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.

May 2, 2026 — Elaine O.

This is one of those slow and steady paintings. Hours of work...no big changes. Still, I'm having fun. Right now, I'm working my way in towards the center, which is the opposite of my usual MO; we'll see how that works over the coming weeks.

10" x 14"

Tryout sketches….

 

I’m trying out composition and values with these two sketches. They look pretty washed out here on the blog. I’m going to try them again with a little more intention.

I was working on this in class and now I like it so much I’m afraid to finish it because I might ruin it!

Sagebrush in the spring, tree with skyholes, just the trunk.

Okay they don't look quite like skyholes, but what's the big deal with anyway. just a spot of blue.

 

North Pond

 Pretty much finished. Able to let the trees be light like spring time and resist the impulse to get involved in the cafe. From a FB post. Photographer:  Chris Cullen. 

Alan Spring 3-2026

I worked on this little sketch I made while waiting for the Yupo to dry. It’s just a sketch but I need to find a different background color. This is the third one so far. 5 X 7 on hot press. Don’t really like hot press. 

I spent a little more time on this self portrait on Yupo. I think it’s done unless I want to add more lines to my face. 

Finished the barrel painting on Yupo. I thought that it was the perfect medium for this. I finally got the technique for painting the reflected leaves down. Made it more fun than work. 

Back to 140# Rough for this painting of a corner of New Buffalo. Even though it’s structurally precise, I’m going to try to paint as loose as I can. 

April 25, 2026 — Elaine O.

Here's the finished painting of my kitchen counter (sans cord tangles and a few little things like the spoon rest). Considering that the major appliances are all white, who knew I had so much stainless steel? Going forward, I'm thinking of weighing how easy something is to paint before I buy it....just in case I decide to add it to a still life down the road. 

10" x 14"

From there, I started this cityscape. Not much to see yet besides the drawing, but I notice I'm using the same composition as the kitchen interior. Coincidence or some deep meaning?

10" x 14"

A Supersized Spiderwort

 The colors very muted here. I actually used Quinacrodone Gold diluted for background.  Apple has “improved” my photo ap  I enjoyed painting on the Khadi paper but a smoother type would probably have been a better choice for this subject.

It’s Spring….

No real masterpieces here,  but they do capture the exuberance of the season imo. Darkening the backgrounds in 1 and 4 really helped to pop the flowers. And I added a little opera and cobalt violet to the tree. And I hacked that forsythia back to almost nothing yesterday…