The Dragon Fly outside Regency Ss912

Last Labor Day weekend,I attended an Accountants convention at Hyatt Regency downtown.The view from my 22nd floor hotel room was the Chicago river with busy tourists boats of people , the blue skyline & the various skyscrapers that defined Chicacago. After a half year of family illness and transition, I returned to class although I could not find my regular brshes.After a period of boring staring at the photos I took of the outside view from my hotel window, I decided to let go & just paint what I feel of the dragon fly view of the landscape from the 22nd floor.So I let the buildings & theparking be the lightest values.The views from the left and right side of my face are just blurs of excitement of downtown energy!The river view is priceless.And the Chicago clouds are just there watchful. Where ever you are, hope you are smiling my love of 52 years!

September 12, 2026 — Elaine O.

I'm calling this done as I've got the feel of the day. Just so you know, there's more value contrast in real life than the photo. My camera just doesn't seem to want to acknowledge the dark side! I'm not usually into lots of layering, but this time, I really went in with dozens of adjustment layers. I think it contributes to the fuzziness and wonkiness of the edges, but I like the effect here. It just adds to the sense of heat and the "memory" feel.

12" sq.

And here's the beginning of another one. Same room, same subject, different season. Our first Christmas tree...and just to reassure you, there are more branches (not a lot, but some).

14" x 10"

Alan Summer 2026-7

 A little plein air sketch of my backyard in my sketchbook. 

Here’s a problem for me. It never never never behaved like I thought. It’s on Yupo and you’ll have to guess what it is. I may just give up the ghost on this because it needs to be glazed and that’s hard to do on Yupo. 

Second Round

 The image is from one of those 5x7's I have been messing with redone as a 9x12

And these are 5x7s that I wasn't happy with so I changed them.

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testing new practice paper

Evanston

"Hot-pressed" failure saved by Ink

August 29, 2026 — Elaine O.

We're back in the hot sunny days of the early 70's. On my last version, I spent a lot of time layering glazes to adjust temperature. I wondered what would happen if I tried again, but with only "hot" colors. I'm trying to get a sense of the lazy heat of the day—so, the atmosphere more than the subject. Here's my start (already using many layers of arylide yellow, pyrrol orange and pthalo turquoise).

12" sq.

Board of Trade

Somehow it’s at the same time overworked and unfinished.  It did get me to experiment a little with Jeanne Dobie’s color palette for neutrals.  Hope I have the discipline to keep working on that because she does whole paintings with neutrals and they do glow.  

More of these guys

 An itch I can't stop scratching because it feels sooooo  good.

12 - Deadly Hemlock

13 - Light in August

14 - Fire in the Hold

15 Green Mansion

16 The Devil steps on a Lego

17 - Hard Candy

18 - In a Distant Land

19 - In the Garden

20 - The Dead Sea