September 30, 2017

The heat spell has broken at last and we are happily painting people and places, but with special emphasis on gardens and grandchildren. Keep watching for all that and more—more exhibition invitations and a special appearance by a giant peach! We begin with Marva's secret garden. This is actually much lovelier in person than on screen. Don't you love the amazing range of greens?

This isn't really Isa's garden—it's a fence by the parking lot. But it's delicate and elegant and beautiful. Zoom in and see for yourself. 

Bill is also taking every opportunity he can to paint the great outdoors. Don't you want to rest here on a sunny evening?

Or in this regal chair in a flowered arbor?

Here, Bill shows the sun setting behind a soccer field. The position of the sun in this composition is inspired.

Everything in Bill's painting of a trolley car in Bruges leads the eye directly to the focal point. This is another skillful composition.

Finally, Bill uses a new medium (water soluble oil pastels) in this painting where he combines assignments and themes with aplomb. This is based on Pat's song title challenge and features a Brazilian soccer player on a green field. Remember the giant peach? Doesn't the soccer ball look like a peach?

Although maybe not so much as Emily's giant peach (below).  This is another painting where the real painting is even more stunning than the reproduction. The texture is superb (you can feel the fuzz!), the colors are spot on and the background color choice is a masterful use of complementary colors.

Here's Emily's homework. All she had to do was paint the shadow; she went much farther and drew the objects as well...

... not just once, but twice.

Speaking of shadows, Greeta continues her book, Houses of Graceland West. The shadows on this white stucco house are exquisite—and the focus of the painting.

These sweet little portraits are Greeta's nod to her ancestors. She found two sepia prints of family members and delicately painted and colorized them...

...before working on this painting of her grandson. She may revisit the grass track, but everything else is perfect.

Madeleine is also painting grandsons in a garden. Look closely at the lovely impressionistic brushwork and the wonderful pose.

Another grandson in a garden. Madeleine painted her tree-hugging grandson at the Chicago Botanical Garden. Adorable!

Alan is back to working on Yupo for this portrait of Greeta on Chicago's Riverwalk against a background of bright green umbrellas.  This is very Gauguin-like, isn't it—even though Chicago is miles from the tropics?

Steve's next diptych is moving along very well. He's using a technique where he first gets the values in place, then glazes for skin tone. This painting is ready for the glaze(s)....

...while Steve is still fine-tuning the values on this one.

Elaine continues her series of portraits. She's added a background to this painting of Clifton Chenier (okay, now she knows who he is, but she doesn't actually know him) with the feel of zydeco.

And then, Elaine begins another person she doesn't know... although this woman looks like she'd be a lot of fun to know, doesn't she?

Susan added a new element to her Canadian Rockies landscape—a bighorn sheep. She hasn't painted a lot of animals, but this one seems right at home against the rocky crags.

Ken's mosaic cat is moving along.  This is one of the first cat paintings where he includes the whiskers. We are anxious to see how he finishes them.

What can stand up to Ken and Susan's brilliant use of color? An actual color wheel! Andrea's finished her advanced color wheel with tones, tints and shades.

And then, she moves on to experiments with complementary colors. These are both extremely useful exercises.

Finally, Andrea moves on to the new "Expand the clipping" exercise. She takes a small bit of a magazine clipping and expands it, matching color as she goes. This looks like it's going to be a great success.

 
 Finally

Upcoming events

Food.  Alan and Greeta are featured artists in a group show about Food. The show runs through January, and there will be an opening reception on Friday, October 6. You're invited to the show and the opening. If you attend, you are asked to please bring a donation of non-perishable food for neighborhood food pantries.

      Where:
      Alderman Pawar's 47th Ward Office

      4243 N  Lincoln Avenue, Chicago, IL

     When:
     Exhibition: September 16–January 13
     Reception: October 6, 7:00–9:00pm 

Corn and Cats.  Ken's show at Ten Cat Tavern (how appropriate!) is up. While you missed the opening reception—and it was fun—you can still drop by to see the paintings.

      Where:
      Ten Cat Tavern

      3931 N Ashland Ave, Chicago, IL

     When:
     September 30–November 15

September 23, 2017

Is it a bird? A plane? No, it's a cat, of course. Yes, Ken is working hard on his series of bejeweled mosaic cats. We really like the way this is turning out and urge you to keep reading to the end.... where you'll find an invitation to the opening of Ken's exhibit at Ten Cat. It'll be a fun time in a fun venue. See for yourself; here's a link to an article about Ten Cat in the Chicago Tribune.

As for the rest of us, we continued to paint people and places. Greeta's charming portrait features an adorable toddler decked out to celebrate the Fourth of July. We love the point of view here, with the tiny subject looking up at us.

And from there, Greeta's moved on to a painting of her grandson, the track star. We're anxious to see how this turns out; we can already sense the motion.

Elaine is close to finishing her painting. She thinks this really needs a background, so tune in next week to see what she decides.

Steve painted two more small life studies... all in one class!  We show them as a diptych as that's how he intends to display them. Two colors and one class period resulted in a whole lot of 3D modeling.

Susan finished her painting. You'll have to zoom in to see this painted memory. We see the train looming large, along with an overhead view of the train winding through the countryside. The entire painting is framed by portraits of the eight couples who shared this two-day adventure.

Isa is painting places. Today, she painted the background for a previously painted rose. After a lot of testing, she went with this seemingly neutral background. But look closely—it's full of color and movement. Just beautiful!

Alan is also using color beautifully. Here, he paints an old (imaginary) barn, nestled in foliage.

Alan's added the finishing touches to this painting of a real dock (now replaced with a newer one).

Here's an experiment that worked well. Alan built a stretcher frame and wrapped it with a painting he wasn't completely enamored of. It's been transformed into a piece of sculpture and improved the focus. Success!

Another experiment. Alan painted a golf course, using the mat he plans to frame it. While painting, he used the mat as a "sacrifice sheet" to test colors and brush strokes. It works!

Speaking of experiments, Emily got a new assignment and we love the result. The homework was to take a small clipping from a magazine and continue the picture with paints. Emily's done such an amazing job, we were hard pressed to tell where the magazine ended and the painting began in person.  Here, the glossy finish makes it apparent, but in real life, no such distinction existed.

In class, Emily went out to find a leaf for the next exercise—the three-way fruit/vegetable/leaf. She was gone nearly 45 minutes, looking for the perfect leaf.  Despite the shortened time, she managed these three lovely takes on the leaf. Here's wet-in-wet.....

...drybrush....

...and a mixture of the two. All three are beautiful!

Andrea is our other new student, working on her color wheel. She's off to a great start with this initial color wheel.  She's mixed the colors from just three... and we love the way she's created this Aztec looking abstract.

Moving on to the "big" color wheel with tints, tones, hues and shades, Andrea has only gotten three colors in, but already this has the feel of a faceted jewel.

For those of you interested in Pat's "song title challenge," we're showing Alan and Isa's sketches. We're not adding comments and we may have missed some people who also did the assignment, but we knew you'd want to see these. First, Alan....

...And then, Isa....

Finally, as promised, here's an announcement of Ken's Ten Cat exhibit and an invitation to his opening reception:

Upcoming events

Corn and Cats.  Ken will be having a show at Ten Cat Tavern (how appropriate!). Come to the opening reception or just drop by to see the paintings.

      Where:
      Ten Cat Tavern

      3931 N Ashland Ave, Chicago, IL

     When:
     Exhibition: September 30–November 15
     Reception: September 30, 3:30-7:00pm