It's one of our favorite times of year. There's a nip in the air and it's really starting to feel like "back to school" now. It's time for paintings of foliage, bursts of color, plaids and color wheels—all of which we're excited to show below.
Our newest "old master," Hector, was inspired by the lone tree outside our solarium window sporting fall colors. So he started with a practice sheet to test his brush strokes. But what a practice sheet! The energy and composition are incredible. This one is worth signing and framing as it is. We can't wait to see how the final painting turns out.
Here's the beginning... aren't all the fall colors beautiful?
Sara's inspired by trees and nature, too, but her trees are very different. They have the languid feel of soft summer light. It makes you feel relaxed just looking, doesn't it?
Susan, too, takes her subject matter from nature, but she focuses on flowers instead of trees. And despite the vibrant showiness of the bouquet, her major take-away was the importance of the baby's breath.
Abla and Mohammed are also into nature, but they both showcase vast vistas painted with exquisite color. We'll be watching these closely!
And now for something completely different. Elaine moves to urban landscapes—closely viewed and with a minimal color palette.
But we can't refrain from color for long. In what's turning out to be a class favorite, Vivian's adding color to her cat/sewing machine. Eat your hearts out, Magritte and Dali and all the rest of you conceptual geniuses!
Ken also adds vibrant color to his cityscape, transforming brick, stone and glass into magic.
Which brings us to our newest students, learning all about color and color theory. Can't you see the similarities between Ken's (our "oldest master") cityscape and Kristen's beginning plaid below? These exercises are beautiful as well as educational!
If you've been following us for any length of time, you'll know that the plaid is followed by the color wheel. We're always excited to see how different people use the same instructions, paper and colors to come up with such beautifully different results. That's why we're grouping them.... so you can better compare and admire. Here, Oscar and Kristen use only three colors to create a complete color wheel.
Madeleine and Bill do the same.... but with an every-so-slightly different starting triad.
... and they move to the next in our seemingly unending series of color wheels. This one introduces the color black—along with experiments in value, tint, tone and shade.
Artist of the week. Ken stocked our library table today, starting with a book about the ever-popular Monet. And making its return was a book about watercolor in America. This thin volume has paintings throughout American history—works by O'Keefe, Wyeth, Hopper and Homer and more..... This is a really inspirational book and many of us were caught taking down names of artists we wanted to learn more about.
See you next week!
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