Sara’s stuff

 

I’m working on another version of last week’s Snowbunnies. I bought this  8 x 10 art panel from Jerry’s Artarama for $14. I thought the price was good, considering it’s Arches paper and what it costs to frame & mat traditionally. The idea is to seal it with wax. They custom make them in any size with any type of paper. Now I just have to paint a very good painting...no pressure! 

Here’s a little 5x8 sketch I did this morning. The robin & I were both freezing...

Elaine O. — March 27, 2021

 I added some touches to the exterior of the Field Museum....

Field Museum        9"x12"

...and started an interior, just for fun. Actually, just to test some paint color mixtures.

Field Trip    12"x9"

I did a rough sketch of the first daffodils of spring in my pandemic sketchbook—and noticed I already painted daffodils back on the second or third page, a whole year ago.

I also got a pair of prescription sunglasses, so I wouldn't have to use a baseball cap to shield my eyes on my pandemic strolls. I'm eager to test them out but, of course, the weather report calls for clouds and rain for all next week!

Greeta is a Copycat

 The task is to do trees the way famous water colorists did them.  After Winslow Homer, John Singer Sargent and Henry Roderick Newman. 

And then from a photo in Food & Wine magazine. 

a new finch 2

 I guess that is about enough background, now back to the bird,

Alan back to buildings

 I’m working in a different direction trying to finish up a series on rooftops on the Gulf Coast. One I did awhile ago. 

I’m back at it again. This is the one I’m working on now. There’s a way to go. 

I’ll probably go in an entirely different direction. 

Rock & Seraphine

 Today's painting is inspired by an intimate photo of the grandparents of my niece in the Ph. For the background, I portrayed them sitting on a pile of rocks, surrounded by flowing water on both sides instead of a background of house interior. Grandpa was nicknamed "Bato" for his thin, rocky, scraggly face, Bato is roughly translated as Rock!  Grandma's nickname is Apeng from her baptismal name, Serafina, another name for an Angel!  They have been married for 50 years & both worked full time to support the family. The painting of the landscape surrounding the seated couple took a life of its own during the creative process.I even painted her skirt as a foreground of green grassy patches & the rocks became their sofa! The waterfalls are curtains of comfort. This painting represents rocky times & angelic times of a long time relationship. The original photo was of older people. It was easier to present them in their younger selves! Rock died of a stroke, 3 days before Christmas in 2020! May Rock rest in peace!

Sara’s Experiments (con’t.)

 Here’s my Snowbunnies, 8x10. I like it, but I think I can do better on heavier paper...

Here’s this morning’s portrait, painted directly, 9x12. It’s called Lisa Waiting for Fireworks. I kind of felt like I was channeling Susan, because I wanted to include all the details that showed we were at the lakefront. Yeah, she was about 13 and we had her for two long weeks....

Here’s two of my experiments. Target had these 6x6 canvases on sale for $2. The landscape I painted directly on the canvas with no priming. I did use some wc texture medium I had from the W&N lady. It looks pretty blah in person and I’ll probably wash it off and do something else. The still life I primed the canvas with gesso I had. Then I painted with gouache mixed with gesso. It looks more like an oil painting in person.

This is a 6x6 140lb paper. I painted it in watercolor and didn’t like it, so I used the gouache mixed with gesso. I kind of like it. It has more texture than watercolor.

I think I’m trying to find a way I can paint directly and like the results. My watercolors don’t seem to have enough energy imo. I feel like I have to plan too much to get the results I want —and then they look too planned!

a new finch

Not too happy how this turned out with the blue pigeon.  Think maybe I will make him darker.

Preliminary sketches of the new finch

 Just beginning to put paint down on the new finch

Elaine O. — March 20, 2021

With warmer weather, melted snow, and vaccines, I'm looking forward to getting out on a Field Trip soon. This is a study to test colors. 

Field Museum     9" x 12"

I also did some color tests of Sue. I have a special fondness for her. The first time I saw her, she was still in her plaster shipping pods, so I've known her a long time. These are from my sketchbooks. My small pocket sketchbook has the strangest texture... it seems like there is no sizing at all. 

each page approx. 5" x 3"

8" x 5"

elaine t. / March 20

 Finally filled the sheet with the direct painting skin tone/portrait quickies. Interesting how the same subject came out so differently each time. Numbers 2 & 3 are still my favorites. I used aureolin yellow and rose doré as the base colors for the skin. 

Boat Tour to the Subterranean River

 Today's March 20 painting is inspired by a boat tour to the underground river in Palawan, an island located in western Ph. Designated as a Unesco World Heritage Site, it features a landscape of limestone cliffs amidst turquoise waters, with a river 8.2 km. long, underneath thru formation of caves, stalactites, stalagmites. The boat river tour is only 45 minutes long in the 4.3 km. allowed for tourist exploration. Tourists were required to wear raincoats, hard hats & orange protective vests. Area monkeys were trained to grab food & cell phones from tourists. Tourists were instructed to keep their mouths shut during the boat tour, since the bats inside the caves drop souvenir surprises from the ceiling. I wanted to continue my wave painting exercises based on last week project  but the pristine waters around the cave entrances were calm, collected in their blue green intensity. The limestone formations dotted with greenery were poetic but accessible. Even the US TV series " Survivor" used this scenery in a prior adventure. I painted the boatload of tourists in orange protective gearwith a tour guide prior to the entrance to the underground river. I painted both of us prior to the boat ride. I was happy in the souvenir shot & my husband just told me ( hallelujah! ) his likeness looks like him! By the way,  this painting is also viewable Upside Down! Happy Spring vibes, fellow artists!

Greeta looking forward to Spring

 These are flowers from my garden painted two or three years ago on a large piece of printer’s paper.  I held a standard 8x10 mat up to one of them and it fit perfectly for two but not the other four so just in case I want to use them, I’ve been trying to “extend” them  ..... not so easy to get rid of the “line” although for some reason easier to do on the top than the bottom.

The tulips pictured are off to a promising start in my garden💕

Alan is drinking again

 I painted this cherry infused Manhattan on 140# cold press. I liked the angle. I really liked the decanter as well and got to used my imagination about how I painted it. I thought that the drink itself was a little dull  

So I took your advice and used alcohol inks to paint another version on Yupo. I panned in to get more drink and less table. I used watercolor on the background and inks for the bottle and the drink. Very difficult to do but I’ll have a better idea next time I try to paint with it. I won’t outline the items if I do something like this again.  But I do like the vibrancy of the inks.I think that you have to be very precise when painting with inks.

Joeys of Victoria

 Today's painting is inspired by a current summer photo of our grandkids in Melbourne, Victoria, 2 year old cousins, sons of a niece & a nephew. This carefree photo symbolizes the early resolution of the pandemic in Australia. My nephew informed me that as early as November 2020, Victoria, Australia has zero covid cases after a long 6 months lockdown. The painting has challenges that I tried to meet or solve:(1) shape & motion of crashing waves (2) vary the softness & intensity of the sand (3) make the young runners lifelike & interesting as shown from their backsides only without faces (4) compose the whole scenery  without overworking (5) invite the viewers to join the summertime party of the joeys of Victoria.  A joey is a young kangaroo! Happy Daylight fellow artists!

Elaine O. — March 13, 2021

Still playing with snow, although the weather this week has my thoughts turning to flowers and sunshine. First, a view of the morning after the big snow, looking west at a fellow shoveler. The challenge was to paint the mountains of snow without leaving a flat white paper for most of the painting.

Shoveling, After the Snow        8.5" square

 

This is my icicle curtain. It got bigger the next day, but this gives you the sense of it. I wanted to get the way the sun  made the icicles seem warm against the cool background and the way they are both very fluid and very structured at the same time.  I let the longest ones extend beyond the frame.... just like the real ones went beyond the window frame, although now I think that may be a bit too precious.

Icicles    10"h x 8"w

Sara’s Snowbunnies

 Here’s a 5 x7 direct sketch and an 8x10 from another sketch I did. The photo has a lot of interesting shadows on the clothes as well as these cute little faces. I’m just using raw sienna, a couple of blues and quid rose and a little winsor red.

Here’s last week’s painting. I like it, but I lost a little of the high contrast of the light thru the window. I kept confusing myself once I took the mask off and realized I had to paint the plants. I should have painted areas darker when I still had the mask on. Really, it was very confusing to me....

When the snow melted I realized large branches had broken off my azalea out front. So I brought them in and stuck them in water. I doubt anything will happen with them. But it’s like having little trees to sketch in the house.

Trees /Greeta

 My WC class is focusing on trees. The first image is from a photo of a painting. The second from a phot,o in the MIT Magazine. I did others but they were lumpy or kinda ugly. It was suggested that we look at the work of artists we love and try to emulate so I might try that.

I’m keeping the trees together in a book. 

pidgies 3

 I ran into a blank wall about where to go next with the pigeons so I am putting in the background to see if I stumble upon inspiration.

Alan’s back to Yupo

 All these were done rather quickly.

I changed the structure of this lily and I like it better. I couldn’t have done that so quickly and easily on regular paper or at all.

I’m starting to do contour drawings as a form of meditation. I only took my eyes off the fruit bowl once. It would be a good start for a real painting. 

The next two are just alcohol inks on Yupo. 

This is a line of Live Oak trees on Washington Avenue in Ocean Springs MS done on Yupo. This one took more time but I think it was well worth it. I really liked this and it was really fun to paint. 

I tried it again using alcohol inks. It is harder to control but some interesting things happened that I loved. 

elaine t / Mar 6

 A couple more direct paintings added to the skin tone practice. I like the tones in #4, and will try to keep #5 light. As for as likeness, #3 is the best. #2 is how Émile will look when he is six. On #4 I used watercolor pencil for the eyes and mouth. A little more refinement is needed.

Sara goes green

 I found a couple of b&w photos from 1978 & did a couple of paintings from them. I was such a good macramer back then! This is 11 x 15.

Here’s the one I’m working on now, also  11 x 15. I like the effect of painting over masking fluid for the plants, but I’m not a big user of mask, so not sure how this will look when I remove it. I like the value study I did, but on the bigger painting that window looks really big...