elaine t / Jan 13

 Another week of not producing a lot. Here's a quick paint sketch of Émile in the snow at the lakefront.

Social Distance at the corner of Ashland & Berwyn

 The corner of Ashland & Berwyn has 2 massive buildings: the Evangelical Church at SE corner & the multifamily rental at the NE. Pre Pandemic, the Church pulsates with activity & music every Sunday morning. Parishioners, cheerful in their church finery used to walk in front of my house. In front of the multi storey,  the diverse tenants with their kids running around, used to shoot the breeze at the sidewalk at the corner. Even an elderly guy planted h

imself in his plastic chair at the sidewalk to watch the world go by. The corner has been quiet & lonely since last year!                                                            After the one foot snowfall last week, I went outside  to admire the white stuff. The view in front of my house at the left side became my inspiration for this project. White Christmas in January! The City just plowed & salted Ashland avenue. My neighbor kindly shoveled our sidewalk.The branches of the Cherry tree & other trees were heavy with snow. I painted the Church signs as "Pay" with snow covered letter R & also the timely verse "This too shall pass!" Two hardy souls walked. The orange coat guy walked his dog. The guy in blue was determined & steady as he came near me. I was going to shout " good  morning" to him  but he evaded me! I then realized I forgot to wear my face mask! And that is my social distance experience at the corner of Ashland and Berwyn!

houae finch 2

 Put the IBM building behind him.  Now he is going to need a little more work but I don't want to make him too dark.

Mostly from Alan’s experiments

 More use of old sacrifice sheets. I founs a quick sketch of five guys in New Orleans and had them looking at art, like in a gallery.

Then I tried using the luci tool to make these quick sketches of things around my house.  It is not easy to use but I am starting to get some good results.  I think I’ll learn to draw before I really get good with this thing.

I tried following Sara’s  lead and tried some quick sketches looking out of my windows. The problem is that my stained glass panels cover every good window and there is nothing interesting out the other ones. 

I did do one more drink painting called “The Shot.”I might lighten the table to make the glass things stand out more.  

The directions are to pour 1 1/2 or 2 shots of whiskey in a shot glass and add 2 splashes of orange bitters. The end

Greeta’s Tired of Faces

 

The challenge to capture Wyatt wasn’t met.  It looks like Wyatt but the chubbiness of his face and his smile are lost, and , of course , the eyes are too dark.  Put this one aside and move onto snow  

This is the rectory at Queen of Angels in the evening. If I were to do it over, I’d leave some white on the tree branches. I followed the reference photo too closely. I do like the snow and some of the stone work. Used Khadi handmade paper. Soaks up the paint while providing a lovely texture for wet on wet. 

Snow and Sara

 Obligatory snow scene thru the window - view from my son’s house. 5 x18.

Another snow scene, altho I call it the Pottery Barn Chair. 4 x5 sketch, 5 x 7 watercolor.

A couple of 9x12 direct self portraits I did this morning, just to see if I could do it!

somehow I was able to edit my post & put in this better image of the wc self portrait. 

Elaine O.—February 6, 2021

Yes, I'm in denial! I've started painting the Art Institute in sunnier times. This is a view seen from the El tracks. I still have some finishing and the cars... I'm not sure why I find them so hard to paint. Maybe I should leave them off and call this a pandemic view. LOL

Going to the Art Institute    10" x 8"

I've been too busy shoveling actual snow to paint it, but I've wanted to. I recall doing a snow series last year (or maybe the year before that) and enjoying it. I'm thinking of doing more. This is a sketch documenting the first (pretty) snowfall... before the big one.

Snowfall        approx. 4" square

house finch 1

The only thing new on this this week is I darkened the turquoise riles so that the water looks more like, um, water.

 This us the finch painting, but I am more interested so far in the dried husk of a sunflower that he is perched on.  I did the drawing and what interested me was the lines.  I used watercolor pencils to accentuate lines, and now I am thinking I may do the whole painting using just the pencils, but of course I may change my mind.

 The Ten Cat got tired of looking at my big cats and alleys paintings so I switched them out with some old paintings of corn and tomatoes to give it a summertime look which we all know is just around the corner.,

The Alley at Andersoville, Feb 2021

 Every year, my family has been out of town on vacation, as an escape from snow, shovel & salt of a winter in Chicago. Alas, this 2021 cold snap plus pandemic  totally unloaded on us & the only vacation is staycation. As a homage to current events, I painted the scenery in front of my garage: the porches & garage doors heavy with snow, the pine trees green & white, the snow topped garbage can, the immobile car & frustrated motorists & the snow angels clearing the alley so that we could go out to pick up medicines, buy groceries, leave for medical treatments & appointments & attend mass with social distancing! Thanks for teacher Pat for the timely inspirational paintings! Stay healthy & keep warm! Happy painting all!

Greeta’s Bouquet and some progress shots

 

This was an image from WC class that several of us took a stab at.  Have decided to spend some time mixing greens...making charts and being more mindful of the variation  

The challenge will be to have the boy look like Wyatt. 

Looks like her hairdo will have to change to cover that freaky little hand of his.