Alan Fall 12

 The first two are quick sketches taking the class suggestions into account. 

Added some branches. Still love the little tree on the left.

Lightened some values and reduced the darkness of many windows. 

Farmers market in Beloit. Had fun with the vegetables but disappointed with the woman in shadow. 

Back to Chicago alleys. I was standing on the top level of a parking structure when I saw these views and thought that we had not painted alleys from this perspective. 

Another view in a different direction. The first is the pen and ink drawing. Then I dropped in some color. 

This is for Ken. I’ve a friend in Tucson who has a garden. He sends me pictures of flowers but this time he sent me a photo of a leaf. Look familiar?

November 25, 2023 — Elaine O.

I'm calling this finished. Lots of lessons to be had here—both for me and you. The proportions of the window mullions are slightly off, and for some reason, I felt this ruined the whole painting. So, I flooded everything outside the window with a blue-gray glaze to make it more like the day I remembered. Some colors ran badly, but it did change the mood of the painting. The lessons? 1) Take some time and think before you act precipitously, and 2) sometimes, bold precipitous acts are just what you need.

Looking out Monet's Bedroom Window, Giverny    14"x11"

And now, an art/paint history lesson for you. Feel free to skip it if you're not into that kind of thing. Do you see the bright green color of the window mullions and garden stakes? That's Sennelier Emerald Green. It's straight from the tube (mostly) and the color is spot on. Back in the day, Sennelier created many colors with and for the impressionists. This green color was particularly beloved by Cezanne, Van Gogh and, of course, Monet.

So I had to try a tube of this magic paint, right? I found it very unnatural and synthetic, so it languished in my paint box for years--until I went to Giverny. Every outdoor wood surface was this green (even the famous bridge in the Japanese Garden). I guess Monet really did like it! The actual pigment was banned in the 1960's as it was highly poisonous, but this is supposed to be an accurate reproduction.

Works in Progress….

 These are two canvas boards that I covered with watercolor ground, but as you can see, the brushstrokes of the water color ground did not disappear. I guess I should have watered it down maybe? I need advice from Elaine and anyone else who has used it. The top one is a house portrait of my son’s house. Along with their new garage, they resided the house and put on a front porch. It’s 8x10 and I’m using gouache.That tree shadow will look better after I darken the sidewalk, I hope. The bottom one is watercolor on canvas, about 6 x 6.I like the tomato and plate but the avocado needs a shadow imo. Not sure about that background 

Here’s a big watercolor, 11 x 15, on paper. It looks like a forsythia plant, but actually it’s a rose bush in my backyard. All the leaves turned yellow this year, which has never happened before. It’s so festive and everything else is so drab, I had to paint it. I’m not done yet.

I don't know

 

This started out as a closeup of a leaf but soon turned pretty abstract. At one point the painting stopped talking to me at all and I had no idea what to do next and was ready to toss it into the dustbin, but some of you guys encouraged me to carry on. I didn't know what you guys saw, but just to do something I splashed in some paint (mostly that burnt sienna squidlike thing) arbitrarily and slowly the painting began talking to me again.

Those concentric circles on the left were a bit of a risky move, but I couldn't know how it would turn out unless I did it, so I did.

And now I like it, but I can't figure out exactly why.

I’m a Fauvist This Week…

 In class I did this lively rendition of a painting by Odille Redun. (Sp?). I love those blues and oranges together, along with the pinks, yellows, etc. , every color in the crayon box….

Trees, trees and more trees! I painted these last week, except for #3, which I started in class and am still working on. It has a lot of blue masking on it right now. I think my motivation is to use up all the yellows in my palette…I have about five different ones. …actually more like eight…don’t ask me why…no class next week. ..happy T-day!

Still out on that limb

 Normally I paint Sunday morning so that I will have something new for those who were in class.  Have lost my vision on this thing.  Normally my painting is jibber jabbing at me soon as I ease it out of the portfolio had nothing to say.  When I pester it for a suggestion of just where to begin, it just shrugs and says, "Oh do whatever you want. It don't make no nevermind to me."  Stared at it this morning and nothing.  I should just do something big and risky and quick and gitter done so I can move on to, hell I don't know where.

Suggestions of a new series from the class will be accepted on this blog.

Alan Fall 11

 Still sketching. Maybe an actual painting will come out of this. But, if not, my sketchbooks are more interesting. 

Took a lot of opaque colors out of this one. 

This is a place In Biloxi at the Orr Museum called Pleasant’s House. It’s a standalone building that shows how people lived on the coast in the 1800’s.

This is an Italian coastal town that showed up as a screenshot on my desktop. I thought that it would be fun to sketch and it was. The sea was discouraging because I couldn’t get a smooth deep color like I wanted.  When the sea ran into the town it got messy.

November 18, 2023 — Elaine O.

I've returned from a vacation to Paris, bringing back a lot of great memories...and a nasty head cold. But it wasn't Covid and I'm ready to paint again. So here's a view from Monet's bedroom window in Giverny. It's spectacular, even in a dreary autumn downpour. Can you imagine waking up to this every morning? Or what this must look like in spring or summer on a sunny morning? 

Looking out Monet's Bedroom Window, Giverny    14"x11"

 À bientôt! And a warning—brace yourself for more Parisian scenes to come.

Two Feet from the Floor

 Good day fellow artists! Just to say hello to all & I miss you & the art of making art. I just joined the latest exhibit at Downtown Cultural Center of CAVA, Chicago Alliance of Visual Artists, " Later Impressions" from November 6, 2023 to first week of January 2024. In the midst of my caregiving duties, I managed to submit my Watercolor painting at exactly 2pm. November 6 Monday, dead heat. Thus, the only space left  for my 9x12 painting is 2 feet up from the floor, second row from the corner of western wall of Renaissance Center. The opening reception was on November 16 Thursday afternoon & the award winning art works were all (how come I was not surprised!

) Non Watercolor! The Best in Show was a painting of a series of black stripes or black fence on a white canvas! I do not understand that painting! Truly a judge prerogative! Anyway, my entry, was a winter scene of my Andersonville alley after a big snowfall. It was painted during the pandemic early 2021. My Watercolor art class gave this Art Work a positive review. Thanks for your warm feedback! Happy Painting to All! 

The Artist at Work

 From my current seat, this is a frequent view. Hair needs a little fix and I’d like to make that left hand less like a boneless chicken breast. I like this. Thought it would be immediately recognized…..but it wasn’t. 

And onto a Chicago scene. A small preliminary work up from a photo taken by my daughter. 

Out on a limb

 When I asked Pat what she didn't like about those six major veins she said that they were dumb, so I tried to make the rest of the painting dumb so they would work well with each other.

Seriously though I am really out on a limb with this one.  Stared at it for maybe half an hour before dipping my brush into the water, and then carrying on almost randomly.  Still don't know what I am doing, waiting for that one stray brushstroke that hopefully will take me somewhere.

Experimentally painting…

 

This is my fall confetti tree. I may try this again, maybe without doing the splatters and thinking more about the whole composition first. I don’t hate it but it’s not quite what I was going for.

I worked on this a bit at home. I think the face is where I want it, but the background needs work. She’s backlit by a very bright window on the right and I have to darken the rest of the background to emphasize that. The face proportions are off so she looks older, but I like the expression. FYI, I sketched this freehand fairly quickly and left all the pencil marks. They seem to give energy to the painting. This is big, 11x15.

Alan Fall 10

 I’ve been looking at a lot of urban sketchers on YouTube and other sites. It’s something that really interests me lately.  I’ve tried plein aire and always hated it. So I built a little light weight kit and the last video I watched concluded with the artist saying “You’ve watched enough videos. Go paint something!”

I don’t like it when the perspective is really off so I make pencil marks to insure I have things in the right place. Then I draw the thing freehand. After drawing, I erase the pencil marks leaving a simple pen and ink drawing with as much detail as I need. Then I add splotches of color. After that dries, I might refine the ink, or not. I think that because it’s just a memory and not a formal painting I feel looser. 

Here’s some I did last week:

This is my favorite bar in Ocean Springs Ms.  I thought that the ink line was too thick and ran into the sketch making it look darker than I wanted.

I did it again using a finer tipped pen and liked it better. 

I used a photo but I could have done it in person. 

This was one of my favorite places I remember as a boy. The Hackley Public Library in my hometown of Muskegon. I don’t know how long it took me to sketch this but it wasn’t long. 

This is a lighthouse in Marquette Mi. I haven’t been here in years but I remember it well. Besides pen and ink and watercolor paints, I also used watercolor crayons. 

I really liked certain things about this quick sketch. I might rework some of the fall leaves. If I did it again I’d get the shape of the main building better. 

Starting to get the hang of this and like the colors. 

Can these paintings be saved….

 The bottom one is a quick sketch of what was on my kitchen island. I call it The Last Roses of Summer.” I like the energy of pencil sketch and the paint. The top one is a more thought out composition but it kind of lost the charm of the first one. Something needs to happen with that purple shape on the left.

Here’s a painting from a photo I took at the botanic garden.I kind of like the composition with the alternating grass and sidewalks, but it lost something along the way. The sidewalks need a lot of work….

This is called “Friday Night at Grandma’s House.” Nora painted her lips with a marker (fortunately it was non toxic and non permanent) and was trying on my old clip on earrings. And she struck a dramatic pose for the camera.I like this one.

For Greeta — it looks great when you crop it! You get enough of the stairs and that interesting blue wall.

Let’s Just Say “Nice Dress” And Move On

 I could spend time fixing stuff but just don’t want to ……the carpeting, the railings, the drapes. Need to get out of this hotel!

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Leaf 14

 Blotted out some of the space between the veins and brightened that gamboge line in the middle of the minor veins where they intersect the major veins to give them more interaction with them. 

Alan Fall 9

 Well, I just didn’t like this sooooo much that I decided to have a little fun with it. I used the Tombow marker for detail but it bled too much and muddied up the details that I wanted to be sharp. I usually like the way it bleeds but not this time. I cleaned up the bottom, expanded the red bush, added quinacridone gold, oranges and yellows, added a colorful cloud over the top of the train and reflected those colors on the skin of the train itself. 

So, what started out as a simple pen and ink drawing with a watercolor wash has morphed into this.