May 6, 2017

The rains have finally ended! It's cool, but at least it's sunny. And so is our mood. We arrived happy and ready to paint. We begin, appropriately enough, with Sara's painting of sunlight spilling through her house. This is probably one of Sara's best ever, highlighting her masterful color work. Look closely at the color gradations and how she relies on color, not value, to suggest dimension. Look at the exquisite details, like the midground shadows, the background view and foreground, from the sun bleached floor to the intimately lit left wall and the brilliant swath of color at right. And it's even more beautiful in real life.

Yes, Sara continues to paint every day.  As you can see, she's done a lot of work on the painting above, but she's also finished this delicate study. We love the shiny blue vase and the refined lace, perfectly focusing on the yellow forsythia.

Ken's painting is far more robust, but it's also a plant. Yes, if you've been following along, you know it's corn. Here, he's introduced new elements—they're either eyes or peacocks hiding among the corn stalks. Come back to see which!

Beth's painting fruits, not vegetables, but her paintings are equally vibrant and exciting. Look at this grapefruit—you can see the rosy undertint and the texture. The calligraphic marks add the perfect touch.

Beth seems to have found her niche painting fruit. This wonderful study of bananas and grapes has it all—delicate colors, elegant calligraphic line, subtle gradation and a lovely economy of brushstrokes. Especially fine is the way she's left white space between the brushstrokes.

Susan finished her celebration of spring with this layered floral study. She's focused on the redbud branches in the foreground, painstakingly detailing each flower, while giving us just the right amount of background information. The colors are beautiful; the angles of the stairs and rails move us through the painting. This says spring!

Bill uses the same device, but to a different effect. Here, the branches are not the focus, but a veil that invites us to look through at the grasses, water, city and sky beyond. The colors and textures are beautifully subtle and we love it. 

Bill then switched to a multi-media abstract, using graphite to add tone to his watercolor. He also scanned the original and changed scale on a home printer before adding color.

As if that weren't enough, Bill did a portrait, too. Seeing the benefit of painting people he doesn't know personally, Bill is beginning a series of Strangers to Me. We can't believe he did this in only half an hour—he conveys a feeling with a minimal palette and brushwork, especially in the clothing. 

Yes, Elaine is still doing her People I Don't Know series. The benefits are obvious. Because she doesn't know her subjects personally, she's less invested in making them look like them; she just needs to make them look like people. This is number six in the series and it really is great practice in painting portraits and capturing expressions.

Steve is hard at work on his Hawaiian mud-man, finishing it today. This is something we're hoping will turn into a series. He's grinding up chunks of dried Hawaiian mud to use as pigment as he makes his own paints. Then, he uses them to paint Hawaiian scenes. With only four rocks, he has created a wonderfully retro world.

We are fascinated by people, aren't we? Tony begins a portrait of a 95-year old war veteran from the WWII Battle of Crete. The painting commemorates the May anniversary of the battle where Greek forces valiantly fought against a Nazi invasion. The composition is superb and the colors are lovely. We are anxious to see the painting finished... and to hear more of the stories Tony shared.

Tony also painted this field of lavender in Provence. So simple, yet so evocative.

Madeleine began this brightly colored travel painting. This is Mexico and she adds a touch of pen and ink to the brilliant colors. We are already enamored of the green clapboard, the tin roof and the planters. We can't wait for the next bright colors to come in!

We had a little fun with Bill and Elaine's paintings today. We noticed that they both have strongly expressive faces and we decided that they told the story of the end of a relationship. We moved them around and added Bill's abstract between them to signify the relationship itself (it's complicated!). Well, okay, we thought it was funny at the time.

Special thanks to Sara for researching this fascinating tidbit—something else in the "you had to be there" category—Just to set the record straight on chicken egg color: there is no correlation between feather color and egg color. It depends on genetics, although chicken earlobe color often correlates to egg color. Yes, it's true; chickens have earlobes—see sources below.

https://askdruniverse.wsu.edu/2016/01/11/can-you-tell-what-color-eggs-a-chicken-will-lay

http://msue.anr.msu.edu/news/why_are_chicken_eggs_different_colors

Who knew? Come back next week for more portraits and more fun!