Stone circle - five works

 

During my painting vacation I was looking for a way to paint/depict the spiritual feeling I can get at certain sites. Our teacher and coach Ad van Aart helped me find my 'voice' in this.

After the cap stone and the dolmen I needed a new subject and I made up a stone circle.  The work at the bottom is a first try on composition. It is not quite finished but the other participants of the painting vacation called this stage interesting so I just left it this way. For the composition I did not need to go further.

The second version is made with willow charcoal to explore the spiritual feeling. Following this version I made one with Chunky Charcoal which is much darker than Willow charcoal.

The watercolour versions are made on panorama size paper, the stones on the left and the light coming from them shining to the right. First only Indigo and a second painting with an earth colour on request of Ad.

The charcoal drawings and the watercolour paintings do show the spiritual feeling I wanted to show in these works. All four are different, but the idea is there. I am really happy with these results.

The information about the materials I have used, the sizes of these works and their availabilities and - if you are interested in my original artworks - my contact information can all be found in my Flickr account.

Moselle Valley, walking - a charcoal drawing

 

Last Autumn we revisited the Moselle Valley and made some nice walks. This scene is from the 'Zitronenkrämerkreuz' walk starting in Ensch.

At some point we had to cross a small stream using a bridge that had seen better times. All was safe but we were extra careful.

I made pictures of the stairway/path back up the other bank of the stream to use as references for a drawing or painting.

Today I made that drawing, using Willow Charcoal end some of my Tinted charcoal pencils on a tinted paper.

The result is what I hoped for. Maybe I will use this reference picture another time, but for now I am happy with this result.

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 Flickr account.

Two dead trees - a charcoal drawing

 

After having painted and drawn solitary dead trees for several years, this time I have two dead trees that looked like they belong together.

In reality they are standing there together a bit away from a signposted walk in Voornes Duin and it is hard to tell them apart. As we are not allowed to leave the path, I had to make a picture from a distance.

At first I made my drawing of only the left tree, but looking at the result I decided to add the other one for the balance in my composition.

The left tree is stretched out to the left side for at least twice the length that I have depicted in this drawing and I want to make another drawing or painting of the whole tree - or at least as good as I could make my picture. I might want to use my panorama-sized watercolour paper for that and make a painting of these two and the surrounding landscape.

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.

Beach Rockanje - a charcoal drawing

 

A few weeks ago we (my husband and me) went for a walk to the beach of Rockanje and we had foggy, grey weather. I have made a watercolour painting trying to depict that grey atmosphere but did not quite succeed. I wrote about that in this post.

This time I picked my charcoal to try to get that atmosphere. I have used my Willow charcoal and some Tinted Charcoal Pencils to get the atmosphere I wanted, using a different reference picture.

At the 'point' in the landscape some concrete bunkers were made in the dune edge during World War II and these bunkers are now in the sea. That shows how the sea takes from the land over the years.

These bunkers are now used by sea birds as a resting place and we walked as close as we could towards the waterline - it was ebb-tide and the remaining sands were very watery - and I made some reference pictures with my phone. The quality of these pictures is bad for a picture but usable as a reference.

The result is what I hoped for, a grey day at sea.

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

Snow - charcoal drawing

 

Last week we had a lot of snow, but it has been melting away because of higher temperatures. Last night and today it is freezing again, so what was left remains in its place today.

There is snow left on fields and I wanted to make a charcoal drawing of that last snow. So we went out to see a field that was still mostly white.

Very close to our home we found a nice spot for my reference picture. 

Today the sky is almost as white as the snow so the trees and their reflection in the water have the darkest colours. There is grass visible where snow has already disappeared and there is a trail of footprints - probably made by the moorhens that live here.

The result shas the atmosphere of (last) snow I wanted to capture so I am happy with this drawing.

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

Dark clouds, beach Norddeich - a charcoal drawing

 

During our short stay in Norden we went to walk on the beach of Norddeich on the only day that we had no fog. In the morning we had high tide, the water covered the beach completely and came to the dyke. Later in the afternoon, when we returned for one last walk we saw the beach as the tide was low, or at least lower.

The sand was still very wet and the wind was even stronger than in the morning so we stayed on the dyke for our walk. Now the tide was lower some structures close to the coast - for breaking the force of the waves - were visible now and I made some extra reference pictures.

The clouds were still dark and interesting and the reflection of the light that shines on the water between the breakwaters in the foreground inspired me to make this drawing.

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

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

Tree roots - a charcoal drawing

 

The days of my painting vacation were not completely filled with my watercolour paintings, in the afternoons I occasionally had a few hours for something different. Of course I wanted to stay close to my chosen subject (the forest) so one afternoon our teacher and coach Ad van Aart  asked me to make a drawing of the complex roots of a large oak tree that was on the terrain of our residence.

With this drawing I had to fill the whole page as good as possible and create a work that was as close to abstract as the subject could get me. I did make a drawing as accurately as possible, filling the page with the roots of the tree and only the roots. So no little branches, no grasses in the background and even not the little mouse that came looking what I was doing in front of its home.

Making this drawing was nice, I could sit on a small chair in the shadows of the tree - it was a very hot day - and concentrate on what I did see and what I wanted to draw without having to worry about drying paint, colour choices and other difficulties. The result is even better than what I thought I could make, so I am very happy that Ad challenged me to do this.

The information about the materials I have used, the size of this drawing 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.