Shards bring good luck...

 

The November challenge of 'Goed Gezien - Goed Bekeken' is 'Scherven brengen geluk' which translates as 'Shards bring good luck' - a saying that means that after bad moments (shards) always better ones will come (good luck).

Inspiration did not come at once, but after some thinking I remembered the Japanese 'Kintsugi' tradition of repairing broken cups, plates, saucers, bowls etc with gold.

So I searched for a nice reference picture of a saucer - mostly to help me find the right places for the shadows - and used that for my work.

The saucer is painted in watercolour and the cracks are a combination of watercolour paint and a metallic pencil. After having finished this, I made a photocopy, cut out the shards I had indicated and placed these around the painted saucer. Using a pencil I marked the outlines of these paper shards. I used my pencils for the shards, so the difference is visible.

This still life was a change for me, I usually paint or draw landscape related subjects, but  did enjoy the challenge.

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

If you are interested in my work, please contact me.

Quarry, Ardennes - a charcoal drawing

 

Last week we (my husband and me) had a short vacation in The Ardennes and we planned some nice walks, some shopping and I planned some drawing and painting moments. The weather was great, in fact too warm for the time of the year, but great for our walks.

Very close to our vacation home was the first planned walk and we went there directly from the house - for the other walks we had to drive several kilometres to reach the starting point. This walk passed by some nice views, mostly of the river Amblève but we also passe by a small quarry, probably of the slate that was mined in that area.

This small quarry inspired me to make a reference picture and experiment with the composition in a charcoal drawing. I selected a nice area with some difference in colour and texture in the stone and some colour accents by the small birch trees that grow between the stones.

By choosing this composition I tried to apply the lessons I learned during my paining vacation last summer: fill the whole paper with your subject, don't leave room for ground or sky (if possible) and look at the shadows to define the shapes. 

The stones of the quarry alone would give only diagonal lines and would need a lot of explaining to those that would only see the drawing, so for the vertical lines I added some of the trees and crawling plants that grow on these rocks and stones using my pencils. The pencil colours do not stand out very much, as they are placed on the charcoal background.

Shortly after finishing this drawing I really thought that I had better left out the trees and plants, but after looking at the drawing several times, I started to like it much more as it is now. The touches of (autumn) colour make the drawing 'feel' how it was at that spot, dark stones and rocks, but not sombre because of the life that is represented by the trees and plants.

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

Please contact me if you are interested in my work.

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 

Painting over Atlas pages

One of the workshops our teacher Ad van Aart had prepared for us was called 'Übermalungen' - or Painting over.
We were encouraged to take pictures from books or magazines he had brought for that purpose an to paint over them, in a reaction to the subject of that picture. Usually books and magazines are printed on very, very smooth paper, so I could not easily paint over them with my watercolours. The other participants to this painting vacation used acrylics or oils, so they did not have that problem.
My pencils would work though, so I took out all my pencils and started looking for a page or picture that attracted my attention.
I ended up taking atlas pages, one for the colours, one for the map on it.

The blue colours of this map of the South Pole were inviting to draw anything that would come to my mind. I started out cutting the edges and glueing the atlas page to a sheet of my own paper. I added some of the darker blue shapes to the white paper as if the map continues there. The South Pole itself just asked for the signpost with directions to some random capitals (India, Mongolia, Uganda and Great Britain) and the violet one with the little star in it which is for me.

On this map I could draw the road I had taken on my way to Milonga. The road is marked with my stops for gasoline, coffee, some rest, taking pictures (the Abbaye St Michel) and the residence of Milonga, where I had been painting in the days before this workshop.

Of course this was not exactly over-painting, but I have done as much as possible with the materials I had at hand and luckily the whole group appreciated my efforts.
I did enjoy making the plans for these 'works' and executing them and the results are as I hoped they would be.

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

Bananas!

Once again I have used one of the sketches that are published in 'Plaisirs de Peindre' to paint a still life. Most of the still life examples are about apples, oranges and other fruits, this one with bananas got my attention. I wanted to paint it using my 'white on black' technique and my new Metallic pencils.

The sketch was copied, not transferred so the dish is not as round as the example shows and there are some other 'mistakes' but my paintings are not meant to be an exact copy of the example given with the sketch. I am using my 'artistic license' here to make my own interpretation of the sketch that inspired me.

For this painting I have been using several layers to build up the colours of the bananas and I have added pencil lines in the end for the dark markings that appear on a banana peel when the fruit ripens. The dish was a bit easier as I have used only a few layers of paint. I did want the black of the paper to be shining through and I have used two of my new Metallic pencils for the lines on the dish, trying to give it a 'handmade' appearance.

This is a small size painting (again) because I have been experimenting with the combination of gouache, watercolour and pencils. The things I have learned while working on this little still life painting will be used again in other paintings.

More information (paints and pencils used, paper used, size, availability) 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 

Peonies in autumn

We have peonies in our garden, so in springtime we enjoy the wonderful flowers and when autumn comes the leaves start colouring beautifully. 
Last autumn my daughter made some photos for me to paint. But this time I wanted to do something with the watercolour pencils I have. 
I made a simple composition from one of the photos and started colouring. I layered different colours, mixing them on my paper and after doing that I did not want to risk losing all this by brushing water over my drawing. 
So the drawing was not touched with water, only the outlines a bit so I could add a background with watercolour paint and salt for texture.
  
More information about this drawing can be found at www.jannekesatelier.co.nr