You Have To Know How To Wear It

 Those red lines are too thick and he thinks his hair is too white. Happy to move on from this one. 

Home Art….

 

I have a lot of time on my hands, now that I’m off the serious drugs…These are two small sketches done with Pitt brush pens, which I don’t really like because they don’t blend well. And they’re not really brushes but hard tip markers. I read that people use them with water but they dry really fast and the whole reason to use markers is so you don’t have to use brushes,but whatever. The first is Joe sitting in the back yard with the morning sun coming in but I called it an homage to David Hockney cause it reminds of his Nicolas Canyon painting — I have the poster of it. The second one is draw what you see….

June 13, 2026 — Elaine O.

When someone suggests you paint something, why not? Especially when you've already been painting flowers. So, Sara, here's a lovely planter—first as a pen and ink sketch (color first, then outlined with ink)...

4" x 3"

...and then the beginnings of an actual painting.

14" x 10"

I'd suggest you get used to this planting as I already think there may be another version coming in the future.

The Four

One of the downfalls of my abstract paintings is I start out well enough but then when I have most of the stuff in I tend to tidy stuff up finish it up and it loses it's spunk.  I think of it as order vs chaos, and I am putting too much order into them and they're boring.

So I am going to watch myself on these four and try to keep them more free.  I think if I do four at one time I'll be better able to watch myself.  

The original plan on these to begin with I would use four colors to put in the foreground: Sepia, perylene maroon, olive green, and something else, and in the background: indigo, cadmium red, gamboge, and something else.  Anyway I had a plan at first, and this is what each one looked like after the first session.

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And this is what they look like after 2 to 4 more sessions.  I think they are all almost done as long as I don't try to sneak in any tidying.  I think that is the key.  Remember Glengarry Glen Ross where the bigshot real estate guy has this slogan: Always Be Closing, ABC?  My slogan is Never Be Closing, NBC.  I never think about ending any of them, like this part is finished now let's do this next one, and three or four more and then it will be done.  I just paint on and on and suddenly it occurs to me that this one looks done and setting my brush down right there and then.

That's my theory.  Thank you for your time.

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June 6, 2026 — Elaine O.

It's been a while and all I have to show is some sketchbook experimentation/exploration. I was intrigued by some of my test strips where I color test watercolors. Then, while waiting for other watercolors to dry, I casually outline those color blobs with ink. Here are a couple, for example.

I liked the look of them and wondered what would happen if I tried this deliberately. So I sketched a scene with lots of bits and colors and went in with grey ink outlines when the paint dried. Nothing special.... just playing.

Honestly, I think this looks better with fewer details and larger surfaces of color. I don't know that I'll do this technique again, but I had to try it once!

Blackburnian Warbler

 I did not meet him in person. 

Alan Summer 2026-1

 Finished the booze painting on Yupo. Added some dark values into the bottles and lightened some of the whites and creams.

Finished the Clock Tower on the lakefront. I did it on Yupo because I wanted brighter values in it. I zoomed in a bit from my previous version and, while I like it, it’s not really what I’m looking for. 

So I’m doing a larger Yupo version with a looser brush. A long way to go.  Maybe I’ll live with the tilt.  I’m trying to let the paint flow on this larger version  

While I am waiting for the paint to dry on the Yupo version, I’m trying a little pen and ink version in a sketchbook.

It’s always good to have another painting to do when you’re working on Yupo. 

Lost in space….

 I don’t know…is it Monday, or Sunday? I’m off my schedule, have a house guest who’s now in the hospital (she’ll be fine I think) so I can’t seem to concentrate on this little painting. Really thinking about values and color temperatures …

Also trying to get back into the habit of drawing each morning. Have some nice FaberCastell pens that I’ve been saving — for what I don’t know! Kind of fun to put some color in!

But I was cheered to get this late card from Nora. I love our outfits and the fact that it says “Mouthers” day!

Ernie Banks weeping willow

 

This is how that lovely rugged old tree trunk turned out.  A letdown from that bold early version which I admitted I didn't deserve because it was just a lucky blotting with a paper towel.  I guess I like the foreground, but the background is not pulling its weight.  I think I will add some more willow branches.  A lot more.

Justa Cuppa

 After the last Truman class, we went to lunch at a pub. Alan ordered tea.  The server said she’d bring a pot. He just wanted a cup but they only do pots. This went on for awhile and she finally said she’d make him a cup herself and not charge him thinking it was about $,  which it was not. It showed up in a glass and stainless cup and the sunlight reflected his shirt on the surfaces so I snapped a photo. This is in the hot press book. Maybe I could have left out the tea bag. 

Alan Spring 5 2026

 I don’t know what else to do with this bottle painting on Yupo. I wasn’t going to put any verbiage on the bottles but it needed them. I don’t know if it’s done but I’m keeping an open mind about that. 

I finished the clock tower at the lakefront. It’s on 140# rough but I’m going to try a much looser version on Yupo. 

Touched up this trading card view of sunset on a Michigan lake.  

Tree trunks

 You know sometimes when a tree sprouts on uneven ground on the banks of a placid pond and two branches come out askew but it doesn't seem to hurt either branch at all and they go on and get all crusty and strong together.

This tree is on the banks of that pond with all the weeping willows on the north end of Graceland not far from where Ernie Banks rests.

Well as you know us artists, all we ask is a sailing ship and a star to steer her by, and this is my star.  Haven't done that much, slopped down paint, blotted it up. Repeated a couple times and the last time I pulled up the paper towel this is what was left.  

And this looked pretty good to me, even though I did so little work on it.  

I've been jammed up with doctors and nurses and hospitals, nothing that worrisome I think, but very time consuming and distracting, so I am trotting this out just to make an appearance on the blog.

May 16, 2026 — Elaine O.

I finished by populating my city street...and now I'm not sure if I made the right decision. But what's done is done. There are things I like (that street lamp, surprisingly) and things I might do differently another time (like using a ruler to eliminate some of the wobbly elements).

10" x 14"

two more cormorants

 I don't really deserve this one.  The bird was too solid and the sea was too placid.  I put some stripes through the bird to break it up and blotted that central part thinking I would come back in but when I looked down there it is.

I was pretty happy with this when I finished it Friday morning, but when I looked at it Saturday my reaction was so what, and where did all that damn green come from?  

So I took a wet brush and paper towels to it this morning and I think something is going on here, but it doesn't look done yet.

 

Sketch book Entries and A Man In A Dress

 

May 9, 2026 — Elaine O.

Still coming along slowly, but now, the middle is beginning to fill out. Decision point—do I add the people or leave it as a Hopper-esque landscape? Originally, the people were what intrigued me about this scene, but there's also something interesting about that vast open stage waiting for something. I'll have to give it some thought.

10" x 14"

Class Photo — Spring II 2026

Here we all are in what's become a tradition for the end of a term. See you in summer!

If It’s Not One Thing, It’s Another

 The first one done in class. Looking at it later, it broke the portrait rules. Width of mouth should reach center of eyes. Nope. Tried to fix. Distance between  two eyes should be width of one eye. Nope. Did a second one. Now different issues. I’ll just give her both. Then she’ll know it was hard work. 

May flowers….

 I tweaked these a bit after class, darkening shadows, intensifying colors, etc. Nothing frame worthy, but fun to do.

This is a copy of an oil painting. Just a study. I like some of the colors that you can’t really see because the tree s so big! Also I over sponged the tree leaves. It’s sad because I really like the brush marks in oil paintings, but that just doesn’t work well in watercolors— it’s the color mixing that shines in watercolors…

Well, I tweaked this portrait a bit— worked on my mouth and jaw. I think this is me in 2026!

Alan Spring 4-2026

 Changed the background of my little bathroom still life to bring out the yellow of the flowers per instructions from Elaine. 

Did a little more work on my trading card sunset on Yupo.  I might fix that little bleed of yellow in the middle but I kinda like it  

I think I’m done with this downtown New Buffalo painting. It’s on rough paper. While it’s okay, and I like certain aspects of it, it does not give me joy. I might try it again with a more free flowing style. 

This is the beginning of a still life at one of my friend’s house. Everybody brings a bottle of booze and sets it on the table top. Then we drink. The top right is a painting of Greeta’s. I don’t think that I’m going to paint all the labels as I am more interested in painting the glass-which there is a lot of.   Done with Yupo. 

A cormorant dries her wings, a Ginko tree spews leaves, and a ghost cormorant prepares for flight.

I like the contrast between the purplish certainty and the greenish uncertainty.

I don't know about those sky holes, but I think they work as a compositional element, floating along with the tiny yellow leaves as they rise daintily out from the sturdy trunk.

 This is just the beginning,  I may try to have the cormorant be more of the water, but we shall see.