Another Calamity, Another Bird

 These are fledglings. Lots to worry about when it comes to children. 

Oak Titmouse (Amy Tan.book). “What if I’m trans?”

Dark eyed Junco (Amy Tan)   No school in Gaza in a year for the children who have survived.  Goodbye to Dept of Education  in U.S.

Female Robin Juvenile  (Audubon) .  Backtracking on gun safety laws  “I better get outta here”

All small on the same strip of paper  

This tree is on fire

 Or something.  Last week I had that red (burnt sienna) diagonal thing going which I did not like so I added burnt sienna everywhere but that didn't cut it.  Then I remembered that I was painting on yupo so I just washed it away and went with that swirly burnt sienna which gave it a drama that I like.

Alan Winter 9

 This is a 6 X 12 Yupo painting is a seaside housing complex in Holland as close as I can figure. I thought that it would be a good exercise for Yupo because of the sunset. And I was right. Then I painted the buildings. Okay. Then I scratched off the colors leaving the white of the trim with my pointy stick. MISERY! As a famous rocker once said, “I got blisters on my fingers!”  Certain paints are more staining and tougher to clean off and these colors (ultramarine blue, quinachradone carmine, and terra verte) were really difficult to scratch off. But I liked the end result. But I probably wouldn’t do it again  

I liked this white birch stand and thought it would be good on Yupo. The wash was great and I cut out the trees with a Q-tip.  That went well but I got careless with the dark marks on the trees and was unable to scrub off the paint because of the staining quality of the Payne’s Grey. Some trees I liked and some I didn’t but I couldn’t fix them. Anyway, here it is. 

February 22, 2025 — Elaine O.

About three-quarters finished with this still life. I've been layering away and it's getting better (I think). At any rate, I'm happier with it than I was. I'm enjoying still life much more than I expected to. And it's good for me—I go to the fruit store, find something attractive, buy it, paint it and eat it. As you can see, I'm in no danger of getting scurvy!

11" x 14"

Before starting, I did a rough color test (below—but ignore the blue smears at the top). Is it just me or do you sometimes find there's more energy and life in your quick sketches than in your carefully painted final?

8" x 5.5"

Ss Red Hat Selfie 2.22.25

 My Favorite model was in the mood for a Selfie watercolor. This was started when my husband was having syncope when we were leaving for work the other Saturday! So I decided to stay home to paint in watercolor while my husband recuperated. I realized when I waited normally for layers of 

paint to dry in between while doing housework, that the painting started to come alive gradually during the week before the next class. But of course, the drawing or likeness was the basic stuff or start. I just updated the face with my latest folds and wrinkles and my new red hat!Happy Painting to All!

The Road to Nowhere

 I’ve been there but can’t place it now. There r clues. That’s a bridge house behind the bus shelter then that curvy road …is that the lake out there…...Maybe Uncle Ken will know. At first there was just a dark shadow but a figure revealed itself. This must have been at dawn. Where r all the cars?  

I’m still a little teapot…

 I worked on this one a lot, perhaps too much…but I think the composition just has too many elements. Actually now that I look at it,  if I cut off the right side - the orange teapot and bar — it might work….

Here’s the next one…a promising start…but aren’t they all promising in the beginning?! But I do like the simplicity of this composition.

Here’s a quick study from my sketchbook. I was copying someone else’s painting and I like how it turned out. Although it’s sort of annoying that this takes 20 minutes and it turns out better than my “real” paintings….

Done and almost done

That little upper triangle was not much liked by my Panel of Experts because it diverted their attention.  I was thinking that I wanted it some different color than green to show the gap between two fronds and to affirm its leafness, But how important was its leafness if it was usurping attention?  Not much I decided.

This is a cropping of a photo of a big catalpa tree in the beer garden of the Ten Cat on the night of November 20, 2015.  What attracted me to the photo was its broodiness, which got lost as the painting proceeded, but shit happens no?  Not quite finished.

 

Alan Winter 8

 I thought that this sketch was a little pale so I upped the values a bit. 

I painted this portrait of my granddaughter’s dog Achilles on 140 pound Fabriano coldpress. Fabriano is nice to use because it’s cheaper than Arches and it scrubs off easily. I used a mop brush and my new #4 rigger. The rigger is a great brush with a really fine point and a big barrel so it holds a lot of paint. You can use the point for fine lines and use it like a regular brush and turn it on its side to paint larger areas. Great brush that doesn’t run out of paint like smaller round brushes. But I painted the ladders with a larger angled brush. He’s a sweet boy but will knock you on your ass if you’re playing rough. 

I also painted her other dog-Bambi using the same brushes and mostly the same colors. I had a little trouble because she was basically the same colors as the garage she was in. But I kinda liked the softness of it vs the strength of the other one. 

February 15, 2025 — Elaine O.

Another small still life. This time, I chose a familiar subject to revisit a support I haven't used in a while—aquabord. It's a masonite panel with a clay surface that accepts watercolor, although differently than paper or even Yupo. I'm happy enough with the result that the next step is to give it a coat of wax and prop it up somewhere—probably a kitchen. It seems kitchen-y, doesn't it?

6" x 6"

What can I say…

 This really is finished this time. I made one tiny change that made a world of difference….

From last week’s s class… I worked on it a little more and it’s not so bad…but kind of so-so.

Here’s my drawing for the next one and a thumbnail sketch to guide me. I’m trying to develop a process instead of relying on happy accidents. Ian Roberts has reappeared in my FB feed. He’s an oil painter who is big on composition, in fact he wrote a book called Mastering Composition and he’s a heavy proponent of the 3 value thumbnail sketch. He has lots of free videos that are short and heartfelt. 

Birding From Books

 These are larger 6x6…. A Lesser Goldfinch and a Song Sparrow from Amy Tan’s book. Deciding I prefer smaller and grouping them rather than singles. 

turning over an old leaf

 I've been working on this leaf all week, a few earlier leaves were washed away in order to come up with this one.  

Alan winter 7

 I did a little work on the beach scene. Can’t remember what I did but I did something. 

Then I decided that it would be a good subject for Yupo so I did that. Yupo did some strange things and I did some strange things and I liked it but missed the panorama view. I just bought some 6 X 15 Yupo paper and it will work great for panoramas. 

Then I did a quick pen and ink with watercolor of a plant that’s been sitting on my kitchen table for weeks and I thought I’d get it before it was no more. 

Perspective is wrong but it was really quick. I could work on this some more. 

February 8, 2025 — Elaine O.

I'm calling this finished. I wanted to go all-out technicolor to match the dragonfruit. I also wanted to have some fun with the composition and the curation of objects. I think the colors are bright and varied and I'm happy with the composition. Even the objects work for me. (Originally, my plan was to only include the dragonfruit, the cloth and the plastic toy, but I liked the colors in the background, so I kept them, and I'm glad I did.) However.... I wonder if I've taken it one step too far?

11" x 14"

I foresee a trip to the fruit store for me as I'm still enjoying painting still lifes—and eating them!

Birds To The Rescue

 Needing something to distract me on Inauguration Day I turned to Amy Tan’s new book on backyard birds and used her images except the middle one. I had a strip of leftover paper. These are small maybe 3x4. They flew off to Bethesda, MD yesterday… but they went by plane. 

Finished…or Not?

Well, these look pretty finished to me, although the bottom one looks better here than it does in real life. The image seems to have ayellow tint here. Not sure what’s coming next….

 

Walking in the garden and turning over a new leaf

I painted the whole scene with my new favorite color, olive green.  I was thinking of adding just a kiss of color, but added much more, but I think it looks pretty good. 9x12

Struggled with this in class, washed out a lot when I got home, and I think I have raised if from a meh to an 'interesting' 5x7

Just a fifteen minute sketch but I like its jaunty attitude 5x7

Redoing that leaf from a couple weeks ago. 9x12

 

Alan Winter 6

One of the problems with trying something new and different is that you never know how it’s going to turn out-also the fun. I tried a ghost wash for the Graceland painting. I’ve tried it several times before and never liked the result. Same. But there are some things I do like about it. Maybe in a couple years I’ll try it again. I’m not sure about more definitive detail of the foliage on the right side  

Here is a reference sketch in graphite of a beach scene from my home town at Pete Marquette Park at sunset. 

I did a 7 X 14 version of it on 140# coldpress.  It’s easy to paint clouds unless you are trying to paint specific ones.  Got some work to do on this but I don’t think I’ll ever get the dark clouds right.  And I don’t know how to get the sun brighter because it was blinding in person.  And I got to do something about that tree on the left front.  Although I’m not really happy with this, I learned a lot from it.  If I had not put in those trees first, it would be easier to work the clouds because I did learn some techniques that I could use in successive paintings.  Stay tuned.

February 1, 2025 — Elaine O.

Starting yet another dragonfruit still life. I'm having fun with the setup on this one, but I'm still figuring out the dragonfruit. And here's an example of why to keep a sketchbook—I found an old sketch with bright, highly saturated colors and I'm trying that out with this still life. If that fails, I have some other ideas—again, based on unrelated old sketches that sparked new ideas. 

11" x 14"

UPDATE: Okay, as requested, I'm attaching two recent highly-saturated sketches. In my mind, I'm also referencing my "kitchen" sketches. All of them are set against a bright sunny background and require strong colors to stand up to the wall color. A few follow and you'll see what I mean.