Minimalism Shminanaliism

 I kind of liked this when I left class Saturday thinking maybe I don't need all that stuff I usually put in and maybe a slight tint for the sky would complete it.  I put in the tint Sunday, but all I could think was it was, well it looked a bit empty, a lot empty actually, and this minimalism thing is not for me.  Put in those two big cloudlike things  and now I see that that barge could use a little fire engine red and those trees need to be stronger and more clouds, and maybe a little more in the water, and I am back to my usual self.

And note how I have ventured from the orange-yellow-green arc of the color to the perilous blue-purple-magenta arc opposite of my comfort center.  I tell you I had one hand over my heart and I am not out of there yet.

01.28.24 CardioMD by SS

 After an extensive family leave, I returned to my art class with spare art paraphernalia to complete the portra it of my husband's cardiologist which I started last summer. Our young cardio is in her late forties of afro American origin & she styles her hair in various ways since we started consulting her during the pandemic. We respect her concern & compassion especially when we all first met each other wearing face masks during consultation visits. I am impressed by her expressive face after the pandemic

face mask restriction was lifted. I felt " I have a painting"! It has been a difficult &  learning process to paint a face of a darker complexion using  the normal pink skin tone color combination available in traditional fashion. It was a discovery that dark skin does not mean using automatically earth tones & dark to darker watercolors. I used my family leave to observe portraits of dark complexion. I have learned that all  portraits are of various colors, values, tones & perceptions. It was an amazing journey! 

Little tweaks, big tweaks…

 Here’s my amyrillis (sp?) portrait. I added a little more detail outside the window and softened the dark parts of the flower. I might try this again, I like the composition. It’s 11x15.

These are in the wrong order.the bottom one is my first attempt. I drew it based on a picture of my niece but, as Pat pointed out, the features are too elongated so she looks older. So I traced her photo for the top one, which looks more like her. These are both 8x8. It’s a photo from 1982, she was maybe 10 and we’re sitting at the lakefront in old Grant Park, waiting for fireworks or Venetian night. I’m going to visit her next month & id like to to give her this memento of her Chicago visit. We’ll see….fyi those little blue spots n the side are tape.  It’s coming along nicely, but I’m debating how much detail to put in the background…I think there’s enough.

January 27, 2024 — Elaine O.

Well, the holiday decorations are all down and things have gotten busy again. So I spent the week in my sketchbook, remembering the holidays and preparing for my next full painting. This year, we moved the small aluminum tree to the front window. Here it is, lit up with a revolving color ball, as seen from the street below at twilight.

And I needed to get back into the portraiture groove for an upcoming painting. What better way than to do a quick direct watercolor sketch of a Christmas guest?

And I'm still adding to my Paris sketchbook. Here's a line and wash sketch of the lily pond and Japanese bridge at Monet's gardens. It's a mashup of two things, but it brings back both for me, so I'm happy.

 

Remember Them?

 

Jon and Julia…..or was it Juliet. How quickly we forget. 

And an interesting second thought on trying to paint Pat. Not sure it would help with the so much smaller image. Forgot that I have this Notanizer ap  

People and Flowers

 Neither of these look like me, but they are based on an accidental selfie. I did the drawing first. I like its energy. I’d like to incorporate more of the energy of the drawing into the painting. I did a sketch on the watercolor paper but it turned out quite different than the original drawing. Oh well I like them both — they have an intensity and sense of concentration that I like.

I just love amaryllis and I painted a million of them long ago. The top one is a prelim sketch, the bottom is a version I started in class. I like where it’s going.
 

Not Quite Complete

 I fooled around for some time with the image.  The other Truman pics are 8”x 8” but could not get it to that size without deleting the shoes which would have been a travesty. This is 7x10…. It’s OK for the teacher to be bigger. Keep telling myself ….if only face was bigger, I could fix it.

 I will work on the hands but right now I think I’ll go paint fruit. 

January 20, 2024 — Elaine O.

It was worth braving the cold to see everyone in person. All I managed today was this direct watercolor of a Degas statue in the D'Orsay museum. I used a sheet of paper that had been damaged around the edges, so didn't have much of an objective beyond trying to get back in my painting groove. But, while she doesn't have the elegance of the original and I still have some final touches to add, I don't hate it. 

 

Musee D'Orsay    14" x 11"

It's a good sketch, not a great painting. Still, it reminds me of that day and it got my brushes moving, so mission accomplished...until next week!

The Square House Two

Just about done with it.  Wanted the sky to be minimal, but maybe it's too minimal.  Do I dare to visit the cobalt blue side of the pallet?
 

Alan Winter 4

 Hip getting better day by day. Am able to sit for a half hour so I did a Yupo painting of the sketch I did last week. I had fun with the hair and the eyes eyes. I’m thinking of gifting my friend with the painting. He may be pleased with it. 

Alan Winter 3

 Unable to sit up and paint after hip replacement and being too loaded to draw lying on my back, I still wanted to contribute to the blog in some way. So here goes. I don’t think anyone has seen these and I kinda liked them but would understand of nobody else did. 

This is a European street scene using alcohol inks and watercolor on Yupo. 

This is a performance portrait of legendary blues artist Gary Clark Jr. I liked the sharp lines and the theatrical lighting. Watercolor on 140# coldpress. 

Just now able to sit at a table so I finished this quick sketch of my old friend Larry Hart acting in “Marat Sade.”  He’s a really good artist. Watercolor on 140# hot press. 

Too Many White Bowls

 This still life is an attempt to capture my daughter’s kitchen counter on Christmas. In the foreground are the lychee…they have the most beautiful inedible skin which looks like velvet. Not able to capture that. A lotta bowls, a lotta fruit. Can u find the bananas?  And why did I keep the humidifier?  Because it was blue!

January 13, 2024 — Elaine O.

Halfway through the first month of the new year and I'm still not back in my groove. As is my wont, though, I finished last week's painting. I'm not happy with all of it, but I do like it as a sketchy memory of a moment in time—especially the beatific expression Dave wore the entire time. We really had a good time!

Sur le Pont Neuf    11"x14"

Now I'm going to try ironing the painting to see if the blue Frixion lines really do come off with heat. Honestly, though, it wouldn't bother me if they didn't.

The square house

 The square house was supposed to be the star of the show, and may yet be, but I had to put in the lower part before I knew how to handle it and of course I got carried away, but damn it, I like it. 

Where is everyone?

 Isn’t anyone else painting and posting? Am I supposed to be in class today? Whatever, I’m staying home. Believe it or not, I took Ken’s suggestion and went almost full abstract on this alley night scene. This is 8 x 16 on 300lb paper, so there’s a lot of paint here. They way I photograph things seems to emphasize brushstrokes— not sure they add to the overall effect, but they’re not as prominent in real life.I like this, but I think the blue at the top should be darker and more neutral.

This is a more impressionistic version of the same scene. This is 8x8. I found this Grumbacher pad of 30 sheets for $7 or $8 at Walmart. It’s a 140lb and pretty good paper. This borders on cartoony, but I like the sense of light in this.

Here’s my still life for the week. Again, 8x8.

I watched a number of painting videos this week, mostly about night paintings, ie after dark scenes.. This one guy drew the most minimal sketch and slapped the paint with abandon and produced one of those fabulous, I-just-dashed-this-off paintings that highlights all the good things about watercolor. He took his time with some details, but it didn’t have the fussiness that seems to invade my paintings. He seemed like he was having fun…what a concept!

Palette cleansers…

 Trying to use up gobs of old paint on old palettes with these quick sketches and small drawings. I can’t seem to settle on a project painting right now.

I did another small still life but again the shadows gave me problems.

I think I did these in class before break but I never posted them. Top one is 9x12, and the bottom one 5 x 7 maybe.i just need to set up a still life and paint it instead of asking existential questions like why paint at all…

The end of the road

 A couple glaring missteps on this one.  In the far right in the road I wore the paper down to its nubbings  and had to lay down the burnt sienna very heavily to cover that up, and I used that awful phthalo blue in that big lower cloud and discovered that it was sooty and darkly staining so I was unable to pick much of it up and I'm stuck with it.  Strangely enough though if I just look at it and don't think too much I think it is, well, kinda cool.  Am I the only one with that opinion?

Here is a closeup of that awful hole in the road.  Doesn't really show how torn up that patch is or how thickly I had to put down paint to cover it up, but you can all view it in person in a couple weeks.

And here is the next Seurat painting.  Lotsa texture, lotsa perelyon green.  Maybe some of that neutral tone that Sarah shared with me maybe a couple months ago and I haven't yet touched.  It's speaking to me but it's not telling The Architect anything, just telling the mason to get in the mud and everything will fall into place.  So we shall see.

Here is another issue.  A lot of you have been getting emails apparently from me but I never sent them.  They are some kind of ghost from when we Zoomed and maybe some atomic testing or me poking around on my calendar brought them back to life.  I will try to pound a stake in its heart and my quest will be aided if you can forward to me the emails you got from The Ghost of Zoom.

January 6, 2024 — Elaine O.

Here's a start to the first study of the new year—let's hope the rest of the year goes better! This is one of my favorite subjects (Dave) in one of my favorite activities (vacationing). What could possibly go wrong?

Sur le Pont Neuf    11"x14"

First of all, you may recall my problems with transfer paper (the new formulation is awful) forced me to actually draw. I found something I thought be great—a Frixion pen. It's supposed to be erasable...even under paint...with a little rubber eraser or with heat. Answer to my prayers, right? Well, it works on smoother paper, but when I tried it on watercolor paper, here's the result after both friction and heat:

And, as you can see in the painting, that area took the paint differently. So, having already ruined the painting, I'm using it as a color study and to experiment with texturing. But I have three of the pens, so I'm determined to do more testing to make it work. The alternatives are to stick to direct painting or to get so good at drawing that I won't need to change any marks.

Alan Winter 2

 Spent a little more time modifying the gas station sketch to get the feeling I wanted. 

Painted my bi-annual self portrait on 8 1/2 X 11 cold press. 

In case anyone is unsure about what the pods really look like: