Sloe on Vellum

It has been a long time since I last painted on vellum. Two weeks ago I found my vellum again and thought it would be fun to paint something  on the calfskin. I rescued last Monday a branch of the Blackthorn in front of our house. Just before the big storm arrived. I love Sloe, the twigs with the thorns, the white flowers in spring and of course the berries in autumn.

It always takes a while to get used to painting on vellum again. It's so different from painting on paper because the paint sits on the surface and doesn't get absorbed. The result is more brilliant and warm. It's more alive. Maybe more on vellum soon...

More Chestnuts

Horse Chestnuts that is. They never bore and they are all so different. I just had to make a series of them. I might do one or two more but thought I'd share what I've done so far. All in coloured pencil.

Conker

So... not reaching the target of 30 this year. Last year it was my arm and now the cold spoiled it. Oh well, I'll just continue with a few, just for fun. Here's a conker in coloured pencil. There might be more of them since there are still many on the trees. And they are loads of fun to draw.

Pomegranate

I will not get all 30 drawings done for the challenge. I got a cold and felt bad the last couple of days. I'll continue though for fun but 30 is no longer my target. It doesn't matter so much. I had fun the first weeks.

Last days I "painted" a pomegranate in coloured pencil. My Italian friend gave me two nice red ones and I had them still in a bowl waiting to be eaten. But before eating them I wanted to paint or draw them. So, with a runny nose and burning eyes I did just that. Time to eat it now and get better ;)

Cherry Laurel Update

I managed to finish the Cherry Laurel today. So here it is. No.10 and 11 of the 30 day challenge.

Botanical Challenge

Every year in September our Botanical Artists Group on Facebook has a 30 days challenge. Normally I can't keep up with it and never end up with 30 paintings/drawings at the end of it. Dianne Sutherland organised this year's challenge. I'll try it too... again...

Because there were a lot of things going on here at my house this week, I already fell a bit behind. So for my first entry I painted not one but two things. A hip of Rosa moyesii 'Geranium' and Acorns from Bertus' harvest. Hopefully I can do two more tomorrow.

Blueberries

That's right... Blueberries... What you see here is my blueberry palette. Pretty eh? Too many colours though. In fact you can paint them with four colours. I just tried out several paints to pick the best combination. I can't remember exactly which ones I prefered in the end. I think it might have been French Ultramarine, Burnt Umber, Quinacridone Magenta and Mineral Violet or something like that. Perhaps I used some Hooker's Green for the shadows (mixed with the magenta it gives a really dark colour). As you can see I also added a little bit of white to mix nice pale colours with for the bloom. That is also something I tested. How to get the best bloom. I can't say it was with the white mixtures or with white from the paper. Both ways worked rather well. I know, this post is not very helpful.... Just wanted to show you the pretty palette and the tiny result of 5 delicious berries... Made just for fun....

Talking about fun... See what happens when you flip the photo of the palette:

It's watching you! ;)

 

Tulipa turkestanica

 

Tulipa turkestanica

It has been a long time since I last posted something. The only reason for that was that I just had nothing to post. I already wrote about the troubles I had with my arm in the previous post and it only got worse after that. The doctor concluded I had a golfer's elbow as well as a tennis elbow. No fun. I wasn't able to draw or paint for months. But now I finally got permission to paint again.

At the end of winter there's not much flowering but I found these lovely Tulipa turkestanica at the garden centre. I have them in my garden too but with this year's winter they were still in the ground. So I bought them again and could draw one.

I felt very rusty painting this after such a long time. But in the end it turned out ok. Just like the Sterappels I did last year, I did this in watercolour first and then enhanced it with coloured pencil. I really enjoy taking advantage of the best qualities of the different materials.

Sterappel

It has been a while again since my last post. Partially because I haven't painted much since my last blog. At least, not very botanical anyway. BUT now I have finished something that's worth sharing.
Some weeks ago I went to a nursery ("De Vrolijke Noot") of fruit trees and bushes. The owner gave me a cutting from one of his apple trees. The apple is named "Sterappel". That means "Star Apple" if you translate it. Stars, because the apple has very clear bright lenticels on the very dark red skin.
I posted the end result on Flickr and Facebook already and was very happy when Rosie Sanders complimented me on the painting. Rosie made a few years ago the famous Apple Book. She knows a lot about the different varieties and asked me what kind this is. I didn't know the English name of it. I only know the German, French and Dutch name. Later Rosie sent me a bit of more information about the apple: "I've looked it up in the National Apple Register and it seems that it is Reinette Rouge Étoilée, first described in 1830, provenance Belgium or the Netherlands. Has lots of synonyms including Sterappel and Sternrenette. Interesting!". 
What I do know is that this used to be a very popular apple in the Netherlands but has become very rare now. The problem with these apples is that it falls too early from the tree. Often it hasn't got the deep red colour yet when it hits the ground. To give the apples the wonderful, dark colour the apples were placed on straw between the trees to get more sunlight and the cold from the nights. To save the apples from dehydration the apples had to be wetted. Also to get an even red colour the apples had to be turned after a while. Very intensive work if you have a large orchard.

Now, about the painting... I used for this Arches HP (I was out of Fabriano) and painted it first in watercolour. Using masking fluid to save the "stars". After that I put on layers of coloured pencil. And although I did get a very nice and rich dark red colour with the watercolour, the coloured pencils made it even more alive. I really loved this way of working and I think I'll use this technique more. The only thing I don't like is that the watercolours roughen the paper surface. I will have to find a cure for that. More experimenting is needed. 

The painting (only watercolour) with the masking fluid to protect the "stars".

Oh, and remember that an apple a day keeps the doctor away.... right? Not really.... I went to the doctor last week and it turned out that I have a very sportive right arm: a golfer's and tennis elbow (bilateral epicondylitis). With painkillers it's possible to work for about an hour a day. So the next project will take some time to get finished. But I promise, it will be a bit different ;)

A Bulb Drawing and Some News

A lot has happened lately. Really... a lot. I'm happy to say it's all quite positive. I finished a bulb drawing today, an interview about me and my art was published in Noorderland magazine, I finally built my new website (and it works!!!!) and I'll be teaching in a new course about drawing botanical art with coloured pencils. It's a lot.

First of all, let me show you the drawing. It's done in coloured pencil and it's a Crocosmia 'Lucifer' bulb which I pulled out of my garden this week. The contrast of the died leaves and the new, toxic green sprout is so nice. Well, I like it anyway :P

It wasn't an easy thing to draw in coloured pencil. I think it would have been more easy if I had used only graphite pencils. The hardest part of it was the fibre, straw-like part above the bulb and between the two dead leaves. White thin sprigs. Many of them too... Ah well, I managed it somehow and I'm rather pleased with the result too. That doesn't happen so often.

So... then there's the article, 6 full pages in a very nice magazine, Noorderland. A large interview, a lot of my drawings (nicely printed) and nice photos of stuff in my studio and also of me. So if you live in the Netherlands or there about, have a look.

Now, because I was going to feature in this big article I really had to update my website. And because I'm such a stubborn person that always knows best and never likes prefab website designs, I wanted to build it myself. I'm happy now with the style and all I need now is to build a little e-store to sell cards, prints and other stuff. So if you haven't done it already, please have a look at it. Some feedback is always nice ;)

www.sigridfrensen.com

Finally the 6-day-drawing-course. That will be (I really hope I get enough students for this) next June in the botanical garden "De Kruidhof" in Buitenpost. On my website is a folder with more info. It will be six days in three weeks time. I'm looking forward to it... sitting in the gardens there, peacefully struggling with all the plant material, trying hard to get it all down on paper.... Aaaaah..... splendid!

Vegetables

As you may know, I don't have a very big love for painting flowers. I prefer the twigs, pods, buds and seeds... sometimes even some leaves.... Some of my friends on Facebook are doing the SBA's Distance Learning Diploma Course in botanical art. One of the assignments is to paint vegetables. They also do fruits and flowers of course but this veggies assignment is really interesting, I think. Inspired and intrigued by this challenge I am now spotting wonderful vegetables everywhere. I'm getting so excited about it all that I'm now almost ready to turn part in my garden into a *beautiful vegetables* spot. Not even so much for eating it (although that is of course a nice bonus) but more for painting and drawing the stuff. Here are some things that are really interesting. And there's so much more..... (oh, and because I would also plant some tomatoes and other *fruit* in my little plot, I'll add those too here)

 

Top to bottom: 'Cabbage' by Yannha, 'Kale' by Yannha, Cabbage 'Alaska' at Marshalls, Aubergine 'Prosperosa' at Thompson & Morgan,  'Toma-tres' by Cebolledo, Pak Choi by Munduate, 'Fennel' by Paul Petherick, 'Candy Stripe Beet' or 'Chioggia' at Plant World Seeds, Lettuce 'Yugoslavian Red' at Thompson & Morgan, Cosmic Purple Carrots at Plant World Seeds, 'Onions' by sfPhotocraft, 'Local Colour - Les Nourritures Terrestres' by Pusapoze, Shallot 'Picasso' at Thompson & Morgan, Swede 'Tweed' at Thompson & Morgan

I know... it's much more than just greens.

Souvenir from Florence

Now that all paintings are finished for the SBA show in London (I framed them yesterday), I wanted to draw something small. And with pencil! After all this time working with the small brushes and watercolours I just had to do a pencil drawing. On my desk I found a small Cypress cone. I found it in Italy last year near the Villa del Trebbio in Tuscany. There were lots of Cypresses on that hill, many of them very old.

 

In a few hours I made this small drawing in my sketchbook. I love drawing pine cones and this one was nice too. I think it's because I can go really black in the shadows. I also love the shape of these cones. Anyway, here it is:

Cypress Cone, Graphite pencil 3,5 x 6 cm

Finished Work

It has been far too long since I've blogged something. So, here's an update. Last year, the last two months I didn't paint much. I wasn't well for a while and we had a very busy December. At the end of the month however, I decided to try and enter my work to the SBA show in London, next April. I want to send 4 paintings but it was hard to choose which ones. Also I felt like I had to enter work that reflects my recent work. I think I improved my skills this year dramatically. The course I did with Anne-Marie Evans had a lot to do with that. I now feel much more comfortable with the watercolours.

I wanted to enter my Nectaroscordum striptease but it's a bit personal. I don't want to sell it yet. So I decided to repaint it in a smaller version. Instead of the 5 flower heads, I painted 3. Also I changed the composition. To put them in a row, like I did in the first version, seemed stiff. Not at all what I wanted. So I moved them around till I was, sort of, happy with it.

As you can see in the slideshow, I had a big problem with one of the buds. It was the bud closest to the viewer but it was so grey and dull and there was nothing I could do to make it look fresh again. All I could do was to cut out the top layer of the paper and carefully remove the entire thing. I then polished the damaged part with a small agate stone and repainted the bud, giving it more colour and enlarging it a bit so nothing could be seen of the *gap*.
Here is the finished piece:

I'm also still working on another painting. It's Allium ursinum (or Ramsons or Wild Garlic). I made a sketch of it two years ago but never got to actually paint it. I wanted to give it a go for the SBA show because I was really pleased with the composition. Now this Allium has, as you might know, white, small flowers and large leaves. I first tried a flower head on a small piece of paper to get the feeling of the white, the shadows and the shape.

Next came the leaves. That was even more difficult because they were huge and wavy. All I had was a line drawing. I never got to add the shades to the sketch. So I had to carefully think about where to place the shadows. I therefore made a new sketch of the leaves and added the shadows with a pencil. I'm glad I did because I'm sure I would have totally messed it up if I hadn't done it.

Now I should tell you I'm scared of painting leaves. If possible I avoid it :P But these leaves were really needed. I tend to paint them too fast, use too much water and because of all that, mess it up. I had to tell myself over and over again while I was painting to be slow and work dry. Sometimes I did, but sometimes I didn't.

I had to carefully build the leaves to keep them wavy, clean and fresh but also to add drama and depth. I first did the shaping wash and after that I added the fisrt green wash of bright yellow green.

Now I'm adding more and more layers of deeper green to finish the leaves, adding details where necessary. So... not finished yet but getting there.

The third I finished (yesterday) is a painting I started last year and is one of my all time favourites. It's Pelargonium sidoides. I'm not a fan of Pelargoniums but this one is different in many aspects. The flowers are tiny and have a beautiful deep, rich, dark, almost black kind of red. Like small gems. The leaves are not too big and have a velvety silver grey look. That is such a beautiful combination, it makes you sigh when you first see it. No really, it does!
In a nutshell this is how it was to paint it: The leaves were difficult (because velvety and many cushions) but they went remarkably well, the stems were so thin and took the longest to paint them well and the buds and flowers were obviously the most fun to paint.

I'm so happy with this painting. I love the composition and the way the leaves turned out. If I will sell it I would hate to see it go. But that's the danger isn't it? Maybe someday I'll paint something like this again. Who knows.
The fourth I want to submit is the old drawing of Crocosmia 'Lucifer'. That will be the only one in coloured pencil.

I'll try and make loads of photos at the show and will report on my blog how it was. Ta ta for now ;)

Quince

Yesterday Michiel Thomas, a friend I met on Flickr, came to my house to buy one of my drawings. He brought me a large branch from his Quince he has in his garden. On the branch were 3 quinces and I decided to draw one of them. I first made the sketch and today I added the colours. Here it is :)

Watercolours

As you probably know, I work a lot with coloured pencils. I never liked watercolours very much... or the watercolours didn't like me... I don't know. Anyway, painting with watercolours always was a struggle and never fun to do. I found my coloured pencil more friendly and willing to work with me. Lately I started to paint a bit more. I think it was after the botanical art course with Valerie Oxley this spring. She showed some tricks and ways how to deal with various problems. It inspired me to pick up my brushes again and try some small things. You've seen the Blackberry and Redcurrants. They worked out surprisingly well. I have no idea why it is going so much better than before. Maybe it's because I take my time and use less colours when I mix my colours. Lately I've done two more paintings. One large and one small and still in progress. Actually I think I won't finish it this year because I have other, more important, stuff to finish too. To be honest, the first, large painting, isn't finished either... here it is:

These are the berries of the Arum italicum. Now, I must add that these berries are no longer floating around. I've added the stem last weekend. The bright orange colours were very new for me. I never did something so extremely orange before. The most beautiful orange I got from mixing Opera Rose with Cadmium Yellow (both W&N). Some berries have some Cadmium Red deep hue glazed over them, some have a bit of Opera rose or Cadmium Yellow glaze. The green was even harder. It stayed too mossy... too yellow... finally I tried to make it better by glazing with a bit of Hookers Green mixed with Lemon Yellow. That did it.

The other painting is going to be a bit of a project. I started it last weekend while I was demonstrating Botanical painting in my favourite nursery "De Kleine Plantage" in Eenrum. In the gardens were a lot of Hydrangeas. The most spectacular colour of deep dark red I found on Hydrangea serrata 'Grayswood'.

I picked some of the most interesting flowers off the shrub (naughty me) and painted them.

Now I want to paint a lot more of these flowers with these amazing colours on the sheet. Like they are sprinkled on the paper. I think it will look very nice.

Now, I'm not going to switch over entirely to watercolours. I love the pencils too. But it was a nice surprise to see the painting is going so much better now, with less struggles and with more fun than before....

Schiermonnikoog

Last week we returned from our holidays on Schiermonnikoog. It's a small island in the North of the Netherlands between the Northsea and the Waddensea. Since June 2009 the Waddensea is placed on the UNESCO World Heritage List. UNESCO uses several different criteria to assess whether an area merits World Heritage Site status. It deemed the Waddensea to be globally unique in at least three of those criteria.

Of the islands in the Waddensea, Schiermonnikoog holds a very special position. The entire island is a National Park, a special natural region that must be well protected.
Half of the wild plants registered in the Netherlands can be found on this small island.
I love to visit Schiermonnikoog every year. It's peaceful and there's so much nature. And although it's small, it never gets boring. I always take my watercolours with me. This year I wanted to paint some smaller plants on the island.
The first one I painted was the tiny and delicate Seaside Pansy (Viola curtisii).

The next day I spotted another small plant, becoming more rare very rapidly in my country. It's the Red Bartsia (Odontites vernus subsp. serotinus).

Another plant I painted was much more common but very pretty. It's the Selfheal (Prunella vulgaris).

Finally I painted a plant which I wanted to paint for years now. It's a protected plant and very scarce in the Netherlands. Its the Parnassia palustris or maybe better known as Grass of Parnassus.

Maybe next year I'll paint some plants from the salt marshes.