Sara combines her love of trees with her renowned color sense to paint this row of autumn trees. She also has a love of experimentation. Here she uses a flat brush to add touches of mosaic-like texture to the leaves and trunks. The stylized composition and brushmarks are perfectly complemented by the brilliant color. We can't wait to see how this turns out!
Susan continues to be fascinated by changing foliage, brilliant colors and field painting. She's especially cognizant of the negative space for sky and how that makes the painting.
Susan seems to have a series going. This is another tree with foliage ranging from fiery oranges through red, magenta and pink. Perhaps you recognize this? It's on Ashland Avenue in Chicago. In fact, Susan was spotted by our teacher in the Ashland Avenue median parkway taking photos of some particularly lovely trees.
Elaine is painting a tree too, but this is a cherry tree in Kensington Garden in spring. She hasn't painted the foliage in yet, but it's coming! Meanwhile, this uses some of our favorite styles. It's a self-portrait and it's an experiment, using a sample triad of Sennelier paints. They are made with honey and are supposed to have a resulting shine and brilliance. So far, so good!
Meanwhile, Elaine has added the finishing touches to the painting below—which is an experiment with a new type of paper (Fabriano Artistico). It's held up very well to reworking and wet techniques, while also handling drybrush quite nicely.
Alan is revisiting his painting below. This time, he's zoomed in to focus on his granddaughter and the garden hose. He's also gone back to his favorite support, Yupo. We love the look on her face and the texture in the trees.
Another experiment by Alan. This lovely barn is painted on aquaboard. It's made by Arches and it's like illustration board, but with a watercolor paper texture. As you can see, it takes color beautifully—we are enamored of the colors and textures on the barn walls. In fact, we wondered if we could open the door and spot Sara enjoying her gin and tonic. We see more barns in our future.
The last (or is it?) in Alan's series of onions. This is on Yupo and has been finished with a gloss fixatif, which serves two purposes—it fixes the paint to the Yupo, and it adds a glossy finish which gives the colors even more brilliance.
We love our colors, our series and our produce. Ken (aka Colonel Cobb) finishes another of his large corn series paintings....
... while beginning a new one. This time, he's planning to focus on the kernels even more, making them even larger and more luscious.
To that end, he's done a series of smaller studies, using complementary colors (yellows and purples) and different brushmarks and brush sizes to describe the kernels....
....while the kernels get even larger and closer.
Can you see why we love series paintings?
We understand how you might see the cat below and jump to the conclusion that it's Ken, returning to his cat series. But you'd be wrong. This is Erika's painting. She's another newly graduated newbie. Like Luciana, she's definitely an old master already! We love the colors and texture, not to mention the background. And notice how she's skillfully using blooms and complementary colors?
Yes, we love animals! Greeta finished her cow painting below and we are amazed at the richness and detail she's gotten from basically two (complementary) colors. It's no wonder this painting has already been spoken for and will soon be winging its way cross-country to its new owner.
And now, Greeta is turning to landscapes as she paints a St. Louis sunset. The sky is beautifully gradated and we love the light-splashed greys of the buildings. Come back to see the reflections and the water. This is going to be good!
Between the fruits and vegetable series, and now the animals, we think we're ready for a farm-themed show. Madeleine has started putting in the greens of the background to this Irish sheep. She's also experimenting with a wonderful new brush, so we are eager to see how it handles the texture of the sheep's wool.
The textured sheep is in sharp contrast to this Irish harbor scene. The flat grey sky forms a perfect backdrop to the foreground boats. The colors are perfectly chosen to focus the viewers' eyes too.
Can you count how many of our favorite themes Madeleine has managed to include in this? It's a vacation painting, a self-portrait and a study in aerial perspective. She also features a tree and beautiful textures in the fabric, the grass, the wood and even the sunglasses. Yes, zoom in and see how well she's captured the glasses and the setting sun on the figures.
Bill has been experimenting here, using color and line. We think it looks like a whale's fluke, and greatly admire the soft color harmonies and movement.
Another experiment from Bill. This time, he's painting large and trying to paint stone in a nocturnal scene. This is Biblical—recognize Jacob sleeping in the left foreground?—and has been composed from Bill's imagination. The green is masking fluid, so it'll be coming off soon.
And speaking of imagination, John's back with his elaborately imaginative stories and his colored pencils. Here is the preliminary sketch of a troupe of Commedia dell'arte players in a rehearsal.
But lest you think he's been slacking off, John brought in a stack of previous starts in this series and sketches for this and other stories.
And finally, we share Vivian's eloquently painted wish ..... Go Cubs!
Interested in learning to draw? Here's a reminder that Pat will be teaching a drawing class based on the Drawing on the Right Side of the Brain methodology. Buy the workbook and bring it to class next week.
See you next week, hopefully with some good news about the Cubs and the World Series.
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