May 2, 2015

It's official! Spring is here. You can tell by the paintings—and if that doesn't convince you, just look out the window. It's warm and sunny and perfect. Temperatures are nearing 70 and jackets are coming off. Yep, it's definitely spring.

In her continuing "spring" series, Sara paints everyone's first sign of spring...the trees bursting into bloom overhead. While these are small studies, they perfectly capture the fresh colors of treetops against the lovely blue sky. Pat, our teacher, suggested making these into a diptych or adding a third for a triptych. We totally agree! We begin with a maple tree....

... and move to a magnolia. Enjoy these blossoms as they don't last long.

Susan, too is all about flowers. In another "Venus emerging from the sea" series, Susan does a self-portrait emerging from a shower against a background of complementary colored flowers. What a great composition.

In our group, if the subject of flowers comes up, our thoughts turn to Steve, our resident expert. Here is his pitcher plant framed in a beautiful gold frame. We love how the speckles in the frame echo the texture in the earth and sky. This looks like an old master, doesn't it?

What's this, though? Steve steps out of his comfort zone to paint architecture. But not too far—these buildings in Montevideo, Uruguay have all the color and whimsy of tropical plants.

What better harbinger of spring in Chicago than the outdoor cafes popping up around town? Tony paints the Tavern on Rush here. The tables are ready and it's a beautifully sunny day (just look at the shadows). Made us all anxious to eat there.

Ken has changed perspective on his new "Ten Cat" series. Here we are on the inside looking out. While this has all the vibrant color of the rest of his series, we are in love with the strong grid of the backlit window frames and can't wait to see how this turns out.

Here, Ken's doorway sparkles with a kaleidoscopic burst of color. It's like this typical city door has shed its winter coat and donned a new spring outfit.

And then there are those who prefer physical action to sitting at bars and cafes. For instance, Mark's thoughts turn to exercise. What better way to celebrate the season than getting outdoors and grabbing your skateboard...

... and a sack lunch? Don't you love these paper bags? Hector's painting features basically one subject and one color.... but what a lot of variety, movement and interest he's managed to inject!

It seems we love to spend time outdoors near the water. Here, Bill paints swans on a waterway in the Netherlands. Notice how the high horizon line lets us focus on the water (and the swans).

 
Madeleine also paints birds on water but her scene is closer to home (it's Montrose Harbor). And notice that she also has stone structures in the background adding to the active composition.

But that's not all! She begins sketching her next scene. Coincidentally enough, it will also feature water in the foreground.

And when the lovely spring days draw to a close, what better way to spend a spring evening than painting the events of the day. Okay, that may be stretching things a bit—Elaine's subject is happily painting spaceships and stars, not flowers or ducks. But still.... you get the idea.

Speaking of painting, our newbies are doing some incredible work. Look at Anna's color swatch matching! We love the rich deep colors she's chosen... and how accurately she's managed to match them. And even though composition is not part of this exercise, she's composed the swatches beautifully.

We're at one of our favorite exercises of the year... the 3-way fruit. In this exercise, we paint one fruit (or vegetable) three different ways—very wet, very dry and with a mixture. While most of us find this frustrating, it's a great introduction to techniques and a chance to see how we prefer to handle paint. Here Anna paints a mango. You can tell it's hers by the deeply saturated colors and you can tell it's a mango by the secret message in the last painting. What fun!

Veronica's apple is equally lovely. Zoom in to see the lovely color blending and how skillfully she's managed to capture the 3-D shape of her subject.

Isaac set himself a difficult task, choosing a kiwi fruit. Look at the final three results (wet on the top left; dry and medium) on the bottom right. He's managed to make this drab brown fruit interesting! Notice the modeling? And zoom in to see how he used the newly-discovered techniques to describe the fuzzy texture.

 

Would you be surprised to learn that we have only one more session before we break? We were surprised too! But it's true. We'll be back next week and then we'll be off for three weeks until the summer session begins. But it doesn't have to be goodbye! Tune in next week for news of our impromptu pop-up sketch club and an invitation to join us.

 

Now get out there and enjoy your day!