Snow again, but just a dusting. Meanwhile, we're all anticipating spring break next week. As you can see, we are all in the mood for spring, beginning with Sara's sprouting bulb. Look closely. The paper white edges speak to the crispness and immediacy of the season. And you probably can't tell by looking, but the entire painting was done with a large 1" flat brush. Another experiment gone right!
Steve is experimenting too. He's stretched canvas over a frame—a notoriously difficult support for watercolor. But he's countering that by choosing a familiar subject matter (flowers!) and using tried-and-true complementary colors.
Bill may be finishing his painting of a winter tree, but he can't resist adding a splash of color in the evergreens, heralding the onset of spring.
And just to confirm that we're all thinking of spring, Bill begins an ocean sunset scene. The soft, Turner-esque palette is far removed from the sharp value contrasts of winter.
Susan also chooses to paint water, but with a focus on the rickety bridge that crosses the water to a campsite with tall trees and clear blue skies. Despite all the elements of the painting, the composition draws you right to the traveler braving the bridge—and did you see that there is not even a handrail?
Madeleine's scene also contains dilapidated elements—the buildings in this Cuban street scene. But here, the buildings serve as background to the people in the foreground. Oh, and Madeleine is also experimenting with a new paper. It's hot press paper and it looks like it's working well for her.
Elaine is also painting people, but she zeroes in on just one person. And when he's as cute as the subject of this portrait, we approve!
Another portrait, but here, Elaine's subject is standing outside near a cold stone wall on a cool, grey spring day. Still, he's cute and it's spring!
And Ken adds Easter egg color to the grey urban skyscrapers, making them feel like spring.
Another experimenter! Hector experiments with style, juxtaposing geometric shapes on top of an expansive landscape. We had an interesting discussion and anticipate that this might be a series, with Hector trying different paths to his vision.
That touch of the abstract leads us to our beginning exercises. We're in for a special treat this term, since we have two groups of newbies, separated by a week. So we get to see a range of exercises and how they build on each other. Here, Glen revisits the plaid. No.... don't adjust your sets, the thin lines are set close together against the wider bars, making this plaid psychedelic.
What a difference spacing makes! Here Isaac starts with the same set up, narrow bars over wide, but his narrow bars are more uniformly spaced, giving great stability to his plaid.
And here are Glen and Isaac's color wheels. Again, isn't it amazing how different artists handle the same assignment? Glen differentiates primary, secondary and tertiary colors by shape.
... while Isaac maintains uniform shapes, but just look at the texture in the paint. You can see the sensuous circular brushmarks!
Just one week ahead, Anna and Veronia take color wheels a step farther, adding tints, tones and shades. Look at all the rich colors Anna has been able to achieve.
Veronica's expanded color wheel has more of a watery feel, but the colors and the lessons learned will be invaluable.
So did our color wheels put you in mind of coloring Easter eggs or little girls in pastel spring bonnets? We hope so. And we want to remind you that we'll be off for a week (next week) for spring break. But we'll be back the week after and look forward to seeing you then.
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