'De Moerputten', tree - a drawing

 

During our walk in 'De Moerputten' (The Netherlands) we walked over an abandoned railroad for a while, but of course we also had to return to where we started (and where we parked the car) and that part of the walk went down the slope and over a boardwalk. Where we had to go down this group of trees stood. 

Of course the trees are much taller than on this drawing but the hollow parts, the shapes and colours of the trunks just above the ground interested me the most.

The drawing is made using my Tinted Charcoal pencils - of course I should be using them more often but I can say the same about much more of the drawing materials I have gathered over the years. The colours of these pencils are mostly a bit muted, moody and not fit for every nature scene but this time I decided to give them a try.

The result is what I hoped for because justice is done to the characteristics of these trees that attracted my attention and inspired me.

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

After the lightning - for a challenge

 

The theme of the January challenge of 'Goed Gezien - Goed Bekeken' is taken from a book by one of the members: "Bliksem" or Lightning in English.

What do we do nowadays when there is a thunderstorm? Do we look at the lightning or do we hide in fear? 

This does not inspire me, so I looked a bit further. What does it look like after the lightning?

In our country we can still find oak trees standing alone in a field and these are in danger of being struck by lightning. Sometimes a tree survives and we can see the damage. More often the tree is killed by the lightning and cleared away before the remains can bring danger to people passing by.

Based on the silhouette of an oak tree in winter I imagined one side to be broken and fallen to the ground while the other side is still alive. The time is set in the end of Autumn, some leaves have not fallen yet.

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

If you are interested in my original artworks, please contact me.

Tree! - a Conté drawing

 

During the workshop morning with Pictura in the garden of the 'Dordrechts Museum' I sketched some of the trees there as these are old and impressive. 

There are three Platanus trees in that garden, that were already there when the Museum was founded, in the year 1904. These trees are maybe 200 years old and they look like their age. The trees are really large and as they are in a garden in an old city it is not possible to make a (reference) picture of the whole tree, they are too tall for that. 

The tree trunks have several bulges, maybe scar tissue where branches have been cut off. The lowest branch grows at least 3 meters above ground.

After I had made my sketch, I moved on to another tree and did not do much with this sketch. The sketch went to the exposition in the 'Pictura' building that ended over a week ago.

Now the sketch is back in my home - and my studio - I can work from it. The vertical lines in the sketch are showing the structure of the corrugated cardboard that we had to support our sheets of sketching paper.

It has been over two month that I was in that Museum garden and my memory of that tree has faded a little, there are no reference pictures, so the sketch is all I have to work with. 

This Conté drawing, using brown and earth colours on a light brown (naturel) background may not be an exact reproduction of the tree or the sketch, it does show what did attract my attention to this tree: the bulges on the tree trunk.

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

Tree collage - for a challenge

 

This month the challenge of 'Goed Gezien - Goed Bekeken' is called 'Papier hier!' translated to 'paper here!', the words that come from the large trash collectors in the famous theme parc 'De Efteling'. A fairy tale figure - always hungry - cries for the paper (and other trash) and answers with a 'thank you' if he is given something.

For the challenge we were asked to do something creative with paper - not an ordinary material, but in fact really versatile.

This was a bit of a challenge for me, I'm not much of a crafter anymore - especially since I started painting. So I had to think about what would be best to hand in.

For this work I tore up old printed matter (with a collection of watercolours of mine) and pasted it on a sheet of A3 paper. On the back I very roughly drew an indication of the annual rings of a tree stump and cut the rings out.

I traced the structure of wood - but as planks - on a sheet of watercolour paper and coloured it with watercolour markers.

I glued the cut-out collage on top and the rings that I did not use immediately were applied upside down at the top right. Because this turned out va bit too white I glued narrow edges of collage on top.

So I did some crafting, some drawing and I used trees as my inspiration again.

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

On the high 'Esch' - Delden, The Netherlands

 

Last month we (my husband and me) had a very short vacation in the province of Overijssel (Netherlands) where we did stay in a hotel in Delden. Just outside Delden is a nice restaurant placed on an 'esch'. I found a definition of 'esch' and that translates like: In Overijssel, Drenthe and Gelderland a vast, fertile piece of arable land, uninterrupted by hedges or walls, surrounded by the building farms of the owners.

Near the parking place of the restaurant begins a signposted walk and in the field between that path and the restaurant were some trees that were pruned to get an umbrella-like shape. I made reference pictures of these trees, but as it was raining and almost sunset, my pictures are not so great.

Still, one of these pictures is used as my inspiration for this watercolour painting. Choosing a limited palette of blues and browns I changed the mood a bit, but not much. It really was dark, wet and desolate and that little tree was all alone compared to the other trees. The tree is still in its winter sleep, so all the branches and twigs are visible against the grey sky and I think I painted them all. As mentioned, this tree was pruned to get a desired shape.

The result is what I hoped it would be, showing the atmosphere of a rainy late afternoon at the end of winter.

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. If you are interested in my original artworks, please contact me.

Rooted and tenacious (for a challenge)

 

The October challenge of 'Goed Gezien - Goed Bekeken' has Deep-rooted as its theme, with references to trees in the description. That subject is all I could wish for, trees are my most important inspirations. Though I had some difficulty in selecting which tree I would draw or paint for this challenge. It had to be a living one and this tree, in the 'Alblasserbos', very close to my home (walking distance) is the chosen one.

This tree and another one of the same kind are lying on the ground in a small section of the forest area that used to be an orchard. It looks like the trees have been pulled down when the orchard closed but tenaciously stayed alive and are still bearing their fruits in autumn - now for the passers-by to pick and enjoy.

It has been a while since I made a Conté drawing, so my contribution for the challenge is a Conté drawing of that tree as it is at the end of winter - when the reference picture was made.

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

A glimpse (underneath) - Kalmthoutse Heide

 

The end of summer is more sunny and warm than the 'real' summer was this year so we went for a walk over the Kalmthoutse Heide in September, enjoying a nice warm day and the last of the purple colours of the heather in bloom. We made a nice long walk, combining two signposted walks to see as much purple as possible. Of course we also passed by woodland areas, sand dunes and sand paths and some trees that were standing (almost) alone.

Under one of those trees was a nice bench for tired walkers so we sat in the shadow of the tree and my husband made a picture of this glimpse underneath the branches of the tree. He made the request for a watercolour painting and I decided to do this 'my way' with the tree in the lead role.

The roots of the tree were interesting in shape so I gave them extra attention by changing the clarity of the reference picture to see the shapes - compared to the dark mass they were in the original picture. As most of the tree is back lit, it is only natural that the roots are too dark in the picture. With some help from the photo programme I managed to get the reference image I needed, another lesson learned for the future.

For the painting I wanted the tree in the lead role, so the background, a path, bushes and some trees  is mostly suggested. The pine cones under the tree were added for structure as well as some fallen twigs.

The painting is what I hoped it would be, so I am really happy with the result.

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. If you are interested in my work (only original paintings are available) please contact me.

Tree (trunk) - Conté drawing

 

A month ago Springtime was just beginning in The Netherlands and we made a nice signposted walk in the 'Rucphense Bossen' a natural reserve not too far from our home. We have walked there before and we have seen all the signposted walks at least one time and many of the walks twice or more. Returning in a different season really makes us look at the landscape with renewed attention.

This time I saw some tree trunks, starting to grow new branches and showing that cutting a tree does not have to mean that it dies. These were growing into bushes but as spring was just beginning, there were not many leaves yet.

Of course I made some reference pictures with the intention to make a Conté drawing, using only three crayons and the naturel paper I have since my last birthday. (thanks again to my brother and sister-in-law for that paper) 

The tree is still very alive so my choice of paper is 'naturel' and the crayons have shades of brown and white. Compared to this, dead trees are portrayed on grey paper using black, grey and white crayons. 

I am building a nice set of Conté drawings these past months and I really like working like this. Scrubbing my fingers afterwards is the only 'not so great' thing about this technique.

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

Plane tree, winter

 

Not far from my home - I can see it from the garden - is a large plane tree and I wanted to paint or draw it for a long time. Last winter I made some reference pictures of the tree and now I have found the time to draw it.

Of course it also took so long because I wanted to use the Naturel PaintOn paper as my background and I only got that paper recently. After I had the paper I also needed time to think about 'how do I want to draw the tree' and time to draw it. 

The thinking about 'how' resulted in three colours of Conté Crayons that do not at all resemble the true colours of the tree, but are a good combination of values; a dark, a middle and a light value with the colour of the paper between the middle and the light values.

The reference pictures were made in winter, so the tree is still bare, with only showing the seed balls that are still on the branches. By now most of them have fallen off. The many different colours of the bark are only suggested as I do not want to show all of the details. The same applies to the smallest branches, seen in back light.

This drawing is what I hoped it would be and I think I have now found the best way to draw a living tree with my Conté crayons.

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

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

Now and later, waiting...

 

My painting vacation was great fun again and I have learned a lot. My subject this time was all about painting a forest landscape and I have been working hard all week.

The first day however was more about the direct surroundings of our location in Berg en Dal (Netherlands) with 'blind contour drawing' in the morning and painting in the afternoon. After I had found my work spot for the week - under trees, lots of shadow and a cool wind from time to time - I painted the view from that spot, a tree trunk, a bench and a tree. The foreground was a typical forest floor: grasses, leaves, acorns (there were oak trees), all dry because of the lack of rain in the past month.

At first the painting was higher, a portrait format, but the background was too empty. Our teacher and coach Ad van Aart had advised me to keep the background empty and fill it in later. So I added some branches and foliage above in the painting and that was too much. So the best solution to the problem was to cut off the upper part of the paper and create an almost square painting, as it is now. 

For this painting we picked the subject and composition, I made the painting and then we investigated how we could improve the result. In this case we just needed to cut off the excess empty space to get a good painting.

These first days on location are always an investigation of 'what shall we do this week and how shall we do it' so I did not expect much of this watercolour painting. The road towards  the final result of this day is more important than the painting itself. I have learned a lot in that short afternoon and used that the rest of the week.

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.

And then it started to rain a little....

The weather in The Netherlands can be challenging. Today we planned a day of plein-air painting in the beautiful landscape of the 'Alblasserwaard' (where I live) and every time I set up my field easel it really started to rain a little. After a few attempts I gave up completely and went home. Another member of the group also gave up and most of the others were still inside the restaurant talking. Of course the sun started to shine and the rain stopped completely after I started painting in my studio.

If we had stayed on the spot, my painting probably would have been an interesting experiment in wet-on-very wet painting. Of course I was also getting wet and I quickly lost the inspiration needed for such an experiment.

The title is all about the July challenge of 'Goed Gezien - Goed Bekeken', the regional  amateur art association of which I am a member. The coincidence that our day of plein-air painting had exact the kind of weather that we had to depict for the challenge made me decide to submit this painting.

The landscape is imaginary, but based on a scene near the restaurant where our group planned to meet. In the middle of the 'polder' so there are fields, paths, trees, bushes and several ditches. There were some windmills at walking distance (even with my painting stuff to transport) and cows and sheep were visible from our standing point.

I decided to paint a scene with a tree (no surprise here), some fields and the dark clouds that were over the landscape all morning. Because my paper had been wet from the rain, I had a bit of a struggle to get my dark shades in place but in my studio I can speed up the drying process when needed so this turned out the way I wanted it.

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

In the 'Von Gimborn' Tree Museum - a charcoal drawing

Last weekend we visited the 'Von Gimborn Arboretum' or Tree Museum again. We were there four years ago and loved the place very much. my brother invited us for a walk through the tree museum again and we were very happy to go. 

As it is springtime now, there are lots and lots of magnolia trees full with flowers, new foliage is growing on the other trees and there are even some blossoms beginning to show.
I have made lots of reference pictures, taking care to make a picture of the 'name tag' of each tree so I can give the name of the tree (most of the times in Latin) when I make a drawing or painting after my reference pictures.

Unfortunately the name of this tree could not be found, but I still wanted a reference for a charcoal drawing.
The tree is very back-lit so there are not much details visible, just some highlights that are green with moss.

For this drawing I have also used some tinted charcoal pencils, to make a difference between the dead tree trunks I often draw and this one, which is still very alive.
The tinted charcoal is only in the highlighted details, so it's hard to see in this small picture.
Unfortunately I did not get the colours right, the paper really is white.

Of course the tree is much taller than this drawing shows, but I liked this composition much better than a whole length portrait.

More information about this drawing (size, colours used, contact information, etc) can be found at my website www.jannekesatelier.webs.com 

Modern Times

The challenge for the month of March (by 'Goed Gezien - Goed Bekeken' the amateur art association of which I am a member) is 'Wat vliegt daar?' - or in English: What flies there?
A lot of ideas come up, some absurd, some very common and some that are to be thought over. I decided to ask for ideas during a day out with some members of my  family. 
This painting is the result of the suggestions that came up and were discussed while we enjoyed a good cup of coffee.
I have made my own composition using most of the ideas that were suggested, choosing the elements from the suggestions that I liked and ending up with a painting that still has my own 'handwriting', with a little inspiration - assistance.

I have used some of my Limited edition Twilight Colours combined with colours from my regular palette to give this scene the atmosphere I wanted it to have.

The  replacement of the broomstick by a more high-tech piece of household equipment is an obvious sign of Modern Times and of course the empty box is taken by the cats.


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

Behind the Cathedral

Between Christmas and New Year's Eve my husband and me went for a short vacation to Saarburg (Germany). I have already painted the beautifully frosted world we walked in but we did do more than that.
The first day of our vacation we started very early and made a stop in the ancient town of Trier and walked in the old city centre for a few hours. That day was already foggy and frosted, but inside a city it is always a bit warmer so we had no frost there. 
Without frost Trier is still a beautiful old town with lots of buildings that have a special history. We enjoyed our walk and made many pictures that also show a lot of other tourists. These could not always be avoided. 
We visited the Cathedral and did not have the time to see everything in there, but outside it is also a very special building, as there were chapels and crypts added to the original building over the past centuries. That can be seen behind the Cathedral, where the different architectures meet.

I made the reference pictures for this painting because the bare tree attracted my attention. It's standing in an open spot in the pavement, completely surrounded by 'city elements' and no other tree in sight. 
The tree is bare because of the winter but that adds to the somewhat alienated atmosphere I felt in that little square.
It took me some time before I started painting this watercolour painting, I needed to have a plan for the Cathedral first. There is a lot of architecture to be seen (and painted) even in this very small part of the building, but the Cathedral is not my main subject so I had to simplify. I think I have simplified enough here, I wanted the Cathedral still recognisable without all the details.

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

White world - 5

Although I keep naming the paintings 'White World', there is a lot of colour to be seen in the landscape I am painting. That is of course because the white colour in the landscape is frost, frozen fog that forms ice crystals on the branches, grasses and tops of the humps of clay in the fields. There has been no snow in this landscape.

All the reference pictures I have used so far were taken during one walk of five kilometres in the hills above Saarburg, as we walked from our vacation home to the village of Ayl and back. Down in the valley there was no white at all, the temperatures were just above freezing point there.
The views were great in spite of or maybe because of the light fog we had in the beginning of the day. Taking good pictures was not easy, the camera saw too little contrast between the foggy, grey sky and the white bushes. 
This contrast could be seen with the eye so I have added my memory to the pictures when I was painting the watercolours that I named 'White World'.

Once again I have chosen a small size paper and I have used a limited palette of three colours. When we were walking the world seemed to have only two colours, white and gray but closer observation revealed browns and greens as well. I have tried to reproduce the atmosphere of that lightly foggy, cold white landscape without losing the colours that were really there.

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

Poplar tree

Sometimes I use a sketch more than once. This poplar tree has already been the subject of a charcoal drawing, but at that time I did show much more details of the background and the surrounding landscape.
During my painting vacation our teacher also talked about our previous works and gave some tips we could follow to improve our future works. 

So I made a watercolour painting using the sketch of this tree and followed some of the advice I was given. 
The background is not detailed, only suggested by wet-in-wet painting. This technique also gives more muted colours, especially when the greens and browns are mixtures of more than one colour of paint. The dried paint gives an illusion of a foggy day.
The foreground is now only a suggestion of grasses and herbs.
The surrounding landscape is still here, but does not distract the viewer's attention from the subject of the painting.
Once again I concentrated on the atmosphere of the painting. 

This was to be a 'portrait' of the poplar tree, so this tree is a presence in the painting.


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

The first sunday of Advent

This year I decided to paint landscapes that were inspired on the Gospel readings belonging to the four Sundays of Advent. 
That is easier said than done, because in the Roman Catholic Church in The Netherlands we read the Gospels in a three year cycle.
So I asked my mother for her old missal, published in 1957 (long before that three year cycle was introduced) and used that as my source of information.

This painting is inspired by Luke 21, 29b - 30: "Behold the fig tree, and all the trees;
 When they now shoot forth, ye see and know of your own selves that summer is now nigh at hand." (source of the English text is www.kingjamesbibleonline.org)

Of course I have included some other elements that are connected to Advent - at least they are connected for me.
The star is a sign we hang in our windows when Advent starts and we remove it after Epiphany. So in every painting the star is present, though hidden behind some clouds.
There are light rays, one for the first Sunday, two for the second - and now I am already saying too much, the other paintings will be published when it is the right time.
A star means night, so the main colour is Indigo and only where the light shines other colours are introduced. 
The landscapes are scenes that are familiar to me: I did not search the internet for the landscapes of Israel, but I chose to paint variations on the nature of The Netherlands and Belgium. Sometimes I used a lot of imagination, sometimes I did not add much to the original landscape.

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

Bird sanctuary - 2; an experiment with a limited palette

We returned from our last walk on the 'Kalmthoutse Heide'  with a lot of photographs that can be used as reference for my paintings. 
To prevent me doing the same thing over and over again, I usually start challenging myself after the first two or three paintings and here I set myself a double challenge.

I chose to work with a limited palette of only three colours. The three are selected carefully, when placed in a colour wheel made up of 12 colours, they are in the shape of an equilateral triangle. So they have a natural balance.
I have worked with this palette before and this is great for painting landscapes.

The second challenge I set myself is the high position of the horizon. 
Usually I have my horizon positioned low, like the old masters did. So now I have a lot of land to paint and very little sky.

For this double challenge I decided to work on a smaller piece of paper than usual.

The scene is the bird sanctuary I painted before, but this time a bit to the left from my first painting. There is no real path, just some parts with moss, low grass and sand that suggest there might have been a path in the near past. The tree is waiting for warmer weather to let the leaves come out and the bushes are doing the same.
In the distance are evergreen trees and bushes, in front of them are traces of other paths visible in the moss and grasses.

My limited palette may have a natural balance, it is hard to get really dark values with these three colours without making a mess of my painting. So I stopped before that could happen and decided to suggest a bit more than I did in my latest paintings.

I really enjoyed working on this painting and the lessons I learned will be used to improve the next ones.

More information (colours used, size, etc) can be found at my website www.jannekesatelier.webs.com 

Testing my new Tinted Charcoal pencils

A charcoal drawing can be a bit too much black (and white) when you want to draw a landscape. So I have been experimenting with techniques to introduce some colour to a charcoal drawing. I was really happy with the results I got using a watercolour underpainting on watercolour paper but sometimes that is not what I am looking for.
Then, browsing on the internet I found Tinted Charcoal pencils. In the instruction videos they are used for the whole drawing, but I just want to add them to my charcoal. 
I decided to give these pencils a try to see how they can be used in my artwork.

This is the result of my first attempt: the scene on the Kalmthoutse Heide was back-lit, so the silhouettes are strong and dark, perfect for a charcoal drawing. I added the colours of the grasses on the left with my pencils, and very little pine-green in the tree. So most of the drawing is made with my charcoal stick and I added the colours later.
Working with these pencils is different than working with a stick of charcoal, the marks can be blurred with my fingers, but not so easily as the charcoal. Of course that is because they are pencils and I just have to get used to them. I have got the tin with all 24 colours, so I have plenty of opportunities to experiment with my new pencils.

More information about this charcoal drawing and all the watercolour paintings I made inspired by the Kalmthoutse Heide 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