Sweet bliss - for a challenge

 

The month of June is the beginning of Summer and that inspired the theme of the June challenge of Goed Gezien-Goed Bekeken, as we had to make a work about Sweet Bliss.

The suggestions were about strawberries or cherries, but I thought of a nice large ice cream coupe and I only needed some inspiration about how to paint it.

Using a black background (heavy black cardboard) I painted my subject with white gouache and watercolour and added an iridescent medium on the glass of the coupe.

The result is what I hoped for and this is my contribution to the challenge.

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

In the middle of the winter night - white on black

 

The December challenge of 'Goed Gezien - Goed Bekeken' our regional Amateur Art association has the title of a Christmas song: In the middle of the winter night.

This does not mean we have to create a Christmas painting, lots of things happen in winter nights so we are free to find our inspiration where we like it. My husband Peter has made some nice snow pictures several years ago in our own garden. In the night and the snow does really suggest winter.

So using these pictures as my references I decided to make a 'white on black' painting, using white Gouache and some watercolour paints to create the image. 

As I have described before, the black cardboard is really heavy compared to my usual watercolour paper and of course it does react differently to paint and water. The challenge of that is a nice one as I have experienced it many times before. Lots of layers of white paint are needed to get the snow covering the bird feeder and the snow on the ground, but the change is fun and welcome.

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 work, please do contact me.

Cedar cones - a white on black painting

 

During a nice forest walk in the 'Kaapse Bossen' we made pictures of mushrooms, of trees and of each other and we were looking out for 'Christmas Card inspiration'. We were looking for pine cones, larch apples or any other combination of needles and the fruits of the same tree and high up in a tree we could see some cones that were as good as white.

My husband (who had the camera) made some nice reference pictures for me and I have been thinking about 'how to paint these' because the background was very blue and that would not do for a Christmas card. After some thinking I decided to paint these white cones and some of the branches they were in on a black background, using a combination of white gouache and watercolour paint. 

Working on a white paper and painting a blue background using watercolour would mean that the cones would not stand out so beautifully as they did when the reference picture was made.

The black background unfortunately means that this painting will not be used for a card as the printing companies cannot handle all that black.

Zooming in on the picture revealed that the cones were not all white, but a shade of beige with a lot of white resin which created the white appearance from where we were standing. It was a tall tree, so we could not see details from ground level. I chose to paint them white, using a shadow colour to create the characteristic shape of the cones because that was what did attract our attention and gave me the inspiration for this painting.

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

Sacred Lotus (Nelumbo nucifera)

 

 

Yesterday we went to Diergaarde Blijdorp for a visit to the animals and of course the flowers, trees and other plants, as this zoo is also a botanical garden. We are not often there in summer, but there had been a lockdown so we could not visit earlier in the year.

Of course we enjoyed the animals but we also needed a drink so we sat down on a terrace in the shade of a large parasol with a cup of tea. 

In a corner of the terrace were some pots with  Sacred Lotus (according to the information sign), mostly leaves and one large flower bud. Even though it was at a small distance, the flower bud and the leaves were clearly visible and I sketched them while waiting for the tea to turn cold enough to drink it.

Today I wanted to paint from my sketch, while the colours were still fresh in my memory and I decided to make a 'white on black' painting, using white gouache mixed with watercolour paints to paint the Lotus plant.

The flower bud was bright green and light yellow, so that was easy to paint, layering gouache that was lightly tinted with watercolour paint. The leaves are a dark green, with shadows  and these were not as easy. After one layer of tinted gouache I had to use only dark watercolour paint and that does not build up very well on black cardboard. In the end I used my watercolour pencils on the dried paint to suggest the cup - like shape of the leaves. These pencil marks are dry and do not mix with previous layers so that worked as I hoped it would.

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

Gold, frankincense and myrrh

This year the December challenge of 'Goed gezien - Goed Bekeken' is Gold, frankincense and myrrh which are the gifts of the three Kings - or Three Wise Men to the new born Jesus.

Of course these gifts symbolise much more than a present for a new born baby, they also stand for the positions of King, Priest and Prophet that were to be the future of Jesus. Another explanation is that these gifts are what is needed for a funeral; myrrh for embalming, frankincense for a nice aroma and gold to pay for all other things.

The three kings themselves symbolise the three continents Asia, Africa and Europe and that can be found in the shapes of their head coverings. Some imagination is needed here because I have only painted the outlines of the three kings, wrapped in cloaks.

The star had to be there as well, I would not forget that and its light shines on the scene in the night. The little manger is there also, a bit of cloth hangs out and this suggests that the gifts are already given and the three kings stand aside (wise as they are) so they will not wake the sleeping baby. 

For this work I have used my heavy black cardboard again and my white gouache, all the colours are done with a variety of pencils.  Deciding about my composition was not easy for this one, I had some help from my mother to establish the proportions.

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

Moors

After a lot of rainy days we had one day with sunshine and so we went for a walk in the Natural Reserve "Kalmthoutse Heide", which is on the border of Belgium and The Netherlands, not far from where I live.
Of course there was a lot of water on the paths and in the moors and I made some reference pictures of these (almost) flooded moors. 
The first picture I took was just water and grass, no horizon, just for the reflections and what was below the water surface. During the rest of the walk I thought of how I would paint this scene and I made a plan.

On heavy black paper I painted the blue background of the water with the reflections of the sky and I indicated the grasses with some dark colours where the shadows and the wet areas are and light colours where the grasses are growing.
After that dried completely  I used watercolour pencils and a Graphitint Pencil for the blades and for extra texture in the wet areas of the groups of the grasses. This was the stage where the painting started to look right and I am really happy with the result.

The scene is almost abstract and I liked to do this painting - for a change. Usually I paint landscape scenes with a horizon, this time I focussed on a detail.

The description of the paints and pencils I have used, the size of the painting and the availability can be found at my website www.jannekesatelier.webs.com 

Mushroom - if I only knew which one this is....

We are having a nice summer here, not as hot as last year and some days, even weeks with rain to keep our nature hydrated.
Last weekend we went for some signposted walks near the Visitors Centre in Oisterwijk (Netherlands) and made some nice pictures while we were walking. Those will be used as reference pictures later.

Near the entrance of the Visitors Centre were some logs of dead wood, nor even the bark was left on it, so I have no idea what trees these used to be. Growing from one of these logs there was  a nice group of mushrooms, white, light yellow and a bit of orange. (I have not been able to find the name of the mushrooms) I did make some reference pictures and decided to paint these in my 'white on black' technique, with the use of some watercolour pencils for the details that don't want to be painted.

Of course that needs to be explained: the black paper I am using is not watercolour paper, it absorbs a lot of water and paint before the white stands out. This really takes five or more layers. The log of dead wood that provides the food for the mushroom is very dark and does not need so many layers of paint, but the few details of the log I did want to show would 'sink into the paper' if I used my paint for them. So here is where my pencils come into the process and the details are there where I want them to be.

I really like the results I get with this technique. At first, I only mixed gouache and watercolour, but the pencils really add that something I missed in some of my first 'white on black' paintings.

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

New leaves - white on black

During our visit to the 'Von Gimborn Arboretum'  I have - as I wrote before - made enough reference pictures of flowers, trees and new leaves to give me a few months worth of painting material.

This time I have painted the fresh green (a bit blueish green) leaves of the Pyrus salicifolia 'Orientalis' , a small tree and its name translates as 'willow- leaved pear tree'.

I chose to make a white-on-black painting this time because this gives me a nice dark background for the bright green of the fresh new leaves. The advantage of this choice is that this background does not ask much attention to be made and cannot be ruined. 
I have been able to give all my attention to the leaves, especially because painting on this paper is a bit different from my usual watercolour technique. 

Unfortunately I cannot get the picture I have made of my painting to have the right colours, maybe tilting the screen a little can do the trick.

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

Springtime in my garden - white on black

This year the Hellebore bloomed with a few white flowers, but to our surprise one of them came up and bloomed at some distance of the original plant. Such a brave little flower had to be honoured with some pictures and eventually a painting.
The beach tree trunk is not a real tree anymore, it is part of our bird feeding spot, a little house is made on top for feeding breadcrumbs ans other stuff to the hungry birds that visit our garden.
This is in sight of our window and I really liked the surprise of the flower under the bird feeder.

This painting was made 'white on black' using not only the gouache and watercolour but also watercolour pencils. This was an experiment with this kind of mixed media, but the result is as I hoped it would be.

I have submitted this one to the April Challenge of "Goed Gezien - Goed Bekeken", the amateur art association of which I am a member. The theme of the challenge is 'Springtime' and I thought this to be a fitting subject.

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

After sunset - white on black

A few months ago (last September) there was a celebration at my husband's work. The festivities lasted until late, very late at night and all took place in Rotterdam.
My husband had a great day of course, but he also found the time to make some beautiful pictures of the views he had from the Cruise Terminal, where the evening was spent.
He made pictures at the time of the sunset, some before and some after. The sky was beautiful and of course I had to paint this.

Usually I paint the night scenes on 'all black' paper using a mixture of white Gouache and watercolour paints and as much water as I think is possible. 
The black paper still shines through the painted scene, just like the white paper does when I am making a pure watercolour painting.
This quality is what I like about this technique and it really adds to the atmosphere I want to paint.
There are some limits to this, the paint will not flow as beautifully as watercolour does on watercolour paper, so I have to follow the direction of the 'movement' in the clouds with my brush. No vertical lines to define the buildings, these will always be visible and look very unnatural in the clouds. The buildings are not painted, only the light windows.

I have thought about painting this scene in pure watercolour (on a white background) and now I am already planning this in my mind. Painting it will come later.

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

Poinsettia - white on black

Sometimes I make a second version of a watercolour painting in white-on-black, because I like to see the difference.
This Poinsettia is a very welcome subject for such an experiment. 
I have adapted the composition to the paper size and made a slightly different background.

Because I am mixing my watercolours with white Gouache paint and have to work in many layers (the paint is absorbed by the paper and I have to 'build up' the image) there are differences in the colour values, mostly in the largest flower.
Of course I have used this to my advantage and did not have to add shadows afterwards - as is necessary in watercolour painting.

This painting is not available, my mother has it now and when she does not like it any more, my daughter is waiting in line. They both like these white-on-black paintings and drawings very much and encourage me to paint more using this technique.

More information about this painting and the watercolour I have made with the Poinsettia flowers can be found at my website www.jannekesatelier.webs.com

The white tree - white on black

A few months ago we walked a long signposted walk in the area called 'Huis ter Heide' and near the end of that walk we spotted several white trees. This was the first and I quickly made a reference picture. Later we saw more of these dead trees, totally white, standing between the other trees and bushes, making a very special sight. These trees were at some distance of the path, so we did not get near enough to guess what kind of tree it was. This walk was before the dry and hot summer we had this year so the rhododendron bushes were in bloom and the fields had lots of flowers.

At the moment I made my reference picture I had already decided that I would use it for one of my 'white on black' paintings.
I have not only used white gouache and watercolour paint for this painting, for the tree I have been drawing with silver metallic and white (Graphitint) pencils.

The pencils are a nice addition to the gouache and watercolour, they allow me to show the details of the smaller white branches. 

Painting this dead white tree and the surrounding landscape was a nice challenge for me, especially because it had been a few months ago since I had painted a 'white on black'.

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

Bananas!

Once again I have used one of the sketches that are published in 'Plaisirs de Peindre' to paint a still life. Most of the still life examples are about apples, oranges and other fruits, this one with bananas got my attention. I wanted to paint it using my 'white on black' technique and my new Metallic pencils.

The sketch was copied, not transferred so the dish is not as round as the example shows and there are some other 'mistakes' but my paintings are not meant to be an exact copy of the example given with the sketch. I am using my 'artistic license' here to make my own interpretation of the sketch that inspired me.

For this painting I have been using several layers to build up the colours of the bananas and I have added pencil lines in the end for the dark markings that appear on a banana peel when the fruit ripens. The dish was a bit easier as I have used only a few layers of paint. I did want the black of the paper to be shining through and I have used two of my new Metallic pencils for the lines on the dish, trying to give it a 'handmade' appearance.

This is a small size painting (again) because I have been experimenting with the combination of gouache, watercolour and pencils. The things I have learned while working on this little still life painting will be used again in other paintings.

More information (paints and pencils used, paper used, size, availability) can be found at my website www.jannekesatelier.webs.com 

Easter Eggs!

A few months ago I got myself a subscription to 'Plaisirs de Peindre', a French magazine about painting, not only watercolour. The magazine is about learning, information and a lot of inspiration for all painting techniques. In every issue there are some sketches that can be used and for every sketch one to three examples are given with a step-by-step description. I like to read those descriptions because there is always a bit of information that can be used in my watercolour paintings.

In the last issue there was an example of a bowl with Easter Eggs, painted by three different artists each using a different technique. I did like the idea, so I used the sketch for one of my 'white on black' paintings. This is a small painting and I have also used some watercolour pencils for the straw and I have tried two of my new Metallic pencils on the bowl.
The use of the watercolour pencils was a good idea, I did not expect the result to be as nice as it turned out. I will remember this!
The metallic pencils do not stand out as much as I hoped, as this is the first time I used them I still have to learn about their possibilities and limits. I am looking forward to that!

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

Ardennes, day 5

Today was about abstracting.
We were invited  to make sketches on a beautiful location and to create an abstracted painting after that sketch.
I found a very nice spot for my sketch and decided it was too beautiful to make only an abstracted painting. So I started a watercolour painting using the realistic colours and while that one had to dry I started a small one which had to be more abstracted. Halfway we moved back to the house because it started to rain. After these two were finished, I decided to do a white-on-black painting in the afternoon, using the same sketch for inspiration.
The results are in the picture.

More information about me and my paintings can be found at my website www.jannekesatelier.webs.com

Painting again! A view in the forests.

It has been a long time since my last painting. I have already mentioned that I had started on a project of fourteen charcoal drawings and that project is ready for the camera now. When the pictures are ready I will publish my project.

We have been busy with a lot of things, the weather did not cooperate so it had also been a long time since we had our last walk in the nature of our country.
Not very far from our home lies the small town of Oosterhout which has a nice little forest to walk in. The signposted walk is provided with information about the history of the area and how that history affected the landscape. That is really interesting, the area used to bee moorland, later it became production forest and now it is being brought back to recreation forest with a lot of attention for the past.
In this piece of forest there are also some patches of field where wheat can grow alongside with the flowers that naturally accompany it.
At some point we had a nice look through from under the trees over one of those fields. The scene had some back-light, so the trees are a dark mass on the reference picture I took. The wheat has all the sunlight we had at that moment and makes a nice contrast to the dark greens of the surrounding trees.

This gave me the idea to paint this scene on black paper, using white gouache and some of my watercolour paints. The foliage hanging over from the top gave me some troubles, as expected. That is much easier to paint on white paper, painting the leaves and not having to worry about the white colour of the clouds behind them. I decided to make the foliage a bit more dense, this may be reality next week, so I only took some 'artistic liberty' here.

This time I cropped the picture I have made after my painting to where the paint is. Usually I show some extra bits of the black paper, but this time my 'horizon-line' could not be erased without damaging my paper. This is how the painting will be framed.
Of course it is possible to make a better picture after the painting, but it still is as I have told you before - I do not have that advanced a camera and I do not have an advanced editing program on my computer.

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

In the Caves of Han

Last autumn we visited the Domaine des Grottes de Han. The caves are famous,we would be passing the area on our way to the Black Forest in Germany, so the decision to visit these caves was easily made.
The tour in the caves lasts over an hour and there are many beautiful stalactites and stalagmites to be seen. My husband Peter had the camera and made lots of photographs. Most of the formations are not easy to paint - for someone who is used to water, clouds, trees and that stuff - but this one was challenging me. 
This formation was lit by one strong lamp and the shadows in the deeper parts are very, very dark. There are some stalactites hanging from a ledge in the wall  of the cave. The whole scene is not very large, maybe less than one m2.
The colours are real and are caused by various salts that dissolve in the water and mix with the limestone that shapes the stalactites.

Of course I decided to paint a white-on-black painting. The fading of the light on the edges of the area the lamp shines on was a bit of a challenge. This is easier with watercolour paint on watercolour paper.

This time I made the picture after the painting myself and I used a 'not so very good' computer program to edit that picture. So what I am showing you could be better, but this is the best I can do for the moment.

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

Walking around 'Naardermeer' - 2a

This is a second version I made from a sketch I used earlier and this time I wanted to do a painting on a black background. Using white gouache and my watercolour paint I can create a painting that is very different from a watercolour on a white background. 
Until now I used this technique only for night scenes, with this painting I tried a daylight scene.
I am really pleased with the result. 
The technique is something I still am getting used to, but my experience is growing and problems are solved much more easily than in the first paintings I did this way.

These paintings are not so easy to picture for the purpose of showing them in this blog and other things. The light has to be good enough and my daughter has to be home to make the picture for me, my camera is not up to this task.

More information about this spot along the walk around the 'Naardermeer' is found in the blogpost with the watercolour painting I made earlier.

More information about this painting (paint and paper used, etc) can be found at www.jannekesatelier.tk 

Mushrooms - now in white on black

This is a painting I made over a month ago. I am posting it just now, because these white-on-black paintings are hard to take a picture from. 
Using flash is making the black paper look grey so that's not a good idea. The last few months we had very little daylight, just short days with lots and lots of clouds..... and my simple camera is not perfect for this kind of picture.
Both the reference photo and the picture of my painting were made by my daughter Mariska. She is a much better photographer than I am!

I have done these mushrooms in watercolour and I thought it to be a nice exercise to make a white-on-black of the same scene. I really liked doing this one. The result is different from the watercolour of course and that is what makes the fun here.

More information about this painting (and the watercolour I mentioned) can be found at www.jannekesatelier.co.nr 

Hong Kong - by night

Hong Kong (by night) has been painted before and will be painted many times more. 
Some years ago I made a watercolour showing a very, very rainy day and this time I used a nightly scene.
The reference pictures for both paintings were made by my son Martijn, who visited Hong Kong while he was in South Korea for an internship. 
The pictures for this painting have been 'waiting to be painted' for almost four years now.
I am not very at ease with a cityscape but over the last few years I have painted them more often and I am learning to really appreciate them.
Working like this, with white gouache and mixing it with my watercolours is really fun for a change. I also have to work with a different painting technique so I learn a lot while working like this.

More information about this painting (and the watercolour I mentioned) can be found at my website  www.jannekesatelier.co.nr