March 25, 2017

We're back—although some of us were a little late. Despite extended vacations, daylight savings time mishaps, and torrential rain, it was great to be back. And, as you can see, some things haven't changed. Ken is still painting corn, but notice how he's adding an element of pattern? We love the contrast of the flat mosaic in the background with the deeply modeled corn kernels.

You'll see the beginnings of the mosaic patterning in the background of his last painting. We think it is a lovely complement to the undulating stripes of the corn leaves.

And here, Ken begins a small study for his next corn painting. We're well in to the second series and have yet to tire of it.

Bill is between series and likes to warm up with some abstracts. Here he experiments with layering pen, watercolor and watercolor pens. And in the process, he adds a good bit of water to the mix. It's even richer-looking in real life.

Here's another of Bill's abstracts. Again, he begins with watercolor pens, adding watercolor before finishing up with another layer of pen—all on a soft watercolor background.

Finally, Bill revisits his landscape from before break. In this, he uses lessons learned in the abstracts to more clearly define the edges of the shapes. He likes the color choices better on the previous version and the shape definition from this one, so we may want to watch for version three!

Hector has been doing abstract landscapes, too, with bands of color and texture defining the area. He began with this stormy sky over lighter ground....

... but realized he liked it better reversed, with layers of sky and background receding from a dark foreground.

Hector is still using bands of color and pattern to create landscapes. Here, we really like the cloudy sky and the hills in the foreground. But we are in love with the rain in the middle. The color layers and texture perfectly describe rain.

Here's how Hector begins.... with three subtle primary colors. Come back next week to see where this goes!

Madeleine is also doing with horizontal bands. Hers is a much closer view of Masada in Israel. Zoom in and see the active sky and the richly textured rocks. If you look closely, you'll see that she'll be adding ravens perched on the rocks.

Madeleine is our master of marine paintings. Seriously, look at the rushing water below. You can feel the movement—and it contrasts perfectly with the solid architecture. Beautiful!

Susan is back from vacation, too. And she's also painting architecture, as you can see in this beautiful basilica from Taal, a tourist site in the Philippines. We admire the painting and love the fact that she's titled the scene, too. And look closely at the bottom right. Exactly where you'd expect to find a signature, you'll see small people interacting with the title—and one of them is Susan!

 

Here's another painting from Taal. It's the volcano that makes this a tourist attraction. Speaking of layering, there is a lake in the crater of the volcano, which itself sits in the middle of a larger lake.  And Susan makes this personal by adding the whimsical touch of her friends playing in the foreground.

More Philippine vacation paintings from Susan. Just look at the bougainvillea wall! What a lovely background to a scene of Susan's husband playing with his new friend, the neighbor dog. Despite the busy background, we don't lose the main action.

Elaine is continuing her series of "People I Don't Know." Here, she's pulled back to a three-quarter pose from earlier head and shoulder poses. But here, the man's stance is what intrigued her, so that's what she's concentrating on. Come back and see how it comes out.

Steve is also painting a figure. So far, he's been sketching in preparation to adding color. Steve plans to use actual Hawaiian stone to create the colors. He has three different shades of brown, yellow and red. This is going to be interesting, so come back to watch this progress. 

See you next week!