If we're painting trees, we can't help but mention Sara. She's been particularly prolific this past week, not only in terms of quantity, but the range of techniques, media and sizes she's explored. Here, for instance, is today's painting. It's a lovely mixture of watercolor and watercolor pencil. We particularly like the texture in the tree bark.
Straight watercolor here. It's almost finished and deftly contrasts the foliage with the manmade elements like the garage roof and the skyscraper.
These two trees are done in colored pencil. Sara began her art career with colored pencil and hasn't lost her touch. See how beautifully the colors blend and the texture she is able to achieve.
These two paintings are done with watercolor pencil. Look at the different ways Sara has used the pencils—drawing and wetting later, drawing into water and even touching the brush to the pencil tip and using that as paint. Each technique yields a different result. Look closely!
This is a watercolor Sara began last week. She's gone in with watercolor pencil to add color, contrast and textural accents.
Alan is all about trees (and experimentation), too. We love this minimalist painting of a lake on a foggy morning. It's painted on watercolor canvas and the soft shoreline is beautifully framed by the lake foliage.
You may remember the watercolor study Alan did of this scene. Now, he's finished painting it on Yupo. Zoom in and look at the colors and mosaic-like center.
And Alan's been doing a sketch-of-the-day. The subjects vary, but the technique is the same—contour drawings in ink with added watercolor.
Bill finished his castle on the hill from last week. There wasn't much to add, but the slight definition to the castle really makes this landscape come to life.
Closer to home, Bill painted a waterfall from Chicago's Botanic Garden. We love the water against the stones and the way the waterfall is framed on three sides by the trees and leaves.
With minutes left of class time, and inspired by the textures of Sara's watercolor pencil, Bill painted this lovely little houseplant. The red outlines really define the green leaves, don't they?
While corn isn't really a houseplant, Ken is still fascinated by the leaves and stalks and adds a mosaic sky as a background....
... before moving on to something new. No, it's not corn (or cats or trains or women). These are the tomatoes of summer. Again, notice how the complementary color outline makes the color pop. And we love the serenity provided by the minimal grid layout.
Greeta has been doing the sketch-of-the-day thing too, but she's used a variety of techniques. Here's a page from her sketchbook. Unfortunately, we didn't get more, but we can assure you these are exquisite.
Greeta adds another page to the Houses of West Graceland book. This time, she features a lovely craftsman house with the typical eaves, stucco finish and overhang. Seriously, this is some neighborhood!
Elaine's painting a house from her neighborhood, too, but this is a house of worship. There's still a bit to do, but we can see what attracted her—the lacy stonework at the top of the tower. And the lacy foliage framing the brick and stone adds a nice touch.
Susan paints another awe-inspiring place she saw on her Canadian Rockies trip. This is Banff with Cascade Mountain in the background. The ice cream stand is in town and for a moment of "aww!," we see Susan and her husband sharing an ice cream cone. The mountain itself looks like ice cream, doesn't it? And the ice cream colors of the sky are a perfect background.
Our newest members are all about color, too. Cesar is still finishing his color wheel, but shared this stylized portrait. That's not watercolor—that's India ink! Yes, he's glazed thin layers of ink to create those smooth gradations. If you've ever worked with India ink, you know what a feat this is.
We're at one of our favorite exercises—the three way fruit. If you haven't been following, the goal is to quickly paint the same fruit three ways: very wet, very dry, and then a combination. Yanna begins with one of the biggest and most colorful grapefruits we've ever seen (it may be a pomelo or a Texas grapefruit, but whatever it is, it's amazing). We've labeled the painting styles and love Yanna's colors and especially the shadows.
Yi brought a single perfect tomato, complete with attached branch. We love the branch and are in awe of how dry her dry painting is. She also found a way to control the wet by leaving white between colors so the paint doesn't bleed. Clever!
You know the color-matching exercise, don't you? Yi took it a step further, incorporating her colors into a scene from a book. She also brought the samples, so you know they are spot on.
This is Crazie's gourd in the three techniques. We love the complementary color shadow in the combo painting and the control she's achieved in the combo.
These new people are showing us up! Here's another imaginative take on the color matching exercise. Crazie has incorporated the actual items into a story painting. The moon is the color of the moon, the ginko leave is the color of a ginko leaf. And that's Crazie herself with her own jacket.
You know how we like to experiment with media and backgrounds. Crazie made this outfit—by hand! And she's painted the decorative elements with fabric paint. Look closely to see the top and skirt... and the delicate flowers on the jacket.
Here's a back view. She's signed the skirt, appropriately enough as this is truly a work of art.
Upcoming Events
This is the annual Carols concert and they will be performing the music of Brahms and Britten. Steve says it's a great piece and one of his favorites—so you know that's saying something! Click here to learn more: A Ceremony of Carols—DePaul Community Chorus.
Where:
Alderman Pawar's 47th Ward Office
4243 N Lincoln Avenue, Chicago, ILAlderman Pawar's 47th Ward Office
When:
Exhibition: September 16–January 13
Group Show. Watch this space for details! It's true—we may be having a group show sometime in December! We'll know more for sure next week and will give you more info just as quickly as we get it.
