During our short visit to the east of our country we did not explore our beautiful nature as often as we usually do. In my previous post I have already explained that this time there was a large group and we included everyone as much as possible in the plans.
This is one of the wrought iron fences we saw on the estate of Singraven.
Compared to the one in my previous post, this one is on the other side of the road and there is an opening for those that want to make a short walk on the lanes and paths of the domain.
In fact we did enter here and made a short walk before we gathered for lunch and the drive to all our different homes.
The colour of the fence and the posts beside the gate is almost the same as the green and brown mixture of the bushes behind it and I had to look very carefully to find the shapes I had to draw.
I did take care to make the fence 'disappear' again when I painted it.
The large trees did cast so much shadow that there are no significant 'light spots' on the grass and the lane. I have tried to show the light green of the springtime leaves on the large trees, they did manage to catch some sunlight.
More information about this watercolour painting can be found at my website www.jannekesatelier.webs.com
There are lots and lots of challenges for paintings and drawings each month and to most of them I do not respond. Some just don't inspire me at all and I simply do not have enough painting time to respond to all the challenges that might be good to try because I will be learning something new while painting.
This painting is a response to the May challenge of one of the Watercolour groups I have joined on Facebook; 'Through the Archway'.
The pictures that are given for inspiration are mostly architecture and one beautiful forest scene. I have waited to paint this, because I did not have much time until now.
The reference picture was made by me or my husband during a short vacation a few years ago and I still had kept it for later use. This is a perfect 'through the archway' with all the tall trees and the branches hanging over the path.
As this is an autumn scene, the trees have lost most of their leaves and the colours that are left are shades of yellow and orange. The forest floor was remarkably green with grasses, I remember there was a lot of wind at times to blow away the fallen leaves.
Painting this scene was not difficult for me, I only had to remember to paint the trees behind some of the bushes. That means not painting the trees first, but adding the dark browns of the tree trunks after I had given the bushes their green, yellow and orange colours.
More information about this painting (paper and paint used, size, availability, contact information, etc) can be found at my website www.jannekesatelier.webs.com
In one of the beautiful lanes on the estate surrounding Castle 'Keukenhof" I stopped to make a quick sketch with the idea to use that scene for a painting. Not all my sketches will become paintings but this one had all I needed to work from.
Of course I changed the colour scheme, in stead of all the green of summer I changed the mood to autumn with the nice golden brown shades a beech tree will have in that time of the year.
Castle Fest is all about Fantasy, Elves, Dragons but also Steampunk, Star Trek and almost everything else you can imagine.
The tents with the merchandise are still there - as if they were never taken down after the festival.
The imaginary side of the festival is what I wanted to show here, that is why the people walking around and looking at the merchandise are only shadows - some of them wearing elaborate costumes, some of them more simply dressed - as if they too never left the estate.
This painting was great to work on. First of all I had to make a plan about how I was going to use my sketch and after that I had to paint of course. I really love this colour scheme for the warm atmosphere it gives and the colours are easy to work with.
More information about this watercolour painting (size, colours used etc) can be found at my website www.jannekesatelier.webs.com
There are many lanes like this in the world, this one is in Miramar, Portugal.
We were there on a nice sunny day last December, so there was a lot of shade with bright spots. Not much foliage in the trees of course, but still the gardens behind the walls were showing green bushes. This lane reaches almost to the seaside.
The place felt like an open invitation to paint...
The reference photos were taken by my daughter Mariska.
More information about this painting (size, colours used etc.) can be found on my website www.jannekesatelier.co.nr
