Elaine O. — July 30, 2022

One more vacation memory recorded...one more sheet of panoramic paper used. I really loved the Courtyard of the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum. This captures my sense of the cool, quiet corners in the tall, light filled atrium, as well as the lovely architecture and plantings.

18" x 6"

Stumps

 I like painting watercolor on gessoed canvas. I’ve made several attempts with this tree stump around the corner from my house. I like this one but I missed the roughness of the sections  

I liked this one on 140# paper. I might spend some time deconstructing this. 

That was fun. 

I tried fixing a painting I did of Greeta at Beloit College. 

That was before and this is after. 

The Fish and the Lady

 Well, I did a little work on both of these At home. I reworked the background color and darkened the coat on the lady. I like it. I might do a bigger version of this, not sure. The proportions on this are way off- I feel she’s way too big and so is the background…

I toned down the background on the fish and tried to give him a little more presence, I think it works but I won’t be spending any more time on him…

I kind of know what I am doing, or maybe I just think I do, actually I just think I think that

This was last week's painting slathered with gum arabic which allowed me to put down and take off paint with abandon, and it was a helluva lot of fun, every brush stroke led to another possibility, and when I was done I was thinking isn't this great?

The next morning I wasn't so sure.  It still has a lot of movement, and interesting colors and a structure, and some nice highlights, but putting them all together, I don't know, I think there should be more.  Maybe if I kept doing those nonrepresentational things I could discover things that would make more, well, something.  Or maybe I should go back to representative stuff, though you know how I hate the tyranny of the image, maybe it's something I should just learn to live with.

 

Elaine O. — July 23, 2022

I'm still working through my panoramic paper—this time, in a vertical orientation. This is a corner of the Courtyard in the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum. The courtyard is full of Roman, Byzantine, Gothic, and Renaissance elements, columns and decorations. Despite all that, it feels very light, romantic and Venetian.

18" x 6"

It's not finished yet, but my intent is to capture my impression of being there and not get caught up in too many details.

I don't know what I am doing.

 Covered it with water then poured some gum arabic over the wet paper and sloshed it all around and set it aside to dry and now, well I don't know.  If I can come out with something "interesting" I will call it a victory.

I don't know.  I think I should go back to grinding out those series, but I haven't been able to think of a theme.

Ladies in Shades

 I worked on these two paintings a little bit more at home. On the top one I just lightened the post and railing on the left, which helped create more sense of light maybe? I’m going to paint this again in a larger size and give more thought to the background.

As for the mysterious Nora, I shaved a few pounds off myself and darkened the background.then I did a lot of work on my face and just generally added more paint to everything. Please note the diamonds in the glasses…!

Elaine O. — July 16, 2022

This is one end of Boston Common, the beginning of the Freedom Trail. See the red brick line down the center of the pavement? You follow it, like a yellow brick road, and it leads you through countless historical Boston sites important to the birth of our nation. 

Boston Common    6" x 18"

You can travel the Trail at your own pace and see what interests you—or you can stay and enjoy the park itself. Besides plenty of historical sites, there are monuments,  plaques, plazas and sculptures, as well as fountains, public gardens and Frog Pond.

My three favorite subjects….

 …people, flowers, and, trees, in that order! I actually like all three of these paintings, which is a little disconcerting…I painted Nora in the last class before I left. I was going to work on it, but now I just  like its freshness, pencil marks at all. Same with the other two; I feel like the values are pretty spot on. Maybe it’s time to find a new favorite subject….

Elaine O. — July 9, 2022

This is a panoramic view of Boston Common. It's a large public park in downtown Boston and is the oldest city park in the US. Even with this panoramic paper, it's hard to capture even a small part of what the park holds. It's full of historic sites, monuments, memorials, recreational areas and more.

Boston Common    6" x 18"

 It's not finished yet so come back next week for more.

 

SS The Wine Grower 070922

 My inspiration today is a Wine Grower in Montreux, Switzerland last June 6. Madame Christine hosted a Wine Tasting with Luncheon meat in her Vineyard along side Lake Geneva, a Unesco World Heritage Site!  She was a charming & approachable host & I was impressed with her beauty & competent leadership as she shared with

us, our tour group,  the history of their ownership & management of her Farm & Wine company. She posed for some solo photos for me afterwards which became my reference for my watercolor painting. Her simple hairdo framed her almost no make up face which was a lovely grouping of gentle peaks & confident valleys. It was unfortunate that their Wine company could not ship directly to USA, since Switzerland is not a member of the European Union. 

Smokey Mountains

 When I visited my brother I passed through these mountains at a time when you could see why they named them the Smokies. I was called on to paint smoke which was a combination of light blue and light grey, scrubbing, lifting, and a watered down white acrylic. 

Another day. Too purple. I’ll fix. 

Fixed. 

Elaine O. — July 2, 2022

Another impression of the rolling farms and fields of Illinois. Still on the road to Decatur, but now there's a darkening across the land as storm clouds roll in.

Storm Clouds on the Road to Decatur    9"x12"