February 2, 2019

After a week of polar vortex and the associated sub-zero temperatures, temperatures are in the low 40s today (that's a 60 degree difference!). Needless to say, we were giddy with delight to get outdoors and our paintings show it. Steve came with gifts for all—art books for the taking!—and then proceeded to delight us with this painting. Is it a landscape, sand dunes, a loaf of challah bread? No, it's a view of a 6-pack torso from an oblique angle. Steve is trying to achieve skin tones without using an Opera glaze. Here, he only used two colors (an orange-red and a turquoise) to achieve all the colors you see.

Sara is also painting skin in this family portrait. She reached the point where she felt she was beginning to overwork it....

...so she painted another portrait. We love the light and dark on this one, and especially the way the body edges roll into the darkness.

Then, Sara did two more small studies in which she boldly added saturated color to create form.

Again, she uses saturated colors to sculpt the form.

Finally, Sara decided to take a break and work on something she was less invested in than her lovely granddaughter. This is a rose from an Ansel Adams B&W print (yes, this was in one of the books Steve gifted us). Aren't the colors exquisite?

Elaine T. is also waiting for a grandbaby and is using her time to study loose painting and color—all the better to capture that soft, fresh baby skin. This abstract is quintessentially watercolor,  with all the transparency, movement and color that a good watercolor needs.

From there, Elaine T. added texture with salt...

... before pulling a flower out of the loose background. We think Elaine T. is ready for the baby—and we're ready for new baby pictures! Let the countdown begin

Isa is also a proponent of loose watercolor. Here, she's added some final touches to her warm autumn pie-scape. Especially noteworthy are the composition and the finely etched elements like the leaf veins that really make this painting.

Look out the window for a snowy winter scene. We love the sophisticated way Isa separates the picture plane between indoors and out with color, value and temperature. It makes us feel glad to be inside, all warm and cozy.

And then, Isa began another painting. This, too, is a view from a window. You see the beginnings of a tree branch. The shiny bits are masking fluid, meant to reserve snow on the branches. Already, Isa's use of color lets us see the window frame and mullions in shadow, with the sun glinting on the varnished wood.

Ken's still working on his Day in the Life of Ken series. Part of his day was spent under this tree in the Ten Cat backyard. It's darker and more indicative of the twilight sky than this photo shows, but you can already see the light shining on the trunk and branches, picking them out against the evening sky. Oh, and don't say anything about Harry Potter, Goosebumps or Halloween. The day in the life was NOT Halloween.

Hard at work on her Snow series, Elaine O. realized how many different kinds of snow there are—from delicately falling snow to near whiteout snowfall, to freshly fallen snow, to slushy remnants. So, she's turning to the experts. She is copying old masterpieces to get a feel for how the greats handled snow. This painting is a copy from a painting by Pissaro—but Elaine O. hasn't gotten to the snow yet.

Here, on the other hand, the snow in New York has fallen and is being trampled by people, horses and carts. We like how Elaine O's colors contribute to the vintage feel and how the snow feels like city slush. This is a loose copy of a painting by Robert Henri.

Dana is painting a horse, too. But this one isn't trudging through a snowstorm. He's the star of this portrait. Look how proud and noble he looks. And don't hesitate to zoom in and see how technically perfect and detailed this painting is.

Susan is fine-tuning her painting from her Australia/New Zealand trip. Below, she's added to the background...

... and included more memories to the boomerangs symbolizing Australia.

Our newbies were in fine form, too. Emilia continues to play with color in this soft, watery plaid.

Her color wheel has the same fluid, watercolor feel...

... but her advanced color wheel experiments with more vivid hues.

Richard's plaid is also soft and playful.

He used the sidebars around his color wheel to experiment...

...and then did extracurricular experimentation at home, playing with brushmarks...

...before beginning his advanced colorwheel. These newbies are coming along quickly. Drop by next week for more.

And here's special treat for our viewers, thanks to Sara. She found a great resource featuring watercolors. It's a UK-based charity and they've created a free online database of documentary watercolors painted before photography became the way to document our world.

Here's a little explanation: https://hyperallergic.com/482738/the-watercolour-world-documents-the-planet-before-photography/

... and here's the site itself: www.watercolourworld.org. Be sure to grab a hot drink—you'll be glued to your screen.

January 26, 2019

Welcome to 2019! We've had nearly a month off and we're excited to be back—even though it is a bitterly cold, icy day. We all seem to have painted during our time off, and we're working in some exciting new series. Plus, we have a great crop of newbies, so let's get started. Ken's new series, A Day in the Life of Ken (November 20, 2015 to be exact) features a blustery cold night with sleet and wet city streets with brilliant reflections. Here, the Goodman sign peeps over the LaSalle street bridge.

This is the Merchandise Mart behind two buildings that are no longer there.... the two buildings, not the Mart. That's still there! Don't you love how the lights shine against the dark background?

If you live in Chicago, you'll recognize the Clark bus. Again, look at the reflections on the street. This whole series is atypical in that everyone thinks of watercolors as pale and high key. This is dark and moody—but beautiful and very watercolory!

Here's the painting Ken began today. It's the tree in the back garden at Ten Cat. We're looking up into the leaves and branches. Again, it's evening, so this will be part of the nocturne series.

Elaine O's painting is bright and sunny—quite a different mood! It's timely, too as Oscar Mayer is looking for weinermobile drivers. Wouldn't it be cool to have this for your company car?

This term, Elaine O. is starting a new series featuring snow. It seemed like a good idea when she started, but the recent blasts of winter made her question her choice. Still, we love the peaceful quiet of this Chicago backyard. And we also love the fact that a path back to the house has already been shoveled. Maybe there's a cup of hot chocolate waiting.

Here's another snow scene. This bison sculpture stands outside the Peggy Notebaert Museum. Elaine O. wanted to capture the feel of a bright sunny day after a big snow—also she was amused by the incongruity of a bison against the skyscraper background.

Dana was also painting animals and going big. Here, she's gridded out her drawing and started to paint the horse's head and eye. Zoom in to see the incredible detail she's achieved.

Isa boldly added a vibrant blue to her autumnal interior. This is the perfect color to complement the copper cup and autumn leaf. It also directs focus to the trees outside the window.

Another window with trees, but a totally different season and feeling. Sara painted another version of this scene. The colors may be different, but the lazy, sun-drenched vibe remains.

And then, Sara begins a new series featuring Baby Nora... and her parents. She begins with a lively sketch...

...before starting to work on a watercolor version. She's hoping to capture the energy and freshness of the sketch in the watercolor, while keeping a "watercolory" feel. She's well on the way, so come back and see how this ends up. We especially like the composition on this.

We thought that Steve finished his study below. This is a poster featuring Nijinsky in Debussy's Afternoon of a Faun ballet. But he wanted to go back and work on the background and the musculature. The changes may have been minor, but the painting looks great.

Especially after seeing some fading on a previous painting using opera (a bright pink/fuschia color that Steve glazes to add warmth to skin tones), he's determined to perfect opera-free skin tones. The torso below is all skin, but so abstracted that it looks like a landscape. We can't wait to see how Steve works through this color exercise.

Susan's working in a series, too. She's revisiting some of her previous Australia/New Zealand paintings. Here, she's deepened the sky, adding more focus to the Sydney Bridge.

This beautiful landscape features a mountainous tourist attraction.We love the impressionistic use of color.

Finally, Susan was dissatisfied with a painting where she described some of the activities at this Maori village in a sidebar. She decided to paint the scenes instead of describing them and this is the result. We love her use of space. 

It's a new year with new color exercises. Our newbies were directed to use three primary colors and play with them.... mixing and blending and seeing what they can do. Then, they each created a collage of colors/images they liked, like a personal palette.

Hedda has already achieved some great color gradations...

... using the bright happy colors she chose in her collage.

In contrast, Richard played with glazing and the way water reacts with paint.

 Even his preferred palette leans towards earth colors—exactly what you'd expect from a potter.

Emilia's focus is on the curves and shapes in landscapes.

Notice the clear, sophisticated colors she prefers.

Maddy's colors and subjects are graphic and exuberant.

She's using those same bright colors in this swirly collage.

Join us next week for more fun... and new color exercises that'll take your mind off the snow and cold!