Cezanne 12

 

I wanted to have a child in the series and he was the only one, but he was close to a very small picture so you couldn’t see the painting. So I imposed him on a painting that I like. Wondering if it’s clear that his arms aren’t visible because he’s taking a picture. 

Alan back to lilies

 I’ve done the preliminary work for this lily on Yupo.

Now I need to further define it by adding shadows and deeper color. I used an app called Notanizer to show me value differences so I’ll know what to work on to give the flower more definition.

Here’s the original pic of this exotic lily. 

Beets or Radishes, Anyone?….

 

 Here are two studies I painted in class yesterday. The radishes are 4x5, the beets 7x10. Again, I was focusing on color mixing and brushstrokes.Todayi might move on to quickly ripening bananas…

A third sunflower

 Put ultramarine over the indigo and I think it set it right.

And here is a new one.  It was all circles when I left class, but  I didn't like that look so I went back and added a bit of cold clear water.

et / adventures in skin tone

 I'm getting more comfortable rendering skin tones. I've learned to veeerrrry carefully building up the colors, always starting with a red tone. Randy Rainbow is done. The second is a watercolor sketch of my grandson Émile picking peaches.

These have been part of the effort to completely use up old tablets and sketchbooks. Maybe by the end of this session I can return to my watercolor blocks and better paper quality!

If you're curious about Randy Rainbow's satire, here's his latest video, "Lock Him Up Yesterday."

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MdSZRkeQfnk

Elaine O. — September 17, 2022

Just when I thought I was done...they keep pulling me back! Seriously, I thought I'd had my say with the before/after of the school. Then, suddenly, all the trees were chopped down, leaving an ugly wasteland. Here's the last tree to die in the senseless tree massacre.

We Who Are About to Die Salute You    18" x 6"

And I've started the penultimate in the series. That's not shrubbery—it's the downed leaf canopy before crews returned to clear the carnage. 

9" x 12"

SS: Joy of Zurich Airport

 My inspiration was the Filipino European server we met at the Zurich Airport. Our AA flight from Chicago arrived at Zurich Airport @ 10 a.m.,  one Saturday in late May and we waited for our tour guide who is scheduled to arrive at 2 p.m. We spent the 4 hours waiting time, to eat thin enormous ham sandwiches & hot drinks  and talked with Joy at a coffee shop where the server works. Joy is a petite young lady of 35 years who spent the past 10 years as.  an Overseas Worker while she remits her hard earned salary to her nuclear family in the Philippines. She shared with us her experiences as an expatriate Worker & when we said Goodbyes, we felt we were long time friends! I took Joy's photo in her uniform and her hair was up in a tight bun before our ride arrived. I promised her I will paint her when I return to Chicago. Later, we became friends at Instagram & she sent me vacation photos with her fellow overseas workers. I was inspired with this  relaxed photo of her during an vacation outing in

Barcelona this summer of 2022. 

Cezanne #11

 The longer I do these the more pronounced, at least in my own mind, is the connection between the viewer and the painting. It all began as a way to copy a renowned artist and at the same time to work on the human figure.  Now’ it’s becoming more meaningful to me. 

Turnips and Figs

 

I painted the turnips at home and both figs in class Saturday. Everything is small - 7x10, 4x5, and 5x7. I’m working with just 6 colors still —warms and cools of the primaries—and testing out different papers. 

Actually they are all Fabriano I just realized: the bottom is 100% cotton, the middle is 25% cotton and the top one is Fabriano 1264 — no cotton but a nice substantial paper (in a sketchbook) at a reasonable price.

I like all of these, maybe the bottom one best. The composition on the middle one is a little wonky - too close up— but I like the figs and the shadows. I’m going to do a few more of these. The simple shapes means less worrying about the drawing and more time thinking about color mixing, values, and paint application.

Here come the bees

 Put in the bees, did some rough shadowing on the petals and the sepals.  That indigo sky I don't know what to do with.  With all that gum arabic it's like walking down an icy sidewalk.  I don't know why the paint will react until I put it down.  I'll add some ultra marine and maybe turquoise and maybe even that trickster, cobalt blue, because sometimes you need a trick.