April 8, 2017

It's a beautiful, warm, sunny day—the kind of day when your thoughts and taste buds turn to sweet, golden corn. But you won't believe what happened! We didn't get a photo of Ken's latest corn masterpiece! Seriously, we all looked at his latest, oohed and aahed over it, but forgot to take a photo. Come back next time to see it. It'll definitely be worth your while.

Meanwhile, we're still on a portrait kick. And we had a special treat today. Ellen had a painting of hers professionally framed—and we're in love! That's a museum quality deep mat with a quarter inch of paper framing the painted area with non-glare glass. But that's not the best of it. We love the painting with the complementary colors and the orange reflections on the dancers that are picked up by the softly glowing frame. This is a beautiful framing job—and a painting worthy of the effort.

Hard at work on her next masterpiece, Ellen does a second study of a portrait of her parents. This is another fine use of complementary colors. We especially like how the personalities of the sitters shine though.

And for all of us who are fixated on her llama, Ellen brought back the llama painting. She's overpainted the highly-textured purple llama and the whole scene drops into focus...without losing the llama!

Susan uses equally brilliant colors in this painting of two women enjoying friendship and flowers...all set against the background of a pineapple farm. What a lovely vacation memory!

Unlike Susan and her friend above, Elaine doesn't even know the subject of her portrait—probably why it fits in her People I Don't Know series. And her color choices are far less exuberant, too. This is basically two colors (complementary colors, of course), but used judiciously enough, that's really all you need.

If two or three colors seem minimalistic, just look at Steve's painting. It's only one color—and a unique one at that. Yes, if you recall, Steve ground up a bit of Hawaiian mud and blended that with gum arabic to make his own paint. This is part of Steve's Playing in the Mud series—and it's going to be amazing!

Tony's back with a soft and subtly colored painting of a sea gull. The pops of color at the beak and feet are perfect against the greys.

Here's another of Tony's subtle and dreamy landscapes. Look closely and you'll see a lot of color in the grey rocks, stones and sky. And need we mention that a lot of it is complementary colors?

Sara continues to paint every day, with incredible results. Inspired by a glimpse of dogwoods behind some other trees, this lovely landscape took nearly all week, but it's worth the effort.

Today, Sara is revisiting her interior from last week. She's only begun, but already we are in awe of the way she mixes color. Zoom in and see if you don't agree.

Hector is taking a break from his pale, soft abstracts. Here he layers vibrant color and shape. He finds this exercise meditative and relaxing and it's obvious he's enjoying himself thoroughly.

Beth has finished her second color wheel...the really useful one with the tints, tones, shades and hue. We love the surprise pop of red-orange in the yellow-green space.

You'll recognize this as the "match the color swatch" exercise. Beth's nailed it—you can tell when the swatches and the painted simulations are indistinguishable.

And, just because she had a bit of paint left over, Beth played around on a scrap sheet. Not exactly complementary, but what a beautiful color pair!

So did all our beautiful colors remind you of coloring Easter eggs or little girls in pastel spring bonnets? Remember, we'll be off for a week (next week) for spring break. But we'll be back the week after and look forward to seeing you then.

April 1, 2017

No joke! It was a lovely day today—and a perfect day to get together to paint. We begin with one of the coolest beginner plaids we can recall. We aren't sure if Beth was confused by the directions she received (everyone in the class contributed—everyone except the teacher, that is!) or if she's just naturally creative, but we love the results.

Here's Beth's first color wheel. Besides getting a great range of colors from just three paints, she's managed to make this feel like a happy flurry of confetti. We suspect we can stop taking credit for her beautiful plaid.... she's got skills!

 

Here Beth begins her second color wheel. She gets to use more paints, but explores hue, tint, tone and shade.

In a fine example of "waste not," Bill paints this diptych using two bits of leftover illustration board. And the experimental geometric pattern he used didn't go to waste either. He used it on a piece of pottery! Keep watching this space. We plan to post a picture after it's glazed and fired.

Bill returns to watercolor for this plaza in Havana, Cuba. We love the lavender stones in the plaza and are especially fond of the buildings and windows. Look closely at the expressive brushwork.

Here's another cityscape that's also primarily gray—but what a different feel! Madeleine's snowy vision of Quebec is cold and crisp and clear. We also see the differences in the grays.

Far from snowy Canada, Madeleine turned to a sunny beach in Israel. This simple painting is exquisite. Look closely at the unusual, but perfect color choices for the sky, sea and sand. The textures are equally wonderful. We absolutely love this painting!

And this one, too. Madeleine's painting of the ravens at Masada is another textural tour de force. The rocks and sky are rich but subtle, and she's managed to make the ravens sculptural and iridescent.

Ken isn't through with corn yet! We thought he was through with stripes, but apparently not. He says stripes aren't through with him. In this homage to stripes, he's choosing to concentrate on the corn leaves, filling the page with leaves and filling the leaves with colorful stripes.

As for the rest of us, we continue to be fascinated with portraits. Elaine fine-tuned the face and added a background to her portrait (below). Especially interesting is the way the minimal cool colors describe the personality of the subject.

This portrait is very different than the other. Elaine is using rich, warm colors to create a soft, blissful mood, as opposed to the papery, brittle feeling above.

Ellen finished this sweet painting of her parents all in one sitting. We love the stylized approach, the vintage background and the skilled use of color. Ellen isn't sure if this is the final or merely a study. Either way, this is sure to be cherished.

Steve finished sketching the subject of his painting. In this, he's tackled some tricky subjects like foreshortening and hands. Quite successfully, too!

And here is the interesting part of the painting. Do you see the cup below? It's hand-made paint! Yes, Steve has ground some Hawaiian rocks to create pigment, which he then mixed with gum arabic to create paint. This is what he intends to use to paint the sketch above. Get closer and look at the test samples he's painted. It will be a sepia tinted painting of Hawaii, painted with Hawaii! Keep coming back to see this.

The brown liquid in the cup below isn't hand-crafted paint. It's coffee, plain and simple. Sara missed last week, but she's been busy doing a painting a day and being an inspiration to us all. Look at the beautiful vase and the great hand. There is something to be said for painting daily!

Another of Sara's daily paintings. Isn't this lovely? We love the composition, the springlike blooms and the complementary vase. Most of all, we love the sense of light surrounding the flowers and catching the porcelain inside the vase.
 

Remember what Sara was working on before break? Here's the finished room. There are so many gems to focus on—the path of sunlight in the foreground, the light spilling from the lampshade at left, the softly blended colors on the walls and wood floor, and the pop of green on the upholstery. Yet, Sara isn't quite satisfied with the background....

... and is doing some studies to play with the colors and value contrast. She'll be trying different options to make the space recede vs. flattening the space. All in all, this will be a series worth following!

For those of you who missed Steve's concert, we have a testimonial from Ellen. It was incredible! Keep watching this space for news of the next concert. You'll be glad you went!

Until then, happy painting!

March 25, 2017

We're back—although some of us were a little late. Despite extended vacations, daylight savings time mishaps, and torrential rain, it was great to be back. And, as you can see, some things haven't changed. Ken is still painting corn, but notice how he's adding an element of pattern? We love the contrast of the flat mosaic in the background with the deeply modeled corn kernels.

You'll see the beginnings of the mosaic patterning in the background of his last painting. We think it is a lovely complement to the undulating stripes of the corn leaves.

And here, Ken begins a small study for his next corn painting. We're well in to the second series and have yet to tire of it.

Bill is between series and likes to warm up with some abstracts. Here he experiments with layering pen, watercolor and watercolor pens. And in the process, he adds a good bit of water to the mix. It's even richer-looking in real life.

Here's another of Bill's abstracts. Again, he begins with watercolor pens, adding watercolor before finishing up with another layer of pen—all on a soft watercolor background.

Finally, Bill revisits his landscape from before break. In this, he uses lessons learned in the abstracts to more clearly define the edges of the shapes. He likes the color choices better on the previous version and the shape definition from this one, so we may want to watch for version three!

Hector has been doing abstract landscapes, too, with bands of color and texture defining the area. He began with this stormy sky over lighter ground....

... but realized he liked it better reversed, with layers of sky and background receding from a dark foreground.

Hector is still using bands of color and pattern to create landscapes. Here, we really like the cloudy sky and the hills in the foreground. But we are in love with the rain in the middle. The color layers and texture perfectly describe rain.

Here's how Hector begins.... with three subtle primary colors. Come back next week to see where this goes!

Madeleine is also doing with horizontal bands. Hers is a much closer view of Masada in Israel. Zoom in and see the active sky and the richly textured rocks. If you look closely, you'll see that she'll be adding ravens perched on the rocks.

Madeleine is our master of marine paintings. Seriously, look at the rushing water below. You can feel the movement—and it contrasts perfectly with the solid architecture. Beautiful!

Susan is back from vacation, too. And she's also painting architecture, as you can see in this beautiful basilica from Taal, a tourist site in the Philippines. We admire the painting and love the fact that she's titled the scene, too. And look closely at the bottom right. Exactly where you'd expect to find a signature, you'll see small people interacting with the title—and one of them is Susan!

 

Here's another painting from Taal. It's the volcano that makes this a tourist attraction. Speaking of layering, there is a lake in the crater of the volcano, which itself sits in the middle of a larger lake.  And Susan makes this personal by adding the whimsical touch of her friends playing in the foreground.

More Philippine vacation paintings from Susan. Just look at the bougainvillea wall! What a lovely background to a scene of Susan's husband playing with his new friend, the neighbor dog. Despite the busy background, we don't lose the main action.

Elaine is continuing her series of "People I Don't Know." Here, she's pulled back to a three-quarter pose from earlier head and shoulder poses. But here, the man's stance is what intrigued her, so that's what she's concentrating on. Come back and see how it comes out.

Steve is also painting a figure. So far, he's been sketching in preparation to adding color. Steve plans to use actual Hawaiian stone to create the colors. He has three different shades of brown, yellow and red. This is going to be interesting, so come back to watch this progress. 

See you next week!

March 4, 2017

It's the last class of the term and we had a smallish turnout today. But what we painted was choice! We even had a new theme. See if you can guess it from Madeleine's painting below. We've done vacation paintings before, and urban landscapes, and even gold paint—so it's not that. But do you notice the perspective? This is an incredible view, looking sharply up at the dome. Besides the skilled drawing, Madeleine has painted the lower part of the buildings with less detail than the dome itself. And then the tops open up into sky. This is from Prague and it's beautifully done.

Another scene from Madeleine, with more perspective drawing. We're impressed with the details of the windows and can't wait for next term to see how this comes out.

Tony's Mediterranean scene is another fine example of perspective drawing. Notice how the vanishing point is almost centered, causing the lines to form a classic "x."

Can you see what we meant about perspective? Steve has finished his incredible painting of Venice awakening. The gondoliers are readying their gondolas in the foreground as the city stretches back, lit by the early morning sun.

Another  city on water and more perspective. This was one Bill started last week and wanted to ponder. He started again and concentrated on shapes and their relationships. He also used ink to outline the shapes before overpainting some of the lines to soften them. In the process, he's managed to define the building and add a great sense of depth.

Bill also uses ink as one of the three layers in his abstract below. The first layer uses a water soluble marker to define the framework. Then, Bill adds watercolor, both to create shapes and to define them, followed with a web of ink lines.

More perspective! Bill paints a Turkish landscape as seen from a boat on the river. In a fine example of aerial perspective, we see the shore and the hills recede before the distant background mountains.

Ken finished his painting from last week. Just by adding the rich, deep background, he's added depth and perspective to this corn abstract.

Even an abstraction can have perspective. Ken's corn leaves have a distinct hierarchy in space and the stripes blend to add a sense of depth. Can this truly be Ken's "farewell to stripes?" Come back and see for yourself.

Sara takes her perspective drawing indoors in this deep view through a room, a hallway, another room and a porch. Besides the precise drawing, we love the color choices. Be sure to come back to see the sunlight spilling down the length of this house. You'll love it.

Apparently, Elaine didn't get the perspective memo. So she continued her portrait series of People I Don't Know, in which she paints interesting faces from newspapers and magazines. Because she doesn't know the people, she's less invested in the outcome and free to have fun. She's obviously had fun with texture here.

Ellen didn't get the memo either. She did finish her Machu Picchu painting, reducing the value contrast between the llama and the background. And then, she started a painting of an Art Nouveau woman from a flat US coin. Unfortunately, we didn't get photos of either of her paintings, so you'll have to come back in two weeks when we begin our next session. Meanwhile, here are some places you can keep up with us and with our art....

Come join us!

Here are some upcoming exhibitions and concerts you don't want to miss.

 
The Corn Exhibit.  Ken's exhibit continues at Ten Cat. Drop by to see the art...and maybe play some pool. 

      Where:
      Ten Cat Tavern

      3931 N Ashland Ave, Chicago, IL

     When:
     January 22–March 15, 2017

DePaul Community Chorus
Here's a chance to hear Steve and the DePaul Community Chorus—FREE! The music celebrates the 500th anniversary of the Protestant Reformation. Click the thumbnail at right for more information and watch for fundraising news below!

     Where:
     DePaul Concert Hall
     800 West Belden, Chicago, IL

     When:
     Sunday, March 19, 3pm





This is the Community Chorus' premiere concert of the year, with a soloist and full orchestra, besides the 150 voice chorus. While you don't have to pay for the concert, the Chorus does have to pay the soloist and the orchestra. If you'd like to contribute, please sent your contribution to the DePaul Community Music Division. Gifts are tax deductible and greatly appreciated.

12 Notes/12 Artists
Erika is part of a group show featuring 12 artists' visual response to music. Click the thumbnail at right for more information.

     Where:
     Perkolator
     6032 W. Irving Park Road, Chicago, IL

     When:
     February 9–March 27




We'll be on break for two weeks, returning on March 25. See you then.... if we don't see you at Steve's concert or at Perkolator or the Ten Cat first.