October 28, 2017

Fall is definitely here! While it was cold and gray outside, the beautifully done watercolors inside made for a wonderful morning. And again, we're back to painting in themes. Susan continues to document her recent vacation to the Canadian Rockies. This scary looking contraption is a
glass bridge. Rising 900 feet above the ground, it affords a magnificent view of the mountains to anyone brave enough to venture out on it.

Madeleine's vacation paintings are from Amsterdam. Yes, that's a tulip bed in the background, along with a canal, trees and paths. Quite a complicated scene!

And it's beautiful enough that Madeleine paints it again, from a different angle. This is such a lovely composition, looking through the trees and over the canal. And did you notice the waves of tulips in the foreground? How lucky to have timed the trip to coordinate with tulip season!

Ellen is back and she's brought a sketchbook with impressions of her recent trip to the Azores. Yes, it was very recent—she just got back on Thursday. Here are some tiny sketches. Ellen's adding color washes to the drawings she did on site, beginning with a fort...

 a lovely coastline view....

...a restorer hard at work in a cathedral...

...fields and windmills (it's very windy in the Azores)...

... all the way to some cave exploration.  Come back next week to see and hear more from Ellen.

Alan is using watercolor paper to paint this scene. No, he hasn't actually vacationed there, but he did see it on TV.

 

Back to Yupo, Alan painted this water lily. We love the subtlety of the layers and colors as the water and the lily interact in a flurry of effects.

 

Believe it or not, we're still painting vacation pictures here. Alan actually did see this canine patron ay a bar in Mississippi. And he was drinking out of a highball glass!

Closer to home, Bill used two new paints on this Metro entrance. It's not a vacation scene—it's in Evanston—but we are completely infatuated with the panoramic orientation, the colors and the composition.

Moving ever closer to home, Greeta adds another page to her book of Houses of Graceland West. It doesn't look like she'll run out of beautiful subjects before her book is full. We're loving this series...and her neighborhood!

Again, Greeta took a break from the strict lines of architecture to paint this atmospheric floral spray. Beginning with a delicate wash, she's added elements according to her mood. 

Isa is painting close to home, too.  She's added another layer of spatter, using a toothbrush this time. While the spatter is denser than the brush spatter, there is still the problem of getting as much paint on the artist as on the painting.  But what landed here is exquisite!

Isa is exploring elements of composition below. Aerial perspective makes the field of flowers recede and we are in awe of the color variety in the flowers and stems. 

Sara is painting at home, too. She's concentrating on one of her favorite subjects... trees. In particular, she is capturing the explosive fall colors. Her composition choice to add the building and roof corner makes it all the more brilliant.

Another window, different trees.  Here, Sara contrasts the lacy colorful foliage with the solidity of the brick buildings. And she's managed to capture the particular blue of the autumn sky perfectly.

In this tribute to the end of summer, Ken finished his latest corn painting in his mosaic series. We especially like the contrast of the flat mosaic behind and around the 3D corn.

Elaine doesn't seem to have gotten the "we're painting places" memo, so she's continuing her experiment modeling a face in her People I Don't Know series. She's tried a technique called grisaille underpainting, where she began with a grey underpainting of the values. Then, she added washes of color.  We're not sure about this. The color glazes seem to have dissolved the underpainting and muddied things up.  Maybe it's worth trying again, but with more staining colors for the gray values?

 

And don't forget these ongoing events:

 

Corn and Cats.  Ken's show at Ten Cat Tavern (how appropriate!) is up. While you missed the opening reception—and it was fun—you can still drop by to see the paintings.

      Where:
      Ten Cat Tavern

      3931 N Ashland Ave, Chicago, IL

     When:
     September 30–November 15 

Food.  Alan and Greeta are featured artists in a group show about Food. The show runs through January, so there's still time to catch it. If you attend, you are asked to please bring a donation of non-perishable food for neighborhood food pantries.

      Where:
      Alderman Pawar's 47th Ward Office

      4243 N  Lincoln Avenue, Chicago, IL

     When:
     Exhibition: September 16–January 13