Canadian Watercolour and Chalk Pastel Artist

...... and the process of choosing my next photo reference. It's been a cold, backwards spring this year. My heart breaks for our farmers who are still trying to plant their crops mid-June. I had no intention of finding my next painting in the garden this morning. But, it happened nonetheless. It started out with these strawberry blossoms and their beauty. I am looking forward to a few strawberries from our own garden. Last year's strawberry plants didn't survive the winter

I am happy with the latest apple - bottom left. For light green spots, I applied Friskit with a toothpick over the already dry green wash. It's amazing how many reds are in that apple: * Winsor Red Deep * Cadmium Red * Opera Rose I also used Quinacridone Gold and some Burnt Sienna for the warmer side. And, finally .... to cool down the top left of the apple, I washed with some Cerulean Blue. #watercolour #HildaVanNetten #apples

So, the fun for me is always figuring out how to achieve a realistic painting that I like. Two things work for me. 1. "Pushing the colour". If I see a colour, I choose to paint more of it. Any hint of a colour, I find it and paint it. 2. "Lost edges". Example on this painting. Look at the painting and tell me where your eyes rest. For me, it is the space at the bottom of the left apple where you can't really tell where the apple ends and the background begins. That's

Have paint, will travel. I'm camping at my sister's place in Grey County, ON. While she works on her artwork, her kitty and I are plodding along on my latest painting. The breeze coming through the screen was welcomed by all of us. #drawing #HildaVanNetten #originalpainting #watercolour #painting #art #NorthumberlandCounty #realism #grass #cat

Charlie, age 4, drew this lady for me. I think this lady would order French toast during the Renaissance, don't you? Her hair would totally fit in. And, below is another collaboration with Frances, age 5. This was a fun project, a gift to myself: taking the time to create. #collaboration #watercolour #drawing #sketch #cards #originalpainting #painting

I have a new collaborator! Grand-daughter, Charlie just turned 4 years old. She spends lots of time drawing and creating with her Mom and brother. She created this sensational character on the weekend. I love the eyes.... so expressive! And that hand! It looks like she is saying, "STOP!". And, mostly her hair. Why is it that we lose our inventiveness the older we get? Below is the painting that I cut up to make the cards. Some of the more boring areas will become the

There are artists who have large inventories of their paintings. Not me. When I get tired of looking at a painting, I cut it up. Yup! Cut it up into 5" X 7" rectangles and make wonderful hand-made cards out of it. To add to the fun, I've been collaborating with my young grandchildren on this project. Today, I started one using a drawing done by a 5 year old grand-daughter. I love this activity! The base of the card is a random rectangle from a large painting. Then, w

“The poetry of the earth is never dead.” John Keats Naming a painting is almost more fun than painting one for me. I wanted to convey the joy I have in growing our own food. We've always grown our own vegetables, and in recent years have been slowly replacing ornamental shrubs with ones that produce food. Hence, the two varieties of currants you see here. It may not be as pretty for people who drive by, but you have no idea how fun it is go outside in the morning and pic

If you look carefully at this almost-finished painting, you will see that the grassy area under the plate of fruit is much lighter than the rest of the grass. I've washed in some greens and some greys to get the paper covered. Now I need to go back and glaze on multiple layers of colour to enrich the tone and colour of the painting and make the grass look realistic. This is the stage where the grass starts to look like itself. #fruit #originalpainting #HildaVanNetten #art

I could have titled this, "Update on currant painting" too. I've been continuing in my "Stuff in Containers on the Grass" series for the past few months. This is a close up of it. Newsflash! We've added one more "See Better, Draw Better" workshop. This coming Saturday's workshop is full. Another has been added for Monday, February 5 at The Painted Tree, art store in beautiful downtown Cobourg. Contact Darlene to register. If you've never tried drawing, or if you want so