Wet-in-wet technique, and then some - in watercolours, what else?!

The session of last week was dedicated to wet-in'wet painting, the most well-known technique in Aquarelle, where you work with a wet brush on a wett surface. You need lots of patience, and insight in when it is just right for a certain effect. It was great fun, but we are not 'there' yet 😀

Anne ambitiously went for a wet-in-wet seascape and she pulled it off! The woman's talent is unbelievable,

It is looking so good!

Thecla worked on her design for the geometric abstract landscape (no photo) and experimented with wet-in-wet. She tried out all the techniques and combinations and had a lot of fun as well as discoveries, with granulating pigments and colours that change completely during the drying time. Next week the next stage, with the blue tape removed!

Like Thecla, I also experimented a bit, with very wet backgrounds and flowing colours and then gold leaf, 0,1 fineliner and one-hair brush. It was fun and opens a ton of possibilities. 

 

Anna Karin is always working wet-in-wet, in all of her objects. She continued with her version of Fauvist Derain painting and will decide next week if she is going to leave lots white or do all the colours. In both cases there is no doubt in my mind that it will be superb.


Ingrid also started with her version of  'The Turning Road' and although not yet finished, it is very fauvist in every aspect. Full of bright colour, daring shapes and lively. It is great to see all those interpretations!

 

Sandra's Superb still life is slowly developing, a wonderful process, where every colour invokes another one and lots of choices are to be made all the time. so interesting! and Beautiful.

 

Fauvism, Velvet Pumpkins and more - in Aquarelle

 Last session was a combination of all subjects of the last weeks. The results are impressive! Here's an overview...

FAUVISM


Version by Martine

Created by Laura

Charlie's interpretation


PUMPKINS


Velvet pumpkin, too good not to post but that is my opinion, not that of the maker 😄

I gave the velvet pumpkins a try too

FOLIAGE

Anne painted these leaves, fabulous! When she is more or less done, she always puts it on the easel and then tweaks it a bit. That's the last round, only for herself, we won't notice the difference😉

More leaves, these are painted by Ingrid - as well as the beautiful impressionist rendering of a woman reading under the trees. With a gorgeous sea view.

And leaves by Sue as well, same example and the results look alike although they got there in different ways! Below Sue's WiP, a gorgeous Wreath to be!

JAPANESE CHARACTERS

Brenda was there for the last time, she will be away until May. But she left an impression for sure with her Gorgeous Japanese Calligraphy, that she created in the correct way! Well done!

Janine has her first commission and worked on that. WiP, but already so good! And the Oyster painting is now finished. Looks fab!

The Aquarellista versions of André Derain's L'Estaque

What a fabulous session we had last week, when we created our own versions of the painting 'L'Estaque' or 'the Turning Road' by André Derain.

André Derain is a french painter and sculptor who, together with Henri Matisse, is the founder of Fauvism... It was a wonderful inspiration for us - have a look for yourself:

Corinne created a completely new -and very beautiful- version that is clearly inspired by the colours and the shapes of L'Estaque, yet shows her style at its best, with the quiet determination she always somehow has in her paintings.


Martine's WIP - she chose to invert the warm and the cold colours, also somewhat simplifying the very full original. It already looks stunning!

Laura used dark pencil lines and they give her version the personal touch. This is still WIP and I love the sturdy way she has set it up, no way this gets out of hand...

Anna's version is very different again, and so beautiful! She is using the red and inserting more natural colours next to it, to create a turning road with stylized trees and the rest is still a surprise...

Anna Karin uses her beautiful colours and their border-making characteristics to create natural lines. All still very much WIP but O so promising!

you can see that Charlie is a fauvist at heart, what an explosion of warm and bright and strong colours! Without paying too much attention to details and perfection. I love it and look very much forward to the finished painting.

Amazing, this painting by Glen. So strong! The simple clear lines combined with the almost primary colours make very special and did you notice that the blue shadows are illuminating - because of the contrast

Marie-Françoise has also simplified her painting, but has definitely kept the atmosphere of the original!
It is a bit softer in tone and I think that is a very personal touch.


This WIP is created by Roxane, who of course went for it and is making a  very personal version. It is so interesting to see the little houses, I can wait to see it all connected!!
The painting below is also Roxane's, and was a WIP but we decided that she shouldn't change anything anymore beauty in simplicity and the snowy mountains are absolutely breathtaking!

Due to storms and floods we had to cancel our Thursday Aquarellista session, but luckily Michele, our correspondent from Bretagne joined us again and started with the emblem of Côtes d'Armor (her area in Brittany) Had she known about our fauvist theme, she would probably have given him another background 😀

Japanese Characters in Watercolours

 

In our latest watercolour session, we painted Japanese Characters in our own western way. Although some of us painted them the Japanese way, with a big pointy brush and very Zen, mindful and careful. All of them are beautiful in their own way, and as you can see above there was enthusiasm and diligence!

Corinne painted the big character that translates into LOVE. She added a background in soft tones with more characters and thus created a composition that would be fantastic for a Japanese film poster.

Martine also created a poster-like image, started with a background and then practised her spontaneous side, with a big brush and using lovely words, like respect and royalty, life and happiness
To translate use this chart:

And here's her practise page

Anna did a perfect 'Love' character and experimented with the background. She's not too happy about how that worked out, and I agree. The great thing about watercolours is, that is is quite spontaneous, you can learn from your 'mistakes' and just start again you on a new piece of paper! 

Thecla spontaneously painted 'Life' (above) and then 'Fire' - in that way painting her last name, which means Fire. She also started a quite technical abstract, inspired by her travels in Mauritius the last weeks, It is still pencil-only but hopefully we will see it in painting stages one of these weeks!

Charlie painted a lot of these little Japanese fish, in quick strokes. This one I think was the best, so transparent and quick, like the carps themselves. You feel their moves. Great idea!

Laura has a very steady painting hand! I love everything about this painting, the colours, the style and the sturdy elegance. Well done!

And lastly, a magnificent character by Roxane, Not sure what it is, but the handwriting is perfect - you can see she means it. Determined, bright and elegant. Love it!

In the meantime...

Next to a lot of other characters, Roxane painted this amazing landscape in the last 5 minutes. So simple and at the same time it tells a lot! So cool that snow on the mountain, just by leaving white!

Anna finished her leaves in the early sunlight

And Martine added some green to the black background of her plants. I would have thought improving would be impossible, but yes, it is even better now!

Foliage in Watercolours

Last Watercolour session we had an 'on request' subject, 'Foliage'. How to paint that, if there is a lot of green, like in a garden or a forest. We studied a lot of examples and decided that it is a mix of very vague watery and super precise one-hair-brush painting as well as lots of squinting to see the lights and the darks. Not everyone was happy but I certainly loved the results. Hope you do too:

Corinne wanted to practise this and to her it felt like a struggle, but look at the result - she really gets it!
Painting all those leaves is a combination of flowing greens, from dark to light, with a very precise one here and there, and that is what happens here. Love it!

Feeling the autumn, Glen painted just one leaf. It really gets the attention, good work with the colours and contrasts, on the leaf itself as well as in the whole painting- everything is painted loosely except the leaf and because of the dark shadow under the leaf, the background seems to light up. Cool!

Charlie painted these playful leaves and a blue blue sky. You can smell the spring and feel the sun! Great atmosphere, well done.

Anna Karin's WIP - this is going to be so wonderful, with lots of 'negative' painting, where she'll show the leaves by painting around the orange, leaving them out (below middle already has one) Can't wait to see the next step!

This impressionist painting is created by Marie-Françoise, you have to admire the light, the different shades of green and the beautiful composition.

Martine painted this amazing ivy growing next to the steps of the garden. Beautiful how the leaves are really lying on the stone and throwing their shadows. Well done!

Anna finished her pomegranate (see below) and just had time to set up a first wash with a soft background and cute fresh little leaves

Sue's WIP - still without branches, painted in her 'loose' style - but very well observed and therefore already so good, with the light shining through the transparent leaves.

Brenda was also in 'loose-painting' mode and splashed lots of paint and colour on the paper. I love this, for the process and also because it looks so good, and high. Brenda was less enthusiastic, but from further away she could see what I liked about it 😀

And then some other projects, like Charlie's turtle. What a happy little creature and what a boost of blue colour. It is so lively!

And on the other side of the spectrum, the warm colours and beautiful, still pomegranate painted by Anna.

It is so still and classic. Very well done.