March 31, 2012

We're all still talking about last week's Winsor & Newton demonstration...the info, the samples, and, of course, the beetles! Speaking of which, look who made good use of last week's samples. Ellen's cars use only three colors (Winsor Blue, Winsor Red and Winsor Yellow) plus blending medium. That's quite a lot of painting for very little paint. Check it out—you'll be very impressed. Also look at Robert's use of the same three colors—again, incredible results from so few colors.

Helen and Elaine didn't use the same triad, but they also got great results from limited palettes. And, perhaps to compensate, everyone else's paintings exploded in an exuberant riot of color. Yes, we're all in spring mode! We're ready for May flowers...a whole month early, but that's the kind of weather year we've had!

We'll be off next week for spring break, but we'll see you the week after.

March 24, 2012

No color of the day today (it would be hard to spot in the fog anyway) but it was a very special class nonetheless! We had a guest speaker—Johannah Silva from Winsor & Newton's Artist Outreach Program, shown below holding some hand-painted W&N color charts.



Johannah spoke about the history of watercolor paints. More than just talk, though, she demonstrated some of the things we'd only read about before. Sure, we knew pigments were originally derived from earth, minerals and animals. But it was entirely different to actually see her convert bugs to pigment.


We couldn't have imagined the results when Johannah dipped into the bag of dusty black cochineal beetles above, ground them up and revealed the beautiful strawberry red color below. Even the water was beautiful! We were spellbound. In fact, the beetle color swatch was so lovely we've included it with our paintings. Scroll down and see.



Johannah also demonstrated some W&N media (below) and got everyone pondering ways to use them. And as if that weren't enough, she left samples of W&N primary colors and a blending medium to get us started! Watch us in the next few weeks. We're sure you're going to see some amazing new things.


Thank you, Johannah, for a wonderfully informative and entertaining session. Come back any time!



And we've only been off a week, but there's tons of news! Steve's spring concert was a huge success—and packed to the rafters as usual. Everyone had reports of early flowering...from apple trees to daffodils to morning glories. Cubs' opening day is less than a month away, we're all painting flowers and Ken got his official summer haircut. Yep, it's officially spring!









See you next week!

March 10, 2012

Today's color (for those who remembered to wear it) was green. And how appropo! We're all looking forward to spring...and to springing our clocks ahead tonight. Don't forget!

We're also looking forward to the DePaul Community Chorus' spring concert, featuring Steve M. (see poster). The concert is Sunday, March 18 at 3pm. Follow this link for more information and to reserve your tickets. Tickets are free, but the concerts are so popular, you'll need a ticket this year. Here's your chance to hear 120 beautiful voices, 4 soloists, and a full orchestra--for free! No catch, just a fabulous afternoon--and you heard it here first!

Oh, one more thing...we'll be taking next week off. Join us again on Saturday, March 24. If you can't wait that long, join us for Steve's concert or visit the links to the right. See you soon!

March 3, 2012

It's a cold and gray day....good thing we wore red to liven things up! And, sure enough, that color seemed to creep into our paintings, too. Must be something to that theory after all.

Lots of flowers this time. We must be ready for spring! Also, we seem to have a couple of "3 men" pictures. No clue what that signifies--just an observation. Watch and enjoy. While you're at it, you might want to watch the "artist at work" promised last week. If so, click here to watch .

And tune in next week when the color to wear is green--any tint, tone or shade of green. Won't that be spring-like for the last class of the term? But don't fret! The break will only be a week and we'll be back as strong and colorful as ever.

February 25, 2012

Although today's color was gray, the weather was sunny and colorful...as were all our paintings! Just look and see. Our beginners have progressed to the giant fruit--always a crowd pleaser! And more good news--"the plan" is underway. Keep watching to see what happens; the plan always yields amazing results.

Tune in again soon. We'll be adding another in our "artists at work" series sometime this week. You'll see Elaine O. adding some final touches. And next week, our color will be red...or orange...or both!

February 18, 2012

Today was a beautiful, spring-like day--a perfect day for painting! And, as you can see, some beautiful paintings resulted. From Valentine's Day roses to the rugged Hawaiian coastline, we all seem to be looking forward to spring. And with spring comes the annual DePaul Community Chorus Concert (see poster), featuring Steve M. Mark your calendars for March 18--and get there early. These concerts are very popular. Don't worry, we'll remind you again as the date nears.

Also making a return today by popular request is the ability to watch an artist at work. Click on these links to watch us paint a variety of subjects. It's your chance to watch the magic happen--and to learn from the masters! Here's a list of links to your favorite artists, with more to follow:
Ken paints stripes
Ken paints cats
Elaine O. paints pictures at a gallery
Susan paints an apple
Susan paints an apple, part 2 (it's a big apple!)
Elaine T. paints a leaf

We continued playing with color today. Looking around our circle, you might guess that orange was the color of the day. But actually, we wore "any primary, secondary, or tertiary" color we wanted. We had a lovely rainbow (and a lot of fun sorting ourselves by color!) with a preponderance of blue and green. Next week's color--gray!

February 11, 2012

Strange, the worse the weather, the better the attendance! Not that the weather was that awful, actually. Just a tad brisk. So today, we all wore purple--but we were spared the task of painting swatches and trying to match all the purples. Instead, we just looked at each other and used our spectrum of purples to arrange ourselves for Showtime!

Interestingly enough, we found ourselves dipping our brushes into the purple more often too. It's a phenomenon we've noticed before. People tend to paint the colors they wear. Tune in next week to see what we wear...and paint, too, of course.