Outing at Belt-Schutsloot

Last week, my painting group had an outing in Belt-Schutsloot, a popular watersport and camping destination in Holland. Every summer one member of the group spends her time there together with her family. They have a motor boat and a camping cottage there. She always likes to invite the group to have picnic together. Last week was my first time to be with them since I joined the group just recently. We were fortunate that the weather last Wednesday cooperated with our outing business. We sailed on two motor boats along the canals, and later on the open lake. Here are some pictures of the landscape of the area where we were.

A Rooster

This painting is the result of my desire this afternoon to paint loosely. I had some fun when I was working on it. I thought I'll just make some strokes, play with colors, and that's it. For inspiration, I used my own photograph.

Dit schilderij is het resultaat van mijn wens om los te schilderen. Ik had veel plezier tijdens het schilderen. Ik dacht alleen enkele streken te maken, met de kleuren te spelen, en dat het is. Ik heb hierbij gebruikt gemaakt van mijn eigen foto.

A practice in wet and wet

I paint usually in wet on dry technique. Wet and wet technique for me is a little bit tricky. So to be comfortable with this technique, I think I need more practice. The above image of an active volcano in Asia is a little practice I did last weekend. It is not totally a disaster, I thought. I noticed that if I want to have good result from wet and wet technique I need to work fast. My experience in this exercise was that some section of my paper was already drying when I was still working half way in the painting.

Simple tulip

My blog has been quiet for some days now. It was because I was on a short vacation in Germany and also busy with other things. We drove along the places that are located in the so-called 'Fairy Tale Road' (see http://www.deutsche-maerchenstrasse.de/) in Germany. The road goes along the upper part of the known Weser River. The places we've visited were Hamelin, Bad Karlshafen, Bodenwerder. Bad Driburg, Rinteln, Osnabruck were also among the places we've seen. I enjoyed very much the sleepy beauty of Bad Karlshafen. It is worth discovering the place. The other places however are also charming, touristy and have their own unique beauty.
Today I managed to use my brush and watercolor paints to sketch a simple tulip shown below. This was really a quick practice. Hope everybody is enjoying the weekend.

White calla lily

Another flower but this time calla lily.  My cobalt blue background could hardly be seen. I also thought that dark shadows under the flowers could have been better. This is a small piece of 16x24 cm.
I stopped working with my large piece because I don't know how to go further with it. Maybe in a few weeks time I will check it again and see what I can do with it. 

Practice in acrylic & Documentary about Vincent van Gogh

This afternoon I felt I wanted to do something different from what I usually do. And that was instead of using watercolor, I engaged myself with acrylic. I have not yet discovered the secrets of acrylic that's why I struggled somehow when I was using the medium. I had chosen again my favorite flower (rose) as my subject. I used Winson and Newton acrylic and a cheap cotton canvas.

Over Vincent van Gogh documentary
I have just watched a documentary about Vincent van Gogh at BBC 2. It was pure accident when we saw the program. The documentary was about the life struggles of Vincent when he was living with his parents, while in England, somewhere in Belgium, in The Hague, in France particularly in Paris, in Arles, in St Remy, and in Auver where he shot himself and later died. It was really a sad and tragic story. He felt alone and suffered loneliness. I have shed tears while watching the entire documentary.

Roses in 20 minutes

I did this in a hurry today because I'll be going to my weekly sport activity. While waiting for the time to drive to the sport hall, I decided to pick up my brush that was lying on the table. So in 20 minutes I produced these pink roses. This time I have no photo to look at, only my thought of climbing pink roses.

I remember sometime ago I read an advice from one blogger that if you want to practice often with your painting, you must see to it that your brushes are standing in a corner where you can always see them. Otherwise you forget to use them. In my case, the blogger is right.

Yellow Hibiscus

I've done this a week ago as an exercise. This is from my own photograph which I took from my previous trip in Asia. I've not done much with my brushes this week, just some reading on painting techniques. This is in watercolor.