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.

Near Meerkerk

The weather is great again for painting outdoors, so I was happy that the amateur art association 'Goed Gezien - Goed Bekeken' has planned some of these outings together.
The first day was planned in the village of Meerkerk, where we were guests on the property of our chairwoman. She lives in an old farmhouse and has a nice piece of land around it where we all could find a great spot with an inspiring view.

At first I thought I would try to paint some architecture, the old farmhouse would probably inspire me. Well, I saw this view and never thought of painting farms again.

Standing on the edge of some grassland I chose the view of the water tower of Meerkerk and a row of pollard willows in front of the tower.
The air was a bit misty, filled with dust and pollen so the objects in the distance - like the  background trees and the water tower behind them - were already looking a bit blurred. The pollard willows were much closer to where I was standing, there are some fields of grass between them and the background trees.

These rows of pollard willows are very common in the landscape of the area where I live and I really must remember sometimes that I have to paint these as well, because they grow mostly in 'our' river delta landscape between the rivers Lek, Merwede and Maas (Meuse).

For this painting I chose a small size paper, mostly because I feel more comfortable with that when I am painting outdoor and have to choose my subject on the spot.

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