October 26, 2019

It's a new session and we have seven (count 'em.... 7) new students. We're excited! What better way to begin than with Greeta's beautiful painting of a bouquet of flowers in a cobalt blue glass vase. Isn't this lovely? The flowers feature seasonal colors, with the vase as a perfect complement. And did you notice the painting on the windowsill? It's of the very same blue vase!

Back to Greeta's latest sketchbook.... she's finished the background of the painting of a man waiting for a bus at a busy retro street corner. We love the bustling traffic done in soft focus.

This one didn't make it into Greeta's A Day With Manet series, but here's the sketch. She loved the girl in the foreground's dress (so do we!), but stopped with the sketch since the subjects were looking at different paintings... and one is in another room altogether.

These two women are also in Greeta's sketchbook. They are walking down the street, having a conversation. What inspired her to paint them? The sketchbook is of people Greeta doesn't know (we find that to be a very useful criteria for a series), with a focus on their body positions and stances.

As you know, Sara is an inveterate sketcher, too. Here's an exquisitely delicate sketch of her granddaughter as a preliminary for the painting below. Sara loves the feel of this —as do we!

And here is Sara's painting. She boldly added a background, then knocked it back to reclaim the focus on the subject. Especially worthy of note is how the colors reflect the feel and light of the season. Come back to see the final painting.

Elaine also painted her subject against a dark background, but chose to leave it dark. This is based on a black-and-white photo from Julia Cameron's book. We can't decide if the shape is a halo or a straw bonnet, but it suits the subject nonetheless.  

Alan has made some serious progress on his painting of a young teen, curled up against a brick ledge, reading. This is done on gessoed canvas as an experiment and, so far, Alan likes the way the paint handles on the gesso. He has more canvases in the wings, so come back to see more.

Ken's also painting bricks, but his are hauntingly lit in a Chicago alley. What do we like? Where to begin? The mood, the lighting, the shadows, the spill of streetlights on the ground... all that and more.

Susan did a palette-cleaning-and-consolidation this week—always exciting! Yet, she used the remains of paint on three old, dirty palettes to achieve the bright, clear colors in this landscape. There are two small people canoeing, but the main focus is the clear, sparkling waters and the Canadian Rockies.

Speaking of new palettes and new beginnings, we are excited to introduce our crop of newbies. They are experimenting with different palettes of color and spent the morning quite productively. Anand created this color wheel using only three colors—lemon yellow, cadmium red and intense blue. All the secondaries and tertiaries are mixed from those three.

From there, Anand went on to test all his paints in this plaid. Look at the colors at the intersections of the pure colors. This is going to be a valuable resource.

We have another Sarah (but this is Sarah-with-an-h, instead of Sara) and she created this color wheel. Her three primaries were rose madder, cadmium yellow and cobalt turquoise. It's interesting to see how the color wheel shifts with different primaries, isn't it? 

Then, Sarah began testing her yellows....

... and reds.

Anna used Pat's triad of permanent rose, cadmium yellow and turquoise for her color wheel. This is similar to the printer ink spectrum (cyan, magenta and yellow) and produces some lovely colors.

 Anna began the second exercise.... the collage. Students are instructed to go through magazines and clip colors that appeal to them. Here are Anna's.

Paula's color wheel is soft, delicate and watery. She's also using the turquoise, rose, yellow primaries and mixing to create all the others.

And here is Paula's color collage. We love the way she began with the rainbow and built her preferences out from there.

Victoria used the rose, yellow and turquoise primaries for her color wheel, yet it has her own touch and is different from the others using the same colors. 

Here is her color collage. It's interesting to note that she prefers the same bright clear colors as Paula, but a little less saturated, while Anna's color choices are soft and muted. It's going to be fun seeing what our newbies do... they are all so promising!

Upcoming Events

Improv Performance.  In the mood for some fun this Tuesday afternoon? Drop by the Renaissance Court at the Cultural Center in downtown Chicago for an Improv Show. It will feature our own Ken and Elaine O., it's free—and there will be snacks. What more can you ask for?

      Where:
      Renaissance Court/Chicago Cultural Center

      78 East Washington Street, Chicago, IL

     When:
     Tuesday, October 29, 2:00–3:00pm

Open Sketch date. You're invited to join us on an upcoming Saturday afternoon at St. Gregory the Great Church for an open sketching/photography session. This is a great opportunity to see, sketch or photograph a truly magnificent architectural treasure. A docent will also be on hand to answer questions. This site was featured in the Chicago Open architecture tour and recommended by the Tribune as one of the top ten sites, so this is a great opportunity if you missed it then.

     Where:
     St. Gregory the Great Church
     5545 N. Paulina
     Church entrance is on the corner of Gregory and Paulina;
     one block west of Ashland and one block south of Bryn Mawr

     When:
     Saturday, TBD—watch for details!
     12:00–3:00pm

October 19, 2019

It's a beautiful fall day, with all the crisp sunlight the season is known for. Today, our paintings again revolve around people, places, and people in places. We love the stories these paintings tell. Here, for instance, Sara paints an airport traveler watching changing foliage through a terminal window.We love the graphic quality of the backlighting inside and the contrast with the light colorful outdoors. Can't resist making up a story about the traveler, can you?

From there, Sara begins a sweet Nora painting. Here she is in a pumpkin patch, getting ready for Halloween. Look closely at the lovely quality of light on the subject's face and under her hat. And notice her expression. This is more than a cute picture. There's a story in this.

Alan worked on his New Orleans street scene. He's adding detail and value accents to the colorful facades...

...while experimenting with his newest surface, canvas. Alan has stretched canvas on a board and prepped it to receive watercolor with two coats of gesso. Looks like it accepts paint similar to Yupo, so Alan is off to a great start.

So, he jumps in with a large canvas, mounted on stretcher bars and gessoed.  He's painting a youth engrossed in a book and is enjoying the variety of effects he can achieve. In particular, he can easily re-work and remove color as you can see in the background. Here's another painting where we couldn't help but speculate about the backstory.

Elaine O. has also placed her subject in a wooden background. She's used different colors, a different surface, and a different style, but this guy definitely has a backstory, too. We love guessing the meaning of the objects around him and wonder if he's composing music or a book... maybe the book Alan's subject is reading the painting above.

Greeta has been hard at work in her "people" sketchbook. She's finished the dancing girls (they're so full of motion, aren't they?) and added another person to the page with the festival-goer. They are from different cities and different times, but they go together so well.

More people in places... and in time. These are based on screen shots of photos by David Razowski. They are taken in the Six Corners neighborhood around the 60's/70's. Again, these subjects tell a story. We want to know more about them.

Greeta was so interested in the fellow above, she painted him again. This time she added shopping bags and placed him in a background with cars, trees, street light poles and a businessman. We applaud the way Greeta only put in enough detail to frame the subject, but not compete.

You can only paint so many people before you need a break! So Greeta started this exquisite still life of flowers in a windowsill. There are tons of details to come... a cobalt vase, a small painting, etc. But it's already beautiful with the wet-in-wet beginnings.

Isa made a lot of progress on her floral painting, too. Unlike Greeta, this one features a single flower, standing proudly before layers of foliage. Isa is painting wetter than her previous iris and varying the greens. She still hasn't decided on the color of the iris, but we know it'll be great. Keep reading to see why—Isa is our featured artist in today's Masterpiece Series.

Ken doesn't need people in his place to tell a story—just look at the atmosphere he's created in this Chicago alley. Now all we need  is a screenwriter with a film noir script.

Here's the same alley, but a different view. Yes, if you look closely, you'll see that Ken is painting the part of the alley below the first painting. And notice that he's including perspective lines. That's professional!

Another place, another story! Susan painted this river from New Zealand. Quite a different atmosphere than the dark alley above. Here is a sunny happy day in a majestic setting.

Masterpiece Series

And now, the latest installment in our new feature, Masterpiece Series, where we focus on one artist and a series they have done. Today, we look at Isa and her series about Windows. We begin with a painting of her house, decorated for Christmas...

... and move to other winter scenes as seen through windows. Of special note are the contrasting views of inside/outside, warmth/cold and the use of complementary colors to achieve a feeling.

And finally, it's spring! We move beyond the interior to look at an iris outdoors.

Art Exhibition

We still have work on display in the glass cases lining the halls of the Larry McKeon Building at Truman College. You can see the displays anytime the building is open (it's the building with the parking garage).

October 12, 2019

We had a change of scenery today...we painted in the lobby of the McKeon Building as part of Community Day. There was a bike ride, lunch, speeches, and more—all sponsored by Truman, community partners and Continuing Education. There was painting, a ceramics wheel and clay modeling. What didn't change, though, was our paintings. We painted people, places and people in places, beginning with Ken's alley, below. He's added the night sky, which changes the whole vibe. We love the texture, the lighting and the atmosphere in this urban landscape.

From there, Ken began work on his study of another portion of the alley.... just below the scene above.

Alan is also painting places.... part of a place, in this case. This is part of his series featuring tops of buildings. Be sure to read to the end as Alan is the subject of today's Masterpiece Series feature.

Here are more buildings, done on Alan's favorite support, Yupo. He took an old painting and washed off the paint (something you can do on Yupo as it's a plastic). Some of the old color stained and the graphite remained, so he used the sketch as the basis for this painting of a street in New Orleans. 

Greeta finished the painting we saw last week. It's her A Day With Manet series and features the paintings in the Manet exhibit, and modern day onlookers. You'll notice we left a bit of the surrounding floor. This is the floor in the McKeon building and it's spectacular! We were so enamored of it that we took photos... and many of us said we'd have it in our house!

More beauty shots of the floor. The photos don't have the gloss, color and vibrancy of the original, but it's the best we can get in a photo.

Imagine the blues a bluer cobalt, the greens a sparkling lime, and the browns a rich sienna. Then, add a killer shine and you'll come close to how the floor really looks.

But we digress. This is the last of Greeta's Day with Manet series. It's the only one that features the same visitor twice, but we think the dress makes it worth it. We are sad to see this series end...

...but we're glad to see Greeta break out a new sketchbook, dedicated to people she's seen. Here's a woman she saw walking down the street to a jazz festival in Mississippi. She looks stately and picturesque, and you can feel the dress flowing, can't you?

Greeta began a sketch of these two girls, dancing at a festival. The movement is evident from the clothing's shapes. We're excited to see this sketchbook progress.

More dancing women! Susan returned to this painting of three sisters dancing at a church dance. She layered and darkened the background to push the background dancers further into the background and focus on the subject of the painting. We love how she's left the light streaming through the windows.

More people in places. Elaine O. began this painting of a man at a table. She loves the composition, with the man in profile, centered in front of a window, and surrounded by objects of value to him. Yes, that's a motorcycle and he's using an old manual typewriter. 
 

We were joined by guest artist Mya today. We're blown away by her brilliant color and beautiful composition. Her grandmother claims this is her first painting ever (with professional paints), which makes this even more impressive.

Masterpiece Series

And now, the latest installment in our new feature, Masterpiece Series. Each week, we focus on one artist, showing a series they have done.... either in a row or over time. Today's artist is Alan and this is his series featuring Tops of Buildings. This series developed over time. He began with an alley he spent many happy hours smoking in. Intrigued by the clouds, he painted the sky (and the buildings) in a variety of croppings and with different media. This is Masa paper, a rice paper that gives the crinkled texture you see below.

From there, he uses pen and ink, watercolor and more on cold press, hot press, rough and Yupo papers.

The next leap forward happened when Alan was on vacation. He began consciously painting the tops of buildings, framed by trees and skies. We like the way he painted several on a page.

Finally, Alan broke down and painted an entire house!

Art Exhibition

We have work on display in the glass cases lining the halls of the Larry McKeon Building at Truman College. You can see the displays anytime the building is open (it's the building with the parking garage).