Snow day painting….

 Here’s the quick and dirty baby version, 5x7

Here’s the grownup version, 8x10, but I don’t think it works as well. Maybe it’s that couch saying stop, don’t enter here…

These two I painted freehand, drawing with a brush. I kind of like the looser style, more brushstrokes, etc. Certainly frees me up from the painting inside the lines. Ok, she looks a little Winston Churchill-y, but babies kind of do…

And who gave the tube of burnt yellow? That color has invaded my whole palette..

I hope we get a foot of snow…I love a reason to stay home…

Gehry Knew His Geometry

But I don’t know mine. As a “know it all” teenager, I avoided taking geometry and I missed it on this one. I saved the white on the building to the left using tape and now it still looks like tape even though I put some dirty water on it.  This one looks good from a distance.  Maybe I’ll fix the sky  

At last!

 This started out to be another of those bleeding from the center line paintings but I tried a little experiment which didn't work out so I tried something else and then I had to compensate for that and you guys know how that goes and now it is a slice of spinach pizza and a slice of pepperoni pizza sitting on a bbq grill.  5x7

And at long last here is Daisy.  Took me awhile to get back to doing representative with a bit of free stroking but I think I might be getting back on that track.  Closeups of each eye will probably follow.  All 5x7 hopefully leading to 9x12.

Painting to paint….

 I really like the sense of light here. Pat says the woodwork detracts from the flowers but I think it frames them nicely. About 5x7.

The unhappy campers as portraits. They both look a bit older here but not any happier! @8x10. I may do another double portrait of them.

These two campers again. I sponged the trees in and tried to get more of the setting sun coming thru the trees, but got a little heavy handed with the Indian yellow. I might give them another try although I kind of think the figures should be smaller. That’s what attracted me to this image - people dwarfed by the immense landscape. @8x10. FYI, tree painters — check out Paul Clarke tutorials. He sharpens the wood end of his paint brush in a pencil sharpener and uses that to draw wispy branches…

 

Another flower study —not enough drama…

This looked better before I put that streak of yellow in. I got the idea I wanted the top half in sunlight and the bottom in shadow, but not sure this was the way to go. It looks distorted because of how I photographed it. Not sure why I’m drawn to this image, but, whatever, it’s only paint and time, and I seem to have plenty of both, for now at least…stay warm…

Alan Winter 5 2026

 I didn’t really have a strong desire to paint any specific reference. An old teacher of mine sent out a calendar of things to paint for the month. Mostly simple things like:

A Christmas present. 

A steaming mug. 

Stairs  

Sunrise through a window  

Half a clementine.  I didn’t have “a” clementine but I did have a bowl full of clementine sections.

Kinda fun.

Rainy Day on La Salle Street

 

8x10. It would have been more fun larger. 

on the right track

 With class out I couldn't use the paper cutter to make my horizontals and I thought what if I laid a 5x7 in landscape and put a horizontal line through the center and moved out from the line on both sides towards the edges, that would work like a couple horizontals and they would react to each other and that would be pretty cool wouldn't it?

And I liked it a lot.  I wanted to do more with the same game plan.

Liked this one too, but not as much, colors too simple and not dirty enough.

This one went way off track.  And you know how when your ship begins sinking you make all these drastic moves but it gets worse with each one?  Was ready to consign this to the sacrifice stack but something caught my eye and then I put in those thin turquoise stripes and I am not sure whether to go on or just call it a masterpiece and be done with it.

This one has just begun.  Waiting for something to happen.

January 17, 2026 — Elaine O.

We're well into the new year, and I'm running out of excuses for not painting. So, here's the start of a painting of a lovely wedding (actually, this will be a color/value study).

12" x 9"

Other than that, not much going on. I'll have to replace my mailbox. I woke up one morning to find it hanging off the wall with a pried-open top. What's going on with the mail in this area?!! 

11" x 8"

On a brighter note, there were some really delicious pears on sale.

approx. 4" x 3"

Three more

Dark colors and blotting. 5x7

This is the painting from last week, and I think I may be finishing it next week. 3x12

 Nothing here to see, just a tree. 5x7

January 10, 2026 — Elaine O.

About a year ago, I experimented with some inexpensive gouache. I figured it might be time to revisit it. First of all, the box wasn't sealed completely and the paint looked like a cracked desert landscape. However, I added water daily and, after several days, it DID rejuvenate. So I tried this in my sketchbook over the course of a few days. 

I'm not thrilled with it as a piece of art, but it was interesting to try.

CORRECTION: It wasn't a year ago after all; it was actually three years since I touched the gouache. I'm even more impressed now with how the paint reconstituted! 

Unhappy campers et al…

 

I’ve been painting from a stack of old photos I found - possible source material that doesn’t totally engage me, but maybe it does….So I’ve just been painting from them in my sketchbooks, trying to increase my paint to water ratio. I don’t think I paint intense enough. But then I also like to scrub out and paint over and a lot of these sketchbooks can’t take the abuse. Maybe I’ll attempt the kids in the forest on better paper. Below is my final tree. I think the window framing is a little too dark.

 Obviously I’ve had a lot of time on my hands, because who wants to clean out 40 years’ worth of attic junk (my new year’s resolution…)

Alan Winter 3 - 2026

 Every 3 or 4 years I do a self portrait but I find that I use a reference photo from the past when I looked better. This is 8 1/2 X 12 on Yupo. 

I liked the background but it’s hard to do those little eyes. 

Goff Exhibit at AIC…

 

There are many many very cool surreal and abstract watercolor and gouache paintings at the Bruce Goff exhibit at the art institute. Not to mention his incredible color pencil renderings of architectural projects. Highly recommend this exhibit and the exhibit of the Japanese woodblock prints he collected — they are exquisite! He was an architect in the Frank Lloyd Wright school of thought but went far beyond anything Frank imagined…

Advice Not Followed

 My teacher in the portrait class had some “nevers” which he shared in a joking way…..but he was really serious. Never pick a subject showing teeth. Smiles in general not good unless they express pure joy. Never paint your family. And weirdest of all…don’t worry about whether your painting looks like the subject. Say what?.  My grandson and his father from a few years ago.  

back to horizontals

This is an abstract, needs more work.

A little different take on the hills including a bit of red sky.

 This is a tree trunk in the middle and a bit of yellow vegetation on either side.

January 3, 2026 — Elaine O.

What better way to start the new year than with a painting of the Art Institute, particularly the Ando Gallery? I wanted to make it contemplative and serene—just the way I experienced the room—so I kept the colors and value shifts subtle.

9.5" x 13.5"

 Next week, it's back to normal, noisier life.