Ardennes - nearby Wirtzfeld

The fourth painting day was colour again. The teachers from Buitenatelier have found us a great place with nice views to all sides. We were situated halfway up a slope and could look down on fields separated by lines of bushes or the lane we drove through to reach this place. There also were some very curious cows on one side, they really liked the entertainment we gave them.

The lane, with some large beech trees along was to be my subject for today. I like the shapes of those trees, the shadows underneath and the lane itself that gives a direction to my painting.
Once again I made a cadre on my paper with some tape, this time just a small outline.
While sketching some trees disappeared, I lost the lane while painting and the fields were simplified a bit. If I had not done all this, there would have been a lot of details distracting from the atmosphere of the view I wanted to paint.
I have been making some reference pictures to paint from at home, so the other views will also be shown in the future.

Standing outside, on the spot is not without problems: the light kept changing from overcast to sunny and the colours in the foliage of the beeches changed along with it.
At some point I just decided to stop changing those trees and start working on the rest of my painting.

More information about this watercolour painting (size, colours and paper used, etc) can be found at my website: www.jannekesatelier.webs.com 

Ardennes - day 5

For our fifth day most people in our group drove to a field with lots of views on all sides. We came through a narrow lane with lots of curves and nice spots to paint. Today we were 'allowed' to use our colours again and we  had to think about composition.
I decided to stay uphill and paint a part the trees, the shadows underneath them and a bit of the fields to the right. My composition  is bases on the dark on the left with light on the right side of my paper.
As usual, the trees were not easy. Maybe this time because I still could see them and the light kept changing. We had clouds at first, and a lot of sunshine later.
Once again I am  happy with today's result.

Lane in Miramar - even more memories from Portugal

There are many lanes like this in the world, this one is in Miramar, Portugal.
We were there on a nice sunny day last December, so there was a lot of shade with bright spots. Not much foliage in the trees of course, but still the gardens behind the walls were showing green bushes. This lane reaches almost to the seaside.
The place felt like an open invitation to paint...

The reference photos were taken by my daughter Mariska.

More information about this painting (size, colours used etc.) can be found on my website www.jannekesatelier.co.nr