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 

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