Saturday, November 17, 2012

November 17, 2012



My, weren't we prolific today? Lots of us busily painting away—lots of colors and shapes, people and places. Oddly enough, we also seemed to have a strange fascination with birds and the spoken word. Look and see. And keep going for a special treat this week. Vacation pictures! No, these are nothing like you remember. These are quite good! In fact, there's so much to see that we'll stop talking right now and let you look. Oh, and lest we forget—Happy Thanksgiving!

















 
The Grand Tour. So, did you notice the last few paintings and get the movement/transportation theme? Well, there's more to it than that. Susan's camel painting is part of the grand tradition of travel paintings and sketches. If you're a long-time friend, you probably remember Susan's last vacation and the resultant paintings—China: 14 paintings in 14 days. Well, this time she went to Egypt, Jordan and Israel. And she has the paintings to prove it!
 
Above, she memorializes her camel ride among the pyramids. She also took her paints and sketchbook with her and, in a tradition dating back to John Singer Sargent and beyond, painted all the new and wonderful things she saw. Scroll down and see views from her hotel rooms and, best of all, a look into her travel book. Part journal, part sketchbook, it's the best possible souvenir of a memorable trip. To maintain the sense of actually paging through her book, we're presenting spreads rather than individual pages. Enjoy!
 










 
And remember Steve's concert tomorrow. We're off next week, but join us in two weeks. You may see paintings of some of the things we have to be grateful for—and probably a feast or two.

Saturday, November 10, 2012

November 10, 2012



No question about the theme of the day—it was color, pure and simple! We must have been inspired by the colors of the season (either that or Pat's shoes!), but every painting was more exuberant and brilliant than the next. Even the softer, subtler paintings were full of color. Just look and see. The first two are reference photos (Pat's golden shoes and the golden leaves of the season), but the rest are all us!

And keep going for an interesting art question and an invitation to a not-to-be-missed concert.






















Here's an interesting question. How do you know when a painting is finished? We're going to ask our artists this question in coming weeks, but for now, we'll look at Sara's painting of her aunt. It's finished! How did she know? Everyone told her. But how did we know? It's soft and colorful and much more exquisitely beautiful in person than this picture conveys. It captures the feeling of the reference photo and it evokes a feeling of nostalgia. We feel we actually know this woman. There's nothing that can be added with another brushstroke. It's finished...or it could be, anyway! Tune in next week to see what Sara decides.

Music for Peace concert. If you have some spare time next Sunday afternoon, you can't make better use of it than by attending the DePaul Community Chorus's concert Music for Peace. Here are the details:

What: Music for Peace concert
When: Sunday, November 18, 2012, at 3pm
Where: DePaul Concert Hall, 800 West Belden, Chicago

And if you need any more reason to attend, it's absolutely free and features our own Steve M! Can't ask for a better deal than that. See you there—but get there early. Seats fill up fast.

See you next week!