For this painting I went to Fochteloërveen, a large nature reserve at the border of Drenthe and Friesland. There is a vast open landscape that gives you the opportunity to oversee a wide distance covered with dried grass, with here and there some heather and a few scattered trees. While walking around, you’ll find these fens with water. Some are large, and others are smaller, like the one I painted here.
I created this painting on location, and on that day the wind was very strong. On such moments, a painting feels almost like a kite. So the whole easel will easily blow over. Luckily, the ground was very loose, so I could push the legs of the easel into the ground. And then holding tight onto my palette, which too wanted to fly off. Now, you might say, why not just take a picture and paint it comfortably in the studio? Well, the wind is actually an ingredient of this painting as well. When you’re painting outdoors, it is not just you painting, nature itself takes part in it too!
For the colors, I stayed quite close to the natural elements that I observed. Muted yellow ochre for the dried grasses, soft earth colors for the darker elements, and there is of course the blue of the sky reflected into the water.
