November 15, 2014

All too soon, winter has arrived in our corner of  the world. It's cold with no prospect of a warm-up for at least a week. In fact, we're looking forward to snow tonight—at least an inch of measurable, accumulating actual snow.

We may be living in denial, but we are loath to give up painting the beauty of autumn. And it's not just one lone holdout. We seem to have gotten back into mind-meld mode; you'll see how we're painting in pairs (or trios). For instance, we are all about trees (of course! It's fall, isn't it?). Ellen starts with an entire very colorful forest.

While Alan adds a lone tree to his foreground.

Tony, too, paints a single tree, but his is a 400 year old olive tree in Greece.

Zooming in even closer, Mohammed and Abla concentrate on single branches, but they fill them with different objects. Here, Mohammed adds three colorful birds to his bare branches...

...and Abla paints lovely magnolia flowers and buds.

And just when you think you can't zoom in any closer, Hector paints a single leaf, meticulously examining every vein, setting it against an energetic background that calls to mind swirling, falling leaves.

Vivian, too, brings us colorful, swirling fall leaves. But she adds a beautifully furry squirrel, no doubt storing nuts for the winter ahead. Sigh!

And the communal thinking doesn't end there! Even when we aren't painting trees, our thoughts are still on nature. Here, Madeleine begins to describe the ocean in Turkey.

Marva begins work on an ocean, too, but hers flows under a wonderfully active sky that looks like something Van Gogh might have done.

Bill, too, paints water. However, this time, the water is in a flooded street during a flash summer storm. Still, bad weather made for a beautiful painting. Just look at the lovely reflections and intriguing point of view.

Bill's also fearlessly experimenting. Here he combines sketching, digital art and watercolor in a lovely abstract.

Ken's urban landscapes also span the gap between representational and abstract art. Unfortunately, we didn't get a photo of his finished #14 in his latest series (you'd have loved it, we assure you), but here's the beginning of #15. Of course, it's going to get a whole lot more colorful, so keep watching this space.

Mark starts with the same minimal colors to sketch a pear.

And, just to show how serious we are about color, watch here how Steve spent hours of time and pages of his sketchbook in search of the perfect shades of green....

... for a pair of bromeliads (sketch below). Feel free to refer back to the color swatches to see how Steve uses them to paint sunlit leaves and dried out ones.

Elaine, too, spent her day experimenting, but with paper, not color. The painting of Berthe Morisot (after Manet) is painted on Yupo, not paper. Yupo is a synthetic paper that takes paint very differently than paper, as you can see here.

And she's not the only one of us interested in people. Susan adds her family and friends to her paintings of Lurie Garden (this is crystal clear in real life; our photographer's skill leaves something to be desired)...

 ... and the mountainous Philippine summer capital.

Finally, we know you want one last look at John's drawing. Like Susan above, his art is all about storytelling. And here, every square inch contains a different story. Enjoy!

You're invited! As many of you know, we've been following and promoting the DePaul Community Chorus (our very own Steve is a member). They are a 150-member chorus and present three free—yes, you read that right—concerts every year. It's time for the first concert of the season, so save the date. Bring Brass II happens on Sunday, November 23 at 4pm. Besides the large chorus, there is a full brass ensemble, along with organ and percussion. This concert will be held at St. Paul's church at Orchard and Fullerton. And it is absolutely free! Click on the poster to learn more about this concert, the rest of the season and even hear selections from previous concerts.

See you next week!