On the high 'Esch' - Delden, The Netherlands

 

Last month we (my husband and me) had a very short vacation in the province of Overijssel (Netherlands) where we did stay in a hotel in Delden. Just outside Delden is a nice restaurant placed on an 'esch'. I found a definition of 'esch' and that translates like: In Overijssel, Drenthe and Gelderland a vast, fertile piece of arable land, uninterrupted by hedges or walls, surrounded by the building farms of the owners.

Near the parking place of the restaurant begins a signposted walk and in the field between that path and the restaurant were some trees that were pruned to get an umbrella-like shape. I made reference pictures of these trees, but as it was raining and almost sunset, my pictures are not so great.

Still, one of these pictures is used as my inspiration for this watercolour painting. Choosing a limited palette of blues and browns I changed the mood a bit, but not much. It really was dark, wet and desolate and that little tree was all alone compared to the other trees. The tree is still in its winter sleep, so all the branches and twigs are visible against the grey sky and I think I painted them all. As mentioned, this tree was pruned to get a desired shape.

The result is what I hoped it would be, showing the atmosphere of a rainy late afternoon at the end of winter.

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 original artworks, please contact me.

Walking! - collage and Conté drawing

 

The March challenge of 'Goed Gezien - Goed Bekeken' is 'In our family...' the theme of the Books Week that is happening each month of March in The Netherlands.

In our family we like to go for a nice walk, preferably a forest walk.

For my contribution I have made a collage of walking maps, the legenda of these maps, some titles of the walks, a bit of a description and of course the icon for a restaurant (coffee cup) from old magazines on tinted cardboard and sprayed that with fixative for Conté Crayons. 

On that layer I started drawing a forest path with the Conté Sketching Crayons, but I had to use more layers of fixative before the crayons really did 'hold' on the magazine paper. For this I was prepared, I did read about it somewhere in the past.

After some layers I found that there was a difference in paper quality that could not be covered up with fixative so I let that be part of the experiment's results.

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

Tree trunk - a Conté drawing

 

As promised (mostly to myself) another drawing of the tree trunk we saw a few weeks ago during our walk on the Herikerberg. At first I made a pencil drawing or study, using the materials I brought during our short stay in the area.

This time a Conté drawing, like I have made some more: using black, grey and white Conté crayons on a grey paper for a 'portrait' of a dead tree or tree trunk.

For this drawing I made a different composition, the trunk is more to the right side of the paper so the roots on the left side of the trunk get more attention. Only the tree trunk is in the drawing, the surrounding mosses and dry autumn leaves are not here. This tree trunk was in the middle of the path we were walking and maybe that is how the roots are so clearly visible.

The drawing is what I hoped it would be, these remains of trees are still impressive and I can show that in my drawing.

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

Near the 'Herikerberg' (The Netherlands)

 

This week my husband and me went for a short stay in the Eastern part of our country, close to the border with Germany. We made a nice walk over the 'Herikerberg' near Markelo (Netherlands) and made several (reference) pictures. For the reference picture of this watercolour I was seconds too late at every attempt, the sun just came through the clouds and disappeared again very quickly. So the light spot in the clouds is from my memory.

In fact I looked at the reference only briefly, mostly for the structure of the larch trees in the foreground. The placement of the branches and twigs  is different from any other tree. The larch trees lose their needles in autumn, so the branches were bare.

As it had rained the day before our walk, the trees were very dark and the fact that they were back-lit added to that dark brown colour. The rain had also left a lot of water, there was a light fog under the trees that would lift later that day.

The result of my painting is what I had hoped for, an atmospheric view of some woodlands in our country after a rainy day.

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

Tree trunk - pencil drawing/study

 

This week we (my husband and me) went for a walk near Markelo (Netherlands) and we made several reference pictures of the landscape. My pictures are mostly showing trees, including this tree trunk, in the middle of the path. We stayed a few nights in a hotel and I did only bring paper and pencils with me - and a water brush for extra possibilities.

The tree trunk was partially overgrown with mosses and there were the remains of autumn leaves on the trunk and on the path. The roots were visible between the autumn leaves, very dark brown because it had rained during the night.

For the drawing I chose my Graphitint Pencils, using the dry colours but also adding some water which activated the colours that are 'hidden' in the dry pencil marks. The water was mostly used on the areas with mosses and the remains of the autumn leaves. 

After I had used the water and activated the colours, I let the drawing dry and added more dry colour, repeating the process until I was happy with the result.

The reference picture is still inviting me to try this subject using other materials, so this might not be the last time you see this tree trunk in my works.

The information about the materials I have used, the size of this drawing and its availability can all be found in my Tumblr blog. If you are interested in my original artworks, please contact me.

The Beech District - illustration for a challenge

 

The February challenge of 'Goed Gezien - Goed Bekeken' is to design an impossible building. That really is a challenge, because there are so many buildings that are 'impossible' and more are designed and have appeared in great art works. So I really had to think hard this time. 

My first idea was really nice, a huge sphere with one or more houses inside which can roll in the wind, an internal structure with little balls and ball-bearings keeping the buildings horizontally at all times. But as I do not have the training for such technical drawings I had to think of something else.

My husband suggested a bird's nest like the weaver birds make and that helped. 

Of course I made a tree first, with the ladders to the 'nest houses' hanging down. Then I had to make an enlargement showing the nest house, which I also 'opened up' to show the interior.

For this work I have used watercolour paint, line markers and watercolour pencils and I named it The Beech District, (De Beukenbuurt in Dutch) because I think the tree might be a giant beech tree.

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

Tree bark - 2 a graphite drawing

 

Last summer I made several reference pictures of tree roosts, tree bark and whole trees for later use. Of course I can always paint a tree and I have experimented with the tree roots during my painting vacation. These works were made as a start, to gain confidence for working with that subject.

The tree bark pictures are used now and I am experimenting with a watercolour under painting and combinations of pencils for the drawing. Using a small size watercolour painting I make an under painting in only one colour that can already suggest the colour of the tree bark. When that is dry I start drawing the patterns of the tree bark.

This time I have not only used a Graphitint pencil for the drawing, I also used a dark matt graphite pencil to achieve the dark shadows that are in the reference picture. The tree is another coniferous tree and again I do not know the species.

The reference picture is only used as a guideline for the direction of the lines in the tree bark and I have indicated the darker areas. After these were drawn I used my memory and my imagination to get the result that you can see, only looking at the picture when I really thought I was going the wrong way.

The results are what I hoped for and of course I will make more of these drawings in the future. Maybe one day I will make a watercolour painting of tree bark, but first I need to get more familiar with this subject.

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