Here is a drawing of witte aalbessen that Hanneke van Oosterhout made this June (click the images to enlarge). The same day she transferred the drawing to a panel using tracing paper. Then she made an underpainting with acrylic.
The next day she over-painted all the berries with oil paint, a tiring day’s work. Why did she paint them all in one day? “Yes, the berries go away quickly,” says Hanneke. She wanted to capture the fresh, ripe quality of the fruit before the berries dried.
Some weeks later she over-painted the cup and the background in about half a day, again with oils. The result is shown here.
A detail shows the spontaneous but refined brushwork used to paint the berries — the shiny transparent skin and translucent interior. “That is the magic of these white berries, that you can look inside,” says Hanneke. “That’s why I worked so hard to paint them when they were fresh.” On the panel each berry is about 7 mm wide.
Two and a half days work is fast for a detailed painting like this. But is the picture in finished? You decide.
For my part, the painting is obviously unfinished. We can see three levels in the painting:
1) The berries, which held a deep and urgent importance to the painter,
2) The cup, which is painted with care, but lacks the hard material quality of ceramics, as opposed to the delicate organic quality of the fruit.
3) The base, which is without detail and somewhat crude.
A painting need not be uniform in its degree of finish of course. But for this picture, the levels of finish correspond too closely with the actual objects, and this causes the painting to lack unity. The solution would seem to be for the artist to look for something in the cup that is special, and in the base/table top as well. I think a few touches would suffice, if they are chosen with care. We will follow this painting.
The berries are spectacular.
But I don’ t understand the process;
‘Then she made an underpainting with acrylic.’ Is this the black background?
‘The next day she painted all the berries with oil paint, a tiring day’s work. Why did she paint them all in one day? “Yes, the berries go away quickly,” says Hanneke. She wanted to capture the fresh, ripe quality of the fruit before the berries dried.” I don’ t understand this at all.
Looking at the berries, I see several colors, the orange seeds inside, the white translucent skin and the reddish furry tops. Did she first paint the orange seeds inside? How long did the oil paint have to dry before she added the translucent white top layer?
Hi Ossi,
The underpainting is a somewhat rough painting of the complete scene. Unfortunately there is no photo of it for this picture. Hanneke will answer your other questions.
I painted the berries in oil paint in one session. The reason that I wanted to do it in one day is that I was afraid that the berries would be dried out the next day, which was not the case but they had gotten sort of milky so I could not see through them anymore and thus could not see the seeds anymore.
I don’t remember exactly how I painted the berries but I did it all in one day so I started with the seeds and painted the reflections over them while the paint was wet. In the underpainting the berries where not more than a little circle filled with some warm grayish yellowish color if I remember it well.
I think the berries are a success, and the painting does look finished, although the composition is rather stark and severe. I think it’s charming and lively, and I like the colours offset against the dark charcoal of the background. It could have done with a few things on the ground around the bowl, perhaps. I think she’s aiming for a translucent glow coming from the berries, and has succeeded.
My problem is with the drawing of the bowl; fundamentally. It isn’t as curved as it should be – that is the perspective on the top round and the bottom round should be more oval. Both lines are too straight. The base of the bowl has squared off too much, and should also be more rounded. There is not enough “volume” to the bowl, and it does not look as if it is convincingly holding the berries.
Otherwise, it’s great – colours are lovely in the berries, and the details of the bowl are very good.
Hi Elizabeth,
This painting was sold a year ago. Bit of all these things was fixed before that.
I made another one this summer as a commission and people love it,
I am having a show this weekend.
Thanks for commenting.
Hi Hanneke,
Good to hear your voice again. Congrats on the painting and good luck with the show.
hi Folks,
I sold six paintings at the show,(5 at the vernisage and one the third day )
thanks for commenting
Congratulations, Hanneke! Is there any place on the Internet where we can see some of your recent work?