July 16, 2016

We're having a perfect summer day today and our paintings reflect it. Even though we are still missing some vacationers, the rest of us have been painting enough to make up for them. Scroll through and see what we mean. Look at Alan, relaxing in his garden with a good book on a lazy summer day. It feels like a Mary Cassatt painting, doesn't it?

Seems like many of our summer scenes involve water. Here, Alan switches from his favored support (Yupo) to watercolor paper to paint a fire hydrant. Don't adjust your colors! This is what they look like in Ocean Springs.

Here, Alan is back to painting on Yupo. This time, the water is the Gulf of Mexico at sunset, as seen while relaxing on a deck at a bar.

Another summer scene by Alan—an old car at an old gas pump. It feels rural and nostalgic, doesn't it? Like something Hopper might paint.

Alan does one last painting this week—this is of a bronze statue at a park in Birmingham, Alabama. Zoom in and look at this one. We love the color and the texture. We are amazed at the incredible level of detail Alan has achieved using Yupo. We just love this painting.

Rosemary spent her time drawing and painting the flora and fauna of summer. Notice the edges on the rose petals? Lovely, aren't they? And no, that's not an ultra-slim bluebird; notice the pale yellow mask lines on the right? While the mask is drying, Rosemary is careful to keep paint away.

 

More fauna of summer? Maybe not, but Elaine has finished painting a sign that has long amused her.

Greeta is also painting animals—but her subjects are cows. Still, they are so cute you just want to reach out and pet them, don't you?

More summer and water scenes from Greeta. This time, it's five boys in a boat. This is the essence of a lazy summer day, wouldn't you agree?

Susan is also painting children near water. This beach, though, is in Chicago and the water is Lake Michigan. Despite the skyscrapers in the background, we feel the peace and relaxation of a day at the beach.

Steve is also painting people on a beach, but his merman is a bit more fanciful than our other water paintings. Look closely at the scales he's added to the tail and the deepened green water. In fact, look closely at all the texture in this painting. Every surface is a thing of beauty.

Speaking of things of beauty, Sara has added more color and subtle modeling to her self-portrait. We are all blown away by this elegant, sensitively-drawn painting. This is portraiture done well.

And what says summer more than a field of waving corn? Yes, Ken is continuing his corn series with this lovely painting. He has divided the painting into fourths vertically and very subtly, he has changed his style, but not the subject. We love the feeling of movement this gives as we move from stylized stalks to abstracted and mosaic-like ones.

Ken is starting another painting in the corn series. Like the one before, this one  will probably progress through the fourths of the painting. Join us next week to see for sure.

Hope your summer is as lovely and idyllic as ours. Join us next week for more.