After that explosive burst of color, Ellen also did these delicate cherry blossom paintings. Equally colorful, but quite a different mood and technique.
It looks like Ellen's experiments with Chinese brush painting have inspired us. Here, Tony uses his water soluble calligraphy markers to draw bamboo stalks. If you look closely, there is a faint green background. That's drawn out from the black ink, not applied separately!
After the stark black-and-white of the calligraphy marker, Tony painted this colorful cardinal. It's painted directly in watercolor—no pre-drawing!
Tony is gravitating towards vibrant, saturated color. He's finished his bug on a rose with rich complementary colors. No, we still don't know what kind of bug it is, but we admire the way it sits among the swirling rose petals.
More complementary colors! Steve has also done a floral painting using green and red. Notice how different it feels—Steve uses warm colors vs. Tony's cool ones. Oh, and there is no bug here.
Elaine T. is into color, too. She painted these beautifully colorful glass marbles against an inky background. We love the way they sparkle and shine and we each have a favorite.
Marva finished this painting of pine trees against a magnificently colorful sky. Look closely to appreciate all the color, movement and beauty she's included.
Ken has jumped on the "colorful sky" bandwagon in his new series featuring a day in the life of Ken. Each painting will be a snapshot of a different moment of the same day. Below, Ken is on the Irving platform in a sudden snowstorm, waiting for a southbound Brown Line. Actually, the sky isn't colorful, but it is full of movement and energy. We are totally smitten with this view of a train pulling into the station.
This painting features another snapshot from the same day. It looks like an homage to Vincent Van Gogh, doesn't it? We love the light on the building, trees and street. Oh, and those aren't stars; they are street lights.
Ken begins another painting from the same day. This is downtown Chicago at approximately 10:12pm. Keep watching and we'll be sure to provide the exact times and locations for these paintings.
Elaine O. has moved inside (a good choice, given the weather!) to start painting this interior. It's a Wyoming apartment she lived in, with a nostalgic feel and a lot of memories. The furniture, in particular, got us all chatting about favorite chairs, benches, and mementos from our past.
Sara painted this interior using only two colors. It's much more au courant than the room above, being Sara's current sun-drenched living room, complete with a cozy sofa, reading material and a snack. Makes you want to curl up, doesn't it?
Sara is planning to re-do this as a full-color painting, so she spent the morning sketching the scene. You'll notice that she concentrated on the tablescape, especially the bowl. This is going to be good. Come back to see more.
We mentioned the torrential rains. Dana took the worst of it. She missed a bus and walked to class, arriving totally soaked. It took almost the entire morning for her to dry out. Fortunately, her sketchbook remained dry and she decided to concentrate on hair studies today. She began with this magnificent updo....
...before sketching her classmates. Below is Sara. Especially worth noticing is how Dana really observes her subject and paints all the different colors she sees. No wonder these look so real—no one's hair is a solid mass of yellow or brown.
Dana did three more classmates below. We all had a great time identifying each other and marveling at the detail Dana achieved in a very small sketch. Did we mention these are tiny? It's true... each head is only 1-3 inches!
Talk about dedication... Susan was going to a Christmas party, but she dropped in to show us some paintings she finished during the past weeks. All three are captioned and are from her recent Australia/New Zealand vacation. From a lighthouse in Victoria....
...to climbing the Sydney Bridge...
...even watching a geyser in New Zealand. Definitely a vacation worth painting about!
SPARK Microgrant program
Check out this grant opportunity to see if you are interested and/or qualify. It's a program of The Joyce Foundation and Chicago Artists Coalition called SPARK. A recap follows, and you can learn more at this site:http://www.chicagoartistscoalition.org/spark-program-joyce-foundation-and-chicago-artists-coalition
SPARK: A Program of The Joyce Foundation and Chicago Artists Coalition
Program Description. The SPARK Microgrant is an annual, unrestricted
award opportunity for Chicago-based visual artists who identify as
ALAANA (Asian, Latino, Arab, African diaspora, Native), an artist with a
demonstrated need, an artist with a disability,
or as a self-taught or informally trained artist who is striving to
make their art practice a primary vocation.
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