Just keep painting….

 Here’s a self portrait, a second attempt at at the vegetables, a cropped version of the first vegetable portrait, after Pat told me to go all out and ruin it, and  little sketch of my hydrangea tree. I think I’m exploring combining drawing and watercolor. Or maybe I’m just messing around…

Purple rain on the haunted house.

 I think the pummeling fists of the purple rain sway the light gauzy trees in an interesting way to make them sway in the symphony of the stormy night.  Others may think differently.

I am leaving out the horse and I am beginning to think of the couple as Adam and Eve and that may have some effect.  The subject of the image interests me less than the painting with blended dots.  Experimenting now with bigger dots because it is 18x24 papers.

April 20, 2024 — Elaine O.

I know this isn't an oil painting blog, but just this once, I have to share one. I just finished my very first oil painting! It took awhile but I'm pretty proud that a) I finished and b) it's not awful. So, here it is—a look down my street in autumn.

approx. 14" x 11"

And then, back to watercolor...and Paris. I'm beginning to paint last week's study. The key to this will be the dark/light interplay between indoors and out. I kept the view very light, but we'll see what happens when the darks go in.

Mon Déjeuner à Versailles Avec Dave    14"x 11"

PS—I don't think I'll really call it that. While My Lunch at Versailles with Dave is the actual truth, the painting will have a totally different vibe, so it'll need a different name.

Also, you can thank me for refraining from pontificating on my observations on the differences between oil and watercolor. You're welcome!

Alan Spring 4

 I finally finished my Alice Schille exercise. I didn’t like doing it in the beginning but I probably learned more from this than the other exercises. 

I was surprised to see that most of the other students did as well with this. It’s 7  X 10 on coldpress.

This is a fairly quick sketch of a house we walked by several times while on the Gulf.  I used a soluable ink on the trees which created some weird effects when I tried to control it.  The house was sketched with non-soluable ink. The washes were added after.  5 X 7 on hot press.

Still working on the Yupo version of the flowering aloe plant. I’m trying to let the colors naturally blend but the blooms run together if I go too fast. A lot of time waiting for things to dry as I’m putting down a lot of water to get things to blend right. I made the mistake of scratching out some stuff too early and now the paint won’t stay on the surface. 11 X 14. 

It’s coming along though. 

Do-over Time….

 

Nothing I like better than trying to recessitate a failed painting.i lightened and darkened this one and I think it came out with a little more flair….

A still life I started in class that has yet to recapture my attention….

I found this little sketchbook (4x6) that I bought maybe five years ago and decided I’d better start using before I can no longer paint that small! Inspired by Alan’s sketches, I sketched onsite in my backyard with pencil, painted and then inked the sketches. I used a .03 pen in the first one, the only waterproof pen I have, but it’s too fine for me. The second one is a non waterProof gel pen, which is too heavy imo.fyi Greeta, it is magnolia tree season here and they are glorious this year!
 

My Heavy Hand Could Have Sunk ‘Em

 

Those canes hanging off the boats are ropes. If only I’d known…..although ropes couldn’t have saved this one. I did another image to try again but my heart’s just not in it. 

Storm descends on the haunted house

Darkened the house and of course, as always, more dots.  Next is the sky, but don't worry, I have a plan, sorta.
 

April 13, 2024 — Elaine O.

So who is this shadowy man of mystery? Guesses range from 007 to a French philosopher holding forth in a cafe with a gauloise. Actually, it's Dave, lunching at Versailles. This is a rough color/value sketchbook study, meant to figure out the backlighting situation.

approx. 7" x 5"

Alan Spring 3

 Although I don’t know nuthin’ ‘bout boats this was the assignment in our class this week. I liked it. 

A little landscape painting of Front Beach. On 140# coldpress. 

Beginning of a Yupo painting of an Aloe plant in the backyard. This is just the “tea layer.”

Passing By

 Walking around town. 

Entrance to a large old house on a profusely planted lot. 

Mississippi is the Magnolia State, but the hot pink azalea is everywhere in Ocean Springs. 

Working, or overworking?

 I just subdued the basket shadow, which seems to make the painting work a little better. But this doesn’t have the ethereal nature of the earlier sketch. That seems to be the problem— I can’t capture the immediacy of my sketches in more thought-out paintings. But that’s probably a universal problem….I think I’m going to paint it one more time.

This is done. Since class I lightened the background and added more color to the flowers and stems and added the pattern to the white space. I like it.

I think this done too. I painted this in response to the painting above, which I did years ago. The earlier one is  a better painting imo. Maybe I will think about this one of Nora and see if I can paint it again to that level —or maybe I just need to frame it!

Summer Class for Watercolor

Summer class starts Sat. 9-noon, June 8 - July 27, 2024 (off July 3). 

 ADLTART 1003 - SC  (11727)  Watercolor Painting

 

The registration form is linked below

https://forms.office.com/r/F8g7fyrez0

Laura Smith, M.A.

Coordinator--Continuing Education

lsmith3@ccc.edu  773-907-4440

Follow us on Facebook, @TrumanContinuingEd

The Haunted House

 More of a shed really but does hold down the corner in contrast to those spotty trees which I hope that I can get some fury out of on this dark and stormy night.

Alan Spring 2

 A weird combo of sketches and paintings this week. 

After looking at Elaine’s lovely painting I realized that I had left the darker colors out. And, as I was looking at the actual tree, I realized that I had left the resurrection ferns off too. These ferns cover the larger branches giving them a softer feel. 

Outside our door blooms this lovely Fire Azalea so I did a small ink sketch of it and washed it with paint.

There are spiderworts all over the ward so I painted this on a Yupo trading card while I was waiting for something else to dry.

For fun I’m including a stained glass mosaic of Walter Anderson that hangs in his family’s shop in Ocean Springs. One of my favorite pieces. 

 

Back to urban sketching.  Here’s Biloxi as seen from the Cafe Beignet,

And here’s a quick sketch of Front Beach in Ocean Springs. 

Most of these are small sketches but I think I might make a real painting out of the beach scene.

April 6, 2024 — Elaine O.

I'm calling this finished! It's Monet's water lily pond as seen from a wisteria covered bridge. Although it appears less gray, wintery and rain-soaked than the day I visited, it has the lush, verdant feel I remember. So, I'm happy with it.

11" x 14"

And now, on to something else. Fair warning, though—I suspect I'm still not finished with memories of France.

Have you heard of Alice Schille?

 American Watercolorist 1869-1955. I had never heard of her. Our class project was to copy one of her paintings. The teacher brought in a book about her. Lots of info about her on the internet. 

Alice’s painting:

My copy…I should have masked the ladder and pier. Gotta fix the boat reflection  

Alan Spring 1

With a little help from my friends and teachers I completed the green grapes watercolor. I could go on but unless I frame it it’s done. Started out as a negative painting. 

A little urban sketch of a sculpture in a yard in my neighborhood. 

You’ll have to take up the color of the hulls with Manet. Here’s the reference photo. 

And this is my watercolor version.  Does nobody believe that they didn’t paint hills with black enamel back in those days?  I thought I was done but was informed that I needed to go darker in several places.  The darker values made things pop.  So I’m replacing my original post with this one  

This is the latest version of my neighbor’s live oak.  Getting closer.  I tried to give it more a sense of place. I may work on this some more.

 

Copying Manet

 Our watercolor lesson at the Ohr O’Keefe Museum. We drew the image on 1 inch graph paper and then traced it to BFK paper. We had a. Regular  old fashioned color photo. 

The painting is an oil and in the original there’s a woman in a white dress on the left  that flash of white is from my phone camera  

My version .  One of my boats sank but I brought it back with white guoache   

Still houseless…

 This house portrait is testing my patience. I kind of ruined the side of the house in the first one, plus the mask didn’t all come off . Anyways I’m using the first one as a test, trying out pen and ink and different ways of interpreting clapboard. The second one I’m trying to go simple & not overwork the details. 

In the meantime I worked up these two sketches kind of quickly just to paint something more interesting. I will say the house portrait is exposing my painting weak spots, ie , planning. For example I never wrote down what blues and other mixtures I was using. I don’t pay attention to what brushes I’m using. I didn’t even test colors before I started to paint the first house…I could go on and on, but you get the drift….

The barn is done and on to the haunted house.

 Another addition to my Masterpiece Archive (the plastic shelving in my bedroom.  Did indigo and turquoise for the sky.  I think it looks better in person.  The road I tried to give it a bit of a golden glow but other than that left it to itself.

This will be the next one.  In my book it is called Haunted House, but when I do a google search I get nada.  I think those are rain-whipped trees, and then there is the house which I am going to have to make some changes with, and the rest, just night and rain I think.