On the road again

 I've been off the road for a couple of weeks, scrambling around in the brambles, turning this way and that stumbling across ideas and discarding them, making sacrifice sheets out of perfectly good paper, pulling my hair and disturbing my cat.  

I want to move this to 18x24, make it grittier, more random, less pretty maybe, or maybe something completely different.

Just glad to be on the road again.

August 24, 2024 — Elaine O.

This week, I've been playing with florals and granulating/separating paints. Today's blind contour is of flowers. Interestingly, no matter how "off" you are, they look more accurate than, say, a human face.

12" x 9"

I've also done some direct watercolor....

8" x 5.5"

... and I've been fascinated by translucency and the honesty plant. It's a challenge I have to revisit.

approx. 5" x 5"

What's with the softer, gentler direction? I "helped" my brother move this week. Here's a quick sketch of his new view. Nothing soothes the soul like sitting in a window seat watching sailboats on a lake. You hardly notice all the moving chaos around you—and that mellow vibe lingers!

approx. 5" x 5"

SS 8.18.24 Ansel's Shingles Odyssey

 I am done with my series of my husband's 4 faces to record his on going Shingles affliction started last year. Each of the 4 painting has a mini recuerdo of a diary of the illness. Painting this set of faces from onset to current situation is reliving the challenges as well as cathartic. At that time of any of the critical stages when the pain was so deep, we felt that some strange stuff was at work, when my husband was just recovering from his 10 days hospital stay in October that he would be sick with Shingles!In hindsight, the reasons were simple: his immune system was low & vulnerable and he was not vaccinated with the shingles vaccine. Pretty straight forward!. I have arranged the paintings as follows: bottom row : left: Onset; Right: World Turned Upside down then top row: left: Scabs;

Right: Silent Pain.  Today, I also submitted this foursome as one painting using my husband's second name: Ansel to a Filipino art show Sep to Nov, 2024 at the Epiphany Art Center. Fingers crossed!

August 17, 2024 — Elaine O.

I'm still in the midst of my summer dilettantism. I thought last week's bird was surprisingly successful, so I went back and finished the other two birds in the demo. Following are the Great Tit...

8"x5.5"

...and the Robin. They're listed as "garden birds," but they're nothing like the little brown sparrows in my garden. Even my robins are darker and less fluffy. I think they're British. 

    

8"x5.5"

While neither of them came out as well as I had hoped, I do like the branches. Other than that, I did a blind contour and experimented with shadow colors on a scrap of watercolor paper...

5.5"x4"

...and made some new curtains, which I documented in my sketchbook.

8"x5.5"

And I finished a sketchbook, so I did a quick self portrait to close it out. I look like a mean schoolteacher asking, "Are you sure you filled ALL the pages in that sketchbook?"

8"x5.5"

Channeling Steve Meyer

 Painted Dr. Hunt first. Then when the child went in, the doctor’s skin was washed out and greenish….so I remembered Steve doing opera washes over people. I think it helped. The hand and the nose were daunting, to say the least,  but can’t do more without disaster. I like the story aspect of this.  In the photo  the woman in the background was holding a squirming child and to the right there were parts of two other women and part of an ambulance all eliminated because of distraction. 

RIP Sasha…

 

Sad news, Sasha went to her great reward last Sunday. Luckily I finished her portrait last week. Hope her parents like it as much as I do…

South Haven sketches done onsite at the beach! The two painted ones I did at home from photos.i like this last one. I was really trying to capture the sky in both of them. I know….the world’s largest chickens…I have such a problem with scale…

Again a slight issue with scale. I think I’ll do this again but with only one flower…probably won’t be posting much after this week for a while. Friday is my due date!

Jacqueline's Show

 Hung this a couple weeks ago.  Jacqueline's 3420 N Broadway.  These are from the Morning Glory Leaves series which I thought was one of my best series.  Had hoped to hang this at the Ten Cat, but the new owner has chosen a different path, and there is no more art in the windows.  This is a much smaller place with no beer garden or fireplace room, just room to stand so I am not scheduling any kind of opening, but if you are thinking of dropping by let me know and I will see if we can come to an agreement on dates and times.

Da Blues 2

 

Working on these all this week.  I guess they look better, but maybe not that much.  They are were great fun when I began, free as a bird, but with each brushstroke the possibilities are more limited.  

August 10, 2024 — Elaine O.

It's summer and I'm feeling free and playful. Which translates to dithering around with one-offs and experiments while I decide on my next serious piece/series. I did another large blind contour with watercolor. I think these have to be either very accurate or very distorted to be interesting; this one isn't quite either, but it was fun.

12" x 9"

More odd bits and pieces:  I recently read an interview with Amy Tan about her Covid experience connecting with and painting the birds in her backyard. Then, a week later, I read something similar by a woman somewhere in England. Days later, I saw a bird painting demo in a magazine, so I had to try it. Birds are actually quite interesting, aren't they?

Finally, a good many of my vacations have been near water, and it occurs to me that I'm not really confident painting water. I may try a 30-day water challenge. Here's the first try. I think the hardest thing will be to get the sense of movement. 

Painting White with Sargent

 

This was from a few years ago when an art teacher encouraged us to copy an artist we admired. Hard to think of anyone who can apply Watercolor and enhance the white better than Sargent.  Those white summer dresses, marble buildings!!  

No 

Da Blues

                                

Slopping around the indigo while listening to the blues.  A good time, and I find it very interesting.  All 9x12 and all unfinished.

Alan Summer 9

 I’m done with this lighthouse. It’s on canvas board treated with white gesso—11x14. I just couldn’t get a smooth wash with the darker phalo blue. I tried about four times but still had streaks and blooms. So I decided to go with it and put in those fluffy little clouds (maybe like the sky was not perfectly washed). I added some purple and red under the clouds so they wouldn’t be so prissy. I changed the colors of the cliff, brought out the pine trees on top; and highlighted the watchers on that spit of land in Lake Superior. 

Might be better on straight cold press. 

August 3, 2024 — Elaine O.

Finished...at last! I spent a ridiculous amount of time getting her right eye correct. At one point, I even considered giving her an eye patch and changing the bird to a parrot. But I persevered, I'm finished, and I'm happy. 

14" x 11"

Ken, you asked for a visual demo of the gouache resist technique. So, here goes. Start with a rough color painting using gouache. Knowing the colors are going to fade, I use very saturated colors and leave room between shapes for where I will want black outlines at the end. If you want something to stay white, you'll have to use white gouache.

Let dry thoroughly. I waited until the next day. Then paint over the entire painting with black India Ink. This is a little scary!

Again, let dry thoroughly. Then, wash off the India Ink. You may need a gentle scrub brush to help it along. Keep going until you reach the level of lightness you want. As you can see, the areas with gouache resist the India Ink and prevent it from staining the paper.

Let dry once again. Then, you can assess and add lines and/or color where you need to. I just fixed her mouth and fingers. That's it! 

I'm not sure this is the best technique for portraits...except maybe head only. Also, gouache colors wash off differently, so even if you think you're doing subtle blends, you may end up with distinct splotches of stark color. 

Quick, before I leave….

 Leaving for Michigan tomorrow and just wanted to post before I left. Finished Sasha - I really like it, too bad I didn’t take a better pic. She’s about 5 x 9. Worked on the girls a bit, probably a good idea to let them sit. It looks proportionaly odd but I did trace them so not sure if that’s a just their pose or what. Not sure about the background. Thinking blue bubbles instead of multicolored ones, or maybe just a blue wash….