Oh, just some stuff.

Here is what I have been calling the Enchanted Forest, but now I am thinking of changing it to The Enchanted Forest with Poison mushrooms.  What do you think about those blue dots, too much whimsy?

And here is the change on Ernie Banks' tree which I thought was too harsh but now I am lightning it up a bit.

And these are my entrants for the high prestige Renaissance Art Fair which will be on Thursday, July 23rd.

 

July 4, 2026 — Elaine O.

I pondered and pondered and couldn't think of any background that would add to this...so I decided to leave it as is. I know that plate looks strange, but it matches the reference! Sure, it's drawn and not traced, but seriously, that's how it looks!

14" x 10"

I'm on the last sheet of my paper block, so I decided to do a quick still life. This is my first cantaloupe of the season (and it was incredible!). It's not finished, obviously, but there are some lessons here. I started with the cantaloupe and it looked way too dark. I thought I'd ruined the painting...until I added the surrounding dark background. A reminder that you have to keep the whole painting moving together and that values are relative.

10" x 14"

And finally, I had to sketch this rather disheveled robin who's been hanging around my front window this week. His front feathers are fluffy and "uncombed" and he's got the cutest tilt to his head. 

4" x 3"

Lerma, Burgos, Spain - second wash, and finished

Lerma - pencil

Lightening up

 That first one is the painting I was calling The Ugly last week, and I think made it more, interesting (Note the red cat).  The second is a new version of the Ernie Banks tree, a little heavy-handed at this stage I think.  And the last one is because I think I need to lighten up a bit.  I am calling it The Enchanted Forest.

Alan Summer - 2026-3

 I finished the view of the Chicago River behind Blick. While I didn’t put the geese and ducks in, I thought it was a nice representation of that scene. On hot press. 

A bigger view. East Beach in Ocean Springs looking west towards Biloxi. I liked using the bloom to suggest rain and some little scraggly clouds. 8 X 10 on coldpress.  Got some work to do on the pier and shadowing. 

Survivor Three 062526

Best in Research

Got Any Pie?

  Maybe a little more work on the big shadow. I used Daniel Smith Shadow Violet (which is always a surprise when it dries) and dropped in some Peacock Blue. 

Evanston street - sketch

June 27, 2026 — Elaine O.

Well, this was originally intended as a quick impression, but along the way I got interested in the different leaves and petals. So it's moving forward slowly but I'm okay with the change in direction.

14" x 10"

First Presbyterian - Evanston

pencil sketch 

light wash

added value

Ss Be Not Afraid 062626

The book is about mindfulness which apo Ana read to grandma Sun. This group photo is about after the reading performance. The paint is from a set of paints received by Sun on her May birthday. Sorry to realize the quality is watery, loose quite a mystery. Happy Painting inspite of your life struggles!

Saint Ita Catholic Church - Chicago

Alan Summer 2026-2

 Trying for something different with this version of the clock tower. I probably needed a gessoed canvas board to move the paint around like I wanted. But I kind of liked the direction  

This is a sketch in my hot press sketchbook of the Chicago River down by Blick. Got the background in. 

The Ugly

 Well at Saturday's showtime I displayed the good, the bad, and the ugly.   The good was the that storm tossed sailing ship or was it a dead cockroach, anyway I thought it had the perfect mix of order and chaos, both stepping to the fore, nodding to each other and stepping back respectfully.  

The bad was, oh that tree whose first touch of paint and paper towel had struck a sharp looking image, but it was just a stroke of luck, I didn't deserve it, and I went on to paint a pretty solid trunk, but most people didn't like it so I called it the bad.  I was going to do a massive overworking of it to please the masses, but I never got around to it.  

So I just slapped a lot of paint around on a new sheet of yupo, especially perylene green, which behaved very badly, and that's why I called it the ugly.  I was ready to chalk it up to you can't win them all.  But amid the crowd of viewers I heard a slight murmur of  maybe it can be saved.  So the next day I took a lot of paper towel to it, and it came along surprising well, despite the grottiness, and then when I saw that red cat there on the bottom, I declared it yet another masterpiece.

Transition 62226 by SS

June 20, 2026 — Elaine O.

Another week spent primarily in my sketchbooks. I thought the construction/repair part of my sketchbook was over, but sadly, NO!! For my penultimate sketchbook page, I had to document a leak in the outside hose faucet that needed a plumber to replace it...

...before finishing with my now traditional selfie. A chance to try new techniques and see what I was like at the end of the sketchbook. Here, I planned to try the ink outline, but felt it stood on its own without more, so I left it at this and filed away another chunk of my life.

From there, I finished a couple more flower sketches. Both of these have ink outlines, but the first one was sketched first in a water-soluble green ink, then color added; the second started with splashes of color with ink outlines later.

Time To Fly

 Gonna try to fly out of this hot press book…I kinda got trapped in its limitations. This little guy is more turquoise than what happened here and he’s too solid making me think he can’t really fly.  I do like his head colors  

The Four and one more

 

This is the one more.  It was supposed to go last but you know how nutso blogspot is about where it puts your paintings and how stubborn it is about letting you arrange them.  The last four are shown in their final form.  

Then I wanted to start a new one.  The rule of Ken's latest abstracts is that if something begins to look like an actual thing has to be destroyed at birth.  And in the first one I just started out with some blues and a bit of maroon and without my being aware of it until too late, a sailing ship hove into view.  I could still destroy it, but I kind of liked the water and I think I will sail on with this and see where I end up. 

City Hall - Castro Urdiales, Cantabria

Sighișoara, Romania - My hometown

Internet Picture

You Have To Know How To Wear It

 Those red lines are too thick and he thinks his hair is too white. Happy to move on from this one. 

Home Art….

 

I have a lot of time on my hands, now that I’m off the serious drugs…These are two small sketches done with Pitt brush pens, which I don’t really like because they don’t blend well. And they’re not really brushes but hard tip markers. I read that people use them with water but they dry really fast and the whole reason to use markers is so you don’t have to use brushes,but whatever. The first is Joe sitting in the back yard with the morning sun coming in but I called it an homage to David Hockney cause it reminds of his Nicolas Canyon painting — I have the poster of it. The second one is draw what you see….

June 13, 2026 — Elaine O.

When someone suggests you paint something, why not? Especially when you've already been painting flowers. So, Sara, here's a lovely planter—first as a pen and ink sketch (color first, then outlined with ink)...

4" x 3"

...and then the beginnings of an actual painting.

14" x 10"

I'd suggest you get used to this planting as I already think there may be another version coming in the future.

The Four

One of the downfalls of my abstract paintings is I start out well enough but then when I have most of the stuff in I tend to tidy stuff up finish it up and it loses it's spunk.  I think of it as order vs chaos, and I am putting too much order into them and they're boring.

So I am going to watch myself on these four and try to keep them more free.  I think if I do four at one time I'll be better able to watch myself.  

The original plan on these to begin with I would use four colors to put in the foreground: Sepia, perylene maroon, olive green, and something else, and in the background: indigo, cadmium red, gamboge, and something else.  Anyway I had a plan at first, and this is what each one looked like after the first session.

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And this is what they look like after 2 to 4 more sessions.  I think they are all almost done as long as I don't try to sneak in any tidying.  I think that is the key.  Remember Glengarry Glen Ross where the bigshot real estate guy has this slogan: Always Be Closing, ABC?  My slogan is Never Be Closing, NBC.  I never think about ending any of them, like this part is finished now let's do this next one, and three or four more and then it will be done.  I just paint on and on and suddenly it occurs to me that this one looks done and setting my brush down right there and then.

That's my theory.  Thank you for your time.

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