September 16, 2017

A few of us were catching up on end-of-summer vacations, but the rest of us had a wonderful time. We had a few appearances of Sara's garden, but mostly, we painted people, places.... and cats. We start with Sara's triple portrait (and no, they aren't in Sara's garden). The guys are slowly taking shape and looking very true to themselves. We also love the poses, the color choices and what an all-round "guy" painting this is.

Steve is also painting people. These life studies use only two colors (so far), yet yield a range of realistic skin colors. These are designed to fit in a pair of small matching frames.

Susan is back to vacation landscape paintings. Here, she commemorates a two-day trip on the Rocky Mountaineer train and surrounds it with portraits of some traveling companions. These are college sorority sisters and they travel together every other year. What fun!

Elaine is back to portraiture. She strongly suspects this is Clifton Chenier but hasn't checked to be sure yet. Even so, he fits in her People I Don't Know series—and she's particularly enamored of the accordion, having taken lessons herself for a very short time. She still regrets missing out on a future in zydeco.

Greeta has entitled her painting Alan Looking at Rocks. Actually, he's looking at a koi pond, but we love the title and we love the way she's painted a recognizable portrait in a landscape. 

Greeta finished her third house portrait for her book of houses in her neighborhood. Notice the small touches of ink she's used to add fine details. Just enough to describe the skilled workmanship without overworking the painting.

As you may recall, we mentioned Sara's garden. Here's a small jewel by Greeta, featuring a bit of that garden. The gazing ball sparkles in the cool shade as a shaft of light creates lovely shadows.

Alan has painted a different corner of Sara's garden. The use of line and wash really suits the whimsical nature of the scene.

Doesn't this just feel like summer? Alan commemorates the old pier at his cottage. Contributing to the lazy, relaxed feel is the beautiful blending achieved by wet-in-wet washes.

We can't even think about painting gardens without thinking of Marva. Here, she's painting an elegant, lush garden with stonework, iron lattices and richly colored flowers.

Isa has finished up her garden painting, too. The shadows on the fence from the foliage are the perfect touch.  And zoom in to see Isa's masterful handling of color in the fence gaps and the shadows. 

Isa is beginning another painting of a garden. She's started with a sketch and we already like the stylized foliage.

Ken's cat.When last we saw this, there was a small white unpainted bit. It's finished now and not a bit of white remains in this beautiful masterpiece.  Keep reading for a chance to see this in person. It will be featured in Ken's Cats and Corn show. It will be at the Ten Cat at the end of September and you're invited!

Where do you go from the painting above? Why, another glitter cat, of course! Look closely and you'll see the beginnings of whiskers on this one. 

Emily is off to a great start with her plaid. Her colors are rich and intense and she seems to have a handle on dry-brush as well.

  

Not to mention that Emily is fast! She's painted the next two exercises in the course of a single class. Here are the color wheels.  To the left, she uses just three colors to populate the entire color wheel. We especially like the way she's added tadpole tails, showing the color at full strength and washed out. On the right, she does the tint/tone/shade color wheel. In both of these, the small dots of color look like candy and make us very happy.

 

Upcoming events

Corn and Cats.  Ken will be having a show at Ten Cat Tavern (how appropriate!). Come to the opening reception or just drop by to see the paintings.

      Where:
      Ten Cat Tavern

      3931 N Ashland Ave, Chicago, IL

     When:
     Exhibition: September 30–November 15
     Reception: September 30, 3pm-ish