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.....