ArtbyNatasha

Painted in painting class: experiment with painting knife. I had to get used to it, but quite liked the result in the end.

Painted in painting class, to celebrate spring.

First painting of two, resulting from a one-day workshop related to an exhibition with pigs and cows in art.

Second painting in a series of two.

This is one of the exercises in my painting class: paint a Groningen landscape in the snow experimenting with greys built up from aquamarine blue, burnt sienna and white.

Another exercise from my painting class: experimenting with complementary colors (blue becomes orange, green becomes red etc) for the underpainting. The snow is added in the latest stages.

Actually, this painting is not completely finished yet, but I quite like it already, so I thought I'd put it here anyway. The scene is a farm in a winter landscape in the mist, using only pastels.

This is the painting that resulted from a study in charcoal (see Pencil). For the first time I also made an underpainting to study the shades and I must say it helped. Parts of it are still visible in the painting. It took me almost three classes to complete it, but I am quite happy with the result (thanks to my teachers!)
Acrylics, with an underpainting in shades of brown

Exercise in greys (and clouds) for my painting class.

I was especially interested in the 'Fluitekruid' growing so abundantly at the roadside.

First try from workshop with Antje Sonnenschein

Second try from workshop with Antje Sonnenschein

I saw some portraits by Roy Liechtenstein and tried to make one in a similar style. I first selected a suitable photograph and pre-processed it in Photoshop to enhance the shadows. Then I transferred the picture to the canvas and used bright colours to complete it: great fun!

I saw some portraits by Roy Liechtenstein and tried to make one in a similar style. I first selected a suitable photograph and pre-processed it in Photoshop to enhance the shadows. Then I transferred the picture to the canvas and used bright colours to complete it: great fun!

This is part of the old farmhouse, now owned by Staatsbosbeheer, in which we spent our holidays.
I did a similarly set-up painting last year.

It was a very hot sunny afternoon, when I took a picture on this location. Since it was even too hot to sit out in the open landscape, I later painted the scene inside, based on the photo.
Acrylics on a very wide canvas. I intended to make a painting on this canvas this holiday, so I chose a view that was especially suited: a river landscape.

This is the house we rented this summer; right in the middle of the woods near Nijmegen. Even though it was late september it was great weather for painting and we spent a lot of time outside.
Acrylics; on a very small canvas. I enjoyed working in this graphic way.

The autumn colour of the flowers and leaves - a dusky fainted remembrance of summer - inspired me for this painting. This is (probably) the first acrylic painting of flowers I ever made.

This is an experiment: I first painted the blue and green background, then searched for pretty autumn leaves and used those as a stencil. Finally I painted additional leaves on top.

This is the view from our rented farm 'Duivelsberg'. Especially early in the morning, when there was still some mist and the sun was just trying to get through, it looked marvelous. The tree on the left is a walnut tree: I never saw one of those before.

This painting is inspired by the work of Corneille and combines a simple landscape with colourful animals. I consider this a successful experiment, but I do not think it is very likely that this will be my new style!

This is a view of the 'Hoge en Lage der A' in Groningen. There used to be a direct connection from here to the sea; with low and high tide! However, this no longer exists nowadays. There are some beautiful old warehouses that have been transformed into costly lofts in this part of town. The sketch for this painting was made in November 2004 on one of the last sunny days (but it was already freezing cold, had to wear gloves!). I finished the painting much later. I decided to try and keep the whole painting as abstract and yet realistic as I could. I enjoyed the effort very much, but found out that painting with a little more freedom is more my style. And there were a lot of windows to be dealt with ...

This is the first painting of my two week summer 2005 holiday in 'de Achterhoek'. I started out quite detailed here.

This is a study in greens and yellows. Although you can see from my watercolour paintings that I am actually naturally inclined to paint details I experimented with a more graphical representation of this plant here.

These ladies were in the field opposite our holiday home in the part of the Netherlands called 'de Achterhoek'. When I first saw them I said to myself that I wanted to paint cows this holiday. I first spent quite some time doing sketches: I did not know that cows are never in a fixed position and quite hard to sketch in real life! But I got to like them quite a bit over time (especially number 360): they are very curious and seem to be quite social among them (licking each other etcetera). Anyway, this all ended up in this (again quite graphical) painting ...

This painting I did when I was working for a week in France in May. In between my sessions behind my laptop, there was one perfect painting day that called for a break! I like to make use of a so-called 'repousoir' (the tree on the left in this case) to give more depth to my paintings: it can be seen in more of my work on this site.

I was fascinated by the very Dutch clouds on this day and decided to keep the landscape more simple. I was painting by the side of the road and got quite some (friendly) comments!

This painting was based on a pencil sketch I made in October 2004. This was the first time I painted all colours from memory using notes I took while sketching. And I never knew painting a shadow (and lightthrough leaves) could be so challenging!

Painted in August 2004 on the beautiful Dutch island of Ameland. We were in the middle of the dunes with only a few visitors during the day. First day of a week of great painting weather (approx. 25 degrees centigrade).

This painting was inspired by a photograph I took in September 2004 in Arches NP in the USA. I was challenged by the colours in the rocks and I am quite happy with the result I got (notice the rosy part, due to the sun, in the rock on the left). I added the small car to make you realize how huge these rock formations actually are.

It was one of my wishes to paint right on the beach. The day I painted this was very hot and sunny. I finished the painting inside because of the heat. Even though we were right on the beach, we were far enough from the seashore, to attract much attention. Many people have told me that this painting reminds them of Hopper. Actually, I was not able to find such a scene in one of his paintings. However, I guess the atmosphere and painting style remind people of his paintings.

This was a much more challenging subject than I thought initially ... The real colours of the dunes were quite dull, so I had to turn them into something more interesting. But the view, from one of the highest dunes of Ameland, was magnificent!

This painting is an illustration of artistic freedom for me: although quite realistic, this actual composition can not be found anywhere near Hollum. I especially like the relatively large foreground of the composition (and I really enjoyed painting the grass with a coarse brush).

This was the last painting I did outside during the summer of 2004. There are some strange memories attached to this day: a girl had a nosebleed and I was stung by a wasp. But the painting was great and we had a beautiful spot: in the shade under the trees, with a view on the heather fields of Balloerveld.
I usually paint on paper, but this painting is done on a small canvas.

This painting was deliberately painted using complementary colours (the blue sky becomes orange, the green trees become red etcetera). Although I had some doubts in the beginning, the effect is actually, rather surprisingly, very nice.

Although I prefer to paint landscapes, especially if I am sitting right in the middle of them, this painting was inspired by a fashion photograph.
This is the only painting so far, that I have done using gouache: it gives a nice velvety texture and allows to keep the texture of the brush strokes beautifully.

This painting was done on an extremely windy day in August 2004, just behind the dunes of Ameland. We were at the crossing of several bike roads, which generated a lot of interest in our activities ...

Santa Fe, USA

Moulin de Laval, France

Pastel