Tuesday, July 22, 2025

Can’t see the forest….

 

Here’s a painting I did a few years ago . It’s on a piece of crummy sketch paper,  but i  really like it and that’s what I’m trying to recreate in a larger format.





So these are all the trees I’ve been painting and this is my reference photo. And it just dawned on me this minute that the first painting is not confined by a window frame…and I know, none of the paintings look like the reference photo…and the reference photo looks nothing like the first painting that I really like…I’m just a confused person….does anyone know what happened to Alan and Greeta?

                                                                      FALL 1

ADLTART 1003-SC (37050) 

Watercolor Painting     Sat 9:00AM - 12:00PM    TR Bldg 1 - Rm 3901    Sep 6, 2025-Oct 18, 2025                 

ADLTART 1003-SC2 (37051) 

Watercolor Painting     Sat 12:15PM - 3:15PM    TR Bldg 1 - Rm 3901     Sep 6, 2025-Oct 18, 2025
                
    
                                                                     FALL 2
    
ADLTART 1003-SD (37052)

Watercolor Painting    Sat 9:00AM - 12:00PM     TR Bldg 1 - Rm 3901    Oct 25, 2025-Dec 13, 2025                                                                                                                             (off Nov 29)

ADLTART 1003-SD2 (37053) 

Watercolor Painting    Sat 12:15PM - 3:15PM     TR Bldg 1 - Rm 3901    Oct 25, 2025-Dec 13, 2025                                                                                                                               (off Nov 29)  

                                                                                                                             

On-line registration is open now   



    
   

    

    



































Monday, July 21, 2025

In progress

No trees I am afraid.  I love the flowing undulations of the Lurie Gardens.  Maybe too many different colors and maybe it could use some tall plants close up.  


Tree is going to need some work to fit in, but I need to fill in more background to find out how that might work.

 

Sunday, July 20, 2025

July 19, 2025 — Elaine O.

Here's the dilemma when you have a really good reference photo. Do you try to paint it, knowing it may never be as good, or do you just let it be its own beautiful photo self and paint something else? I took a chance painting a photo of my Mom's bathroom window. I'm about 75% finished here and I haven't ruined it yet. Next week will tell, I think.

approx. 9" x 12"

 

Saturday, July 19, 2025

Winter in Summer 71995

 The first version of this neighborhood scenery sometime in February 2025 drew comments on the dog and her walker. The rest of the painting was a major application of white or lightest values to show it was a heavy snowfall. I was not able to show the silhouettes of the houses across the street nor did I highlight the bodies, the leaves and the trunks of the 2 trees. Thus, when I prepared my painting stuff into my 2 paint bags, I picked up this February painting with a plan to improve the values and create an acceptable Andersonville snowball winter story. During the Saturday class of July 19, I converted the 12" X 9" into a square 9" X 9" by cutting the top 3 inches of the paper which showed  the painting of  the curtain like mini canopy of the pine trees of my house & my neighbor's. The removal made the composition easier to arrange. I added the bike & stop sign at the top right empty space. I defined the houses across the street and added the blue car on the left. I added the  turquoise shadows of the dog and the walker. And then I have the revised snow scene of July 19! Happy Painting!


Monday, July 14, 2025

Poems are made by fools like me, But only God can make a tree.

Compared with my earlier trees, who I think looked rather stately, these are a bit rougher and more paint centric.


Kind of looks like they are dancing don't it.  I might have to step in briefly to make those two right trees more grounded.



 Pat didn't like that big butt under the trees so under her leadership I converted it to gently undulating grasses, or something.


Saturday, July 12, 2025

Summer Dance 71225

 Pat and I agreed that my Starbucks photo of the Friday patrons that I took would make an interesting composition for my July 12 watercolor! However, as soon as she left me, I reviewed my recent memories of Philippine Independence celebration in downtown Daley Center on June 12. Two performers, wearing colorful highland natives costumes and who danced spiritedly with the sound of a gong only seemed more interesting than a group of coffee drinkers. I painted the 2 dancers who  wore flesh colored underwear beneath the layers of tribal clothing. After I sketched and colored the 2 dancers, I felt that they deserved a rainbow of background colors rather than the bare stage of the Daley Center outdoor stage. I used watercolor paints from my pans of new watercolor. The addition of colors directly from 2 or 3 tubes of watercolors


added vitality to the imagined scenario of a couple in the middle of a domestic dispute. Happy Painting to All!

Monday, June 30, 2025

Two paintings …



 Both of these turned out pretty well. I might try a more careful version of the top one, but being careful might ruin it….

A tree that may in Summer wear A nest of robins in her hair;


May just have to go back and make it less frenetic, but I dunno sometimes making corrections kills the spirit of the original.


So I made the tree on the right that just was not fitting in I made it a ghost tree and gave it some ghost buddies.  The best I can do because I have to move on.


And I am going to try to give these fellows the treatment that I wanted to give to that outlier on the previous painting.