Early morning in November

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 

Where three rivers meet - at sunset

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  

Rotterdam in November

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 

In the Black Forest - second version

After having painted this little tree in the 'real' colours, I wanted to try to make a second version using my set of Twilight Colours. I decided to do a small painting this time and I chose to use paper that is very white.
While I was taping my sheet of paper down I decided to make a mixed-media using the paint for the background and some of my Graphitint (watersoluble) pencils for the tree and some details in the bushes and on the path.
I did not paint the trees on the left now so I could concentrate on the little tree in the curve of the path.

For the bushes in the background I used the granulating colours in my set of Twilight Colours: they fade away nicely, even where I applied a thicker layer of colour.
The sky, the path and the foreground are painted with the colours that do not granulate so much and I really am happy with the results.
For the path and the shadows I used the grain of my paper, lightly going over it with my pencil gives the same effect my granulating colours do. But this gives just a bit more control. The trees and bushes were drawn in the usual way and I made some accents with little strokes of a small brush with clear water.

This was a 'quick one' as it did not take much time to make, but this is one of the experiments I promised myself to do over the year: getting to know all the possibilities my paints and pencils have to offer. I will have to extend that to next year and maybe even further and that does not bother me at all!

More information about this painting can be found at my website  www.jannekesatelier.web.com 

In the Black Forest

On our vacation trip in the Black Forest (Germany) the weather was most of the time something between a light fog and a drizzle. 

Nevertheless we went hiking a few times and our first walk was directed towards the Sankenbach Waterfall. We could walk there from our vacation home so on a nice dry (not rainy) afternoon we went there. There still was a light fog between the trees that gave our afternoon something special.

The waterfall is very steep and maybe very spectacular when more rain has fallen, now it was really nice to visit but we could not really make pictures showing that there was much water falling.

Located at the top of the pathway down the falls is a hut meant to be a resting place. 

We ate our sandwiches there and made some pictures of the surrounding area.

In a curve in the path stands a small tree, partly hidden in the fog. 

I made several reference pictures with the idea to paint that scene.

I wanted to paint the special feeling of that autumn day in the forest.

The curve in the path that is fading in the mist, the little tree (on the lookout for hikers?) also not clearly visible and of course the foreground that can be seen much better - but not too well. And of course on the path the traces of the last rain, not so very long ago.

This was not really easy to paint, but I am happy with the result.

Maybe I will paint this scene again, using a different set of colours, sometimes a scene invites me to do that and this is one of those.

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

Ruins and autumn colours

The ruins of the monastery of Allerheiligen, Germany are situated very nicely besides the brook and the waterfalls. As it is a touristic site, it also is very well - kept, clean and accessible. I gave some information about the history of the site before.

I painted this scene before and used the colours of reality; green for the fir trees and yellow and orange for the other trees and the bushes below. I also tried to reproduce the foggy weather of the day we were visiting the site. 
But I was not finished with this scene, I wanted to paint the scene again and this time I wanted to do a fantasy in autumn colours.

For this painting I also changed my crop a bit, now I did not want to draw attention to the contrast between the green and the yellow/orange trees but I wanted to accent the ruins themselves. This time I have been depicting the difference in the structures of the walls that are still standing. Some are in natural stones, others are made of nice rectangular blocks of limestone. And all of it is striped with moist and dirt.

The trees and bushes are bare this time, as if the foliage has already been shed and the leaves have been cleaned up by the caretakers of the site.
The background still suggests a forest in autumn colours - not all the trees shed their leaves at the same time.

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

Ruins of All Saints'Abbey - Allerheiligen, Germany

At 'Allerheiligen' waterfalls was also a monastery, now in ruins. During our trip to the falls we also visited the ruins and the small museum and took some pictures. 

The next bit of information was found - amidst a lot more information - on a wikipedia page 

According to the tradition, the foundation date was 1192, and the site of the building, at 620 metres above sea level in the upper valley of the Lierbach near Oppenau, was determined by a donkey which threw off a sack of money at this remote and inaccessible spot. In the same year a wooden chapel was built, which was gradually extended to be a Premonstratensian monastery.
Large fires, in 1470 and 1555, had already destroyed parts of the premises. In 1804, a last fire, started when a bolt of lightning struck the church tower, finished the job.
Not until the end of the 19th century, when tourism finally reached the Lierbach valley and its waterfalls, were any steps taken to secure what was left of the ruins, which were then put into the condition they are in today.
Also now on the site are a cafe and a small museum. Below the ruins are the All Saints'waterfalls.

Those ruins are really great for a painting! We only have a few pictures (camera battery low) but I intend to use them as good as possible.
On the slopes of the mountains are mostly fir trees but closer to the buildings was a group in bright autumn colours - just behind the ruins. So this painting is about the autumn colours and the contrast with the ruined building. 
Because of all the dirt and mold the structure of the ruins was hardly visible, especially the tower is hard to see clearly.
The tree trunks were dark because of the moist, and as a lot of leaves had fallen already they were standing out nicely against the bright coloured foliage.

I have tried to paint the decay of the ruins standing out against the life in the trees. To show some of the details I have also used some of my Graphitint pencils, they have colours that fit right into this atmosphere.

More information (paper, pencils, colours used, etc)  can be found at my website www.jannekesatelier.webs.com