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, ILRenaissance Court/Chicago Cultural Center
When:
Tuesday, October 29, 2:00–3:00pm
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
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