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...