Not much

This is starting out as a tree, but it could end up as anything.  I need to flow untrammeled on something bigger than 3x4 

Thought I was done here, but I see I am going to have to straighten out her head.

I should probably just toss this and start again.
 

One More Go With Edith

 

This is large and a lesson in going back and forth with changes to just about everything. I’ve managed to paint a different woman in each of my versions. Where the highlights were lost, a damp paper towel brought them back. 

Spring colors…

 

In class I started the “good” portrait.  I’m Working on hot press, not sure if it’s going to be my friend…

I started this little quick sketch in class and finished it at home. It doesn’t quite have the drama of the previous window sketch —see last post—but overall it’s a more interesting painting imo, however the darks need to be darker to make it pop. I’m going to do another version of this —cause I think I have a frame this size…!

May 3, 2025 — Elaine O.

I've finished and waxed this little portrait on Aquaboard and I'm happy with it. For some reason, I'm especially fond of the shirt. It's a particular favorite of the subject and I think I've done it justice.

6" x 6"

Because I haven't been able to find decent transfer paper lately, I've had to resort to actually drawing. Imagine! I did a direct watercolor and a pencil sketch of an old B&W snapshot. I love the photo—there's something quintessential about her stance and the way she holds her pocketbook. Now to figure out the background and do some color studies.

A4 sketchbook spread

SS Sisters Dance 5.3.25

 One of the bonding moments of us, 3 sisters, is to dance together as a trio, in any social affair, formal or informal in the greater Chicago community. My youngest sister is disabled and was born with Cerebral Palsy & her greatest joy in her physical limitations is to sing and dance, which is quite ironic, but we addressed in our family as just Life! So every time, a familiar tune is played by the music deejay in every get together, the 3 of us, would dance as a group, amidst the dancing couples and the line dancing crowd, with gusto and appreciation. My Watercolor painting done during the last class of the spring term showed us with eyes looking at each other, moving with the music and being grateful that we could create happy memories together at any moment physically and free!

Painting like Van Gogh….

 Well, I didn’t cut off my ear, but I can’t hear out of my right ear b/c of an ear infection— same difference!

This girlie is done, I think, altho I wonder if the colors are strong enough. Sometimes I put a painting behind glass and the colors seem to fade. FYI she’s not behind glass yet…

This is a pre-painting of my next project. I’m trying to work out colors, shapes, values before I do the real thing. I cut down the volume of her dress….Her dress will be a lighter blue and all her party hat will show. I like the top background but the rest I’m not sure of. So much for working out all the details…

These are sketches I worked on while waiting for paint to dry.i like the color saturation on the top one, although i was really trying to think about composition…the second one I was trying to capture my lovely dogwood tree in bloom, although i really over worked it. The interior part of the sketch is nice tho…

The Lost Smile

 This is Jack Wallace, Chicago actor. The photo had him slightly smiling with a twinkle in his eye.  Worked  to retrieve that but not there yet. Rest him on the piano and see what will happen  

New Kitties

 So this is my atelier these days while waiting for Amazon to deliver a new 6' long table, sometime late this week.  All I can paint in this tiny space is 3x4's.

I did a little one of those catalpa trees, which got closer to what I was trying to do with the previous one, and I think probably enough said on this subject.

And here come the kitties.

And here they are, and actually they are here also, although they are still hidden away, casing the joint as it were.

I didn't do any kind of gridding or preliminary drawing and it shows, but if you put that aside I think they have a kind of casual air that lends them a kind of charm.  That's what I think anyway.

April 26, 2025 — Elaine O.

I'm still working on finishing up supplies, so I chose a 6"x6" aquaboard for this intimate little portrait. I'm not finished yet, but I'm questioning the wisdom of painting such a shadowed subject on this support. It's hard to go dark and VERY hard to get smooth shading without sharp edges. Oh, well, I'll keep going and remember that it's only paper (actually aquabord, but you get the idea). 

6"x6"

And knowing that aquaboard isn't conducive to fine tuning and endless adjustments, I did some sketches and color and value tests first to really get to know my subject before I started.

11.5" x 8.25"

Burnt Umber is Fun

 Using archived photos from my phone. All 9x12. 

The first one,  my youngest grandson at a younger age, looks like him  

I got nothing

 All kinds of things going on this week, rug cleaning, tiptoeing through the Arboretum on the cusp of spring, boiling eggs, and the Eggstravaganza.  Oh and the table I paint on had a leg snap off.  So I only got to paint one day, and all I have to show is a little more work on that catalpa tree, well not really a catalpa tree, just a dark shape on a foggy night. I think I livened it up a little bit.

Alan Spring 4

 I decided that there were things I could do to my bayou painting to make it better. A lot of scrubbing to bring out the light and some other little touches. I kinda like it now. 

After my successful hip replacement I decided to concentrate on drawing. I can draw without pain. Later I’ll go back and paint it. This is sunset on a bay and has some beautiful blues and yellows in it. I like drawing and maybe should have used larger paper. It’s only 8 1/2 X 12. 

Spring has sprung….

 This is a great year for forsythia— those yellow bushes you see all over the place. The cooler weather has kept them in bloom much longer this year. I brought some in branches in and painted them.

I don’t know if this girl is done yet. I like the tree shadows I added and am thinking of putting a shadow across the right side of the dress from that most forward tree. Also I want to add some more frills to her dress.

This is my preliminary painting for this one, also based on a Moderson painting (below) but using Quinn’s face and party hat. Just a quickie to work out colors, shapes etc. I like her but sort of undecided about the background. The more I look at the source painting, the more things I see. I think I want to keep things simpler…

Alan, hope your recovery is going well. Greeta, hope you are recovered! Happy Spring to all!

April 19, 2025 — Elaine O.

Happy Easter! Actually, the whole purpose of this sketch was to be the first to use the chick and gosling statuettes in a still life. Look familiar, Ken? I also couldn't resist adding the little plastic eggs, but I think the paints are a bit too granulating to look like plastic. Still, I think the colors work.

approx. 11.5 x 8.25"

And from there, I started the quick direct watercolor sketch below. While it's not finished, I think the paper has had it and I don't think I can do a whole lot more.

approx. 8" sq.

Have a great holiday weekend, enjoy those delicious Peeps and see you next week.

“No One Shows Up At An ArtClass Wanting To Paint Tighter”

 So said the teacher of my class. Value portraits using only Burnt Umber. 

Another tree, another prairie.

 Actually the same prairie as last week and a tree based on the tree from last week.

Oh you know that moment when you put down your brush with great satisfaction knowing you have created yet another masterpiece, and that glow clings to you until an hour later when you look at it and think, "That's not so hot."  

To me it was that row of trees at the top of the hill, too even, too level, too ordered.  Damn it, and this after I sprayed it so there was no remedy.

I like the 'grass' in the foreground.  If you look a little closer at it it is not grass at all.  It's just a conglomeration of paint tricks on yupo.  Behind it is the 'meadow' which breaks up into those beloved dit, dit, dits which indicate hilliness and distance, each row of dit, dit, dit, representing the tip of a small hillock.  

And then that crazy cloud which is made of yupo lucky strikes.  And then between them that uninspired row of trees.

But wait a minute.  I have always been a fan of order vs chaos, and can't we see that timid row as a vestige of order to be destroyed by the crazy chaos all around it?  Or perhaps it is a harbinger of order marching up the hill to bring order to all that chaos.

Either way, a masterpiece, I am a genius after all.  But then you knew that all along didn't you?

I have talked myself out after that last one.  I have recently I have become obsessed with blotting with paper towels (Viva, because the others have floral patterns and leave a distracting pattern).  There are all kinds of things you can do depending on the length of time between the paint and the paper towel, whether you use clean or dirty paper towels, and how hard you press it down.  Oh, so many different things.

It was inspired by a photo of a catalpa tree in the Ten Cat beer garden on a foggy night, you know when the city lights color the fog yellow.  Maybe I will do something to make it more feathery.

Well I guess I haven't talked myself out after the first painting after all.  But then I guess you knew that all along too.

Two projects…

 The top one is close to done, but when I started putting the little flowers on the stem I realized I have to darken the outside wall  a bit. The second one I’m referencing a Paula Becker Moderson painting but using Nora’s face. The actual painting and Nora’s pic are below.

April 12, 2025 — Elaine O.

I finished a sketchbook! Here are the last two sketches—both high-key direct watercolors. I've been trying, especially with children, to stop painting before I go too far and they turn into little 40-yr.-olds. I think she's good.

8" x 5.5"

And I've ended with a self-portrait. I think I've made my face a little chubbier than it actually is, but at least I don't look like an angry schoolmarm this time.

8" x 5.5"

From there, on to a new sketchbook. It's bigger (A4 size) and hardbound, so it has some gravitas. Which explains my fear of getting started—after all, what's worthy of such a fine sketchbook? I decided to just do something...anything. I actually did a rough sketch instead of going right in with direct watercolor, but I'm not sure that made much of a difference. What's interesting is how smooth the paper is--almost like hot press or Yupo. 

8.25" x 16.5" (approx.)

Alan Spring 3

 Getting ready to have my hip replaced this week so we’ll see if I can do any painting. 

I wanted to do a landscape painting but I didn’t have a reference photo that I wanted to paint. So I took pieces of a few photos I took of the Mississippi bayous and cobbled together a sketch that contained parts of some photos that I liked certain pieces of. 

Then I used the sketch to make a normal watercolor on 140# coldpress. It’s 16 X 12. There are things I like about it and things I don’t but that’s true of most of the stuff that I paint. I might not be done but I don’t like it enough to spend a lot more time on it.  Sometimes there’s an alligator on the bank.some of the shadows are from ripples in the paper  

Done, done, not done…

 Here’s the girl in the box. She’s not perfect but I caught her cheery face, imo. 

I think this one is finished too. I caught the faraway look on both faces…

This one I’m back to interiors…because chairs don’t say, “My hair doesn’t really look like that,  Grandma…”