artist Ronelle van Wyk – Page 12

Posted on February 5, 2015February 5, 2015 by Myfrenchkitchen · 4 Comments

Pomegranates in oil.

My art project for February is oil paintings. I find February the most difficult month of the year. It is usually very cold, rainy and grey, and the worst of all, windy. So it turns put to be the month I spend inside most of my time, painting wise. I usually turn to watercolor work, or drawing, both of which I enjoy. But this year I am taking out the oils in February.

..pomegranate in blues..

oil on linen, 27x29cm

I have bought a lot of small canvases on which I intend to do small and quick stillifes, not a formal, still life set up, bit more single pieces of fruit and vegetables, objects from the kitchen and refrigerator and veggie basket. I am awful at doing still lifes, I have done only a very few oil still lifes and I can’t say I enjoyed it very much. I find still life too static for me. I have no adrenalin pumping when doing a still life…there is no changing elements like wind or changing light or heat or movement which prompt me to work loose and fast and prevent me from fiddling. Standing in front of a stillife gives me too much time to fiddle, to much time to stand back and contemplate what to do or change, too much opportunities to return to the work and “fix’ what I don’t like.

..pomegranate in greens

oil on linen, 20X20cm

These little paintings are exercises in different strokes, using different sizes of brushes and techniques and rendition in everything BUT realism.. All of them are done in one go, painting wet-in-wet, impasto, sur le motif, in my atelier. After the third one, I actually started enjoying it. The first painting was horrific..I was so not in the mood for this project, but I didn’t want to fail, so I put 3 pomegranates up on the table, 3 canvases on the easel at the same time and painted all three at the same time. That turned out to be not too bad and I started enjoying it.

..pomegranates in yellows..

oil on board, 33X22cm

So, back to the easel where I have a fennel bulb waiting with its greens and whites and yellows…challenging!

à bientôt

Ronelle

Posted on January 30, 2015January 30, 2015 by Myfrenchkitchen · 3 Comments

Cream tulip sketches.

I still have 2 days left to capture some bulbs. Not that it means we are in spring. On the contrary, with snow forecasts for this weekend en cold to the bone weather and the fire burning high in the fireplace, it is everything but spring. Inside my barn though, I have forced bulbs everywhere and tulips in vases. Nothing can stop me from bringing some spring inside.

I used lots of different mediums and styles, just simply playing around, messing around. I enjoy working with gouache, I don’t do that enough, so it was great to do some sketches with gouache today. the last image is one of the gouache sketches..but I ruined it of course with that enormous name I signed…tried to be too artistic…

..Tulips..

..contour lines with black Lamy safari pen on Fabraino watercolor block HP, 18×25.5cm

..Tulips 2..

..watercolor and J. Herbin ink, café des iles in Stillman & Birn sketchbook, Epsilon series, 14×21.6cm

..Tulips 3..

..watercolor and in Stillman & Birn sketchbook, Alpha series, 22.9x15cm

..Tulips 4..

..gouache and black Lamy safari pen on Fabriano watercolor block, HP, 18X25cm

Posted on January 29, 2015January 29, 2015 by Myfrenchkitchen · 3 Comments

Still doing bulb sketches.

The potted bulbs all have some flowers and today the little Iris reticulata had its turn. Some quick line work in inks and blotches of watercolor was all that I was in the mood for.

..Iris reticulata 1..

..watercolor and J. Herbin ink(bleu myosotis and lie de the) on Fabriano HPwatercolor block..

The top sketch was done on Fabriano hot press watercolor paper, my favorite and the inks just work beautifully with the nibs and inks. The bottom sketch on cold press was a different story. The nibs get stuck on the paper with its rough texture and I just don’t like any other paper than hot pressed. you can just look at my signed name to see how I struggled to get a fluid line down.