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.