Trees along a sunken road

 

Some weeks ago we were for a short vacation in the Val Joly region and made a walk in the Parc de L'Abbaye de Liessies where we were walking in a sunken or hollow road during that walk. 

The road was so much sunken that we could just see the top of the sides and many tree roots were visible. My husband (who had the camera) made some nice pictures of these tree roots.  During our short vacation I made a drawing after one of these pictures and this time I wanted to make a watercolour painting. 

My reference picture for this watercolour painting is made from a different angle and shows the tree from the drawing and a second one, both with a lot of their roots exposed. The high side of the road is also visible.

The second tree, on the right side of the painting was the biggest challenge with its roots so intertwined that I really needed the 'help' of my reference picture. Usually I paint the sketch I made on my watercolour paper and from memory but in this case that did not work well for the many details.

The information about the materials I have used, the size and availability of this work and - if you are interested in my original artwork - my contact information can all be found in my Tumblr blog.

Reflection in the fen

 

A few weeks ago my husband and me went for a nice signposted walk on the 'Kalmthoutse Heide' where I made some (reference) pictures of the beautiful landscape.

As winter was very near the colours of the landscape were turning to a pale straw yellow with patches of brown, depending on the vegetation. The pine trees were still green of course and in backlight that green was a very dark one.

Painting the trees and the reflections needed a different approach than usual, I had to leave the tree trunks light coloured so the dark of the shadows  and lower pine trees had to be painted around all those trunks. With patience and a lot less water than usual I got the result I hoped to get.

This is the last painting of 2025 so I really wanted to post it before New Year (2026)

The information about the materials I have used, the size and availability of this work and - if you are interested in my original artwork - my contact information can all be found in my Tumblr blog.

Woodland

 

Last week, during my painting vacation, I have been experimenting with my materials and with atmosphere. Our teacher and coach Ad van Aart encouraged me to do so and this work is one of the results of my experiments.

The reference picture is made at the location of our vacation, a small patch of woodland opposite the parking place provided a nice enough scene to paint.

My colour scheme is experimental, yellow, orange and red for the background with the plan to 'go wild' with other colours to change the atmosphere from serene to something more dramatic. I used my water soluble graphite for that, layering dry upon washed graphite for depth.

This may not be the best I ever made, but I enjoyed working on this one. And experiments always have the chance of failure or at least being not really great.

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

The Forest Floor

 

After I had painted different seasonal moods using only one reference picture it was time for something different, still based on the 'forest' theme. 

Together with our teacher and coach Ad van Aart I selected a step-by-step tutorial about painting the forest floor in Pastel to use as my guideline for this watercolour painting. The result does not look much like the reference in the tutorial. What I have taken from the reference are a background, trees, a light spot and some growing plants on the forest floor. Making a watercolour painting is very different from making a pastel painting, so the step-by-step instructions could not be followed by me.

Because of the light spot. I had to decide the direction of the light to place my shadows and the dark sides of the trees. Some shadows are not included, these are behind the unevenness in the forest floor. 

The result is a mostly imaginary landscape and I am really happy with it. The experience of painting a landscape, using a reference only as a guideline was a nice one and I love to repeat this way of working in the future.

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.

Fields and a forest edge

 

This scene is what I wanted to paint when I made some reference pictures during our nice signposted walk near Bathmen. The second reference picture, about the details of the building has already been used for a drawing and this was meant to be a watercolour.

The building is still visible in the forest edge but as this is 'the whole landscape' and not a detail, the atmosphere is more open, with the fields in the foreground. At the end of winter, there are not many details in a field of grass, so the fields are mostly green with a few shadows. Later in the year there will be grasses that are higher, other herbs growing and some bumps in the field where animals have been rooting the ground.

The large trees are still bare, just like the little bush in the foreground. The whole fence is visible now, not much more than I had in my drawing.

Making this watercolour was as pleasant as the walk itself and did bring back the memory of this nice, open landscape not very far from the river IJssel.

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.

Forest Edge

 

During our short stay in the Eastern part of our country, we also found a nice signposted walk near Bathmen. The walk was very informative about the history of this area as we passed several old buildings, some former barnyards and the stream that was used for transportation. There also were patches of what once were forest areas and near one of these forest edges we stopped for our lunch and to make some reference pictures.

For this work I have made a graduated watercolour under painting on smooth paper. Once this had dried, I started drawing the trees and the shadows on the ground with charcoal. After that I used my Graphitint pencils for the green grasses and mosses on the ground. A white Graphitint pencil was used for the sunlit sides of the trees. Some extra white was created with an eraser. 

The bright colours of the Graphitint Pencils only showed after I had used the fixative that is needed to keep the charcoal in place, so the amount of pencil colour applied was an uncertain element, but the result is what I hoped it would be.

When I saw this forest edge, I knew that I wanted to make a mixed media work with charcoal and pencils. The scene is not really very exciting in itself, but I did see possibilities in the shadows and the patches of green moss under the large trees to make my work a bit more interesting.

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

Trees in the foreground - 2

 

After the first abstract background with trees in the foreground I wanted to make a second abstract background with something in the foreground. So I selected another set of colours, preparing and pouring them in the same way as I did with my first painting in this technique.

Again it took several hours to dry and in this case I had to wait until the next morning before I could continue with the foreground. I had not decided yet, after a short conversation with our teacher Ad van Aart it was decided that I would paint trees again, but with a different contrasting colour and different shapes. The amount of trees has changed as well.

With this painting I have also suggested some depth in the tree line. The trees that are really in front of everything have at least three layers of paint, so the background colours are almost covered. The chosen contrasting colour for the trees is a little opaque and I have used this quality as good as possible. 

The result is different from the first painting, but that was intended and I am happy with both experiments. I have learned a lot from these paintings and I will surely use the lessons learned in the future.

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

Trees in the foreground - 1

 

During my painting vacation I wanted to improve my skills and confidence in working on an abstract background. Our teacher Ad van Aart  showed me some abstract art made by various artists for inspiration and guidance.

For this background I mixed watercolour paint from the tube with a very small amount of water and poured that on my stretched (and dried) paper. I moved the paper a little bit, but the white in between the coloured spots had to stay. After my first layer had dried, I added another colour and let that dry completely. 

This takes time and patience. 

We had a nice day and I used the warmth of the sun to dry my paper, but it took several hours. I decided to continue after some hours and have a very relaxed morning.

Before starting to paint, I gave the edges of the paper a little bit of the last colour I poured on using my usual watercolour technique. This dried quickly.

Inspired by a line of trees close by I painted the trees in the foreground with a contrasting colour. There is some depth in the tree line but these trees are to be as abstract as I could get them without losing the characteristics of the trees.

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

After the fire

 

During my painting vacation there was time for workshops, but also time to work as we wished to do. After I had used a picture of a skull last year to create a mixed media work, our teacher Ad van Aart brought some real animal skulls and bones with him this year for inspiration.

Drawing a skull from life is a bit different than using a picture, but I thought it clarifying . With a real skull in front of me, I can change my viewpoint to understand its structure which of course is not possible when using a picture.

The skull that inspired me is an animal skull found in Iceland and it belonged to a goat or sheep (that was not clear any more). I made a drawing using my watercolour pencils on a large sheet of paper and after this was finished I added trees with charcoal.  I decided to draw a burned forest, that seems to be the current state of a lot of forest areas.

These last weeks (months) there have been many forest areas on fire, mostly in the Southern parts of Europe, but also in North America and there is a huge fire going on in Siberia. These fires are alarming. I am not directly endangered by the fires or the smoke but the impact on the world climate is huge as we need the forests to cool down the  climate and slow down or even stop global warming, so I do feel uneasy about what's happening.

Now the mixed media work is finished, it seems to have become not only a drawing of a skull and a burned forest area. 

Something mythical has added itself to the atmosphere while I was working. 

These surprises are always welcome.

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

Reflections - a different mood

 

In my previous post I have introduced this landscape on the shore of the 'Veerse Meer' with the line of poplar trees reflected in the calm waters of the lake. I also wrote that I would paint this scene again, changing the composition to the one that is in the reference picture. 

This means that I have placed the horizon in the middle of the composition, which is a bit against the rules, and I have changed the colour scheme.

For this painting I have given the poplar trees the green colour they have later in spring. My first painting shows the red-brown shade of the fresh leaves before they turn green a few weeks later. Instead of the grey-blue shade of the clouds and their reflections in the water that I used in my first painting I have used Indigo which is a dark blue shade for this one. 

Both changes create a different mood to the painting and that is what I wanted to achieve.

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

Reflections

 

Last May we visited the 'Veerse Meer' and made a nice walk through a woodland area with mostly poplars on the shore of the lake. We (my husband and me) both made lots of pictures as the dark clouds that were reflected in the water of the lake inspired us both. 

At some point we could access a long landing stage, pointing out into the lake. From the end of that landing stage my husband - who had the camera and could zoom in or out at will - made pictures of the tree line that was reflected in the water. As there was almost no wind, the reflection was as good as perfect. This picture is perfect to be used for a painting, I just had to find the time.

For my composition I have changed the place of the horizon, as the picture has the horizon halfway. That composition will be painted also, but I wanted to start with this one. I used the picture for a sketch and worked after that to make my painting, trying to remember the right colours as good as possible.

The reflected clouds are much darker than the ones in the sky, so I could change the mood of the painting with the modification I made in the composition. Poplar trees have red-brown spring colours so I painted the trees mostly red-brown, which gives a nice contrast with the blue-grey shades of the clouds and their reflections in the water. 

Looking back at the picture the trees were already mostly green with parts of the red-brown shades of fresh leaves, so my memory played me some tricks. The brown-red colours were what I noticed most during the walk, so that shade seemed to be the right one while working from a black and white line sketch. Another lesson learned! The painting result only benefits from this because a blue and green painting would not have the mood I wanted to paint.

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

Sallandse Heuvelrug

 

At the end of one of our recent walks on the Natural Reserve 'Sallandse Heuvelrug' we saw a path that looked like it was constructed that very same day. Most of the times the paths in our nature have damaged sides, some bits seem to have been 'nibbled off' or bits of soil are on the path. Not to mention the uneven parts where tree roots have lifted the path up a bit.

This path was totally undamaged as far as we could see and that unusual sight was photographed by my husband. Looking at his picture, I decided to use part of it as a reference for a nice autumnal watercolour painting.

The light between the trees in the background was hazy, maybe because there had been rains in the morning and at the moment we walked there we had warm sunshine, so the moist from the morning was evaporating.

I have limited the colour scheme a bit, to match the leaves on the trees with the colours of the forest floor, some nice warm orange-browns and a bit of warm yellow.

The bench was there in the picture and I decided to paint it as well, the composition could do with some horizontal lines. Now the painting is finished I think the bench in that spot adds a touch of mystery. Who or what will come out of the misty forest to look at the resting wanderer?

The information about the paper and paints I have used, the size of this painting and its availability can all be found in the link at the 'Galerie' page of my website www.jannekesatelier.webs.com 

City vs Nature - 2

 

When I was looking for inspiration and references for my first 'City vs Nature' work, I was looking for a city skyline and trees. I found something much more inspiring and I used the images I found but the first idea was still there, wanting to be painted.

So today I looked at city skylines and city scenes for inspiration and painted a city scene that is imaginary, but inspired by a lot of real cities. Once again I did not paint a lot of details because I wanted to draw over this painting with charcoal.

The trees in this scene are not there, which is exactly what happens in reality when big cities are built. I have outlined the foreground branches and the trees in the background on the left and filled in the 'negative space' with charcoal. 

The watercolour painting behind the charcoal had to stay visible, I have used the right amount of charcoal to reproduce that feeling of greyness that seems to be present in all big cities.

This mixed media was an experiment for me, it is the first time that I have been filling the 'negative space' with charcoal. 

Covering all those sharp angles and staying away from the spaces that had to stay untouched by the charcoal was a challenge. It made me use a piece of tissue instead of my fingers to rub out the charcoal.

The information about the paper and paints I have used, the size of this work and the availability can be found in the link at the 'Galerie' page of my website www.jannekesatelier.webs.com 

Lingebos - east

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 

A walk in the woods - charcoal drawing

This Sunday morning we did get out of the house early again to be in the woods for a walk when it would still be quiet. This time we rode to a small place called Rucphen and walked in the woods for almost two hours.

Some parts of the woodland were thick with bushes, some parts were more open. There also was variation in the kind of trees, this part had mainly fir trees. There are some birches in the patch in the background, the separation between the different patches in this woodland is very clear. The nature management organization plans to change that, but growing a forest takes years, not months.

This part of the woods was nice and open, with patches of sunlight on the ground, some shadows and the tall trees that once were planted for the production of straight planks.
Now there is much more space between them and that inspired me to make some reference pictures and to make a charcoal drawing as soon as possible.

I did doubt about the technique I wanted to use and decided that the more laborious one will be used later. So there will be another drawing with trees, some bushes in the background and....  later!

The details about the materials I used, the availability and contact information are in the link at my website www.jannekesatelier.webs.com 

De Biesbosch, winter sun

During our last walk in Natural Reserve 'De Biesbosch' we had a lot of morning fog, but for a few moments the winter sun was strong enough to break through the fog and the clouds. At one of these moments we were close to one of the creeks and of course the sunlight and the clouds were reflected in the water. 

As there was not much colour in the whole scene (except many shades of grey and some green in the fields) I decided to make a charcoal drawing, like I did with the other reference pictures that we made during that walk.

This is one of the first times I tried to make a reflection while working with charcoal and having to think about black and white only makes it easier to place the reflections, but using colours (like in a watercolour painting) helps making the locations of the sun, clouds and their reflections in the scene a bit more obvious. 
I will have to work on that - and I am looking forward to it.

The details about size, paper used, availability etc can be found at my website www.jannekesatelier.webs.com 

Snow along the route

Two weeks ago my husband went to a congress in the South of France and he travelled there by high speed train. Along the route he saw lots of snow and made a lot of pictures from the train, for himself and for my paintings.
The pictures are of an unexpected good quality considered that the train travelled at a speed of 300 kilometres per hour.

The first snow scene, in my previous post, was completed before he was home again. Now I have seen all the pictures he made and I asked for some to be transferred to my laptop computer so I could use them as reference pictures. (very often my husband needs the desktop computer, both for his work and the charity work he does)


This snowy scene is a bit different, the trees are much closer to the railroad and the snow really needs all the shadows I painted to achieve the depth that was needed in this scene.

These scenes are a nice challenge to paint, snow is not completely white, certainly not when the landscape is uneven. 

I enjoyed painting this one and the details about paper and paint used, size etc, can be found on my website www.jannekesatelier.webs.com

Normandy - sunrise

 

Last week, in Normandy, we had a vacation home with views on lawns and a golf court, which means lots of grass on all sides. The view on the little church was on the front side of the house, this is the back side.
The first morning I was awake and dressed (it is cold outside in the mornings) in time to make some pictures of the sunrise.

The view is showing the lawns and golf court I mentioned earlier and the apple trees that were everywhere. This is Normandy and there are apple trees wherever you look, to produce all that cider, Pommeau and Calvados for which this region is famous.

I have chosen to make a small size watercolour, just to show the colours of the sunrise and the remainder of the morning fog that could be seen just above the grass and between the trees.

The details about the paper and paint I used, the size and availability can be found at my website www.jannekesatelier.webs.com 

Storm - a september challenge

September has begun and with that comes not only the end of the summer vacation for our schools (my husband is a teacher) but also the new challenge of Goed Gezien - Goed Bekeken. In January I had decided that I would participate in every (monthly) challenge so this is my contribution for September.
The theme is 'Storm' and I had to think of something new. I have painted lots of stormy skies but I want to make something new for every challenge.

As I am still in the mood for leaves, fruits and flowers this is a combination of a stormy sky and a composition of leaves and some fruits of one of the sycamore trees (Acer pseudoplatanus) that are growing in a park area near our home.

The landscape is imaginary, in the sense that I have not really seen this, but the line of trees, the bushes and the field are something that really can be found in our landscape. The leaves and little 'helicopter' fruits that are blowing in the wind are a sight that can be seen here also - when the winds are strong enough.

This was fun again, painting an imaginary landscape combined with things I learned about composition during my painting vacation and I am really happy with the result.

Details about the materials I have used for this watercolour painting can be found at my website www.jannekesatelier.webs.com 

Medieval sheds - another summer storm scene

In my previous post I have painted a reconstruction of a Medieval barn that has been found somewhere in our country. More buildings have been rebuilt and are to be visited for the public and I have been sketching these sheds too. These are dated a few centuries earlier than the barn I have already painted,they are from the Early Middle Ages and the remains of these buildings have also been found in our country.

Again I have painted a cloudy sky, like an approaching storm and I have added some trees to the scene. The reconstruction sites also have trees, but these are not always near the buildings I have sketched. These reconstructed buildings have to be visited by a lot more people than originally lived there in the Middle Ages. 

So for my paintings I 'replace' the trees a bit.

The shed in the back is completely constructed from wood, which has obtained a nice grayish shade over time. The shed in front has a thatched roofing with a lot of mosses growing on top of that. 

The entrances of the sheds were not to be seen from the spot where I found a place to sit and sketch, but that did not really matter to me. I did like the view from that point so I sketched what I could see and painted this scene with the sketch as my reference.

I wanted to give this scene a rural (Medieval) atmosphere and I really like the result.

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