Dark clouds, light and a sunset

 

Last week I was on Painting Vacation again! Every year a very happy week with a lot of fun, a lot of painting and a lot of learning. This week our coach and teacher Ad van Aart had a special 'challenge' for me: do something unexpected to your work.

The first works I have made are more about an omission (compared to the reference picture) and letting the light become the subject.

The picture above is the last one I made, I will show the steps leading to that one first:

It all starts with a study, in this case a charcoal drawing to get the 'feel' of the darkness of the clouds, the light and the landscape below.

Next is a watercolour painting in the colours of the reference picture

and to challenge myself I painted on a larger sheet of paper than usual.

Both works are about the white line of light between the dark clouds and the landscape which is also a bit gloomy under that dark sky.

Then I thought 'What if....' and the idea of the sunset was born.

For that painting I had to use the same shapes in the clouds and the landscape, leave the same line of light between them but I had to find the right colour scheme, starting with the orange-red colour of the sky. The colours of the clouds and the landscape are all based ton that choice and the result is at the top of this post.

This was a nice start of this week and I am happy with the results of this day's work.

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

The Forest Floor

 

After I had painted different seasonal moods using only one reference picture it was time for something different, still based on the 'forest' theme. 

Together with our teacher and coach Ad van Aart I selected a step-by-step tutorial about painting the forest floor in Pastel to use as my guideline for this watercolour painting. The result does not look much like the reference in the tutorial. What I have taken from the reference are a background, trees, a light spot and some growing plants on the forest floor. Making a watercolour painting is very different from making a pastel painting, so the step-by-step instructions could not be followed by me.

Because of the light spot. I had to decide the direction of the light to place my shadows and the dark sides of the trees. Some shadows are not included, these are behind the unevenness in the forest floor. 

The result is a mostly imaginary landscape and I am really happy with it. The experience of painting a landscape, using a reference only as a guideline was a nice one and I love to repeat this way of working in the future.

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.

Winter's light

These last few days we had a little bit of snow, grey skies and some days that are a bit brighter. There still is that lightly foggy atmosphere and everything seems to be back-lit. Most of the colours seem to have disappeared from the landscape, only the white and grey of the sky and the snow and dark colours for the trees, buildings and what is more to be seen in a landscape.
One of the brighter mornings I drove in my little car and noticed (the traffic of course, but also the views) the colours of the light in the sky, the reflections on the river and I was inspired to paint this. Of course I did not stop to do so at that very moment, but I can easily remember the atmosphere of such a  morning for a few days.

In my 'archives' I found a sketch I had made last summer and never used for a painting and  I started working from that view, making a new composition with the elements I had sketched.
The cranes, the houses, the pontoon are familiar sights at the river banks of the rivers Noord and Merwede that meet not far from the spot where I have made the first sketch.
And of course I found a spot with a view of trees to make my sketch.
All these were set in a winter's light as I had seen it a few days ago.

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

Christmas Morning

The conclusion of Advent is Christmas - of course. After the four Sundays of Advent, with more and more light coming into the world and my paintings I just had to paint Christmas as well. Because I had used my mothers old missal as the source of information for the Gospel readings of Advent, I turned to that book again. I found that sixty years ago there were Gospel readings for Christmas night, dawn and day. The readings for night and dawn follow each other, but the Gospel for Christmas day is very different from the stories we have been reading before and is not easy to translate to a landscape painting. 

I chose to paint a landscape inspired by the Gospel reading of Christmas dawn. 
Luke 2, 15 -16; "And it came to pass, as the angels were gone away from them into heaven, the shepherds said one to another, Let us now go even unto Bethlehem, and see this thing which is come to pass, which the Lord hath made known unto us. And they came with haste, and found Mary, and Joseph, and the babe lying in a manger." (source of the English text is www.kingjamesbibleonline.org)

As this scene is at dawn, there is much more light. The Star is supposed to be in the sky until Epiphany and shines brightly now. On the right side of the road are fields like those where the shepherds spent the night. They have left for Bethlehem, but the remains of their fires can still be found. On the left side of the road is a town like Bethlehem could have been and some fields that might be used for agriculture. Of course this landscape is imaginary, like the ones I painted for the four Sundays of Advent.
The sky still has some of the colour of the night, so I used indigo again, but the landscape is well lit and has much more colour.

This project was really nice to work on. Indigo is a great colour to work with as it is usable for all tonalities in a landscape painting. Adding more and more colour was also coming naturally as I have painted all five paintings in order within a few weeks time.

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

The third Sunday of Advent

This year I decided to paint landscapes that were inspired on the Gospel readings belonging to the four Sundays of Advent. 

That is easier said than done, because in the Roman Catholic Church in The Netherlands we read the Gospels in a three year cycle.

So I asked my mother for her old missal, published in 1957 (long before that three year cycle was introduced) and used that as my source of information.

This painting is inspired by John 1, 26 and 28: "John answered them, saying, I baptize with water: but there standeth one among you, whom ye know not; 

These things were done in Bethabara beyond Jordan, where John was baptizing." (source of the English text is www.kingjamesbibleonline.org)

Of course I have included some other elements that are connected to Advent - at least they are connected for me.

The star is a sign we hang in our windows when Advent starts and we remove it after Epiphany. So in every painting the star is present, though hidden behind some clouds.

A star means night, so the main colour is Indigo and only where the light shines other colours are introduced.

There are three light rays this time and more light is introduced by suggesting the morning twilight.

The landscapes are scenes that are familiar to me: I did not search the internet for the landscapes of Israel, but I chose to paint variations on the nature of The Netherlands and Belgium. Sometimes I used a lot of imagination, sometimes I did not add much to the original landscape.

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

The first sunday of Advent

This year I decided to paint landscapes that were inspired on the Gospel readings belonging to the four Sundays of Advent. 
That is easier said than done, because in the Roman Catholic Church in The Netherlands we read the Gospels in a three year cycle.
So I asked my mother for her old missal, published in 1957 (long before that three year cycle was introduced) and used that as my source of information.

This painting is inspired by Luke 21, 29b - 30: "Behold the fig tree, and all the trees;
 When they now shoot forth, ye see and know of your own selves that summer is now nigh at hand." (source of the English text is www.kingjamesbibleonline.org)

Of course I have included some other elements that are connected to Advent - at least they are connected for me.
The star is a sign we hang in our windows when Advent starts and we remove it after Epiphany. So in every painting the star is present, though hidden behind some clouds.
There are light rays, one for the first Sunday, two for the second - and now I am already saying too much, the other paintings will be published when it is the right time.
A star means night, so the main colour is Indigo and only where the light shines other colours are introduced. 
The landscapes are scenes that are familiar to me: I did not search the internet for the landscapes of Israel, but I chose to paint variations on the nature of The Netherlands and Belgium. Sometimes I used a lot of imagination, sometimes I did not add much to the original landscape.

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