned house by the lake has a nice story and I think I can best leave that to your imagination. I can paint the atmosphere, telling the story is not one of my talents.

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

Autumn - trees and clouds

In this autumnal scene I have combined two prompts for this month again, trees and clouds. Landscape painters do lots of clouds and lots of trees, so I had to think of something I had not done before. That is not an easy task.

For this painting I have used a reference picture I have made last spring, so I had to change the colours. In a magazine I found an example of a landscape in autumn colours that inspired me to follow its colour scheme and translate that to watercolours. I changed the fields into a pond and now I only had to paint it.

As I have done before this watercolour painting is built up by mixing the colours wet-in-wet, placing shadows and highlights where I want them to be and adjusting it all because of the unpredictability of watercolour. 
The atmosphere could have been much darker, but I wanted the trees to be golden and red, so there had to be some light.
This is what I hoped it would be and I have enjoyed painting this one.

More information about this painting (paper and colours used, size, contact information, 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 

In the Jungle....

This is another painting inspired by the prompts of WorldWatercolourMonth. For today it's 'In the Jungle' and as we don't have a real Jungle in The Netherlands I had to imagine something. The many documentaries I love to watch (on TV) have given me an idea of how a real Jungle might look like so this is the result.

I have started to make an underground with green, violet and some burnt sienna by letting the paint flow on the paper, just guiding it a little bit.
When that had dried I have tried to follow the shapes that had formed to draw my trees, one that was to be the most important and some more in the background.
Then I added some more violet or sienna to the spots that were already there to make them 'emerge' from the background.

All this is done on the Rough paper I had bought years ago to find out whether I would like that or not. I still have not decided yet. I do not dislike it, but on such a small size  paper the subjects I choose are different than usual. So I cannot successfully compare this paper to my other, Cold Pressed paper. 

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

Flaming Birch tree

While I was on painting vacation last summer I had sketched an birch tree and decided that day not to use the sketch for a painting. The sketch and the plans I had for it were still on my to-do list, so I have made the painting.
Maybe not exactly as I had planned in summer, but even now it is not so very different from the kind of painting I wanted to create.
The tree was having all of its foliage in summer but I managed to follow the lines of the major branches for the sketch. Now that I have suggested an autumnal tree, I could make the white branches stand out much more.

For the painting I have made a drawing of the outlines of the tree and the major branches and covered that area with colourless masking fluid. Once that was dry I used water and paint to create the background, the foliage and a suggestion of fallen leaves on the ground. I applied two layers of paint to create more intense colours for both the foliage and the dark background. With all paint dry I removed the masking fluid.
After that I started to fill in the shadows and the markings that are so characteristic for the birch trees. I also applied a third layer of paint on the top part of the foliage and the ends of the branches, suggesting the existence of foliage in front of those branches.

Experimenting like this with water, paint and the suggestion of - in this case a birch tree in autumn - is really nice to do. I have found that these experiments make my 'touch' in the more traditional landscapes a bit more relaxed, especially in the suggestions of the background. So every now and then, when I start to feel stressed about painting bushes and backgrounds I will make a few paintings like this. 
And of course when I feel like doing so, because - as I said before - this is fun!

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

The Gate.... now in a daylight version

The gate also deserved a daylight version, so here it is. I changed the shapes and the size of the gate a bit just for the fun of it.
I used a balanced palette of three colours here, a combination I used before and I like very much.
With these three basic colours I can mix almost all the colours needed in a landscape. 
To keep my painting clean and transparent I just have to avoid mixing all three together. 

This gate - and the versions I made earlier - is based on a gate we saw a few years ago in Vila Nova de Gaia, Portugal. The 'real' gate was at a piece of land with only weeds and small stones in it. 
No buildings or ruins, no signs of a garden or the remains of it, no burial grounds, no factory, just a mystery! 
That is exactly why it appealed to my imagination and I am not really sure if this is the last Gate I will paint - I don't think so.

More information about this watercolour (size, colours used, etc) and the other Gates I painted can be found at www.jannekesatelier.co.nr 

The Gate - in charcoal

I really did not expect to draw the gate again so soon, but here it is in charcoal.

As you can see, I made some changes to the drawing. 
The dimensions of the paper I use are a bit different, so the composition is a bit different. There are some differences between working with watercolour and working with charcoal and I used those differences to make some changes to the gate and to create a foggy atmosphere by blurring the trees.
I started working on another quality of paper and I am getting used to that too. It is easier to blur the trees now, but I have to take care not to saturate this paper too soon. Well, fine-tuning is a nice thing when it's about my hobby.

Now I made two versions of the Gate I can let it rest - for a few days or weeks. 
To me there is something very intriguing about this subject so there are definitely more gates to come. 

More information about this charcoal drawing (size, paper used, etc) and about the watercolour painting I made earlier can be found at www.jannekesatelier.co.nr