October 1, 2016

It was a grey and rainy day today—autumn is officially here. But grey doesn't have to be oppressive. A lot of us painted in greys today and they were beautifully colorful. Let's start with Greeta's graystone houses. There's a lot of grey in the picture but look closely to see all the lovely colors.

Besides architecture, we love painting people. Greeta is right on trend with our second theme as she begins this painting of a painter, painting. You'll see this develop further, but the light spill from the still life onto the subject's face is incredible.

Greeta also brought in a sheet of "people studies." They are drawn straight away with paint—no preliminary sketching—and we love the spontaneity and life in these sketches.

More people! Here Susan paints a summer outing to remember at Navy Pier. Entitled A Wild Ride, you can just feel the movement and sense the excitement

Elaine is also painting people. In this case, it's a dual portrait of children at the ice cream shop—another last look at summer.

Bill is right on theme today. He's working to paint stone successfully. In this scene from Ireland, we think he's succeeded. We love the texture and the way the pops of color guide our eye through the space.

Here's another Irish scene featuring stone. It's an Irish post office. And while Bill doesn't feel it's totally successful (the paper started to pill and he couldn't work it any further), we like the shadow and the window tracery.

Another success! Here, Bill revisited a painting of a Dublin street where he felt the balance was less than satisfactory. It's perfect now.

Here's a beautiful use of complementary colors to create focus. Bill paints reddish-brown Irish cows in a lush green field. Especially well done is the depth of field here. This just goes on for miles, doesn't it?

When you think of Ireland, you think of cups of tea, don't you? Well this isn't exactly Irish tea, but Isaac's still life is coming along beautifully. The addition of the window makes for great composition and the sepia background has all the drama of black, but is warmer and cosier.

Speaking of Ireland and grey stone, Madeleine has gone back to add some finishing touches to the St. Bridget shrine. Darkening the background slightly really emphasizes St. Bridget, doesn't it?

Ireland and architecture.... what fits today's theme better? Madeleine's captured the feel of Dublin in this painting of their rowhouses.

Just look at the foreground of Madeleine's painting of Cork harbor!  The beautiful undulations add both energy and a sense of serenity.

Marva is also painting a beach scene; it's wilder, less populated, but just as peaceful. These dunes are on the east coast of the US. Look at the foliage!

Glen is also painting foliage, but with a distinctly autumnal feel. These leaves and background are perfect for the wet-in-wet technique he's used to begin.

Steve is also using wet-in-wet technique to begin his background—but his is lush and tropical. The toucan is going to be as colorful as the autumn leaves. It's interesting that the same color plan and style can succeed for such totally different subjects.

Ken's corn foliage is far more stylized and far less "wet." We love the leaves, although Ken isn't enamored of the blue background.

We've agreed that this corn painting would make wonderful fabric. We love the abstract pattern, the colors and the mirror imaging. We can't wait to see Ken's finished painting.

Alan's next painting in his series of onions is below. This is painted on Yupo and we stand in awe of Alan's mastery of this ground. Like Ken's corn painting above, this is an example of a painting format called a "field" painting. You'll notice that there is no single area of focus, but the entire surface is covered by the subject as pattern.

Here, Alan is painting more onions, but he's experimenting with Illustration Board. He thought it would have the same characteristics as Yupo or hot press paper, but it takes paint very differently. Still, we think he's managing this difficult surface well.

Speaking of experimentation, Alan is also doing a series of cloud paintings, using different grounds. Look and see what a difference it makes to paint similar scenes on hot press watercolor paper....

...  on Masa paper, crinkled and mounted to watercolor paper....

... on rough watercolor paper....

...on Yupo....

...and on Yupo, but with texture medium in the clouds. Same subject, but what a difference the paper makes!

Back to basics, our newest students are at one of our favorite exercises. Here is their first actual painting—the three way fruit or vegetable. Erika does a banana, very dry....

...wet-in-wet....

... and a combination. Notice the use of complementary colors.

 

Luciana does some color testing prior to painting her three-way leaf. Aren't the colors rich and luscious?

Here she's playing with using the paint as wet as possible.

 And here are Luciana's very dry and combination leaves. More complementary colors and lovely calligraphic marks.

Pia's also testing colors for her apple.

Here are the drybrush and combination apples on one sheet of paper. Doesn't the drybrush sparkle?

And here is Pia's "wet" apple. You can still see the color puddling on the paper. Now that's wet!

Mark your calendars! You're invited to..... 

Group Art Exhibit at Ten Cat

As you know, October is Artists Month in Chicago and our very own Bill and Madeleine Settles are having an exhibition at Ten Cat. You can see the art throughout October, but you are also cordially invited to the  opening reception. Mark your calendar—this is a great venue and we always have fun. Details below:

Madeleine Settles and William Settles
Recent Watercolor Paintings

Exhibition: October 3–29, 2016
Opening Reception:

Saturday, October 15, 2016, 4–7pm

3931 N. Ashland Avenue, Chicago