Polder landscape - Netherlands

 

Last week, on our day of plein air painting I did not make any extra reference pictures, so I decided to make an imaginary polder landscape combining the usual elements.

There is a horizon line with trees, bushes, a church tower and some buildings. Of course there are fields of grass, divided by ditches crossed by little bridges. A dirt road and a fence must be included and for this part of the Netherlands I cannot forget the pollard willows.

This scene is made up with elements that are very close to my home, but cannot be seen together in one view. For example, to see that little church tower with the ditches running towards it you would have to stand on the pylons of the power lines for the railroad track. The railroad track is half underground and there is no road beside it. As that is not encouraged in The Netherlands I have used my imagination.

Making up this composition was fun and I enjoyed painting it. The colours used were selected to get a summer sunshine atmosphere to the painting and for a change I painted on rough textured paper. The result is what I hoped it would be.

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

In the polder near Groot-Ammers (Netherlands)

 Our amateur art association 'Goed Gezien-Goed Bekeken' does not only  have monthly challenges, in the summer months there is also a plein air painting day. This time we were in Groot-Ammers, in the garden of one of our members and we were encouraged to find inspiration either in that beautiful garden or in the surrounding landscape. 

The surrounding landscape has the river Lek, the 'Ammerse Kaai' and a small road between two large ditches, a 'Tiendweg'. At one point along that 'Tiendweg' we (one of my fellow members of the association and me) had a great view over the polder landscape, dark clouds and some smaller ditches and we decided to paint that view. My friend used oil paint and I used my watercolours.

After we had set up and made our first sketches and painted the sky it started to rain. Not much, but enough to decide to return to the garden, where we could find shelter. Of course there was no more rain that afternoon, but we had the information we needed to paint on and so we did.

As that little old bridge was the inspiration for the painting, it had to be at a 'good' place in the composition, so I positioned the bridge where I wanted it to be and added the rest of the landscape around it. Despite the dark clouds above there was a lot of light coming from behind us so the bridge had a nice dark reflection in the water. The old fence in the foreground was included in the composition as there was a lot of grassland without much structure or details. The fence and the flowers were really there but I left them out at first, waiting for the results before I decided to add both fence and flowers. The painting needed this addition so I made it.

The result is what I hoped it would be and it is better than I expected especially after the rain had started.

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 

Plein Air painting in the Alblasserwaard

Another day of painting together with members of 'Goed Gezien - Goed Bekeken', the amateur art club that is active in the area where I live.
This time we were close to my home, in the 'Natuur- en Vogelwacht Alblasserwaard'.
We had a nice walk on the grounds and were given a lot of information about the gardens of the Natuur- en Vogelwacht. This is an educational garden with information for adults and children about the area of the Alblasserwaard.

After that and after our lunch we looked for a shaded spot to paint. 
We were standing under some trees. looking on the canal and the fields behind it. That really is a nice spot to paint and we all enjoyed it.

As I had forgotten to stretch my paper, I taped the edges only and I like the result of that action. It looks like the old photo edges we used to add our photographs to an album.

This is not a large size painting, the temperatures are still high and paper and paint would dry too quickly on a large sheet to make the soft edges I like to paint.

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

Early morning in November

Over a month ago my daughter Mariska and me took a bus to an arts-and-crafts event. 
As we wanted to arrive as early as possible (around the opening hour) we had beautiful views from the bus. 
The ride took us through the landscape of the Alblasserwaard, a landscape with fields, some cows and villages and trees in the distance. The sun was still rising and the clouds were looking great. Some of the morning mist was still visible.
Mariska took several pictures from the riding bus and this is a watercolour painting I made after one of them. There are more great pictures so more paintings will follow.

I do not need a perfect picture to paint from. As the bus was driving, the foreground is not sharp and the tree was a bit more blurry than I painted it. The clouds and the mist were visible though and that is what I needed for this one.

The Alblasserwaard is close to my home, although I do not cross it like this very often. Usually I take a motorway, the bus uses a provincial route in order to pick up passengers where possible.

This painting challenged me more than I thought it would. In fact I made the mistake to choose Burnt Umber to mix my grey instead of another brown colour. When I apply my grey mixture on wet paper, the blue and brown will flow each in their own way and give blue clouds with a brown lining. So the paper got a 'special treatment' with the shower and I started over. Still using the Burnt Umber, now on not so wet paper. The result is now what I wanted to achieve and I learned another lesson.

I like this painting, it has a bit of the mystery you can feel early in the morning on a misty field.

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