In researching Belgium from a travel guide and google maps I learned that Belgium is very flat and non-de script. Sweeping fields, marshes, low lying grassy hills and winding rivers adorn the landscape. Another characteristic of the Belgium countryside is the poppy, made famous by the Canadian Great War poem Flanders Field by McCrae. The travel book had a picture of that too, and I remembered the many paintings made of poppy fields by Monet one of which I copied in acrylic years ago. Belgium is also known for cartoons such as Tin Tin and others including the Smurfs! To add a flair to the painting there is a Smurf on a hike behind the foreground poppy field.
The design for this one included layers like a cake, in variations of green, olive and chartreuse. This year I learned a lot about colour mixing and expanded my range of greens. I used phthalo green yellow shade (PG36), a variety of yellow, yellow-orange, and orange with touches of perylene green (PBk31) and blues. The poppies were pyrolle vermillion (PR255). The smurf colour? Phthalo blues (yellow and red shade).
World Inspired Landscapes: Belgium 8 x 10" cold press watercolour, December 2020
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