When we were walking in the recreation area 'Het Lingebos' I did not only see thistles and bumble bees, there was much more. The area is part of the river basin of the river Linge, so there is a lot of water. The reference picture for this painting was made standing on one of the many small bridges and I liked the curve in the river, the reflections and of course the reeds, trees and bushes on the riversides.
In the curve there is some duckweed and painting that has always been a challenge for me, so I decided that I need more practice.
I am happy with this result, but I k now I will have to paint more scenes with duckweed and other water plants to make this a part of my 'toolbox'.
After having painted flowers, leaves and berries for a long time it is time to change the subject in which I want to improve my skills, and I have decided on water. That will include small rivers like this, or the larger ones that are close to my home and of course seascapes, waves and if possible waterfalls in all shapes and sizes. In all kinds of weather conditions if possible.
The information about the paper and paints I have used, the size of this painting and the availability can be found in the link at my website www.jannekesatelier.webs.com
This is the second drawing I made after the reference picture my husband made during our short walk in 'De Biesbosch'.
The first is in my previous post and after I had finished that drawing I asked my husband whether he would like me to try how this scene looks in charcoal - and the answer was a positive one.
So this is the second version, in charcoal. I have used the picture for my reference again and started drawing the reed plumes after I had made a light grey background.
The plumes were standing out too much against the background so I have added the suggestion of much more reeds. If I had not done this, the reeds would be standing alone in an unnatural way.
This was not so strong in the first version, possibly because of the softer colours of the watercolour pencils that were used for the reeds.
This charcoal version has a very different 'feel' to it compared to the pencil version and in fact I like both results.
The details about size, paper used and availability can be found at my website www.jannekesatelier.webs.com
This January our regional Amateur Art association 'Goed Gezien - Goed Bekeken' chose 'Blue Monday' as its challenge.
Next Monday, the third Monday in the new year is thought to be the most depressing day in the year. All good intentions have failed and the weather is usually grey.
Normally that does not bother me so much. I choose my good intentions a bit better (I never did smoke, I know losing weight takes time and so on) so they cannot fail in two or three weeks and the weather....
This year I had to think about a painting or drawing for the challenge and it took some time before I had decided on this scene.
The reference picture was made by my husband during our recent walk in Natural Reserve 'De Biesbosch' and I would have used it for a painting or drawing anyway, but now it is in time for the challenge.
I painted a blue-grey watercolour background and for my drawing of the reed plumes I used my watercolour pencils. The structure of the paper helped me in the drawing of the plumes, especially where the seeds and the fluffy bits are.
The result is what I hoped for and of course I will continue experimenting with this mixed media technique.
The details about paper, paint an pencils used, size and contact information can be found at my website www.jannekesatelier.webs.com
A few weeks ago, during a nice warm sunny day, my husband Peter and me went for some signposted walks in our beautiful nature.
The first stop we made was in Oisterwijk, at the Information Centre of the Natural Reserve which is the beginning point of several nice signposted walks.
This time we chose a walk of 3,5 kilometres passing by three fens or forest lakes. The biggest of these three is called 'Kolkven' and on the banks of that fen we made some pictures.
The sun was shining brightly and some of the pictures were very back lit, some other had the 'flare' that often appears on pictures when the sun is reflected in the water.
The sun is just left of the camera on the reference picture for this painting, but I had to 'correct' for the flares and reflections of the sun. In other words, I used my artistic licence here to paint the sky and its reflection in the water of the 'Kolkven'.
The seed fluff of the reeds did stand out nicely against the background of the distant trees and their reflection in the water, the reeds themselves were partly back lit but the light colours were showing at the edges of the plants.
The few reeds growing higher than the rest of the plant and appearing above the background trees completed the composition.
As this is the end of winter, there are mostly dark colours in the vegetation, with the exception of the yellows of the reeds and the light colours of the seed fluff.
More information about this watercolour (size, materials used, availability, contact information, etc) can be found at my website www.jannekesatelier.webs.com
