Here's Beth's first color wheel. Besides getting a great range of colors from just three paints, she's managed to make this feel like a happy flurry of confetti. We suspect we can stop taking credit for her beautiful plaid.... she's got skills!
Here Beth begins her second color wheel. She gets to use more paints, but explores hue, tint, tone and shade.
In a fine example of "waste not," Bill paints this diptych using two bits of leftover illustration board. And the experimental geometric pattern he used didn't go to waste either. He used it on a piece of pottery! Keep watching this space. We plan to post a picture after it's glazed and fired.
Bill returns to watercolor for this plaza in Havana, Cuba. We love the lavender stones in the plaza and are especially fond of the buildings and windows. Look closely at the expressive brushwork.
Here's another cityscape that's also primarily gray—but what a different feel! Madeleine's snowy vision of Quebec is cold and crisp and clear. We also see the differences in the grays.
Far from snowy Canada, Madeleine turned to a sunny beach in Israel. This simple painting is exquisite. Look closely at the unusual, but perfect color choices for the sky, sea and sand. The textures are equally wonderful. We absolutely love this painting!
And this one, too. Madeleine's painting of the ravens at Masada is another textural tour de force. The rocks and sky are rich but subtle, and she's managed to make the ravens sculptural and iridescent.
Ken isn't through with corn yet! We thought he was through with stripes, but apparently not. He says stripes aren't through with him. In this homage to stripes, he's choosing to concentrate on the corn leaves, filling the page with leaves and filling the leaves with colorful stripes.
As for the rest of us, we continue to be fascinated with portraits. Elaine fine-tuned the face and added a background to her portrait (below). Especially interesting is the way the minimal cool colors describe the personality of the subject.
This portrait is very different than the other. Elaine is using rich, warm colors to create a soft, blissful mood, as opposed to the papery, brittle feeling above.
Ellen finished this sweet painting of her parents all in one sitting. We love the stylized approach, the vintage background and the skilled use of color. Ellen isn't sure if this is the final or merely a study. Either way, this is sure to be cherished.
Steve finished sketching the subject of his painting. In this, he's tackled some tricky subjects like foreshortening and hands. Quite successfully, too!
And here is the interesting part of the painting. Do you see the cup below? It's hand-made paint! Yes, Steve has ground some Hawaiian rocks to create pigment, which he then mixed with gum arabic to create paint. This is what he intends to use to paint the sketch above. Get closer and look at the test samples he's painted. It will be a sepia tinted painting of Hawaii, painted with Hawaii! Keep coming back to see this.
The brown liquid in the cup below isn't hand-crafted paint. It's coffee, plain and simple. Sara missed last week, but she's been busy doing a painting a day and being an inspiration to us all. Look at the beautiful vase and the great hand. There is something to be said for painting daily!
Another of Sara's daily paintings. Isn't this lovely? We love the composition, the springlike blooms and the complementary vase. Most of all, we love the sense of light surrounding the flowers and catching the porcelain inside the vase.
Remember what Sara was working on before break? Here's the finished room. There are so many gems to focus on—the path of sunlight in the foreground, the light spilling from the lampshade at left, the softly blended colors on the walls and wood floor, and the pop of green on the upholstery. Yet, Sara isn't quite satisfied with the background....
... and is doing some studies to play with the colors and value contrast. She'll be trying different options to make the space recede vs. flattening the space. All in all, this will be a series worth following!
For those of you who missed Steve's concert, we have a testimonial from Ellen. It was incredible! Keep watching this space for news of the next concert. You'll be glad you went!
Until then, happy painting!
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