Cezanne and Signorini

 First in a series of people viewing Cezanne paintings at the Art Institute. 

Trying to paint in the style of Loriann Signorini, who works in pastel. The yellow one is my attempt to copy her painting. The pink one is from my photo. 

Dare frame thy fearful symmetry?

 What is this blog, chopped liver?  Nobody posts, nobody comments.  What is the world coming to?

He's a little more filled in and has some nice water to drink, and we shall see what we shall see.  

what immortal hand or eye

Put some mitts on him since the class last saw him.  Just following my muse and my muse is not telling me anything until I put paint on the brush.

Elaine O. — June 18, 2022

Another travel painting! No, it's not nearly as exotic as Europe, but this is representative of Illinois farmland, as seen on a recent trip to Decatur. I may have to revisit the sky to get the impending storm more accurately, but I'm happy. I especially like the Harvestore silos—they are so iconic, aren't they?

On the Road to Decatur    9" x 12"

Baby face…

 Here’s Quinnie . She looks a little serious for a 2yrold. I like it but I’m not quite satisfied with the hair and a few other things, but time to move on…

Here’s three flower portraits, painted in 3, 1, 2 order. They have flaws but more energy than Quinn’s portrait, probably because I painted them from real life…

Welcome back

 I finished my little Old Town Triangle street scene on Yupo. I was trying to work with sunlight and shadows alone but it kept getting more and more complex and I kept finding more to do. So I guess I’ll just stop here. 

in the forest of the night

 This is the cropping of the tiger from the left.  I was pretty happy with it after I finished it, but know it looks kind of empty, half tiger, half rocks, so what>=?

This is the most recognizable of the croppings so I am having a bit of a problem with my never think ahead, never think twice, process, but I think I have enough paint down now so that I can ignore the original image.

SS 6.11.22 Matterhorn, View from Hotel Room, Zermatt

 My painting today is Matterhorn or "Peak of the Meadows" located straddling the frontier between Switzerland & Italy, 6 miles or 10 km, southwest of village of Zermatt, a car free village & a winter sports resort. We went by train to the adjacent peaks early Sunday morning of June 5 but the top was completely covered by clouds! So my tour group of 7 accounting sorority sisters plus 5 family members accepted the natural disappointment by buying souvenirs, drinking hot choco & coffee, &  photo ops. Millions of years ago, the "almost perfect pyramid shape" was formed when the African land mass slammed into the European plate forcing the ground upward, like a "jagged tooth". Matterhorn's 4 sided , ridged rocky peak towers 4,478 meters above sea level or 14, 692 feet. My sorority tour group of a dozen seniors plus 21 other tourists were surprised that the Monday morning of June 6 revealed an almost cloudless sky & the Matterhorn in its glory, destination of climbers & thrill seekers. Our tour bus was leaving in half hour so I hurriedly sketched the glorious peak using the hotel room graphite pencil @ 7:40 a.m. of June 6. On June 11, Saturday, I was unable to go to Truman class due to slight congestion non covid.  I enhanced my sketch of June 6 with my watercolor paints on June 11. Hope you like it! And we even took a train ride, the day before to miss it! Ce'st LaVie! 

Alan beginning June

 I’ve been working on this street view in the Old Town Triangle. I’m trying to do it on Yupo but I’m having trouble with the big shadows in the yard. There’s a lot of work yet to be done. I’m doing this with no pencil marks using Grid Painter. 

I tried some plein aire last week. I’m told that it’ll get better with time. Golf clubs are good for “shapes not things”

Added a little paint on the woodpile sketch. 

Oh. I did a little more work in the irises  

Eldest daughter

 Another birthday card. Six down, two to go….until the October cycle. 

From a photo next to a window in a Hyde Park cafe. 

Another painting without drawing  Copying someone else’s pa inning of the Julia Child rose.

Elaine O. — June 4, 2022

Well, it's finished! And there's so much to say, starting with Ken's maxim that it's not done until it's overdone. Seriously, this is one of those paintings where I'm happy...and then I go one step too far. In this case, I used gouache to lighten some of the moss and instead, it went all dead and chalky. Lesson 1: Don't rely on gouache to save your values!

Spanish Moss (before removing mask outlines)        9"x12"

And here's Lesson 2: Don't leave mask on for months and months. I started the sketch and the mask a while ago and just found the sheet of paper and decided to paint it. Well, that mask did NOT want to come off. I may have rubbed my actual fingerprints off in the process! Here's the final result. 

Spanish Moss         9"x12"

And Lesson 3: If you're sketching with mask, don't put in a horizon line--I think that's what it is--especially if you don't use it!

Burning bright

Finished the tiger's butt and I like it. but I wonder what someone who didn't know what it was would think.  Posted last Saturday's on fb and none of my fb people knew what it was.  Is it necessary for the viewer to know what it is to appreciate it?

And here is my second cropping of the tiger.  Still not thinking ahead or thinking twice.  I think the music I am listening to is more important than the image before me.