July 1, 2017

Another beautiful day, and we had another theme going today! You'll probably be able to spot it yourself—duos. Yes, we painted in twos—we even dressed in pairs (although in different intensities of the colors). Greeta and Tony wore pink and khaki; Elaine and Alan wore blue and green; Sara and Susan were visions in purple. We just needed Steve to balance Pat's hawaiian dress. But on to our paintings. As you know, we love our trees! Sara has been enamored of trees for years. Here is a view from her back yard. The wavy lines and lush colors undulate around rooftops and fences, making this the very essence of verdant summer city landscapes.

 

 

Alan has fallen in love with trees and color, too. So much so that he's done the same grove of trees on watercolor paper in two pairs of two, first on watercolor paper....

...again on watercolor paper, but closer ...

... then moving even closer to his subject and switching to Yupo for these beauties.

 

Bill is also painting in pairs. In this case, he starts with a study of this lilypad covered Michigan lake and forest,

 

and then begins the final painting.

Bill also painted this delightful abstract cityscape. It's a jazz painting!
 

Madeleine completes the cityscape pair with this wonderfully quirky and colorful Irish building.

And then, she matches the compositional lines on this wonderful Irish cloudscape. The white stripe will be water and maybe there will be dolphins beneath the surface.

Tony looks to the sky too, and to the upcoming holiday to paint two flags, Puerto Rico's flag....

... and the US flag.

Greeta looks to a past holiday to revisit two prior paintings of pairs. The holiday is Father's Day and it's inspired these sweet Daddy/Daughter paintings. Here's Greeta and her father.....

... and a friend's niece and her father.

Still working on her booklet made of a single sheet of folded watercolor paper, Greeta begins another painting of a subject with a face. This statuesque blonde is an old friend.

Elaine's subject is simply a statue. This is one of the terra cotta warriors from the Field Museum exhibit.

Susan's still painting delicious food. In this case, two crabs—one cooked and ready to eat and the other still alive.

Ken's on his second (or maybe third) series of cat's eye paintings, but he's combined the familiar subject with his jewel-like "geegaw" style from his Ten Cat series.

Even Pat's gotten into the act! She brought in a small sketchbook in the style of Greeta's and has been doing a collage a day. But in keeping with our theme, she couldn't stop at one and has moved on to a second spread.

Have a wonderful holiday weekend! See you next week.

June 24, 2017

What a beautiful day! Perfect for painting.... and laughing, telling stories and enjoying friends.  Which is what we did. We had a few themes going, too, as you can see, beginning with Madeleine's view from a window in Ireland. The composition and subject are stellar and seem to have kicked off our fascination with environments.

...like this streetscape by Madeleine. It's also in Ireland and features dolphins on its beautiful blue facade. In case you wondered, yes, there are dolphins in Galway Bay.

Tony captures the essence of summer in the city in this sidewalk cafe scene. Look at the sun streaming through the umbrellas, the cool shadows and the beautiful planters.

Tony and Beth each have paintings with uncannily similar subjects, as you'll see. Tony experimented with very wet washes to paint this building outside our studio window. Then, he added the window washer we saw last week.

Today, lacking foodstuffs, Beth looked out the same window and painted the very same building. What a difference a day makes—not to mention individual artists' intentions and visions. Aren't they both lovely?

 Here, Beth returns to one of her favorite subjects.... food! In this mixed media sketch, she begins with a graphite sketch and adds watercolor to bring focus to her sandwich. Could she have been sketching at the cafe Tony painted earlier? (We told you their subjects were uncannily similar!)

It's official—we've turned into foodies! Susan paints a delicious steamed flatfish from a family graduation celebration. What's not to like here? The fish and the garnishes are beautifully framed by the plate and the artist has chosen to swap the actual tablecloth for a more environmentally suggestive one. This is just perfect!

Emboldened by her success with seafood, Susan goes on to paint a crab... moments before she cooked and ate it! The orange/turquoise complementary colors are an excellent choice. All this beautiful food made us very hungry.

And if the fish affected us, can you imagine what Ken's cat's reaction would be? Ken revisits his cat's eye theme after 10 years or so. In this series, his colors are more refined and his technique is tighter. And for the first time in memory, Ken has left some paper white! 

Same cat, but here Ken moves away from stripes and returns to an old technique.... the geegaw. There won't be white space, but there will be brilliant color and beautiful, mosaic-like jewels and shapes. Come back and see.

We're all into animals this week. And Bill is no exception. This little gem is a plein air painting of a backyard bird—all done in paint, no pre-sketching. We especially love the tiny bird against the texture of the weathered wood.

More animals! More series paintings! Bill revisited his painting of a dog and her boy from last week, trying to redo some of the things he was disappointed with. Here are both, beginning with the original. As you know, we love the languid feel of the scene, the touching relationship, and details like the open drawer on the table.

This is Bill's later version. He prefers the dog's fur, his grandson's face and the ottoman, but
also likes some things about the first version. He may revisit, but after some time.

What happened to all the people we were painting? Elaine may be one of the few who didn't get the memo that we've moved on! She's finished another in her series of portraits. We still don't know who this is, but somehow feel he seems like a Nigel (Nigel Wilson, maybe?). Please don't disillusion us if you know him and his name happens to be something like Bob.

Here's the place to be on a summer day. We love Sara's colors—look at the way she blends blues and yellow to form lush greens—and the way her curvilinear lines give this sweet landscape a warm, dreamy feel.

See you next week for more wonderful watercolors!

June 17, 2017

Happy Summer! We've had a string of 90 degree days and our thoughts (and paintbrushes) have turned distinctly summerlike. How do you like these apples? Alan's rich reds are absolutely luscious.

Yes, the apples were on Yupo, as is the triptych below. Alan's favorite support gives these landscapes the quintessential light of summer sun filtering through the trees.
 

And Yupo works for buildings, too, in Alan's hands!

Here is another painting highlighting the sun shining through the trees onto a field of bluebonnets. Is there any need to ask? It's Alan and it's Yupo!

Contrast the painting above with the one below. Same scene, same artist... different support. This is on standard watercolor paper, proving Alan can master both.

Here's another landscape on watercolor paper. Notice the lovely trees? There is not a speck of green in them. Alan is blending blue and yellow on the paper, which accounts for the gradation.

Sara is also painting a landscape and she's achieved a range of greens....

... but she wants more! Here she is methodically combining greens, blues and yellows for a page of greens. She's not even halfway through and already has some exquisite samples.

Ken's in a green mood today too. Green, especially olive green, features prominently in the base colors of his new series.

It's a cat's eye! This painting has all the elements, but done in a decorative manner. This may be a transitional style for Ken.

Tony's greens are even more bright and vibrant than usual, as are the flowers. He's hoping to have the planters really pop.... and they do!

Madeleine bought a new paintbrush. It's a 1/4" angled brush and she is putting it to good use on the mullions of the window below. Beyond the window, we love the colors and the composition. This is more than an excuse to try out a new toy.

Greeta is right on trend. The revisited painting below has lovely greens, beautiful water and great figures in motion. This is wonderfully evocative of summer!

And we can't let Father's Day go by without a tribute! Here Greeta begins a sweet Father/Daughter painting. Notice how she works from the outside in, saving the most defining features for last? We're sure this will be a big success for the holiday.

Bill is painting a dual portrait too. But his is of his grandson and his dog. We are in love with the composition and the languid poses of the subjects. You feel relaxed just looking at it.

We're still into portraits, as you can see from Elaine's painting below. Like Greeta, she's saved the hard parts (the facial features) for last. Tune in next week to see how the man in the corduroy jacket turns out.

We're always eager to see what our newly graduated "old masters" choose to paint. And Beth doesn't disappoint. Here's her breakfast, a delicious scone atop a brown paper bag. We applaud her skill—and also that she was patient enough to paint the scone before devouring it!

Upcoming events and important announcements
 

Have you ever wondered what the moon sounds like? You can find out on Friday night! 

You're invited. You're invited to join the International Chamber Artists (ICA) for the exciting world premiere of Sallie Wolf's Moon Project. 

In a gorgeous original composition for flute, piano, tuba, French horn and narrator, composer Patrick Godon is inspired by Chicago naturalist and illustrator Sallie Wolf, who recorded years of the moon’s north-south shifts on musical staff paper, to create a sometimes ethereal, sometimes ecstatic melody. 

The five-section piece includes a “chant” theme and musical representations of four phases of the moon, interspersed with Sallie’s reflections. Also on the program are lively, evocative, and colorful works for brass quintet by Renaissance composer Tielman Susato and 20^th century Canadian composer Morley Calvert, and the lovable Beethoven Piano Trio in E-flat Major, Op. 70, No. 2. 

Where:
     St. Gregory the Great Church
     5535 N. Paulina
     
When:
     Friday, June 23, 7:30pm

Click on the poster for more information about the concert. It's free, with a suggested $15 donation.

And here is a link to Sallie's page which shows some of her work: http://www.salliewolf.com/moon.html