At the end of October and beginning of November the colors of autumn seem to peak in our forest and gardens here. I was on the way into the woods but decided to stay on a meadow with some fruit trees and an old garden shack near the forest edge. I am experimenting with primed [...]

This gouache sketch was done rather quickly without building a background first. Instead I started with the tree trunks in black and added the other elements step by step and modifying colours by sketching wet in wet.

Buy this sketch as postcard on Zazzle This sketch was done in two sessions starting as usual from the back and painting/sketching towards the foreground. Each state of the sketch could be seen as a kind of under painting for the next stage. The sequence of images below documents some of the intermediate states of [...]

Buy this sketch as postcard on Zazzle There are windy days, the wind howls up in the trees. I have walked to the very edge of the village district. Looking through the trees I can see some orchards down hill and in the far distance the next bigger city in front of hazy blue background [...]

Buy this sketch on a postcard in my Zazzle store We are approaching the most boring time in the year from my perspective now. At the peak of summer there are not many colors in the landscape, all the different greens have changed to almost the same dull, saturated green. There is not much light [...]

A piece of beautiful blue sky framed by some beech trees caught my attention, made me stop and do a gouache sketch. I really enjoy the beginning of these sketches when everything is a possibility and the colours can be dropped and splashed around. Buy this sketch as postcard on Zazzle

This is a quiet forest path, people rarely walk here. The birds were very active on this morning. Young woodpeckers made such a noise that I had to choose another place. I regret that I was not able to catch the vivid contrasts of light and shadows in and under the canopy of the trees. [...]

This is a study of a typical forest in the so-called Stromberg area near Maulbronn. Oak and beech trees are the most common trees here. There are some pines trees and only a few areas with spruce and Douglas fir. The images do not need much commentary I think, it is obvious how the sketch [...]

The many spring greens already merge into the more or less uniform,saturated and dull summer green. The images above show how the latest sketch developed. The advantage of gouache is that it is opaque and it is possible to paint in layers. Especially for depicting foliage this property can be very helpful as it is [...]

Buy this sketch as postcard on Zazzle Spring and spring landscapes are a big temptation and a source of frustration for painters…trouble is spring foliage does drive people to tears! Unless you do not care and just love to dabble happily with your colours as I did on this beautiful sunny morning in the woods. [...]