Fagne de Poleur - 2

 

Last October, during our short vacation, my husband and I were in the Hautes Fagnes, Ardennes, Belgium, for a nice walk. The landscape is special for our part of the world and we enjoyed the walk very much. With us there were many others enjoying the great views of this Natural Reserve, but it was not difficult to make beautiful landscape pictures. In that landscape we all have to stay on the path, the peat moor is a dangerous place. Next to the boardwalks there is a lot of water, if you step down, you get wet and you never know how deep it really is. So pictures of the landscape will automatically have no other walkers.

The beginning of our route passed by the Fagne de Poleur and I have made several reference pictures there.  One of them is already used for a watercolour painting, and this painting is the next one. Looking West, the sky was really dark and cloudy - we did not have rain though - and I wanted to paint these clouds over the landscape.

The colours of the landscape are beautiful, the grasses are almost golden in autumn and with the light coming from behind, the bare trees and bushes are really dark. Amongst the grasses are some small bushes, but not much, as the plants here have to survive the acid water of the peat moor.

Painting this was a small challenge as it was about two months ago that we were there - and I am a bit in a winter/Christmas mood - and because of the weather conditions now, which are dark and wet. Of course a challenge is good for me, that is how I improve my painting skills. The result is even better than I hoped for.

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

If you are interested in  my work, please contact me.

Leaves - frosted

 

Some weeks ago - but it could also have been this afternoon - my husband and I were walking close to home and we passed by a bush that had not seen the sun yet. The tips of many leaves were still white with frost which contrasted beautifully with the dark green of the leaves. Of course I made some reference pictures and today I wanted to paint these leaves.

For the watercolour painting I selected a small size paper (hoping to finish the painting before it got too dark, the days are really short now) and made my composition drawing with a watercolour pencil, so I would not have to erase the pencil lines after I had finished painting. 

The background - which was made up with more of the same kind of leaves - was painted first using a blue and a yellow to mix some shades of green. After that I mixed more shades of green using a different blue and another yellow. This was used for the leaves I wanted to stand out, but I also mixed win the colours used in the background, so a lot of greens were made with two blues and two yellows. 

Leaving the frosted edges completely white was not right here. so I let the shades of the leaves flow into the paler areas, taking care that only a hint of the colour of the leaf was visible on the paper. In this way I suggested the frosted edges and also some light falling on the waxy leaves.

Painting a scene like this was new for me, but I really liked the challenge I set myself. The result is what I hoped for.

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

Please contact me if you are interested in my work.

In the middle of the winter night - white on black

 

The December challenge of 'Goed Gezien - Goed Bekeken' our regional Amateur Art association has the title of a Christmas song: In the middle of the winter night.

This does not mean we have to create a Christmas painting, lots of things happen in winter nights so we are free to find our inspiration where we like it. My husband Peter has made some nice snow pictures several years ago in our own garden. In the night and the snow does really suggest winter.

So using these pictures as my references I decided to make a 'white on black' painting, using white Gouache and some watercolour paints to create the image. 

As I have described before, the black cardboard is really heavy compared to my usual watercolour paper and of course it does react differently to paint and water. The challenge of that is a nice one as I have experienced it many times before. Lots of layers of white paint are needed to get the snow covering the bird feeder and the snow on the ground, but the change is fun and welcome.

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

If you are interested in my work, please do contact me.

Dead tree - Kalmthoutse Heide

 

Last week, as we were walking a signposted walk on the Kalmthoutse Heide, I saw a dead tree that inspired me to make reference pictures. On the bark - what was left of it - were lots of colours, white, shades of brown and orange and more so I tried to capture that in my reference pictures. And I wanted a picture of the whole tree, standing alone against the sky. 

While I was trying to get that right my husband told me to try from the other side, where he was still standing. The colours that inspired me at first were not visible from there, but the tree looked great from the viewpoint he advised me. The sky suddenly looked more cloudy and dark and the tree did stand out beautifully.

Last week I experienced that it could be too dark to paint really early in the afternoon, so now I started my painting in the morning, choosing a large size paper for this scene. Still the weather was against me, something with the humidity, drying time, paper staying very wet and that stuff. The struggle was not very long, I soon found out what was the matter and I have used my hair-dryer very often for this painting.

After one layer was dried, I added more paint, dried it again and repeated until I was happy with the result. Normally I don't need to dry my paper so often in between layers and I can keep adding paint much longer. So today was different, but no problem.

After the sky and foreground (a piece of moorland in autumn) were what I wanted them to be I started painting the tree. As the tree was in backlight, there are only shades of dark and darker brown in the shape of the tree and the remaining branches. Many of the smaller branches have fallen off long ago and what is still standing may stay like this for a long time. Or not, the tree may be very weak by now and fall in the first storm that comes.

I am really happy with the result of my work, I tried to paint the loneliness of that dead tree and I think I succeeded well.

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

If you are interested in my work, please do contact me.

Holly

 

Last weekend we (my husband and me) went for a nice signposted walk in the 'Kalmthoutse Heide', a beautiful Natural Reserve on the border between Belgium and The Netherlands, not too far from where we live. 

Very soon after I left the car, my attention was caught by a nice holly bush with lots of red berries. Of course I made some reference pictures and added some more holly reference pictures during our walk.

The holly inspired me to paint, so that is what I did. Mixing greens for a background, adding violet for contrast was the first step. After that had dried I used a watercolour pencil for the drawing of the holly branches and then I had to paint them.

At first, I wanted to add a special effect I had seen in an online short video, but after the background was made I decided otherwise. That special effect will be used once, in another painting. The green of the leaves was mixed with a blue, a yellow and sometimes a touch of violet for the darker areas. It was fun to create all these colours and to let the leaves at the edges of the painting fade away into the background.

The red berries were the finishing touch, a nice contrast with the green of the leaves and background, just as they were when they caught my attention.

This watercolour will not be used for a Christmas card this year - I already have them waiting for the right moment to send - but painting these leaves and berries did get me in a nice festive mood, forgetting the grey weather for a few hours.

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 work, please contact me.

Shards bring good luck...

 

The November challenge of 'Goed Gezien - Goed Bekeken' is 'Scherven brengen geluk' which translates as 'Shards bring good luck' - a saying that means that after bad moments (shards) always better ones will come (good luck).

Inspiration did not come at once, but after some thinking I remembered the Japanese 'Kintsugi' tradition of repairing broken cups, plates, saucers, bowls etc with gold.

So I searched for a nice reference picture of a saucer - mostly to help me find the right places for the shadows - and used that for my work.

The saucer is painted in watercolour and the cracks are a combination of watercolour paint and a metallic pencil. After having finished this, I made a photocopy, cut out the shards I had indicated and placed these around the painted saucer. Using a pencil I marked the outlines of these paper shards. I used my pencils for the shards, so the difference is visible.

This still life was a change for me, I usually paint or draw landscape related subjects, but  did enjoy the challenge.

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 work, please contact me.

'Les Hautes Fagnes' - Fagne de Poleur

 

During our short vacation in The Ardennes (Belgium) we made a signposted walk in the Natural Reserve area "Hautes Fagnes" that led us past the various views that area has to offer. From our starting point at the Baraque Michel we first walked to the 'Fagne de Poleur' named after one of the many rivers that spring in this moor. 

This part of the walk had some trees and bushes and a nice treeline on the horizon and I made several pictures so I will stay inspired to paint for weeks to come. This is one of the views we had, a bit of the moor can be seen behind the trees and bushes in the foreground. As this Natural Reserve is very wet and partly re-flooded for conservation of the peat moor there are only small trees and bushes that may die early because of all the water. 

For my painting I have used my reference picture as my inspiration. The horizon and trees are placed almost according to the reference and I have tried to show the variation in grasses and reeds that attracted me to this view in the first place. Because of the damp atmosphere (it had been raining the day before) the trees look almost black. In this time of the year there are some leaves left on the trees, but most of them have fallen yet and cannot easily be seen between the grasses and reeds.

The result of my work is what I had hoped for, a nice autumn scene in a very unique piece of nature.

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

Please contact me if you are interested in my work.