View on the village

Detail of "View on St Tropez" by Cathie van der Stel & Marina Kulik

This post is not about a project the aquarellista's have done, this is about something we may do in the coming weeks! As we are going to participate in the second exhibition in the Salle Pontis in Chateauneuf - because they really wanted us back - I 'd like to suggest to create all kinds of views of Chateauneuf... That could be the village itself, it is a truly lovely place, on top of a hill -

or we could also paint some of the many, absolutely fabulous romantic little streets inside the old center...

Below a couple of examples of views on villages - and we'll be back in two weeks with similar pictures, but now with Chateauneuf as subject!

View on St Tropez, the full painting by Cathie & Marina

Place des Arcades in Biot

View on Cannes

View on Antibes

Exhibition Bibbi Isaksson II

For part I ... scroll down to the previous post please

The other part of Bibbi's exhibition in Valbonne were her aquarelles that we can loosely summarise as "flowers"... Don't get the wrong impression, we are not talking your average aquarelle sizes, these are huge! 1 Meter by 1 meter flowers, and every centimeter interesting!

Also some oldies, inspired by or entirely done in the Hangar were on display! You may recognise one or two here as well...

And then some like these, each and every one of them with a very mysterious light adding to their story!

And last - but definitely not least, one of the most recent projects - an abstracted image of a regatta with good strong winds...

Bibbi - congratulations on your great work, your fantasy, your talent!!

Exhibition Bibbi Isaksson part I

Just got back from this fantastic exhibition in Valbonne, of aquarellista Britt-Marie (Bibbi) Isaksson!
For those of you who weren't able to go there and have a look: it was awsome, you really missed something... So instead of showing your paintings of our last session in the Hangar (I'll do that some other time) - I'll post a number of pictures of this show - in 2 chapters!

First of all: "people" - just look at the light and the shadows, and have you noticed that every single painting truly tells a story?
Well actually, some of the paintings have a story written next to them, like this one:

It even mentions us - because Bibbi got the inspirations to make the painting below, out of the statue and cat-eye-sessions that we did in the Hangar!This is the official version that she did later

...and as you can see, it has a tiny red dot in the right upper corner ...

What an atmosphere! of old movies and theatre plays...

More later!!

Finished projects and new starts

Week before last, the aquarellista's painted straight forward reflections, in water and on mirrors. Most of that is in the post below this one, but two more were finished and they happen to have come out so good that I show them in an in-betweenie piece...

Cathie van der Stel's fabulous reflection painting - first stage and finished product

Stage 1 and 2 of Beverly Ellsley's Taj Mahal

And then some worked out other ideas: Marianne, Marina and Bibbi

Marianne van Wijngaarden is finding out ways to paint in a more spontaneous and direct way. With this cow she seems to have found the right direction...

And Bibbi Isaksson started on an impression of autumn vine-leaves

(as did Marina Teding van Berkhout: I owe you a picture of her painting when it is finished)

Reflections in aquarelle II

Last week most of the members of our Aquarellista group in the South of France busied themselves once more with the "reflection" theme - this time in convex mirrors... the effects are amazing - and worth looking into more often - we haven't approached the subject in a technical way - we just used the impression it made on us and painted that on the beautiful mould made paper with our transparent aquarelle paint!

Sandra Seymour-Dale with her graphical village reflected in a sphere...

...similar work from Brenda Moorehouse - with an "industrial" atmosphere...

...Beverly Ellsley created this wonderful still life with "jeu-de-boules" ball...

...here's another amazing picture from the hands of Ann Edwards!!! Isn't it wonderful! What an effect...as if it rolls from the paper...

And last but not least the poetic work of Anna Karin Fast - she gives the jeu-de-boule-balls a beautiful, peaceful character and if you look careful you can see the very subtle reflections!

Deep Sea II

There were still two loose ends in the Deep Sea project... Anna Karin Fast added a bit more accent to the "hinted" eyes of her clown fish...

It worked!

And I didn't show you the "unfinished project" of Cathie van der Stel in the last post, but right now I will!!! She worked hard on it this week and the result is positively stunning...

You can rest assured that this will be shown in the next exhibition. I love this picture of a figure seen from under water!! Well done Cathie...

Reflections in Aquarelle

Last week's new theme was "Reflection". I have left out the "unfinished projects" - the next post will show them finished, we will work on them coming session. Everybody has been working really hard, the sun was out just long enough and the results were great!! Marianne van Wijngaarden has been working on the reflection of a white heron in the water...

and so did Hélène van der Kroft - who was very productive!

Here's a "sleeping beauty" also from her hand...

Snowy Mountains and a Lake... Switzerland versus Canada!

By Brenda Moorehouse...

...and Lies Timmermans

Anna Karin painted branches on a mirror, but the reflection was so sharp that with this subject it is hard to see what's reflection and what not... When we are painting outside, we are sitting under the trees - and she also painted the reflection of the leaves...

all in all a very lovely and special composition!

Bird in the water - Anne Edwards gave it two tries! Maybe next week we can show the third and final attempt! She's almost there...

And I couldn't help myself - I have made a reflection-picture of beach tents.

The reflection comes out of my fantasy - if you find mistakes-don't hesitate to write a comment!

Deep Sea

The weather was great last Tuesday - we worked outside in the sun and let ourselves be inspired by the "Deep Sea"... Some took that as a theme for abstract expression and others were more realistic... Enjoy the results!

Birgitta Engvall started out with this "fishbowl"

And then went on with the spiral to end up with this fantastic fantasy!

Clown fishes by Anna Karin Fast.

She just "hinted" the eyes, which works from close by, but at a distance it turns out your brain needs a little bit more information! Maybe more about this next post (and maybe not!)

Great work by Ann Edwards -as always!!

The light has a true spakle and there is so much to imagine in this picture - it needs no comments... A more abstract take on the Clown Fish by Bibbi Isaksson - very graphic!

Clown fishes by Beverly Ellsley

And last but not least, a deep-sea scape, by Lies Timmermans.

She didn't like the result much - but I resized it a bit and look at it now!! One of the best...

That's one of the very good sides of aquarelle, it has another view on what to do with your painting. I'll write about that in another post, where I'll also show some experimental work of Sandra Seymour Dale: so watch this space!!

Some thoughts on aquarelle

I have accidentally written my regular post on another blog - and I cannot easily put it in here - I'll have to re-do it (grrr) but luckily there was more last Tuesday:

Sandra's experiment...

And it actually looks great!!

The different approach of aquarellista's is of course that if you don't like your painting, you tear it up and throw it out. When in doubt, you can keep it - a painting on paper doesn't take much space- and work it out later (that's why we hardly ever varnish). And when you are sure that the painting is crap - apart from one part - you get rid of it - apart from that part! Hard to do when you create oil paintings on canvas nailed on wood!! (hehehe)

The Chateauneuf Expo

As promised, I'd post any article that would appear about our Hangar Exhibition. And there actually was one, in last week's Letter of the Mayor, the bimonthly magazine of the "Commune de Chateauneuf". Typically, there are no pictures of our aquarelles in it. This proves again that Aquarelles need a lot of publicity, so spread the word! Right now it is an acquired taste - not everybody likes it, mostly because it is not understood (and maybe people aren't interested in art with poetic beauty, subtlety and transparence??!!) And then of course there's the challenge that I mentioned before, that if you combine oil (or acrylic) paintings with aquarelles, you won't see the latter! That's why I always try to have exhibitions with sculptors. I can recommend that... Anyway, here's the article:

Not bad at all and at least it mentions us! And the very good news is that we will be there AGAIN from 10 - 20 December!

Aquarellista's of the future

Nina's Turtle

Last time the Aquerallista's got together we had two visitors, Nina and Joelle, young girls from Switzerland - grand daughters of Lies - and they were so good!!! The results of their meticulous work with the aquarelle paint and brushes shows their talent...

Joelles Clown fish

Iris

Loose end: Last week I promised to let you know what Cathie had done with her half-finished rose - cut it off, leaving a portrait painting, or add another rose and end up with a landscape painting... As you can see she did neither, and worked out the whole flower... She added some darker tones and the result looks positively stunning!!

~o0()()()0o~

New subject: when my daughter Iris was born, I created her birth-cards, 80 little aquarelles of Irises on hand made paper.... a lot of work as you can imagine - and I became a very very fast Iris-painter! I have none of these cards left, but the original design (50 X 70 cm) is still in my possession...

The Aquarellista's used the Iris as inspiration for their vertically-inclined work last week: we worked on easels instead of sitting down, resting the boards with stretched paper on a table... We agreed that that way still works best - but nevertheless, the results of painting - standing up were outstanding!!

The beautiful transparent Iris of Lies Timmermans: also look at the background! It really brings the flower forward by modestly being beautiful...
Cathie van der Stel's Irises! From light to dark, from fluttering to robust -and delightfully painted A yellow Iris by Hélène van der Kroft - another way of composing a background that brings the Iris out: dark and with a suggestion of leaves and stems The next (third) Iris of Brenda Moorehouse - and the best sofar if you ask me! A wonderful painting of yet another Iris by Beverly Ellsley to end this post in style!

It was a great session, we worked hard, experimented and got some fine results.....

Big Roses

Phew - last time I actually remembered to bring some examples of roses - and the aquarellista's present painted like crazy all afternoon!! We did a fabulous job, as you can see below:

Big Rose I by Cathie van der Stel

Big Rose II by Cathie van der Stel
(not yet finished - will be portrait or landscape together with another rose...)

Rose & broken heart by Birgitta Engvall

Lily by Bibbi Isaksson

(it is huge and still has "the light" - wonderful work)

Pink Rose by just-joined Aquarellista! Beverly Ellsly - great to have her as a new member

And I did 2 experiments, one "graphical" - monochrome with lines and surfaces only - is that still a rose? I think so...

And one in a non-rose colour. Still a rose, but a bit artificial looking..

Tomorrow we meet up again and will do vertical shapes and forms! More about that in the next post...

Unfinished projects II

Iris part one by Brenda... Because there were no examples of roses, she took up another flower. This first attempt looks great already, but it is very small. Coming Tuesday she will start with a bigger version - maybe. Might be in the "cartoon-style" she has been developing lately. Or she begins with a big rose too...

Honeysuckle by Anna-Karin Fast, painted in her recognizable natural, lighthearted style

Bibbi took an impressionist painting and used the flowers in it as example to inspire her to this attractive aquarelle - which may change during the week - she's not completely ready with it...

Peonie of Lies Timmermans - she made two versions and used it as practice for next week's big roses

Aquarelle Experiments - and unfinished projects

What's this then? - No "Big Rose", this is an experiment: Sandra thought of using kitchen paper on watercolour paper to achieve "relief"... The results may not all be as beautiful - but when dried up, they looked at least promising. Worth looking a bit further into!

As you may remember we were going to do good-sized paintings of big roses. I promised to take examples with me and... I forgot. (Brought everything else though :). We'll now do "big roses" next session, and worked on other projects last Tuesday. Here are some results, mostly unfinished projects:

Rooster by Marina Teding van Berkhout - look at the beautiful plume-tail, very typical Marina style!
First big rose -with tiny dewdrop, by Cathie van der Stel. She finishes this week, look forward to the result!

Next to her kitchen paper experiment, Sandra started a portrait of two special roses - a female figure with dried rose

Ann will start a rose coming Tuesday - And may finish this gorgeous waterlily. I wonder if she should "finish" it - actually it looks great as it is now!

Next post will present you the work of Lies, Bibbi, Brenda and Anna-Karin

Expo Chateauneuf

The past two weeks have been dedicated to the show in Chateauneuf - many aquarellista's took their turn in having "permanence" in the gallery, and now it's over! We cleared out everything today, and looking back I think we can say it was a great success. All visitors were impressed with the quality of the work and lots of them left messages in our "show book" with very positive comments! The dust has settled now and we're going to have our "rentree" session coming Tuesday... We're going to paint roses, as Aquarellista's do - but different, in fact, very big. We'll keep you posted with the results...

Exhibition in Chateauneuf - the Vernissage!

And then the expo opened...We started with great drinks and appetizers and an informal speech "en Provençal" by the mayor of Chateauneuf (R), who by the way told us he was very impressed by the quality of the work - and he wasn't making that up: he is going to write an article in the Chateauneuf Newspaper about it!! (I'll make sure I get that and scan it and post it - with a translation)

After the mayor's words, the president of our atelier, Anton Dikken (L) spoke -with quite a bit of humor in it - and that left the audience in such a good mood that some good deals were done on paintings - and especially those of the aquarellista's I might add (I am proud of you)!!

A lot of people visited the vernissage, but also the following days there has been a lot of interest!

The show is on until Sunday September 13th 4PM, if you haven't been, don't forget to pass by, the art is great, truly worthwhile!

Exhibition in Chateauneuf III

Coming Monday the show opens - with a vernissage that starts 6 PM in the Salles Pontis, in the old center of Chateauneuf de Grasse... One more Aquarellista shows work in that expo, Marina Teding van Berkhout. This young artist paints in a soft and light, pleasant style and often chooses subjects like children, animals and flowers.

Lately Marina is experimenting with a more contrasting choice of colours, a different brushstroke and other techniques and subjects (horses, abstract) - a very interesting development that you'll definitely see more of. In this blog - or on her future website...
As for the exhibition - it opens its doors on Monday the 31st of August 10AM - and that same day we also have the vernissage - starting 6PM! After that it opens every day including weekends from 10 - 12.30 and from 2 - 5.30PM. It finishes on Sunday the 13th of September.

Exhibition in Chateauneuf II

Dewdrop by Brenda Moorehouse

A couple of days ago I showed you some work of the Swedish aquarellista's, that you can see "live" in Chateauneuf de Grasse from the 31st of August onwards. Also exhibiting beautiful as well as interesting aquarelles will be 3 members of the Manx/Australian/UK subgroup, Brenda Moorehouse,Cathie van der Stel and Sandra Seymour-Dale.

Brenda will show acrylics in the Chateauneuf exhibition, but I still had this great "dewdrop" of hers in my possession that I will treat you to! She is developing her style into a more clear, almost cartoonlike brushstroke, but her older, poetic aquerelles are also worthwhile...

Cathie van der Stel is not only a very talented but also a diligent aquarellista, and she has so much excellent work that it was difficult to choose what to show on the exhibition... The painting of the peonies is a classic and it shows her mastery of the medium as well as her patience! Cathie is able to work for a very (really) long time on one piece of work and still preserve the light! That combined with her great feel for composition and subjects, all of her paintings are more than worthwhile. In the exhibition she will show a couple of portraits, pebbles and more.

Cathie van der Stel

And last but not least Sandra - with yet another style and vision! She uses dark tones as well as light ones, uses the contrast, with a big brush and on quite a large scale... and in general her work is interesting and full of character...Sandra Seymour-Dale

If you are in the neighbourhood of Chateauneuf de Grasse the first two weeks of September, I can recommend you have a look at this quality work! And then I haven't shown you the paintings of the Dutch and Italian aquarellista's! I'll post about them shortly...

Exhibition in Chateauneuf

From 31 August until 13 September you can admire the beautiful work of a couple of aquarellista's in Chateauneuf de Grasse! There is a group exhibition there, and some of us participate with 2 or more paintings... As soon as I know more (which will be very soon) I'll publish the details - but for now it seemed like a good idea to give a sneak preview of what you can expect! I'll start with the Swedish delegation - Anna Karin Fast, Bibbi Isaksson and Birgitta Engvall. All three are original and creative - but that's where the resemblance ends, in their work they are very different. Bibbi's work is surrealistic and magical - the images look familiar, but the light, the combinations, the surroundings are dreamlike - and they will make you look - and look again!

Des temps immémoriaux - Bibbi Isaksson

Anna Karin looks for her themes in nature - she works realistic, in a poetic, lighthearted way and always gives the subject something extra - via her compositions, the way she uses her colours and the effects of the aquarelle paint

Pebbles - Anna Karin Fast

Birgitta has joined the aquarellista group not so long ago and she is still exploring the possibilities of the medium. With a very contagious enthusiasm! She researches the effects of the combination of aquarelle with other materials (salt, soap, crayon, masking fluid) and is not always looking for a beautiful picture! Good for her - but this one we all love:

Horse Nebula - Birgitta Engvall

During the exhibition in Chateauneuf, in "les Salles du Pontis et du Village" there is much more from these three - as well as from "the others" whom I will introduce to you in coming posts!

We're on Holiday!

Even the Aquarellista society has to go on holiday from time to time... Some of us are traveling far, some stay home and clean up their atelier! But last week, in between a fabulous lunch and goodbye champagne, we still did some painting...

Brenda Moorehouse, who by the way has recently developed a very interesting, cartoonlike style - created this "doodle" that has so many interesting bits!
Ann Edwards toyed with the deep sea theme

Lies Timmermans' "View through" from last week

and this is also from her hand! I have a feeling she likes bright colours

Brenda Moorehouse - doodles 2

And Doodles 3 from Brenda Moorehouse

I probably have said it before - this "doodling" is a GREAT way to discover what you like, what's there inside your brain and to get your inspiration back! And if you don't like it, just throw it away....

Next post about our upcoming show in Châteauneuf de Grasse!

Painting a real stone Chateau

We did have an aquarellista session last week - we painted "view-through" - a landscape or something happening, seen through a window or an archway or a couple of pillars. It was very inspiring and there were some truly interesting results... But I forgot to take pictures... That's why you get a report on this week's painting of the Chateau de Castellaras (a commission). And because I often get the question "how do I do stones" I'll try to explain that here: there were a bloody lot of them in that painting...

I always start my paintings from the right hand side! Not the most efficient as I am right handed and have to be careful not to smudge parts that are still wet. I have tried to start left - but it just feels less good. Funny isn't it! Habits -even the wrong ones- are hard to break...

The finished product, 70X50 cm of hard work with a tiny brush. (click on it to enlarge)

One way of painting stones: just "hint" them. In the castle stones I could clearly detect the horizontal, irregular lines, and much less the vertical ones. So that was exactly what I painted in the sunny parts, like the tower. Note that it is important to take your time to observe what "the character" is of the stones. Where does the light come from, how do you see the shadows, how are they shaped, what is their colour, is the shadow and light very clear... The stones under the pillars are regular and square. I vary slightly in colour and paint them on top of each other, so that the rims of the aquarelle form natural shadow lines, and here and there I leave a small line unpainted (white)
Other stones are hopelessly irregular - but most of the time rectangular-ish. And because the light comes from above, the shadow will usually be under the stone.
Above the most varied piece of stone wall. Irregular, in size, colour, material, shadow and shade... I must admit that I "simplified" it a bit. I do that often, also with tiled roofs. (The brain still accepts it as a roof - although the tiles are much bigger than in real life...)

Next post about your work on "deep sea" and then we're on summer vacation!!

Girl Power?

This weekend I had the opening of a private exhibition. Forty of my aquarelles were on display for the residents of a very exclusive domaine.

Over there I met a lovely, mysterious and famous aquarellista. A wealthy man, made his fortune in Japan with his watercolours (yippee, it can be done!) who told me he gave lectures on academies all over the world - but that the English watercolour tradition didn't accept him. I'll be contacting soon to hear more of his stories, admire his work, and I'll let you know all about it.

I am very proud that he appreciated "my DNA". There was another well-known and talented artist present who holds the aquarelle brush from time to time and I'll feature him as well in later posts.
The other visitors were all interested in art - well - the women were! From the comments I received I could make up that they understood what I was doing (or trying to do) with my abstract free work: Use the behaviour of the paint to create something that comes out of ME, my brain, my imagination, my DNA. The result is a surprise to me too, it is never exactly planned and I only show what I like.
But I feel I'm on to something there, something original, that I must work with, and it has to do with the origin - of me, but also of life itself. Very modest, not?

Anyway - the men, with exception of the artists, were all looking for something they could recognise. "I like the protraits much better" was a much-heard remark. "A very free interpretation of DNA" or "doesn't look like DNA at all" were down-to-earth others. And last but not least "I can see you are a woman - you paint textile and fabrics, looks like needlework" .

Don't get me wrong -I appreciate the input and I do wonder if it might be true, as I have noticed before that in general my work is recognized by women, they seem to like it better than men and also somehow understand the "deeper" meaning ... More later! And I'd like to read your comments, so don't hesitate to react. On my website you can see more work...

Swapping II

Cathie van der Stel and Marina Teding -together responsible for this interesting "fruit"

Forest and mist - Brenda Moorehouse and ....

The second swapping afternoon was fun (of course: who wouldn't love to just experiment for the experiment and without any result obligation...). We started out the same as last time, one starts with the background, another chooses and finishes it -

Chagall - Marianne van Wijngaarden & Helene van der Kroft

but this time after the foreground was done, we sometimes let a third person put in the details. Like with this one below, a joint effort of Cathie (background vaguely resembling a face) Brenda (clearly recognized Cleopatra) and Marina (put eye make up and lipstick on her) o well - we had fun Here below is my favourite - it looks so graphical and the colours enhance each other. But the other aquarellista's don't agree!! We left the (white) masking fluid on - the effect is interesting! (I think)

Lies Timmermans en Cathie van der Stel

and then some lovely initiatives like this one by Hélène

We won't get together coming week - I'll post about another aquarellista subject!

Swapping I

Not Picasso - but a combined effort of Ann Edwards and Helene van der Kroft!

To swap - a great thing to do if you are painting together, like we do... It will make you come out of your comfort zone, experiment, be triggered by something outside yourself and last but not least be less "result" driven. The Aquarellista's did it last week - and will do it again when we are getting together next time... Maybe it is an idea for you too!

A real prizewinner - started by Brenda Moorehouse, finished by Lies Timmermans

This the swapping principle:Stretch mouldmade arches grain torchon on large boards. Everybody starts a background - knowing that this painting will be finished by somebody else. There are no rules, and it is not forbidden to make it difficult -or weird- for the next person! Then you swap and you get that strange background, made by somebody else - and you let yourself be inspired by what you see...

Marianne van Wijngaarden did a great job on Hélène van der Kroft's pattern background

"Result" may not be what we were after - but the work has actually come out quite good! And we learned a lot from doing it. Sorry once more for the bad quality pictures - had to take them with my phone...

I proudly present my background - finished by Cathie van der Stel

Ann Edwards finished Cathie's background and made a Science fiction landscape

Cathie did another background - that was finished by Brenda Moorehouse into a very interesting and playful abstract composition...

And Marianne's background - with regular stamps in masking fluid, made into chinese wallpaper by Marina

Faces II

Last week we semi-finished the faces, leaving room for experiment and other subjects - but all related to "light". Here's an overview of the results up to now:

Girl smelling washing powder by Cathie van der Stel Two versions of a wedding portrait by Brenda Moorehouse
(one in Acrylics - one in Aquarelle, I know which version I prefer :-))

Girl reading music by Ann Edwards

Stage one and the finished product of Sandra Seymour Dale's "Nude"

Above... 3 stages of Marina Teding van Berkhout's Boys.

She will finish this and then I'll show you a bigger version!
And to top all this off, a subtle landscape

by Marianne van Wijngaarden

Tuesday we'll meet up again and we'll do a "swapping" session: I'll update you about it later, but the idea is that you create a background, knowing that it is for somebody else: after you finish you give it to another aquarellista... It is a very good exercise that helps you get out of your comfort zone, leaves room for experiment and makes the need for "result" a bit less strong. More about it next post!

Exhibition in Théoule

Both Marina's participated in a big show in Théoule sur Mer. The theme was "in the footsteps of van Gogh" and in total 79 (!!) Dutch artists that live in France showed their work... We were the only aquarellista's - there was much acrylic and oils, as well as sculptures and other techniques. It was very well-visited (it's the season!) and we (the Marina Artists team) got lots of commissions out of it for portraits!

Faces I

Lies Timmermans

Still working on and with "light", the aquarellista's have concentrated on faces last week. Very good results were made, not everything is finished yet (as a matter of fact we could call every post "work in progress") but here's a couple of good ones - hope you'll be inspired!!

Cathie van der Stel

NB: In September there will be a group-exhibition in the centre culturel in Chateauneuf de Grasse where at least a third of the space will be covered by the Aquarellista's!!

Sandra Seymour-Dale

And last but not least a picture of a work in progress of Marina Teding van Berkhout - she'll create a very dark background and experimented with masking fluid - which doesn't photograph so well! But I like the picture so much, it looks so mysterious and the little men so funny - update about how it turned out - next week!

Work in progress...

The Aquarellista's have been looking into "light". We have studied the work of Rogger Oncoy (see link on the right) and tried to copy some of his portraits. This led to interesting discoveries and the next step will be to use his expression of light in portraits of our own subjects...

More about that next time, and here are some interesting examples:
A particularly good Rogger Oncoy made by Marina Teding van Berkhout

And another "Oncoy" copy - of Cathie van der Stel. She is now deciding how to finish this, as a copy or use her own imgination and make it personal. If it works out we'll keep you posted...

Green Light by Cathie van der Stel

Sandra Seymour Dale added a bit of pigment to her Ochre Village: spot the differences! And decide for yourself which you like best...

Sandra also studied the light, with her own subject

Working with pigment - Ochre

The Village of Viens in the Luberon by Sandra Seymour Dale

Some of us have been on a short painting trip to the Luberon, where we visited the Ochre Factory and had an explanation (a very LONG explanation) about how to use pigments. And because I received a set of ochre pigments as a present, we decided to have a go at it last Tuesday! The recipe is easy enough - a bit of pigment, a bit of water and - for aquarelle - a bit of gum arabic. Or well, that's how we did it. There are other media, but they all contain white and we are sworn to transparency!!

Marina dripping some Gum Arabic on a bit of yellow ochre...

Anyway - it looked interesting, and felt good, concocting our mixtures like professional witches, and the results were actually quite nice... In the meantime I looked a bit deeper into the matter and it turns out that there are all kinds of other mediums to mix with. And interesting colours, as well as a better price! Worth some more study and we'll definitely take this a step further in a later stage, but for now, look at what we created! All with the same set of pigments, the same subject (the ochre landscape) and then our own personal interpretation...

Marina Teding van Berkhout
Lies Timmermans

Cathie van der StelMarina Kulik

Wet skies

Last week the Tuesday Aquarellista's painted skies, in wet-in-wet technique. And I took some really crappy pictures - with my phone... Which is a shame because the results were truly worthwhile and the pics don't do them justice. But I'll show them anyway - they give an impression of what you can achieve in terms of mystery when you drip bits of pigment or aquarelle paint on a very wet surface. It's been a worthwhile experiment for us, definitely worth repeating.

Below a very dutch landscape with a very dutch sky in a combination of wet and dry:

Marianne van Wijngaarden

We had an aquarellista from Devon visiting, Carol. She made several smaller aquarelles, we liked this seaview a lot!

A very nice cloud by Lies Timmermans- inspired by Adrie Hello
Two nebula-like skies by Cathie van der Stel


A heavy wet in wet storm! - by Brigitte Hole

Aquarelle portraits blog

To good to let pass... If you know good aquarelle sites, or video's, don't hesitate to mention them to me so others can enjoy them!
http://oncoy.blogspot.com/

Just one Picture

This very interesting face is painted by Bibbi Isaksson , one of the first aquarellista's. It inspired us to do research for wet in wet painting - and I will post about that soon - with pictures. Am now sooo busy still with the exhibition, sorry!

Cat show has started!

Grey Kitten - wet in wet then wet on dry - now sold

OK - after three days of working really really hard, putting heavy sculptures and aquarelles in place (and then removing them because it didn't look good, repositioning them, finishing the last details & going out shopping for champagne and other drinkees to serve to our guests) we had the super-succesful vernissage of Chat'atouille on Friday evening... We must have had at least 100 people - the whole village of Valbonne was there, the regional newspaper, our friends, and of course... the Aquarellista's!!

After the vernissage we went out for dinner with most of Valbonne village until late at night and this weekend Sculptor Sally Ducrow & I started our "permanence" in the gallery... We had a lot of interest, from all over the world - and also from a local girl that immediately took the chair that originally was reserved for Sally's marble "Chat qui fait sa toilette".

She may even have kittens some day soon - I'll keep you posted!
The address of the show:

Salle de Saint Esprit
Place de l'église
Valbonne Village
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Open Tuesday - Friday 2 - 6 PM
Weekends 10AM - 6PM
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Show closes Sunday 10 May 6PM

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Birds and cats

Titia Brandwijk

Marina Teding van Berkhout

Couldn't resist, just had to post these birds by Titia Brandwijk and Marina Teding - aren't they GREAT... but in the rest of this post I'd like to share some of the worry that an aquarellista can have when a show is due:
You may have noticed that I haven't written much lately... One of the reasons is that I have a big exhibition coming up - of which I thought that it was quite far away but the vernissage is actually coming Friday...So all of a sudden I had to choose, finish, cut out, put in passepartout and then frame some thirty aquarelles!! (10 were already framed) And did I tell you that my car broke down...? Arghhh...
The show has 'Chatatouille' as a theme - and I am showing a lot of cats, together with my "DNA ribbons" and some other free work. (Cats are great with ribbons... Especially young ones. That's why there also are some combinations - of ribbons and cats). The expo has 40 (!) of my paintings, together with the work of the fabulous sculptor Sally Ducrow - who also shows her cats - in marble, sandstone, serpentine, metal, wood and plaster. Like me, she loves to do cats - although her "normal" work is much more serious, but the playfulness of cats attracts her just as much as it does me - and that shows... I'll keep you posted about the show, with pictures and hopefully some anecdotes... But first I have to get those 40 aquarelles to Valbonne - trying not to damage all that glass in the frames - we have to arrange the whole thing, do shopping for the vernissage and pick up some of Sally's cat-sculptures that are scattered all over the Côte d'Azur...

Aquarelle new talents II

Pear behind a Curtain by Titia Brandwijk

My aquarelle starters group is finished! By way of exam they researched "transparency". Results above and below...

We also dove into "darkness", with very interesting resultsAnother interesting (and older) subject was "boy fishing". I show this because I noted that repetition actually adds something and makes more interesting! Idea for you? I am happy to say that the entire aquarelle starters group has picked up the technique so well and so fast - with or without me they will be very much able to develop into independent and creative aquarellista's!!

Eyes

The Hangar Aquarellista's had another fruitful session, researching perspective in complicated architectural structures (pictures will be posted later), finishing projects like the "Dead Sea" above, (Cathie van der Stel) and last but not least - we toyed a bit with that beautiful theme: "eyes" - and more specific- "cat's eyes".

With interesting results!:

Birgitta Engvall

Anna Karin Fast Cathie van der Stel

Much more was painted - and that will be used for illustrations of later posts... Are you an aquarellista!? Why don't you join us! We need all the support and inspiration we can get, to fulfill the objective of becoming a worldwide known and respected movement!

Aquarellista new Talent

The last 4 weeks I have run an aquarelle starters class on Monday-and the participants have already developed to a high technical level! They understand about colours, the characteristics of the material itself, paint, paper, brushes. They have experimented with wet-in-wet and wet-on-dry, and learned how to suggest volume, shade and shadow. What also impresses me is how they all are in their own individual way developing their creativity!

These are abstracts, first painted with aquarelle paint, then washed and then all the different surfaces are given another wash that suggests volume...

To be continued...

Light!

The Hangar Aquarellista's have been playing with light this week. In a couple of different forms, "classic", "realistic" and abstract. This is a brilliant landscape of Ann Edwards, inspired on the dead sea. She has not used white, the bright orange works very well to suggest a source of light, because of the strong contrast with the cool blues and greys!In this classic monochrome nude (by Renée Richters) the parts that are not painted are the lightest and suggest a very bright light. More light of Renée Richters. We do use the transparancy of the aquarelle paint, but our style is not so soft in colour! - for us it is more the contrast that suggests light and makes the picture interesting. Both abstracts full of light, by Marina Teding van Berkhout

Estranging again - Cut it up!

The Hangar Aquarellista's were going realistic last week!

Three stages of an aquarelle by Bibbi Isaksson:

And the first stage of Cathie van der Stel's new still life (so sorry for the poor picture quality guys, next week real camera instead of phone...)

Composition by Anna Karin Fast

Anyway - one way or another most of us ended up being smart & creative: with work that didn't quite work out. As all aquarellists know it is very hard to "repair" an aquarelle without it going dull and un-spontaneous. But look what happens when you cut it up, and then not throw it in the bin - but start a whole new composition....

Landscape by Ann Edwards

Portrait by Birgitta EngvallEstranged Nebula painting by Brigitte Hole

An idea? I have always torn up a lot of my work - and use good parts again - to form a completely different picture... And also worked on smaller size papers to combine those into large sizes, which makes me think & act in a different way than I would have on one large piece of paper... See my website for examples!

Nebula's

Aquarelle by Marina Teding van Berkhout

The aquarellista member logo is now available. Let us know if you are interested to have one to place on your website - and - if you are an aquarellista that is - we'll be happy to link back to you!

Aquarelle by Anna Karin Fast

We (the Aquarellista's group that works in Atelier Le Hangar in Chateauneuf de Grasse) explored the concept of "Nebula's" this week... and the results were very very worthwhile!

aquarelle by Ann Edwards

Nebula's are colorful gases that are expelled where the stars are exploding.

Or, in official terms:

A diffuse mass of interstellar dust or gas or both, visible as luminous patches or areas of darkness depending on the way the mass absorbs or reflects incident radiation.

Aquarelle by Cathie van der Stel

Well, for us they were an unending source of inspiration - look at the power, the force, the colourfulness of this work! And it kept us thinking about the Galaxy, planets, lightyears, and how small we actually are... Luckily we have our aquarelle to express ourselves...

Aquarelle by Sandra Seymour-Dale

Aquarelle by Bibbi Isaksson

Drawbacks of Aquarelle

Everytime I meet artists who use aquarelle as their main technique, I notice that we share that enthousiasm and motivation for the medium.

We all try out other types of paint, and other media, but most of us come back to using aquarelle. I have already written a couple of posts about "why that is the case" and I am pretty sure more will follow, but to avoid the impression that this is a new religion - I'd like to point out a couple of drawbacks!

Aquarelle by Sandra Seymour-Dale

The first is one that I have encountered -many times: Aquarelle is transparent and therefore "light" and subtle. This is a BIG disadvantage if you show your work together with oil, acrylic and other paintings with opaque media. Nobody will notice your work when it is hanging between an oil and an acrylic... (Solution: have your expo's together with sculpturers...)

Aquarelle is painted on paper and has at best the "grain" of the paper, but the big fat relief that you can have with other media is not possible. All the 3D will have to come from suggestion, shadows, shading etc. The painting itself is very 2D...

Aquarelle is not water resistant - it needs to have glass in front of it for protection. No big deal, but, when you do exhibitions, it is fragile. It reflects, lighting is important and the alternatives, matted glass or plexiglass are less beautiful.

Aquarelle by Bibbi Isaksson

And did I mention "heavy"? My paintings are rather big, I use simple aluminium frames, but a 70 X 100 cm frame weighs 7 kilo!! If I have an exhibition of 20 paintings I have to drag around 140 kilo's from my atelier to my car and from the car to the gallery... My next expo will be 30 paintings!! But I'll just walk up and down 30 times - aquarellista's fitness!!

Uhmmm. Yes, of course - last but not least: it is a difficult technique. You have to plan for the white, as the "white" (or the light) in an aquarelle is the colour of the paper - you can only go darker... It drips and bleeds. (these are also the good points by the way) And you cannot really repair mistakes - I'm doing several versions of one painting - and must admit I throw away the ones that I don't like. The more experience you get, the less that happens by the way...!

Did I leave out important disadvantages?? Please don't hesitate to give them!! It proves where the character is :)

Long live the aquarellista's!

Aquarelle by Cathie van der Stel

Needed: good websites of other Aquarellista's (member or not) We have Catherine Earl's and mine... There must be many more...

Logo, light and estranging

And here's the Aquarellista logo (3X) - all the members cast their vote and this is the one they chose...

Last week our group did some research in "light" - leave only one part of your paper unpainted and work wet in wet. The results were exciting - these are two that I took a picture of, we may have more next week...

And then my own developments - I have started a new project in my atelier, not sure what it is going to lead to - but the idea is "estranging" everyday subjects. By giving them another perspective, or another colour or texture etc... I'll keep your posted, this is a first result that I'll develop into something. I like it, my husband likes it, but my mates from the model drawing class that I teach on Monday morning thought it was too "romantic"... What do you think?

a Logo for Aquarellista!

We are passionate about Aquarelle!

We'd like to promote painting with it. We found out that aquarelle is a fabulous medium to express yourself in. It is light, you can always carry it with you, it has no strong smell and is ready for use whenever you feel like it. Being good with aquarelle paint is regarded as difficult - and it does require a bit of technique - that you have to learn first. Not everybody can do it - but, it is not extremely difficult, just different!!

There have been great artists in the past that used aquarelle as a serious medium: Dürer, Turner, Kandinsky, Nolde... They were the first Aquarellista's!

Modern Art (I'm told) is only succesful when it is "shocking"... People watch tv all day, and are used to seeing shocking things, in general they go for the quick fix, the kick, and the sensation.

We would propose Aquarelle as a proud answer to that!
Aquarellista! is a movement that promotes the beautiful, fine and subtle art of painting with aquarelle. We' d like every artist that works with aquarelle to join this group - there must be a possibility to become a mature contrast to this decadent trend that art has to be scandalous to "work". Aquarelle can be the medium for serious abstract painting, expressing emotion - strong, maybe quiet, gripping but subtle, spontaneous and always striking.

Would you like to become a member? Send a mail, or write a comment below! Membership is free for the time being and the more we are, the bigger the chance that we will be accepted as serious artists!

We'll gradually build up the movement. A website is in the planning and, after careful consideration, we'd like to introduce 3 proposals for a logo:

Let us know which one you like best!! - That one will be worked out into a serious Aquarellista logo...We look forward to your comments...

Making aquarelles for a job-and the monkey problem

A girl has to eat - and that's why a girl cannot always work on expressing herself...
This Aquarellista earns a living painting houses and portraits, as a member of the Marina Artists team!
I just finished an aquarelle of a complicated house - and super rich in detail.
It was ordered by a group of girlfriends that wanted to give a present to one of them - she is moving from the South of France back to London... This is her house!

I took pictures of the progress during the days I was working on it - and put them in a presentation, which will give an indication of how it was done...

It was a lot of work but I loved every minute of it. That said, it did influence my cooking!

Where I usually am painting on big pieces of paper, detailed where I think it should be and for the rest, let the transparent paint do its thing - in the kitchen I like easy, fresh and just a pinch of salt. But during this all-detail painting project, I started to peel grapes for a fruit salad and making complicated dishes with really difficult sauces... Coincidence? My husband hopes I'm back to big paintings asap :) But the brain works in mysterious ways...
Talking about brain, we (Cathie and Marina II, the other aquarellista's and me) have an issue: the Monkey Puzzle.

I clearly see a monkey in this picture - the others see a crocodile (I see that too) but no monkey - where I cannot imagine that they can miss it. How come? Is my brain working in a different manner? Does that mean, like Cathie said, that other people are missing a lot when they look at my work? Wooha... Nice one. O well, more about the monkey problem (an explanation and maybe more riddles) in a later post!
And of course - don't hesitate to react (click on COMMENT below)

The Aquarellista! Membership

Just a little try-out paper of an Aquarellista! member

Aquarellista is still in the developmental stages, but there has been a lot of thinking going on already!

I am convinced that we need to have a membership, and for the time being that membership will be free of charge. We are in the start-up phase and I'll be happy and rewarded to find others that feel the same as I do.

Let's get started with a current definition for Aquarellista members:
They are "Every artist*) worldwide that works mainly with aquarelle and is proud of it and would like to join a movement that promotes the use of aquarelle!"

*) An artist is a person that takes responsibility for his creations and has a strong urge to create his artwork, whenever and wherever he can.

The advantages of being an Aquarellista! member

* You"belong"!
* Aquarelle will finally get the image and reputation of a serious medium that can bring forth important works of art.

*You are member of a group of "mates" that could help each other, with hints, tips and tricks, going from technical stuff to locations to exhibit to commissions.

To become a member: for now - just comment to a post on this blog - I'll receive that as an email and we'll take it from there. The requirement should be proof that you fulfill the above definitions - you are an artist, you work with aquarelle and are proud of it, and want to help promoting the fine art of Aquarelle.

We are developing a logo for your website or correspondence, a kind of hallmark that shows you are part of a serious movement.

We will seek publicity, press releases and have a website.

We will be in touch with all art schools, galleries, Aquarelle suppliers etc.

I'm up for any ideas! Aquarellista from all countries, Unite!Just an illustration: I'm working on a commission for painting a wonderful house in the South of France. Will keep you posted!

Welcome to this new blog - this is the first post of many, with thoughts about the noble and difficult art of "Aquarelle", a lot of pictures of paintings, for the moment coming from me, but hopefully others will join me - and especially about the movement that is about to see the light: Aquarellista!

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Aquarellista! is not about painting roses and landscapes - there is so much more to it... Aquarellista! is about the creativity and originality that can be achieved with this watery, transparent, and hard-to-control medium!

As far as I'm concerned, aquarelle (painting with transparent watercolours on paper) deserves more attention than it has received up to now.

To me it is a form of art that goes beyond the control freakyness of for instance realism in oil or acrylics! Everything the artists does with these materials comes from that person, it is all ego that the artist shows the audience, no matter how wild or loose or controversial he or she is.

To express something in aquarelle requires management skills - and it is never completely yours: the paint does things too, that you can influence and use and optimize, but it is never all about you! So that's one important characteristic about an Aquarellista! - personality.

And then, aquarelle is a good answer to the latest perception of art, that it has to be "shocking".

Aquarelle is not a very suitable material to be shocking with. It is fine, spontaneous and subtle and I guess that even a very "modern" subject (porno, cruelty) will somehow come out dreamlike, transparent and delicate (never seen something like it - but can imagine).

Thirdly, working with aquarelle is not for everybody. It is a difficult technique to master and it requires patience, swiftness, an open mind for a new way of "seeing light", the ability to throw away stuff that you are not happy with (because you can hardly repair mistakes) and a very good understanding of colours.

I do hope this blog is the beginning of something beautiful - back later with more thoughts...