Sara gets religion...

 Here’s the reference photo. I named it Madonna of the Driveway.

Here’s the sketch that I worked on forever.

Here’s my first watercolor attempt. I primed spaces with clear water before painting, but the paper couldn’t take it even tho this is Strathmore 400. Her face is too blotchy. The baby looks like an old man...

Second attempt: I used a yellow underwash on the faces and her shirt to get a glowing effect. I think it worked. I changed the right arm position— too many hands, and the baby still looks like an old man...

Now I’m painting it in gouache on hot press because I want it to look more like a Renaissance Madonna and child painting. I’m going for a darker background and more variation from light to dark. The baby currently looks like ET...

Current reference photo...I like to aim high...

Peachie Pie

 Photo made blue eyes brown so I fixed that.  Now the highlight too big.  Touchy touchy all this fixin’

Elaine O. — May 29, 2021

Almost finished! I think one more good session should do it.

Water Lilies IV        9" x 12"

The eighth bird

 So far so good I think,  Doing a close up gives me more freedom to abstract him without worrying so much about getting all those pesky details just so.  Also it helps when painting to listen to Emmylou Harris rather than CNN.

Lake Michigan sunsets

This was a quick sketch painting just looking for colors.

In the first painting  I did some work on the chairs trying to give them more depth. 

One of the problems was that I made the lake so dark that the chairs got lost. The little cloud on the horizon was to cover a mistake. I kind of liked it but didn’t really want it there. The clouds were supposed to be light and fluffy but I screwed that up and made them darker to cover up that mistake. So I thought that I would paint it again trying to correct the mistakes that I made in the first version. 

I liked it better.  There was a peace that I was striving for that wasn’t there in the first one.   The sky and the lake were too ominous.

Easy on My Eyes

I painted the Second Man in my Life in a pre pneumonia photo when he still had chubby cheeks & more hair on top. He was wearing a pre pandemic working uniform of coat & tie to do field audits. For these 2 pandemic years, my partner has been wearing a hooded long sleeved top with athletic pants as he works from home in a corner of my basement. The positive effect of working from home is the savings on laundry, public transportation, noontime meals & travel time. I dare not enumerate the negatives!

I feel that this watercolor painting of my domestic critic has an "almost there" quality so I stopped after I have achieved the twinkle in his eyes & his sweet smile.  By the way, he lost 20 pounds from the pneumonia crisis of March 2020, non covid, is still recovering & has lesser silvery strands! Happy Painting to all!

Alan at the beach

 

Still have a lot of work to do on the chairs  

Elaine O. — May 22, 2021

I finished another in the Water Lilies series. My original interest was in the reflections, but my interest (and the focus) has shifted. Nonetheless, I'm quite happy with the result.

Water Lilies III        9" x 12"

Here's the start of my next one. This features more horizontal banding to create a lazy drifting feel.

Water Lilies IV        9" x 12"

Almost There

 Today I did a portrait painting as a recuerdo of my May birthday this Monday. I am thankful that my household fairly & my artistic family have survived 2 years of pandemic, surviving various health challenges along the way! I reviewed videos & literature about portraiture in

the internet but different artists have different strokes so eventually I used parts of their recommendations & part of my gut feel! But the similarities of all started with a reasonable fundamental drawing. Thus I focused on the shadows of my broad nose, dissimilar eye shapes & wide smile. I used new gamboge as underpainting instead of the recommended yellow ochre. For my brown skin, I used burnt umber as recommended & the side shadows, cobalt turquoise. I felt I have an  "almost there" likeness so I stopped. Please feel free to suggest any artistic stuff to enhance this piece! Happy painting to all! 

finching around

 This guy is almost done.  Maybe a little more indigo in the sky. maybe some veins in those leaves, and I gotta do something to wipe that silly smile off his beak.

This photo will probably be the eighth and final bird.

Weekly Inspirations VI

53a)  April Gornik, Storm on the Coast, 2015

 

 

53b)  Diego Rivera, Erupting Volcano, 1943

 

53c)  John Constable, Rainstorm Over the Sea, oil on paper laid over canvas

 

54a) Felice Casorati, 1926

 

 

 

54b) Lesley Powell, Orchids Clustered, oil on linen, 2019

 

54c) Georgia O'Keeffe, Cow's Skull with Calico Roses, 1931

55a)  Cian McLoughlin, Camden Man B, 2008, chalk on paper

55b)  John P. Smolko, Colored Pencil

 

55c)  Paul Wright, Head of a Proud Man, Oil on canvas

56a)  Balthus, Window, Cour de Rohan, 1951

56b)  Jan de Vliegher, Window, Oil on canvas, 2010

56c) Kenny Harris

57a) Nicolas de Staël, La luna, 1953, Óleo sobre lienzo. 162 x 97 cm.

 

57b) Milton Avery, 1957

57c) Alex Katz, Luna Park 1, 1960

58a) Paul Nash, Ink-and-watercolor landscape, 1914

58b)  Gustav Klimt, Spring

58c)  Maria Yakunchikova (1870-1902)

59a)  Aubrey Levinthal

59b) Cressida Campbell, Lilies with Indian Cloth, 1994, Woodblock, 82.3 x 48.8 cm

59c) Samuel John Peploe, Aspidistra, (1871–1935)

elaine t. / May 15

 Got the Goonie Bird's background in, and filled in some details. Over all I'm kind of "meh" about it. I think I'll try to paint some of the stuff from Svengoolie to perk myself up this week!

Elaine O.—May 15, 2021

I finished a sketchbook so I feel a sense of accomplishment there. I used the last page to do a quick direct watercolor self-portrait; I like the idea and will probably continue doing that. I started the sketchbook at the beginning of this Covid business and now I wish I'd started with a self-portrait too, but that's okay. While this doesn't look exactly like me, it does look like people in my family, and I'm counting that as a win.

Self-portrait    5.5" x 8"

I did a sketch, too, of my next water lily painting, but it's too faint to see, so here are some value/color studies. 

Running Out of Boys

 Only two more blank pages in my people book. These are small 4 x 4.25 and 5.25 x

6.5.  

 Not pleased with the likenesses. It’s always the eyes that are not right. Maybe the next book will be a small one with eyes. Just eyes. 

finchmania

 Scrapped my earlier version of this to make the bird bigger.

Twelve Roses: Sun&Sea, Sky&Earth

 I painted the 12 roses with baby's breath that my husband gave me over the weekend! As a prep, I read various reference books on flowers. Although they were helpful, the test was in the actual painting: the petals & leaves, each bud with a separate personality, each leaf has its own dance moves. The flowers are 4 co

lors: quina red, pyrrol crimson, orange, blue. The leaves are burnt sienna, ultra blu, yellow, burnt umber. The baby's breath was courtesy of masking fluid. I eliminated the flower vase when I arranged the flowers for  painting & the point of view was looking. down at the arrangement. For the background, I used quina gold & turquoise green. The background could be reversed, with the blue as the sky & the burnt orange, the land. Happy Painting to All!

Elaine O. — May 8, 2021

Big news--I'm nearly finished with a sketchbook. I started it at the beginning of the pandemic, so it's just over a year and I only have 3 pages to go. I'm hoping to be able to call it finished next week! Meanwhile, here's a finished water lily. The  dark green is the undersea green tube I was testing. Once this tube is done, though, I think I'll go back to mixing my own.

Water Lily II        9" x 12"

Sara’s portraits

 Here’s the finished portrait. There’s a lot I like, our expressions, particularly Nora’s, the hands. Not crazy about how I painted the clothes. And the whole issue of everything being in shadow kind of derailed the outcome of the colors - it lost that “spring” freshness. I’m thinking of painting it again on better paper.

Here’s a quick sketch I did this morningi. I think it’s a study for a bigger painting.