Sunny villa in Opio

This week's painting is a fantastic house in Opio, a small  village near Valbonne. Valbonne is one of the most populare villages of the Riviera area, lively throughout the year, with great restaurants, terraces, shops, café's, a market and that true provencal atmosphere...

This villa is situated on walking distance fromValbonne, yet in a quiet area, facing due South with lovely views over the countryside - down to the sea.

Here's the "making-of" of the aquarelle:

The picture of the house - a couple of small things will be "beautified", like the sky, the contrasts and the empty foreground, but in general this is a fine picture to work from

the drawing - and the sky is blue

an extra lavender bush on the right

a couple of plants on the left

the details finished and more contrast added in the shadows to bring out the sunny atmosphere and I'm done!

Les Issambres

And another one hits the dust! This time a commission for a lovely retired couple that bought this wonderful, friendly, sunny house in the village of Les Issambres, also in the departement 'le Var', close to Saint Tropez... The new owners will have it in their home in London to remind them of the view, a nice pool (they have two grandkids that will visit as often as possible to enjoy this!) and the bougainvillea ...

This is how I built up the picture:

here's the photo of the house I had to use, came from their realtors' website and had a very low resolution (little detail) and it doesn't look very 'lived in'

So I started with a sketch from the picture

And then added some nice details, like a table with chairs and a plant

I added flowers, removed the poolcover and painted a pool - with reflection...

And the result... signed, sealed and delivered - the feedback was positive... on to the next one!

House in Les Adrets

The first house-painting of November is a sunny villa in Les Adrets de l'Esterel, a lovely village in the South of France.To be precise, in the departement 'Le Var', part of the Rivièra, especially known for its nature and beautiful red rocks.

The village of Les Adrets has the forested hills of the Esterel Mountains behind it and also offers a panoramic view oni the bay of Cannes and the Iles de Lérins. It is close to the beaches of the coast and the lake de Saint Cassien and that makes it a perfect place to live...

To see how the painting came to be, watch the movie below...

 

A modern house in Valbonne

As the start of a well-filled last quarter I painted the house of a lovely retired couple. They actually "won" this painting as a prize in a lottery - and I loved doing that, it got me started again!

The sky (the only thing that still, after all those years, goes wrong sometimes), the drawing and then starting a small part of the painting - to get a feel for the colours, the shapes, the character of the house...

Very important, the name of the house - Somalo - (Sophie Marie Louise) the owner welded the letters himself, so it has to look like the real thing! Same goes for another sculpture on the wall...

There it is, in the middle (click on the painting to enlarge it). I also added some flowerpots and furniture, and a lot of foliage.

The grass, the lower stone wall (pool below but they didn't want it in their picture) and I've reached the other side...

The finishing touches - and another one done! I hope they like it - I'll be working on the next one, a lovely villa in the Var...

Cap d'Antibes, Apt and Cap Ferrat

I haven't posted for a while - didn't have so many commissions and I kind of forgot about the blog... Sorry for that...

But things are picking up again!! Below three that I painted lately:

This wonderful, stately property is located in Cap d'Antibes.

A modern, lovely and roomy villa in Apt in the typical colours of the Lubéron

One of three wonderful luxury villa's on Cap Ferrat, with breathtaking views

Villa in Opio

 House in Opio by Marina Kulik

This lovely house was painted for a birthday, as a memory present for the former owner of this house!

A property in Cap Ferrat part one

Behold this terrific property on one of the most beautiful locations in the world, Cap Ferrat. My friend and 'Marina Artist Team'- colleague Cathie van der Stel painted it. Cathie is the queen of the one-hair brush! The incredibly rich detail in her beautiful, subtle work shows her patience. This painting measures 70 x 50 cm and to really enjoy it, please enlarge by clicking on it!

House in Grasse

Just finished another aquarelle of a house, in Grasse...Thought I'd post about it so the owners who commissioned it can have a look at the end product... They'll return to France in 2 months and are interested what I manufactured of course... I made a little movie "the making of" for them too but can't seem to find a way to post that, I know it is possible but have no time to dive into it as I am traveling to my home country Holland for a short holiday!!! So that will have to wait...

Anyway, here it is: A lovely, sunny villa with lots of olive trees, a terrific pool and a flat garden to die for!!

Dreamhouse in Rio

This house is somewhere near Rio de Janeiro. It was the second house of a Dutch expat family, and they have very fond memories of it. It was their little palace, with its' beautiful round pool (not in the picture), the lush green, the diffused sunlight. They commissioned this painting to get that atmosphere back in the appartment they moved to lately. I truly liked doing the painting: the plants and trees, the shape of the mountains, all is so different from what we have here! And so are the light and the colours, I used quite a different palette... 

Sunny Villa in Chateauneuf de Grasse

OK - so it has been silent for over a month, but I'm going to make up for that by a couple of posts because I have been painting like crazy and some of that work was on houses! The first one was a commission of RHF International Prestige Properties. They comissioned a painting of a beautiful, sunny villa in Chateauneuf de Grasse. I worked from a couple of pictures (this is given away by the flowers and lavender - not really there in February...) and here is how it was built up:

I started with the overall drawing, concentrating on the perspective, not easy with the "rounded" poolside wall and the fence (a one-hair-brush challenge...). Then the first wash, with the basic colours. Still a bit soft, as you can still see in the above picture, in the pool. To keep myself happy (and because I am quite confdent) I add details and effects in some parts and then move on to another part.

 

As you may know, if you make a big mistake in aquarelle you 'll have to start all over again! Be careful, as it would be such a shame to make that mistake if you already put a lot of hours in...

That is why I always start with my weak point: the sky!

...The basic wash for the trees in the background, leaving out the white chairs for a sunny effect (you don't use white in aquarelle, your lightest colour is the color of the paper)...

...widened the pool (oops - that's the disadvantage of working from a picture, in this case a wide-angle one)...

.... darkened the shadows, added more contrast for a sunny effect and finished the trees - and there you have the result! The sunny happy house RHF sold to the lucky new owners!