Plein air painting

The 24th of September, it was a lovely, sunny day to spend outside. So I took some of my supplies, planning to paint en plain air. Trying to limit myself I only took a few of my supplies and went to a wonderful place called Buitenplaats Vaeshartelt

It’s a special place to me, except for the beautiful castle and it’s history, there’s this big park with gigantic, old trees, walking paths, a big pond, an orchard, a butterfly garden, a bee house, and wild flowers blooming everywhere. In short, a perfect location to spend some time, sitting on the grass or terrace. You can also buy a take away lunch or a drink and enjoy this on one of the many wooden benches placed in the park.

But what I came for was painting and that’s what I did, with the limited supplies as my Winsor & Newton watercolor box, art journal, only one brush, and my Rotring art-pen.

I found a nice place in the middle of the butterfly garden. An open grass field in the shape of a horseshoe, which is surrounded by flowers during Summer. There were almost no blooms left but I like the seedpods as well, sometimes even more.

I made pictures of the different seedpods to be able to study them home later.

It’s interesting to see the different shapes and structures. So very different from the flowers.

I did some quick studies from the different shapes of the flowers and the seedpods. The grazing sheep were watching me 🙂 

Then I went to the front of the castle and I made a sketch of the building which you can see at the top of this post.

This sign says ‘a space to sit down and tell a story’. I love that, especially in this beautiful place. I wonder what stories have been told here in the past, and will be told in the future 🙂