Water tower at the 'Spoorwegmuseum' - Conté drawing

 

This week we went to visit the 'Spoorwegmuseum' in the town of Utrecht and we were in the company of the grandchildren, their parents (of course!) and two guest children from France. The museum has many locomotives, trains, wagons and other material that has once moved over the rails in The Netherlands. 

Besides these there are also lots of information and modern trains - as a model - a simulator, some old rails and a workplace from the steam age.

That workplace shows the building as it was - we cannot really enter it, but we can look - and part of that is this old rusty water tower that inspired me to make this drawing.

This time I have also used Conté pencils, both for the colours and for the lines.

Because I was relatively far away from my subject when I made my reference picture, the building is not as detailed as it might be but as the water tower is my subject that does not really matter to me. Now the building is clearly the structure that has the tower on its roof.

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

Wintertime

October has arrived a few weeks ago and there is a new challenge for the members of 'Goed Gezien - Goed Bekeken'. We have to make a work of art with the theme 'Silent night, white splendor' and there are other art groups involved in this challenge too.
Some of the works will be seen in the month of December in museum 'Het Stadhuis' in Nieuwpoort (The Netherlands).

Because I always make something new for a challenge I had to improvise a bit. Winter is not here yet and I had to imagine a snow scene.
For this one I took the watercolour I made on the plein air painting day that was organised last May (by 'Goed Gezien - Goed Bekeken) in the area of Meerkerk (Netherlands).

The water tower may have some snow on its roof and on the ledge below and the row of bushes has got a different colour because they do catch a lot of snow.
The pollard willows have lost their foliage in autumn and the branches do not hold the snow so these trees are dark shapes now in a mostly white landscape.

The theme of the challenge is all about atmosphere - exactly what I want to depict in my paintings and the challenge for me was to find a scenery I had not done as a winter scene before.
There are some more landscapes I can convert to a winter scene, and probably I will paint one or two other watercolours that can be used for the challenge that continues until the end of November.

The details about paper, paint, size and availability of this watercolour can be found at my website www.jannekesatelier.webs.com 

Near Meerkerk

The weather is great again for painting outdoors, so I was happy that the amateur art association 'Goed Gezien - Goed Bekeken' has planned some of these outings together.
The first day was planned in the village of Meerkerk, where we were guests on the property of our chairwoman. She lives in an old farmhouse and has a nice piece of land around it where we all could find a great spot with an inspiring view.

At first I thought I would try to paint some architecture, the old farmhouse would probably inspire me. Well, I saw this view and never thought of painting farms again.

Standing on the edge of some grassland I chose the view of the water tower of Meerkerk and a row of pollard willows in front of the tower.
The air was a bit misty, filled with dust and pollen so the objects in the distance - like the  background trees and the water tower behind them - were already looking a bit blurred. The pollard willows were much closer to where I was standing, there are some fields of grass between them and the background trees.

These rows of pollard willows are very common in the landscape of the area where I live and I really must remember sometimes that I have to paint these as well, because they grow mostly in 'our' river delta landscape between the rivers Lek, Merwede and Maas (Meuse).

For this painting I chose a small size paper, mostly because I feel more comfortable with that when I am painting outdoor and have to choose my subject on the spot.

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