Keep going

Sometimes it is quite difficult to keep going and make art. All kinds of other jobs and questions ask your attention and energy... and then there is no energy left to really focus on making. Oh yes, a small drawing is possible but to get the brushes out, make a plan of what you want to paint and then start and focus and above all finish a new artpiece... it is difficult. 

For me it helps to work in series. But at the moment it is quite unfocused, so I am accepting this and am putting my energy in the joy of drawing, of creating. The joy of making something new is what keeps me going! So I made this sign to remember myself and just because I liked the combination of blue and red.    

One of my pencil favourites

 Lately I have been trying a lot of different pencils and brands. One of my favourites is the Inktense pencil of the English brand DERWENT. This pencil has strong pigment and can be diluted with water. I bought a new colour: Mid Vermillion, and tried it in my sketchbook. Here you see an apple and a pear, the pear I blended with water which makes the colour stronger and more present. When you do not dilute, that is the apple, then it holds the softness of your drawing lines.

These pencils can also be used on acrylics, for some extra detail or colour expression.

You can also dip the tip :) into water and then you sort of get a watercolour effect.

I bought these at an artist supply store Van Beek Art.

Artfair

This weekend I was present on a local Castle Fair. This castle is only about 300 meters away from my studio and it has a beautiful garden with large chestnut trees. We had the perfect weather and lovely conversations with visitors and colleagues.

So at the beginning of this week I am organizing the studio again, for my own Open Studio this Friday (11-16 hours). I have some new paintings to frame and photograph and some cards to restock.

Wishing you a good week!

Details of the brush

 Some years ago I made a painting of Nectarines, with acrylics on paper. And I looked at it closely recently and I just like the dry brush method I used. I do like adding texture or painting texture of clothing, curtains or whatever.

So I painted the old table with its painted and used surface. On a lightgrey background, I used a dry brush and white paint to express the structure. Using these techniques, by trial and error..., make it interesting for me.

What you see here is a part of the painting.

Heather?

 After several heatwaves and 6 weeks of no rainfall at all, I was wondering how the heather would cope. Midway August the heather blooms on a patch near our house, so I made an evening walk to have a look. And yes there it was: heather in bloom! But also large copper coloured patches of brown heather, probably heather which suffered last year. I made pictures and one of them inspired me to paint:

Trial and error

 Another sketchbook page, using markers and one colour. The pencil was red but turned out to be more orange. It was not a favorite colour for me, not very happy with how it turned out...

Well, sketchbooks are for trial and error, so I've learned something.

A page of snippets

 A page with a few snippets glued on was waiting in my sketchbook to be put to use. I used a Derwent Inktense pencil to draw this still-life. When you concentrate on the composition and dimensions you forget about the snippets until you see the end-result :).

It is a nice way to get unexpected results.

Have a good week! We have had some rain finally, which changes nature immediately, so I need to do some gardening work, especially since the apples are falling of the trees.