In the mist everything feels a bit different compared to a bright day. Maybe I would not have liked the scenes I painted so much when I had seen them on a clear day, with lots of sunshine and the clouds high above us in the sky.
To find that out, I should revisit the 'Sallandse Heuvelrug' on a sunny day, maybe even in summer.
For now it happened to be foggy and mysterious when we walked that path over the moors and I was inspired to make reference pictures or to ask for pictures to be taken (my husband Peter made this one for me) and to make plans for paintings.
This painting was made after I returned home, it is a larger size than the previous ones I posted (with the 'Sallandse Heuvelrug' for inspiration).
We were not taking the road I painted, so I do not know where it will end.
The trees are pine trees, planted about a century ago for wood-production purposes. Many of these pines have already been harvested - the stumps in the foreground are the remains of those trees.
Further away may be more trees, bushes or...? It is hidden by the fog.
The grasses and heather on the foreground are in their winter colours, yellow and brown.
For this painting I used the same colours I did before, I only added a green shade for the pines.
Working on a larger sheet of paper was somehow easier for me than the small sizes, that is probably because this is my habitual size of paper. And being back in my studio was also very nice.
We have made three walks in the Natural Reserve, so I do have some more pictures to paint from, but as my vacation is over I don't have the time to paint (and post) daily any more.
More information about this watercolour painting can be found at my website www.jannekesatelier.webs.com
That walk over the foggy moorlands of our Natural Reserve 'Sallandse Heuvelrug' was really inspiring me to paint the scenes we saw.
As I wrote in my previous post, the fog stayed all day, but at some moment a very pale sun came visible - for a short while. I managed to make a nice picture that would serve me as a reference for that moment.
At that time we were at a spot with a little more trees in the neighborhood and several bushes a little further away. The yellow grasses were separated by tracks and patches of dark earth.
I made this watercolour - a small size as we were still in our 'vacation home' - to compare this technique with the charcoal drawing I made earlier.
For this watercolour painting I used the same three colours that were used to make the underpainting for the charcoal drawing. Using French Ultramarine and Vandyke Brown I can make the grey of the foggy sky and the bushes that are further away. The trees close by are made with the same colours, only now a stronger mixture. Gold Ochre is for the wintery grasses, for the fields in the distance made a bit more grey with the Ultramarine.
There were some clouds visible and the outline of the sun is not so strong, this is typical for this kind of weather in The Netherlands.
Once again I had fun painting this scene and it was nice to compare both techniques.
I still don't know which I prefer - which one I will use in the future may depend on my mood.
More information about this watercolour painting (materials used, size etc) can be found at my website www.jannekesatelier.webs.com
The second day of our stay in the Natural Reserve 'Sallandse Heuvelrug' we had foggy weather all day long. Nevertheless we went for a walk on the moors.
The fog was not too thick, so we could see a nice bit of the landscape around us.
We took time to make lots of pictures, the atmosphere is really special in these weather conditions.
This is a mixed media drawing I made in our vacation home, a watercolour underpainting in the colours of the fog and the dried grass that could be seen in this part of the area with a charcoal drawing on the dried underpainting.
With the use of the charcoal I tried to show the bushes and trees that are faded by the mist as well as the foreground of grasses, heather and some small trees.
The result is not as foggy as the reference picture I made, but still the weather conditions can be seen. It has a nice atmosphere.
Of course I am still experimenting with this mix of watercolour underpaintings and charcoal drawing.
More informations (size, materials used, etc) can be found at my website www.jannekesatelier.webs.com
Last week - between Christmas and New Year's Eve - we went for a short vacation to one of the Natural Reserves of The Netherlands; the 'Sallandse Heuvelrug'.
The next bit of text is information I copied from the English Wikipedia page about the region:
The Sallandse heuvelrug is a moraine, created in the one but last glaciation, Saalien, 150.000 years ago. During the Holocene forests started to develop, but after the growth of the human population, these forests had been cut. From the Middle Ages onwards the area was used for grazing by sheep and goat, and the upper layer of the soil was removed to use it as fertilizer for the crop fields. In this period, the area became a heathland because of sand-drifting. In the beginning of the 20th century the state started forestry programs, to prevent this erosion and to produce pine wood. The area is well known for its scenery because of its relatively large heathlands.
We had visited this National Reserve only once, so we decided to spend more time here to walk, explore and make pictures.
The first day of our visit the weather was fine, we had some clouds and sometimes a clear sky. As the sun sets early in winter, we had beautiful views of the colouring of the sky through the branches of the trees.
The reference picture for this watercolour was made by me.
I painted this watercolour in the evening in our vacation home. Because of that it is a small size and not a very challenging subject. Just a nice little painting to reflect the mood of the afternoon walk we made.
There were more pictures of course, with scenes that need a bit more thought and preparation before I paint them. So there is more to come!
More information about this watercolour painting (materials used, size, etc) can be found at my website www.jannekesatelier.webs.com
Over a month ago my daughter Mariska and me took a bus to an arts-and-crafts event.
As we wanted to arrive as early as possible (around the opening hour) we had beautiful views from the bus.
The ride took us through the landscape of the Alblasserwaard, a landscape with fields, some cows and villages and trees in the distance. The sun was still rising and the clouds were looking great. Some of the morning mist was still visible.
Mariska took several pictures from the riding bus and this is a watercolour painting I made after one of them. There are more great pictures so more paintings will follow.
I do not need a perfect picture to paint from. As the bus was driving, the foreground is not sharp and the tree was a bit more blurry than I painted it. The clouds and the mist were visible though and that is what I needed for this one.
The Alblasserwaard is close to my home, although I do not cross it like this very often. Usually I take a motorway, the bus uses a provincial route in order to pick up passengers where possible.
This painting challenged me more than I thought it would. In fact I made the mistake to choose Burnt Umber to mix my grey instead of another brown colour. When I apply my grey mixture on wet paper, the blue and brown will flow each in their own way and give blue clouds with a brown lining. So the paper got a 'special treatment' with the shower and I started over. Still using the Burnt Umber, now on not so wet paper. The result is now what I wanted to achieve and I learned another lesson.
I like this painting, it has a bit of the mystery you can feel early in the morning on a misty field.
More information can be found at my website www.jannekesatelier.webs.com
A few weeks ago we had visitors and as the weather was great, we went for a walk by the riverside. Whe live near the point where three rivers meet: Merwede, Noord and Oude Maas. On the left you have a view on Dordrecht, on the right hand side lies Zwijndrecht, behind the trees of the riverside park.
In the weekends the river is quiet, not so many boats as during weekdays.
The upcoming sunset was colouring the sky in a marvelous way so we stopped for pictures. My husband Peter made the reference picture I used for this watercolour painting.
Painting a sky without clouds is a thing I do not often get the chance to do, so this was a bit of a challenge.
The colours of the sky were reflected in the water, but as there was a lot of wind the water was not calm. As this is a point where rivers meet and the tides are still of influence the water is never completely calm here.
I enjoyed painting a view that actually is very close to my home. To us this is a beautiful spot to visit all around the year. There is so much to be seen - even when traffic is low - and the light changes every minute.
In fact this was a favorite spot for some of our Old Masters as well and I can easily understand why!
The information about size, colours used etc can be found on my website www.jannekesatelier.webs.com
On a cold, windy November afternoon we went for a walk in the city of Rotterdam. As this was a family reunion, we walked in the area just south of the river, partly between the earliest harbors that lay in the inhabited area now.
Crossing one of those harbors (by bridge) we had this view.
The back-light simplifies what usually is a landscape with too many details into a skyline with only chimneys and cranes as recognizable features.
Of course there was wind, so the water was rippled without much reflections of the buildings, trees or clouds.
The colours were also simplified by the weather conditions, a yellow haze for the sky and some blueish grays for the clouds, river, buildings and trees.
This painting will be a good remembrance to a nice family reunion.
More information can be found at my website www.jannekesatelier.webs.com
