As some of you may know, I’m not originally from Den Haag. I was born in the beautiful province Drenthe in the north east of the Netherlands. This province is known for its nature, especially the forests and heath. And the giant stone “hunebedden”, of course. I grew up there, and the love for Drenthe’s nature is still a big part of me. A good reason to try and paint it!
Today I was at a small interesting store, Tasj, which has all kinds of little presents and jewellery. I usually avoid it because inside there is a massive incense smell, which is there to hide the smell of cigarette smoke. But today I went inside to check it out. I was looking for things to use as stamps for my clay bowls. I did not find any, but I did find a pretty handmade notebook/sketchbook.
It had thick pages, and I thought it would be good for watercolour painting. Boy, was I wrong! I made a quick sketch and started painting. The water and paint went three pages deep…! This paper is thirsty to the extreme. Not like anything I’m used to.
So I cut out the first page and attached it to a board, and painted on. The water did hardly run, but was soaked into the paper immediately. Unless I would come too close to a part that I had painted previously, then it would bleed, course. It was hard to make detailed lines, though. The water went into the paper and then to the sides, or at least, that’s how it felt while painting.
The result is quite messy, but it was an interesting experience to make this. I may give it another try with a different kind of painting. It looks quite okay from a distance, but the details are not good. That is something I will have to practice more, and on better paper.
