Tree series….

 

I’ve been painting these since October. They’re all sketchbook studies, 7x10, all based on a couple of images below.  They’re not quite in order; I’m still working on the 4th one and it still has mask on the limbs. They’re interesting to see altogether —at least I think so! I was always drawn to the knot of limbs all going in different directions, plus the color of the leaves and the slight corona of the setting sun. I’m not sure any one captures all those things. They’re all very different but they all emphasize the knot of limbs. Here’s my source photo below.

Oh, this is an earlier version of #2…I really liked it but I went too far with the color mixing and thus too muddy …

One fine mess

 This was my image as seen last week: a painting of the photo printed in the newspaper that I paint upon including the printed  photo and a bit of the surrounding newsprint.  That whole painting is on newsprint itself and the next painting was going to include that painting and the newsprint that it is on.  Follow me?  Well I get confused myself.

And here it is.  Well not really.  I started out with a full head of steam, but within that steam I lost sight of my guiding star, then the painting stopped talking to me.  Alone and stranded I took the refuge of scoundrels and decided to convert it to an abstract.  Paint came off and paint came on and then the painting was talking to me again and finally I came to this point and called it a day.  I kind of like it, but then I like everything I do so who knows.

Alan By the way

 

December 28, 2025 — Elaine O.

All the best of the season to you! I don't have anything great to show, but I wanted to post something—if only to prove that I'm still around. I've done some direct watercolor (and ink) sketches to refresh portrait painting skills. Believe me, that baby is so much cuter than you'd guess from these!

And I've done some value/color sketches for a painting.

Other than that, I've been busy shoveling snow...

... trying to get an old car running (it wasn't the oil after all!)...

... and baking cookies. This is all that was left at the end of day one! I had to do multiple days and again, they tasted better than you'd guess from the sketch!

Happy holidays and see you next year!

Alan Winter 2-2025

 I took suggestions and made changes to my yellow maple painting. I do like it better. 

Before:

After:

I have a friend who’s visiting Japan and sent me a picture of a tea house. I cropped out the middle and painted the image on Yupo.  The brown background should be much darker but you can’t go back and redo a wash on Yupo without messing everything up-at least I’ve never been able to do it. Besides that , I like it except for those wispy grasses which actually tore the Yupo. 

A long story

 Here is a photo of an ofrenda for the Day of the Dead at the Mexican Fine Arts Museum

 The Trib included it in an article which became the newspaper that I laid down underneath my paintings.

I gussied it up a bit and cropped out the surrounding newsprint and displayed it last week.

Then I added the surrounding newsprint area and made it my Work of Art.

Of course the Work of Art itself was painted on top of newspaper and when I looked at the original precrop photo I thought that don't look half bad.  I reckon you know what is coming next.

Alan Winter 1 2025

 I thought I would show you this process. I used it with my last failed attempt. 

This is the view down my street  

I liked the yellow maple halfway down the block do I cropped it to reflect my interest in that big yellow branch. 

So I painted that. The trouble is that I used 5 different kinds of yellow and that I saw it moving horizontally. I tried to scrub out some yellow but there was too much pigment on the paper and it came out like a big blob of yellow. So that’s where I was stuck. 

So, remembering my recent attempts with ink resist and getting ready to make it sacrifice sheets, I decided to make some adjustments to leave some black and use gouache on certain leaf groups, and just cover the whole thing with India ink. I waited for it to dry and then washed it off. Everything got washed out so I went back in with watercolor and repainted it trying to use more vertical groupings along with the horizontal.  I used straight gouache to provide more resistance to the ink, so that might have been my issue with the hibiscus painting. It has more drama than the original so it might be worth all the extra effort. It was fun painting all the leaves though. 

Just foolin around

 As you know before I paint my masterpieces I put down a newspaper which is handy for rubbing off excess paint or water from the brush,  I usually leave that paper down there for oh, maybe a month's worth of masterpieces and it gets pretty beat up.  No, wait I meant to say it becomes a masterpiece itself.  Am I right?  

3 Horizontals

I painted this two weeks ago but when I got home I couldn't find it anywhere and figured well chalk it up to that thing where the monks make these elaborate mandalas out of sand and as soon as they are done they take a broom to it to complete its arc through the cosmos.   When I finished the Christmas tree I pulled up the sheet of yupo and there this was on the other side, so, you know, you know. 

Kind of a Lollapalooza crowd?

 Either a close up of a Christmas tree or a slice of spinach and pepperoni pizza.

Having a great time in the lab.

Alan Fall 25-9

 Thought I would be done, but I don’t like it. Problem with the yellow leaf swath. I’m looking for inspiration about how to fix it. Otherwise I’ll just start over. But I’m not really sure about why it went off the rails in the first place. 

The yellow maple was what I liked most about it. The rest is fluff. 

Chillin’

 

Overall, this winter scene turned out pretty well. Really like the snow and the background. My fall tree paintings were not too successful, so I have to think about them for a while.

Class of Fall 2025

 

Here they are, the intrepid painters of the Fall 2025 Old Masters Class. Unfortunately we are missing two members: one, who had a valid medical excuse, and another, who said it was too cold to come to class.  [Ed.note: Is he a true Chicagoan? It was at least 12 degrees…]

SS: Sop Hee Ya @ 9

Fall into winter…

 Another view of my backyard birch tree, this time thru the window. It had so many interesting colors this year, a dirty yellow, bright orange and red, some purple, all with the white branches peeking thru. This is just a beginning layer; the blue is the mask fluid.

And we jump right into winter! The sun caught a few remaining leaves on my rose bush while most of the scene is in blue shadows. I really like this so far, altho the shadows need to be deeper and I haven’t really painted the leaves yet,just rubbed off the mask.

Merry Christmas to all and to all a good night!

working in the lab

 These are three bookmarks (1 1/2x6) as I was painting them I became more interested in that swirly stuff (like on the right side of #2).  I will be in the lab for awhile investigating the path of the swirlys.  

And I guess you know what this is. 9x12

Alan Fall 25-8

Following Sara’s advice, somewhat, I tried to increase the values in this smoke bush and definitely made it better. 

I also painted our hydrangea bush in the late fall. I tried the ink resist technique that I’ve done before but it’s been awhile.   

First I painted the work with gouache using what I felt was a fairly thick layer of gouache with gum Arabic  figuring that it wouldn’t wash off along with the ink.  I thought it was a nice little piece.  I watched several videos about how to do this and they all said don’t be afraid to cover the whole thing with India ink.  So I did. 

And someone said to let it dry overnight and then wash off the ink in the sink. So I did that. This is what I got.

The idea was that the ink would stay where there wasn’t any paint and wash off where there was but that’s not what happened. They all warned me not to scrub too hard, using light strokes with a soft brush, but I still damaged the paper and no color remained on the paper. After watching more videos, I decided that I should have used colder water and maybe I shouldn’t have let it dry so long. Anyway—-this is what I was left with.

So I carefully redrew the composition and painted over it using gouache over the inked coldpress.  It kinda looked interesting but not anything like I planned.

Ss Parade

December 6, 2025 — Elaine O.

I loved the bright glowing colors and shadows as the autumn sun hit this corner storefront. And the colorful signs and foliage just added to the scene.

10" x 14"

WIPs…or maybe they’re done…

 This little lady is done for sure although the background looks a little blotchy. This was a double challenge: a baby in a cream colored outfit!

This one is pretty much done too. I’m not crazy about the cropping at the top. I might try this again with more of the window showing at the top.

This is a backyard snow scene I just started. The green and red makes it kind of Xmas-y. It’s actually just the sun hitting the leaves of my rose bush in the foreground and the rest is in shadow. The leaves are covered with masking fluid right now…Well it’s cold and snowy out…good day to stay home and paint!