In our country we have a long history, going back to the Stone Age or even sooner. Many objects were found in the earth and in old river beds and even in places where there used to be a sea. The real archaeological objects are kept in museum conditions, but in several places, most of them easy or even freely accessible some of the buildings are reconstructed.
These reconstructions are life size and very picturesque.
For this watercolour I was inspired by the reconstruction of a Medieval barn. This barn has windows that can be closed by shutters that are held by ropes to make them shelves that can display goods for sale or... I was not there in the Medieval times so I cannot be sure of the purpose of this structure. It did look nice and I have tried to sketch and paint it.
The barn was made of unpainted wood which had already turned grayish with time. The thatched roofing also turned dark and grayish, so the roof and the walls were almost the same colour. The overall impression was that of a weather beaten structure and I have tried to depict that atmosphere.
Because the Medieval times are also called the Dark Ages, I have given the sky a stormy appearance. The trees, bushes and grasses are only suggested to create an imaginary landscape for my barn.
Again I enjoyed painting this scene and I am happy with the result.
More information about this watercolour painting (materials used, size, availability, etc) can be found at my website www.jannekesatelier.webs.com
Years ago I decided that I am not a 'flower watercolourist' because the technique I was shown to paint flowers in watercolour did not at all appeal to me. Now that I am painting flowers, I still am not using that technique, but I have found my own way of painting plants - and flowers are just parts of plants.
I have tried this when I painted the corn flower and I was happy with the result, so I have decided to paint more flowers in the future.
I have made some flower pictures recently, just because I liked them and now I can use these as references for my experiments with flower painting.
For this beautiful hollyhock I chose a green background and because I mix my greens from blue and yellow this means I have a lot of different shades of green - exactly what I wanted. The flowers are almost black and there is very little contrast or shadow to find out where one flower begins and the other ends, so I have given it my best.
Of course the whole plant is much taller, but while sketching the plant using the picture as my reference I decided this to be my composition. This way I ended up with the challenge to make a green plant stand out against a green background. Of course I had a bit of a struggle here, but the result is very much like what I hoped for.
Please remember, this is only the second flower painting I am doing in this style.
(there will be more, I like this too much now)
More information about this watercolour painting (materials used, size, availability, etc) can be found at my website www.jannekesatelier.webs.com
The weather in The Netherlands can be challenging. Today we planned a day of plein-air painting in the beautiful landscape of the 'Alblasserwaard' (where I live) and every time I set up my field easel it really started to rain a little. After a few attempts I gave up completely and went home. Another member of the group also gave up and most of the others were still inside the restaurant talking. Of course the sun started to shine and the rain stopped completely after I started painting in my studio.
If we had stayed on the spot, my painting probably would have been an interesting experiment in wet-on-very wet painting. Of course I was also getting wet and I quickly lost the inspiration needed for such an experiment.
The title is all about the July challenge of 'Goed Gezien - Goed Bekeken', the regional amateur art association of which I am a member. The coincidence that our day of plein-air painting had exact the kind of weather that we had to depict for the challenge made me decide to submit this painting.
The landscape is imaginary, but based on a scene near the restaurant where our group planned to meet. In the middle of the 'polder' so there are fields, paths, trees, bushes and several ditches. There were some windmills at walking distance (even with my painting stuff to transport) and cows and sheep were visible from our standing point.
I decided to paint a scene with a tree (no surprise here), some fields and the dark clouds that were over the landscape all morning. Because my paper had been wet from the rain, I had a bit of a struggle to get my dark shades in place but in my studio I can speed up the drying process when needed so this turned out the way I wanted it.
More information about this painting (materials used, size, availability, etc) can be found at my website www.jannekesatelier.webs.com
Looking for inspiration I saw blue spots in the grass beside the roads in our village and the villages close to ours. The idea of painting Cornflowers was born, but now I had to think of a way to make this 'my painting'.
Working on a background painting that is made by colours flowing over my paper is something I do not do often, but I always enjoy it. This kind of background is always a surprise and can be used in many ways.
So I decided to make a background with the blue colours of the flowers and paint the cornflowers in that background. I did not leave the shapes of the flowers open and decided where to make them look light blue against a dark background and dark against a light spot in the background after I had been painting for a while.
Because of that I also made some adjustments to the initial background painting, but that was only to make the flowers stand out as much as I wanted - not much, but just enough to give this watercolour painting a nice atmosphere.
More information about this watercolour painting (materials used, size, availability, contact information, etc) can be found at my website www.jannekesatelier.webs.com
Last October we were for a short vacation in the small German village of Reifferscheid, in the Eiffel region. On the day of our arrival we went for a walk around the high part of the village, mostly to stretch our legs a little after the drive from home. The high part of the village is the ancient castle area, surrounded by walls and on a high hilltop. Our vacation home was close to the old gate, a few minutes walking brought us to the other end where the white church was.
As it was autumn, the days were short and our walk was made at the hour of sunset. The light was beautiful and I really enjoyed being outside at that moment. We made a lot of pictures and I started painting that same evening after dinner.
The reference pictures I made from the church and churchyard had to wait a little longer, but today I wanted to paint this view.
I was inspired by the shadows on the building, the almost random placement of the graves and the view on the hills opposite the village, all in that wonderful evening light.
Painting all that was a bit of a challenge for me, especially the graveyard with the graves. Because there were so many shadows the shapes were to be guessed in some cases, only the difference in colour made the gravestones stand out against one another.
I have (again) chosen to suggest most of the shapes of the stones, some graves and the plants between them.
More information about this watercolour painting (size, colours and paper used, availability, contact information, etc) can be found at my website www.jannekesatelier.webs.com
About two years ago I visited the Abbey of Postel (Belgium) with a group of people and I had some time alone which I used to walk in the area and sketch.
The Abbey has a nice church and a garden around that church and both are inspiring. Because there is not much space and there were a lot of tourists as well, I did make only one sketch I was not really very happy about. So I have not painted the scene until now.
When I made my sketch I was inspired by the trees and the backside of the church that was surrounded by them.
To make the sketch I had to stand in the back of the herb garden and I did draw the path I was standing on in my initial sketch but I only suggested it in the painting.
When I was there, it was almost summer and the trees and bushes were full of leaves, hiding most of the church and the other buildings of the Abbey were not visible from that standing point, most of them were hidden by the tall trees.
For this watercolour painting I have mixed lots of greens for the trees, the bushes, the small hedgerow and of course all the shadows and I really am happy about how I manage to do that now. As I have written a long time ago, I do not use green paints any more, I mix my greens with blues and yellows and the results are really satisfying - for me.
More information about this painting can be found at my website www.jannekesatelier.webs.com
Another Chapel painting inspired by the season and the weather we are having now in The Netherlands. Over the last few weeks we have had a lot of thunderstorms, heavy rains with (temporarily) flooding and the view I have from my little studio inspired me to paint.
The little Chapel we saw on the top of a hill in Germany during our short vacation last October is a 'willing subject' for paintings like this.
The weather and the colours that will appear in the landscape are my starting point and I create an imaginary landscape according to the atmosphere I want to depict.
There always are a hilltop, a path and the Chapel, but everything else can and will be changed according to the needs of the painting I want to make.
This time there is a hill with some trees and bushes behind it and another hill further away in the background. Summer has arrived, so there are a lot of greens in the grass, combined with some dry areas where the grass turned to straw and I have added some brighter yellows for the flowers that have to be there.
The dark clouds also darken the landscape, only the flash of lightning makes the details visible - for a short time.
More information about this watercolour painting (size, materials used, availability, contact information, etc) can be found at my website www.jannekesatelier.webs.com
