How have you arrived in the new year? I’m always struggling a bit with the lack of light during the winter months. As I’m typing, it’s snowing heavily, so at least there’s a bit of white floating around in the darkness. I always try to keep myself occupied with creative projects during times like this. Let’s start with a big one today, in the hope that this will bring the energy to continue working on it!
I want to tell you about a new personal project for this year, and the story of how I got started with painting landscapes in the first place.
Since this is a long story, there will be two parts: part one is about what’s important for me in landscape painting, how I think about landscapes, and how they’re connected to local folk tales for me, and part will be about two about how this project really started a very long time ago, and what I want to do with it this year.
Here’s a video version of part 1, narrated over a short sketching demo.
In the past months, I’ve quietly rekindled a personal project: I’ve started an expedition into the unknown parts of my local landscapes, in order to find places that could be taken out of folk tales or legends. I then sketched and painted the places that seemed to have these qualities.
It all started with me learning more about plein air painting this summer. Well, actually it started over ten years ago when I started this project – but more on that later.
At the moment, my preferred way to explore this topic is through painting in watercolor and gouache. You have seen a few of my painting experiments in past blog posts (here, here and here).
Since I do a lot of sketching anyway, it makes sense for me to interpret landscapes with the tools I use each day. When I head outside, I’m always looking for interesting places, ones that seem to come out of a folk tale. And then I try to put this to paper, whatever you can call it: an atmosphere, a feeling, a certain mood. I’m quite interested in the historical and cultural aspects behind the places I visit, and often there are many small elements that feel like they could come together into a backstory. Journaling about these places is one way for me to remember these interesting tidbits. Sketching a landscape is another way for me to record the mood of a place.
As some of you know, I live in the part of Germany where the Brothers Grimm collected the stories for their fairy tale collections. What a lot of people don’t know is that they also collected regional legends and local folk tales, which could be described as the magical realism twins of fairy tales. I haven’t found a good word for this kind of story in English.
These stories still have magical elements like spirits and supernatural beings, but they are much more grim than classic fairy tales, often without a happy ending. They are less poetic and often rooted more in real historic incidents. Often they refer to actual places or persons, but that doesn’t mean the stories are also real. Examples for these kind of legends that have become famous (from all across Germany) are the Pied Piper of Hameln, Till Eulenspiegel or The Wild Hunt. Almost every large forest area here has its own wild hunt story.
This connection definitely shows in the landscapes here, although I don’t expect to find any real place or real occurence described in these tales. They’re rather formulaic, and I often have the feeling that I know more or less the same story from the tales that take place in the mountains where I grew up and where we had slightly different, but or or less the same stories. So I’m not looking for any direct depictions of these tales, but rather for the atmosphere that surrounds them.
So what I try to do is capture the mood that comes across in these tales, that landscapes can be a stage for all kinds of stories with supernatural elements: Dark woods, murmuring streams, small towns nested in between fields where strange things can happen at night. I like to think I’m a ghost hunter with a sketchbook, waiting for the special atmosphere of a place and being surrounded by it. I like the creepy aspect of these stories, and the weird realism they have: often the story is rooted in a real place or a real person, but then all of a sudden something weird happens. This seems like the right place for my ghosthunter sketchbook.
Here is a tiny glimpse at some small preliminary sketches I did for this new series recently (click to enlarge):
I’m currently documenting some of my painting sessions with video, so that I can share more about how I make these illustrations.
In the next part, learn more about how I got started on this topic and where I want to take it this year.
This is a great project, Julia! I´m already excited where this is going to lead you. I wonder how often you do the sketches right on the place. For me it´s essential to spend time on such places, to feel the mood and everything and paint at the same time. If I try to do it from home, I can´t get the mood to the picture so easily. I´m also attracted to local sites, stone crosses etc. which remind of some miracles or tragedies from the past. I walk and hike a lot, paint a lot on places where I feel a special energy. Afterwards I sometimes find out stories or legends about these places but the first is the immediate feeling. Do you also feel it? It´s so …exciting (I can´t find a better word now) to spend some time there painting. I wish you good luck and look forward to your paintings!
It’s great to hear you’re also interested in this topic and paint in these places, Kamila!
I have to say, although I try to make as many quick sketches on location as I can, I very often end up with a lot of photographic material at home and then go from there, and that works great for me. For me it doesn’t matter so much if it’s a place that has an actual history or story, it’s more that I go around with the atmosphere of these stories in mind, and then go looking for visual cues or storytelling elements anywhere, not depending on the exact place.
It’s so interesting to hear how other painters work, and it seems like you’re very connected to the places you paint in. That’s wonderful!
I agree – this is exciting! I do have an interest in both history and folklore (and nature history) that tends to inspire me to visit certain places and make my walks more interesting. But I haven’t actually connected this to the landscape painting I do…
Very much like your idea of the ghosthunter sketchbook and so much looking forward to see this evolve. Thank you for sharing!! Your posts ligthen up my day.
Thank you so much Kit! Really cool to hear that you’re interested in all of these topics, too. For me it’s like there’s something hidden at the intersection of nature and history and art, and maybe it can be found in these landscapes.
Lovely, intriguingly fun and gotta love that personal connection we’ll achieve wirh that making our pieces unique. So looking forward to this year of painting with you and others here. I’m looking forward to all of us sharing our experiences with it. I too love folklore, fairytales, history, art history, architecture/buildings and the locations of places with a particular past.
Thank you for your continued support, Roksanna! And I too would really love to see what others come up with. 🙂
I love this idea. I have a book of folk tales from the area where I live in the UK and have been wondering how can I approach the topic. thanks for the inspiration Julia and I’m looking forward to following the progress of your own project.
You’re welcome Catherine, and thank you for following along! I bet you have many interesting local legends about the sea and ships in the UK!
Have been receiving and enjoying your emails for several months. Thank you. The farmhouse and buildings could be transplanted here to the North Carolina mountains; they look like a hometown place. A belated Happy New Year . Lora
Oh, that’s so interesting, I will google some images of North Carolina now! All the best to you too for this year, Lora!
Julia, I love your posts! Thank you so much for sharing your art and yourself. There is something magical about plein air no matter where we are. I try hard to capture that sense of place. I prefer to complete the painting outside, but often I find that I have to finish or refine it after I get back home. I loved seeing the countryside in your area and hearing about your motivation for the places you are choosing to paint.
Very true, Gerry, plein air always feels special somehow, maybe because of the intense concentration that goes into it. Thank you for following along on my journey!
Hello Julia,
I love your video about painting landscapes that might have a magical element, something that may have inspired the original Grimm’s fairytales. In all of Nature I feel a connection to the past and an obligation to its future for future generations. I also watched your video of you painting and talking about about how to create a Creative Inventory. I didn’t see that spelled out right away, and I was sure you had made up a new phrase: “Creative Adventurey” I like both phrases! Question about that video: are you using both watercolor and gouache on that page? It looked as if you started out with watercolor, but then some light color lines were painted over darker ground. I wonder if you added white gouache to watercolor? I am simply curious about your work method. I have seen your gouache landscapes and they are beautiful too. I love your work and thank you for your generous tips and sharing on how to paint. I’ve taken one of your courses (still haven’t finished!) and want to take more, simply haven’t had time yet. Thanks again,
Tracie S.
That’s so well put, Tracie, I really like that image of nature being connected to the past and the future at the same time. And I love the term “creative adventurey”!! It should be called that instead!
And you’re right, I often mix a bit of titanium white into my watercolors to allow for light accents on top of dark areas. I have a small pan of white gouache in my palette for that, and I find it’s often enough when I don’t want to get out my full gouache palette.
Just take your time with the courses, glad you enjoy them! 🙂
Liebe Julia, Deine Newsletter sind alle überragend. Erst einmal dafür herzlichen Dank. Aber die Thematik jetzt, in die ich mich in vielerlei Hinsicht sehr gut hineindenken kann, ist besonders schön und interessant. Folk tales. Was für ein wunderbares Thema. Ich bin so gespannt auf weitere Videos und Berichte von Dir und vielleicht wage ich mich ja in diesem Jahr auch mal an Landschaften. Viel Atmosphäre von Märchen kann man auch bei Clarissa Pinkola Estes auffangen. Insbesondere ihre Interpretationen sind sehr spannend. Ich habe vor vielen Jahren ihr Buch: ‘Running with the Wolves’ gelesen.
Liebe Grüße und ein wunderbares 2021 wünscht Dir Martina aus Weimar
Vielen lieben Dank, Martina! Im Deutschen würde ich den Begriff “Sagen” verwenden für die Art Geschichten, die ich meine. Ich bin auch gespannt wohin die Reise führt! Danke dir für die Buchempfehlung. Und Landschaften sind auf jeden Fall ein schönes Motiv, probier es definitiv mal aus. Dir auch alles Gute für dieses Jahr. 🙂
Hi Julia
This is a really interesting project! I’ve been thinking of doing something similar locally with photography.
Just wondering… What is the German term for these stories, and what’s its literal translation into English? There can be so much overlap of meaning from local history, legend, folk tales, fairy tales. I love those uncertain, liminal areas between the definitions.
Looking forward to see where this goes!
Steve
I’m going to share more next week, but the first iteration of this project for me actually happened with photography. Really cool that you’re doing this too!
The German term would be “Sagen” (plural, sing.: “Sage”), and I haven’t found a good literal translation, hence my long-winded attempt to explain. 😉 A reader from the UK told me these stories are usually called “local legends” where she lives, so I’ll go with that. Fairy tales (and obviously folk tales too) are much more “ideal” and not associated with any real places. I guess the best differentiation could come from scholars who research things like storytelling (Folklore studies? Narrative studies?) who have exact terms for each kind of story – I know all the German terms, but haven’t found the English equivalent for each one yet.
Julia ~ I love your Folktale landscape series. Have you ever been to Adelmannsfelden? That was my Mother’s home. I’m hoping one day you will find a magical place near there.
Hi Linda, thank you! I checked, that’s in Southern Germany. Haven’t been there yet, but it looks like a lovely place. Hopefully one day I can check for magical places there!