Fauvism in watercolour landscapes

 
The theme of our last sessions was 'Fauvism' inspired by the bright colours of Martine's painting of last week.

'Fauvisme' is a painting style, characterised by strong colours and fierce brushwork.The name comes from 'les fauves' (‘the wild beasts’). A critic came up with it when he saw the work of Henri Matisse and his colleagues, with bold, non-naturalistic colours (often applied directly from the tube), and wild loose dabs of paint. Obviously that was no watercolour paint - but we have tried to achieve similar effects... Here are the results:

Celina always has a great feel for bright and strong colours, so a fauve painting is a logic thing for her... 

Geneviève's Fauvisme-inspired painting has all the characteristics! Not easy because watercolours dry much lighter, so you need an immense amount of pigment - with the danger of becoming flat and boring- or applying many layers...

Martine's panting looks very very good, even before the yellow is added. With it's blue trees it certainly checks the 'non-naturalistic' box 😀

Great to see those different versions, with one thing in common 'bright, strong, non-naturalistic  colours. 

This one is (loosely) created by Sue. After she worked on another, very challenging one that may be finished bext time. Or never!  

I gave it a try and here's my fauvist version of Martine's photo, on extra heavy torchon paper that once belonged to my father! I am on my way to him - and if this blog post looks a bit different from usual, that is because I am writing this on my phone! 

Alltough Randi usually works transparent (flowers) she clearly  feels at home with the fauvists and created this cool painting - very impressionist, done fast. After that she experimented with gold paint and metallic medium of which the result will be in this blog later

Michèle chose a very different image to be inspired by, a circus painting by dutch fauvist Kees van Dongen, excellent choice! She changed the overall expression of the original Hers is as colourful and strong, but much more friendly. The clown has a beautiful expression. 

Jutta has a cool plan with this landscape/view with impressive sunset. It will be so interesting when finished - which will take some time as she's leaving for a couple of weeks but we will keep you posted!! She combined this with an uncomplicated winter landscape. That worked out brilliantly.

 

Anna Karin has so much news and in the coming weeks after I'm back you will hear and see much more of it. She went to Spain on a watercolour painting discovery trip - and she will share stuff with us! Great new techniques and ideas. Luckily she can still work with a big pointed brush, contemplate paint quick and deliberate and use wonderful colours... 

To be continued!

 

Also great enthusiasm about this fantastic horizon by Judith. Note the light right above it, the stillness and the shadow, it is all so mysterious and at the same time logic. Lov'it!!

Next to her fauvism painting, Celina started an experiment with texture and blues...