About tigers...

Many years ago, when I was still at the National School of Arts, (Die Kruin) South Africa, we had a very interesting prescribed book for the German language. The story was about a tiger in India, and how it was considered a very sacred animal in their culture. The book fascinated me endlessly and I found the tiger to be one of the most beautiful animals in the world. Not only did the story about the tiger introduce me to the Indian culture, but also how one needs to preserve these nearly extinct species for the future!

As an animal lover, especially for anything 'catlike',  I challenged myself to draw the tiger in pastel pencils. I was pretty pleased with this one... :)

Illustration of a tiger

Size:A3 framed

Medium: Pastel Pencil on Clairefontaine Pastelmat

Photography: Jason Morgan, with kind permission
© Artwork by Astrid Keus (June 2019)

Doing botanical paintings in watercolour

Hi everyone!

For the last couple of months I've been working on several botanical paintings. I've only recently discovered how challenging it is to get this technique under control and it took me some time to practice, practice and practice until it started to look remotely like I wanted it to look. ;)

Watercolour isn't like any other medium, it does what it does: The amount of water one uses as well as the drying process itself has an influence on the pigment which interacts with the kind of paper one uses. You wet the paper, let the paint flow, and add drops of pigment until it dissolves into the paper... You literally have to work it up layer after layer and than the best results are achieved if you let it dry naturally in between each layer. What also fascinated me is that your brush is not just your tool to place the pigment on the paper, but also to 'erase' it off the paper!

It takes oodles of patience but once I started to see the results, I was completely mesmerized by this medium! I can watch how it interacts with different colours and paper, for hours! ;)

My effort resulted in the painting below of an orchard which I have growing in my lounge, and which I photographed myself to get a creative result. Everytime I look at the results I believe I get a lot closer to master watercolour, but it is by no means perfect. Hopefully, as with many artworks created before, they will be the stepping stones to even better artwork in the future!

Botanical illustration of an orchid

Size: 40x29,7cm

Medium: Watercolour on Canson Montval 300gms

Photography: Astrid Keus
© Artwork by Astrid Keus (September 2019)

 

Botanical illustration of blue poppies

Size: A3 (including cardboard frame)

Medium: Watercolour on Canson Montval 300gms

© Artwork by Astrid Keus (September 2019)

 

Botanical illustration of Red Lilly

Size: A3 (including cardboard frame)

Medium: Watercolour on Canson Montval 300gms

© Artwork by Astrid Keus (September 2019)

Paintings 2016

Whimsical Nr. 02

 Acrylic paint and mixed medium

Size: 20x20cm

© Astrid Keus (December 2016)
(No longer available)

Whimsical Nr. 03

Acrylic paint and mixed medium

Size: 20x20cm

© Astrid Keus (December 2016)
(No longer available)

Morphing Nr. 02

Morphing kitchen items into a collage (KHL: 1/2)
Acrylic paint and mixed medium on paper

Size: 70x90cm

© Astrid Keus (November 2016)

Cape Town view from Bloubergstrand

A nostalgic scenic view of my favourite mountaint: Table Mountain, Cape Town, SA.
Waterbased oil paint (Cobra)

Size 50x70cm

© Astrid Keus (September 2016)

(No longer available)

 

Twitter and Tweet

Acrylics on old canvas

Size 50x50cm

© Astrid Keus (September 2016)

 

Bird of Seeds

Acrylics on old canvas

Size 50x70cm

© Astrid Keus (September 2016)

 

Roses

Acrylics on old canvas

Size 15x15cm

© Astrid Keus (September 2016)

 

Dark forest range

 A collection of mini paintings done in acrylics on gesso

Canvas Size 20x20cm (Only 1 still available)

© Astrid Keus (September 2016)

Bird recycling

Two mini paintings of birds between flowers.
Collage

Size 15x15cm

© Astrid Keus (September 2016)(No longer available)

Floral Landscape

Acrylics on old canvas

Size 50x70cm

© Astrid Keus (August 2016) 

Monday morning working in the fields...

Acrylics on canvas, Abstract

Size A3

© Astrid Keus (March 2016)

Landscape a la Monet

Acrylics on canvas

Size 50x60cm

© Astrid Keus (January 2016)

  Portrait a la Kees van Dongen

Acrylics on canvas

Size 50x60cm

© Astrid Keus (January 2016)
Also at: www.barteljee.nl

 

Paintings 2015

 Sunflowers a la Van Gogh

Mixed medium and acrylics on canvas
Size 50x60cm (Region ownership: Leiden, Netherlands)

© Astrid Keus (August 2015)

 

Fantasy painting: Lost harbour

 

 Cobra (Waterbased oil paint) (50x70cm)

This painting is pure imagination and intuition, no references used.
(Region of ownership: Leiden, Netherlands)

© Astrid Keus (April 2015)

Sweet memories SA

  

 Acrylic paint on texture (50x70cm)

This painting is based on memory, no references used.
Owner: Cape Town, South Africa

© Astrid Keus (April 2015)

In Flight

Abstract painting in acrylics (120x100cm)
© Astrid Keus (January 2015)(No longer available)

Nocturnal frog

Acrylic paint (50x70cm)
Dedicated and presented to my mom who loves frogs!
Owner: Lelystad, The Netherlands

© Astrid Keus (January 2015)

Portraits

Portrait study 01: Striving towards impressionism

Lady with the blue eyes
(Size: 50x60cm)
© Astrid Keus(June 2015)

Portrait study 02: Striving towards expressionism

In this instance I went for a very expressionistic and freestyle design to create a portrait in mixed medium, collage technique. I had a lot of fun doing this and because I was working on a picture of myself I didn't mind bringing out some of my personality traits such as being artistic, musical and loving nature and traveling!
(Size: 50x60cm)

© Astrid Keus(July 2015) 

Portrait study 03: Limited colour palet

The challenge was the use of a limited colour palet. In this case I used turquoise and burnt sienna plus black and white to create the portrait of a young boy. (Photo reference: My own.)
(Size: 50x60cm)
Time taken: Approx. 17 hours

© Astrid Keus(August 2015) 

Portrait study 04: Partial portrait study

To follow soon!
(Size: 50x60cm)

© Astrid Keus(August 2015) 

Portrait study 05: Abstract portraits

(Size: 32cm x 41cm)
© Astrid Keus(September 2015)

Expositions 2015

Sidac Studio: ''Schetsen uit de map'', 2 - 30 August,  2015

SIDAC studio,
Hogewoerd 77
2311 HG Leiden
tel. 071-5121336