Sara has two baby portraits—one with each of her sons. This is Sara's first grandchild, so we can't imagine she'll tire of the subject any time soon. Here is baby Nora with her father. Can that child look any cuter or more comfortable? Don't these remind you of Mary Cassatt in the way they capture the essence of a sleepy baby?
Sara paints the same grandbaby, but with a different son. She's truly captured the essence of an uncle's first introduction to his niece. All these baby pictures are really about the relationship between the baby and the person holding her—and all of these succeed admirably.
No new grandchildren for Bill, but he's painting another of our favorite subjects—
buildings! This line and wash painting uses delicate lines (especially in the ironwork of the railing!) and a minimal palette for the washes. Still, it captures the feel of the buildings perfectly.
Madeleine has been busy! Here she finished her painting is of the capital building in Havana, Cuba. She's added a billboard featuring the name of the city and a graphic of Che Guevara to identify the location definitively, but subtly.
And then, Madeleine moved on to finish this scene from last week. Notice how adding the view through the archways adds a tremendous sense of depth.
But that's not all! Madeleine moved on to this painting. So far, she's only finished the rails on this bridge, but we're already intrigued by what is on the other side.
Steve is combining two of our favorite themes, with a unique touch! He's painting Hawaiian plants and scenes using paint he's created from Hawaiian mud. As far as we know, he's the only person doing this—and it's magnificent. We have a new nickname for him—the Mudman of Kauai—and anticipate tourists snapping these up from galleries all over the islands.
A little closer to home, Ken is painting flora too. But his tomato plants are from a slightly less exotic locale (his balcony). Nonetheless, his mosaic background is elevating these humble tomatoes to something extraordinary.
Isa's been feeling the floral vibe, too. Here, she's finished a springlike scene, called Peaceful Meadow. Most appropriate, we think.
Isa's latest obsession is with roses. We love the background she's added to make these delicate yellow roses pop. She's layered colors in a cross hatch pattern to create a beautifully active sky....
...and moved on to this lovely rose. She's used values confidently to model the single bloom. We're eager to see where she goes from here.
Yi is also painting roses. She's finished these delicate yellow roses and they look great! Especially noteworthy is the way she uses white of the paper to create highlights on the leaves and light on the petals. And we're amazed at the range of values she's able to coax out of a light color like yellow.
Emboldened by her success with the yellow roses, Yi has sketched her next painting. This will also be a rose, but she's adding an element of "cute" with the kitten. Be prepared to say "aww!"
Elaine is almost finished with her floral painting, too. She forgot salt (we're not kidding about that—she plans to use it to texture the planter edge to the left). This is a prime example of why complementary colors work!
So, instead of finishing the impatiens, Elaine did this small quick study of a daisy. The actual painting is not as fuzzy as the photo and the background is inspired by leaves in the reference photo, as well as Crazie's color choice. Scroll down to see what we mean.
Here's Crazie's lovely lotus flower. She's using gouache, though. Gouache is basically watercolor with white added. This makes it opaque and allows the painter to paint light over dark... something watercolorists can't do. Some purists lament gouache's lack of transparency, but we think Crazie's painting conveys all the delicacy of the blossom.
These three small studies are Crazie's experiments with gouache. She's able to paint white over blue and blend colors. We also like the whimsical painting of the little girl fishing for a bunny.
Finally, Crazie finished her figure study below. Also in gouache, this little masterpiece uses a minimal palette and graphic shapes in a Hockney-esque painting.
Basan finished her still life below. She's experienced in acrylics, so she's also adding white paint to her watercolors, which results in gouache-like body color.
Basan has been working on avoiding white paint. Here, for instance, she's lifted the white center on this lovely bloom.
Here's the same bloom with more white added to the paint. As you can see, it's sharper and more solid.
Here is another pair of flowers from Basan to compare. With white paint, creating gouache....
...and without white, making transparent watercolor. Zoom in to see the variety of colors in the purple.
Sarah's been hard at work on her cityscape. She's added lots of delicate line work, defining the buildings and the people. We are also big fans of Sarah's treatment of the river.
Is anyone doing exercises, you ask? Yes! Lilith does the advanced color wheel in her soft style. She's inadvertently added black to the blue spoke of the wheel, but it doesn't affect the usefulness of this one bit.
And then, with time to spare, Lilith began this landscape. Seemingly minimal, there are many sophisticated elements to note: the energetic brushwork and the gradated sky. There's a lot to see here!
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