Saturday, June 24, 2017

June 24, 2017

What a beautiful day! Perfect for painting.... and laughing, telling stories and enjoying friends.  Which is what we did. We had a few themes going, too, as you can see, beginning with Madeleine's view from a window in Ireland. The composition and subject are stellar and seem to have kicked off our fascination with environments.


...like this streetscape by Madeleine. It's also in Ireland and features dolphins on its beautiful blue facade. In case you wondered, yes, there are dolphins in Galway Bay.


Tony captures the essence of summer in the city in this sidewalk cafe scene. Look at the sun streaming through the umbrellas, the cool shadows and the beautiful planters.


Tony and Beth each have paintings with uncannily similar subjects, as you'll see. Tony experimented with very wet washes to paint this building outside our studio window. Then, he added the window washer we saw last week.


Today, lacking foodstuffs, Beth looked out the same window and painted the very same building. What a difference a day makes—not to mention individual artists' intentions and visions. Aren't they both lovely?


 Here, Beth returns to one of her favorite subjects.... food! In this mixed media sketch, she begins with a graphite sketch and adds watercolor to bring focus to her sandwich. Could she have been sketching at the cafe Tony painted earlier? (We told you their subjects were uncannily similar!)


It's official—we've turned into foodies! Susan paints a delicious steamed flatfish from a family graduation celebration. What's not to like here? The fish and the garnishes are beautifully framed by the plate and the artist has chosen to swap the actual tablecloth for a more environmentally suggestive one. This is just perfect!


Emboldened by her success with seafood, Susan goes on to paint a crab... moments before she cooked and ate it! The orange/turquoise complementary colors are an excellent choice. All this beautiful food made us very hungry.


And if the fish affected us, can you imagine what Ken's cat's reaction would be? Ken revisits his cat's eye theme after 10 years or so. In this series, his colors are more refined and his technique is tighter. And for the first time in memory, Ken has left some paper white! 


Same cat, but here Ken moves away from stripes and returns to an old technique.... the geegaw. There won't be white space, but there will be brilliant color and beautiful, mosaic-like jewels and shapes. Come back and see.


We're all into animals this week. And Bill is no exception. This little gem is a plein air painting of a backyard bird—all done in paint, no pre-sketching. We especially love the tiny bird against the texture of the weathered wood.


More animals! More series paintings! Bill revisited his painting of a dog and her boy from last week, trying to redo some of the things he was disappointed with. Here are both, beginning with the original. As you know, we love the languid feel of the scene, the touching relationship, and details like the open drawer on the table.


This is Bill's later version. He prefers the dog's fur, his grandson's face and the ottoman, but
also likes some things about the first version. He may revisit, but after some time.


What happened to all the people we were painting? Elaine may be one of the few who didn't get the memo that we've moved on! She's finished another in her series of portraits. We still don't know who this is, but somehow feel he seems like a Nigel (Nigel Wilson, maybe?). Please don't disillusion us if you know him and his name happens to be something like Bob.


Here's the place to be on a summer day. We love Sara's colors—look at the way she blends blues and yellow to form lush greens—and the way her curvilinear lines give this sweet landscape a warm, dreamy feel.


See you next week for more wonderful watercolors!

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