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.

A new beginning

 

During one of our short walks we saw some tree trunks in a park that were growing new branches. The trees must have been cut because of a disease but the trunks and the roots were left in the ground. New branches with leaf buds were growing and I wanted to paint that. I did not take any reference pictures this time but I did look very well at the scene, to be able to paint it from  memory.

For this watercolour I have imagined the fresh leaves that must be on the branches now, a few days later. The tree trunk is dark of course, but I have used warm colours to indicate the life that is still there. 

The background is imaginary and I have used fresh, spring like colours. Once again it is really hard to make a good picture of my watercolour because there is not much daylight left in the afternoon. The rainy weather does not help either.

Painting a scene like this from memory turned out not to be difficult and I am happy with the result.

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