Our regional amateur art association 'Goed Gezien - Goed Bekeken' has a challenge each month during this year, only for October and November the challenges are combined.
I had already painted an imaginary snow scene in October and I wanted to paint another one in November.
My husband has been to a Congress in the South of France this weekend and he sent me a picture of a real snow scene - probably from the train. So I did not have to imagine a snow scene, I had a real one for this painting.
This is a small size painting again, because this special challenge has limits to the size of our artwork. The artworks that are submitted in this challenge will be on display in a small museum in Nieuwpoort (Netherlands) in December, so they cannot be very large.
I have enjoyed painting this one, even though snow scenes can be challenging.
The details about paper and paint used, size etc can be found at my website www.jannekesatelier.webs.com
First of all: the reference picture for this watercolour was made (for me) by Yvonne Koningen and I am really happy that she allowed me to use it.
In our country it's Autumn and the Von Gimborn Arboretum (Tree Museum) is beautiful now. I have seen some of the pictures that were made there last week and I envy those that go there often.
Most of the red leaves of this tree - I think a maple tree - are still on the branches so it looks like there are large red clouds in the reference picture with some leaf ends pointing out.
I was inspired by the colour of the leaves, almost a fiery red against a grayish background and the dark colour of the branches.
I have tried to paint these 'red clouds' and to create a point of interest with some more detailed leaves. This was a bit of a struggle, because the colour values of the red 'clouds' and the blue background were very close. The groups of leaves really were almost clouds so I had to do something. The solution was easy, the darkness of the branches was strengthened a bit to create the darkest colour of the painting and to create a sense of movement from the bottom left to the top corner right.
It has been a long time since I have painted on a half sheet (most of my paintings since summer were on 1/4 sheet or smaller) and maybe that explains a part of my struggle. The fact that I do not show most details of the leaves now - as I have done in almost every painting I made since last summer - was a change as well.
I write this short after I have finished my watercolour painting and I am still not completely happy with it, it's different from what I had in mind. But I am sure tomorrow it will look better, after I have been away from it for a while.
The details about paper and paint used, availability and contact information can be found at my website www.jannekesatelier.webs.com
During our walk in Bayeux (France) we passed by a nice bush with a few red leaves left on it, blue berries and some very red branches. All those branches were tangled but I did like the colours and made a reference picture.
The bush was growing over a low wall and the background of my reference picture is the water of the river Aure that flows though Bayeux.
I have no idea of the name of this plant, usually the names of plants are easy to find, but this is a mystery.
My reference picture was cropped to select the section I wanted to paint.
This was done mostly to find a nice section without leaves that belong to other plants that grow nearby. And of course I have made a background that would not distract the attention from my subject.
The details about paper and paint used, size, availability and contact information can be found at my website www.jannekesatelier.webs.com
During our short vacation in Normandy (France) we visited the town of Bayeux, mostly because our vacation home was very close to that medieval town.
We did go to see the Tapestry and the Cathedral and walked back to our car by the river Aure that flows through the town. There are two watermills in Bayeux that are still working.
We did have many nice views during our walk in Bayeux, but this one inspired me to paint.
It is quite a change after what I painted before, to do a scene with all those roofs and buildings, but I wanted to paint the colours of the houses we saw in that part of Normandy.
The roofs of the buildings in Bayeux are grey, the colour of slate. The buildings are made with a yellow stone. Even the cathedral has these colours and in the villages we passed we also saw that this stone was used for houses and farms.
While I was painting this scene I thought I made a wrong choice more than once, because this was not easy. Mostly because the scene is not what I usually paint and also a bit because I was not having ideal painting conditions like I have in my little studio at home.
In short, this was a fight - with myself, the paper, the paint, the subject, etc.
When I was about to give up, my husband said the painting is nice and I should have a rest and a cup of coffee. That helped.
This watercolour painting is not about the architecture of Old Bayeux, but about how it feels to walk there between those yellow stone buildings by the river Aure and I think I managed to paint that - even though it was not easy to do so.
The details about paper and paint, size, availability etc. can be found at my website www.jannekesatelier.webs.com
Our short stay in Normandy (France) had one bright sunny day and we used that to walk towards the village of Port-en-Bessin, walk around the small harbour and enjoy the view towards the sea and the coastline.
We could walk on the jetty that shelters the harbour and we had great views, helped by the sunshine. There were no clouds and no fog that day - only a bit in the morning.
We made lots of pictures again and I chose this view towards the west - with the chalk cliffs, the sea and the beach covered with seaweed for a mixed media work.
The underpainting is in different shades of blue watercolour and the cliffs and beach are in watersoluble pencils.
This was another 'experiment' for me, trying out my materials and finding out how I really love to use them. This certainly was fun to do and I will probably do more in this technique - someday.
The details about paper, paint, pencils, size etc can be found at my website www.jannekesatelier.webs.com
Last week, in Normandy, we had a vacation home with views on lawns and a golf court, which means lots of grass on all sides. The view on the little church was on the front side of the house, this is the back side.
The first morning I was awake and dressed (it is cold outside in the mornings) in time to make some pictures of the sunrise.
The view is showing the lawns and golf court I mentioned earlier and the apple trees that were everywhere. This is Normandy and there are apple trees wherever you look, to produce all that cider, Pommeau and Calvados for which this region is famous.
I have chosen to make a small size watercolour, just to show the colours of the sunrise and the remainder of the morning fog that could be seen just above the grass and between the trees.
The details about the paper and paint I used, the size and availability can be found at my website www.jannekesatelier.webs.com
Last week we (my husband and me) were in Port-en-Bessin, on the coast of Normandy (France). We had found a nice vacation home there and we could see the little church of St Pierre just across the lawn in front of the parking place.
The first evening we were in need of a walk, after two days in the car so we made use of the good weather and walked towards the church, made some (reference) pictures and walked some more streets in the direct surroundings of our vacation home.
We returned after sunset, in the last light of the evening.
There were some nice dark clouds when we were outside and they did give the church and its tower a great background. Because it was really late and the light in the house was not great to paint by (a bit yellowish), I decided to make a charcoal drawing. That does not give any problems with colour matching so the shade of the light did not really matter.
Of course, in broad daylight the church does have a foundation, a churchyard with a fence, a house nearby and some trees behind it, but this evening, with night falling, dark clouds and a hint of fog on the ground there was an air of mystery that I wanted to capture in my drawing.
There are some more pictures of this little church, so maybe one day I will make a more detailed painting.
The details about size, paper, availability and contact information can be found at my website www.jannekesatelier.webs.com
