May 12, 2018

More strange weather in Chicago. It's downright cold today! So, since we couldn't be out gardening, what better way to spend the day than painting with friends? We look forward to future vacations and memorialize people, places and past vacations. Here, for instance, Susan paints her recent trip to Malaysia. She's standing with her husband before the Petronas Twin Towers. Each tower was built by a different company from a different country to meet the construction deadline.

Madeleine celebrates a vacation in Mexico. Just look at the luscious water colors and the incredible clouds in the sky. It looks like a pastry chef has piped trails of whipped cream. Beautiful!

Bill did two versions of the same vacation site in Ireland, but with different intents. First, this is Muckross House...

...and this is Muckross House in its setting, a national park in Killarney. The first is a portrait of the house; this is intended to portray the house as part of the park, which is how Bill remembered it. It's interesting how composition can reflect what we want to say.

Bill also did this scene from Bruges. While he considers this more of a sketch, we love the view across the canal and the touch of color in the red building, echoed in the touches of pink in the reflections. 

With some time to spare, Bill did this painting. The location is closer to home (a rooftop parking lot), but the real subject is the light from the moon and the streetlight. This is a lovely, atmospheric painting.

Elaine also painted a location close to home. While she's taken some liberties with the building materials, she's captured the feel of the sunlight in summer.... which was what attracted her to this in the first place.

Yi is painting her first building, she says. We're amazed at how well she's managed to capture the subtle colors and textures of this house. We can't wait to see the rest of the painting after our summer break.

Tony finished his Mediterranean cityscape, below. We love the feeling he's able to get with his new technique, using watersoluble ink and minimal color.

Tony's on a roll. Here, he is moving to portraiture. Actually, he's painting a version of his sketch of Alexei Jawlensky's Girl with the Green Face. It's in the Art Institute. Look closely at the texture and the beautiful line he's been able to get with the watersoluble ink.

Taking it one step further, Tony copied an old sketch onto watercolor paper on an office copier. This resulted in the exquisite texture he's been able to achieve. And then, he added even more texture with watercolor and watersoluble ink. We really think Tony's on to something here.

Steve's on to something here, too. He's moved on to the merman in his painting. And we are particuclarly impressed by the beautiful handling of the hands and the face. The hands are actually supporting the body on the rocks and the face looks statuesque. This is going to be great.

We know we were all looking forward to Ken's new series on Marina City. Sadly, he did some more studies and decided to return to his tomato plants. While they aren't actually Marina City, they are growing on the balcony there. And the blossoms do look lovely, so we're on board with the switch.

Isa finished her ribbon flower still life. She's touched up the background, added the table and finished off with a perfect little shadow. This is a highly skillful use of composition and minimal color. We are intrigued by the story told by this simple still life.

And now, we'll be off until June 9. That's nearly a whole month! Meanwhile, you can still see Susan's show. And consider joining us for our next class—you know you want to!

Celebrating Diversity Exhibition
Susan Silvano is exhibiting at the Walker Library, celebrating Asian American and Pacific Islander Heritage Month. Stop by if you can.

When:  May 1–May 31, 2018
            
Where: Walker Library
             11071 S. Hoyne Avenue, Chicago, IL 60643
             312-747-1920

Next Class
Want to join our merry band or artists? The summer session of Watercolor begins on June 9 and goes through July 21. Save the date and, if you're at all interested, click here to learn more and register! We really do have as much fun as we seem to.

May 5, 2018

What a day! We're painting familiar people, places and things—but we are experimenting like mad. We may have confused Star Wars day (May the Fourth) with Star Trek; regardless, we are boldly going down new and exciting paths. Follow along and you'll see what we mean. Here, Sara is doing a double portrait. She's been doing studies in various media to get to this. Also, this image doesn't do the real one justice, but notice how the soft color blends are uniformly glowing and beautifully rich.

Steve is also a firm believer in doing studies. And, while he's technically doing a portrait, the background is very important. So, he's using a variety of techniques (wet-in-wet, blotting, salt) to lay in the exquisitely textured background. Yes, the yellow outline is masking fluid and will come off soon!

Like Steve, Susan is combining a person with a unique place. Okay, like Steve's, it may not be a real person—this is a reclining Buddha from a temple in Malaysia—but the tropical background and use of color are essential to making this painting work.

Bill is also painting people in a location. Here, the people are real and they are walking a labyrinth. Especially noteworthy is the fact that we know it's a labyrinth, even though Bill hasn't marked every walkline. We get the sense of action and meditative movement, which is exactly the intent.

Here's another example of the value we find in studies. Bill is doing two studies of the same buildings. This first one is more pastoral and gently centers the architecture in fields of green.

In this start, notice how Bill is changing the vantage point, expanding the foreground and heightening the value contrast. We'll be anxious to see the differences when he finishes this one.

Madeleine's painting is also of a unique place—the Netherlands. We love the composition with the line of marching windmills and the reflections. Maybe we're in sci-fi mode, but we also thought they looked like daleks.... in a good way!

Tony is painting buildings and locations (in this case, a narrow Mediterranean street)  while taking his latest experiments even farther.  He's laying down color with two hands now.... one hand holds watercolor soluble pens and pencils while the other wields a brush with water, guiding the pigment. It's incredible that he can get such soft, dreamy results from a technique that looks like welding or soldering. Fascinating!

Ken has moved away from tomatoes and back to corn.... sort of. He's joined the architecture crowd with these studies of Marina City, the world famous corncobs. This is a small preliminary study and we love it! It really feels like Marina City, doesn't it?

... and here is the beginning of another small study of the river near Marina City. Again, Ken has the feel of the subject and we're looking forward to his newest series.

Elaine was traveling light today and did this line and wash sketch using only three colors (plus a sketchbook and Sharpie marker, of course). Who'd have guessed that you could get this range of colors from yellow, red and blue?

Yi is also into architecture. She only got this house sketched today and we'll be eager to see what happens when she adds color...

... as you can see in the finished floral below. Yi finished her painting of the morning glory. Notice how she's combined intricate sharp shapes and colors at the focal point and trailed off into soft focus as we move to the background. This is a skill it takes many of us a long time to learn.

Isa's flowers, as you recall, are fabric and not real. Here, she's added more shading and shadows to the flowers and ribbon. She's also brought in complementary colors to make the flowers even more interesting.

Tal has moved on to the "fruit and fabric" exercise and we're blown away. Look at the textures! The fruits are nestled into the cloth and the fabric undulates softly. Notice the edges and hems, too. This is lovely!

Exhibitions and classes you should know about

The Ten Cat show has been taken down, but you can still see Susan's show and join us for our next class—you know you want to!

Celebrating Diversity Exhibition
Susan Silvano is exhibiting at the Walker Library, celebrating Asian American and Pacific Islander Heritage Month. Stop by if you can.

When:  May 1–May 31, 2018
            
Where: Walker Library
             11071 S. Hoyne Avenue, Chicago, IL 60643
             312-747-1920

Next Class
Want to join our merry band? The summer session of Watercolor begins on June 9 and goes through July 21. Save the date and, if you're at all interested, register! It's really as much fun as it seems.