Versions of Holly in Watercolours

After the wild portraits-without-looking-at-the-paper of last week, the aquarellistas needed a nice and  straightforward subject, and -also inspired by the Christmas atmosphere in our area- we chose to paint 'Holly'. Calm and clear, doable in an afternoon and suitable for a card!

 

Anna Karin started very wet (above) and then continued to add darker colours. Not finished - but look at those sharp whites on the thorny leaves, look at the suggestion of the berries... 

 

Corinne works so different - but no less spectacular! She started with a couple of perfect berries (above) and then continued with the green elements. So delicate and not over-painted, quite spontaneous! And, finished!

Janine worked on 3 versions & experiments. This one will be finished in the holidays and as soon as the cute red balls with highlights are painted on it will be SO holly!

Good example of the Holly effect of the red berries by Sylvie. No misunderstanding of what this is. Well done!

 

Interesting beginning by Judith - it may end up as something completely unexpected, but for the time being it could be the start of an original holly-painting!

Same for Thecla, who created an abstract that reminds me of Holly because of the red balls, but that may very well be Christmas tunnel that I am in right now 🎅


Roxane finished her geometric shapes, she has created this in oil as well as acrylics and all three give another 'feel'. Of course this is a very poetic version, transparent and with beautiful transitions from dark to light. I love it! She also worked on her portrait, and she very much succeeded in the big big smile, a super difficult thing to do. Next week, the tweaking, painting the nuances and I am pretty sure it is going to be amazing.

Sylvie finished her beautiful girl, with the hair, the eyes, the warm soft skin. It will be framed with care and decorate the house of its owner.


 I personally fished this doodle page out of Judith's bag. Because I think it is fun, and the start of her 'negative painting' phase. I did it because she hadn't progressed enough with her portrait. But in the meantime she has and O My, look at that. Not perfect yet So beautiful. so much character and wisdom.

And then the Aquarellistas of the Thursday atelier! they started with 'Fireworks' - which we painted while drinking The Best Christmas cocktails! A fab combination - to be continued coming Tuesday!

Astrid, a new star, combined the 'spheres' exercise with fireworks

Marie did an impressive job on painting fireworks, using several layers of masking fluid and a very dark Payne's Gray.

Here's another impressive fireworks watercolour, this one was created by Ingrid

I tried out Masking fluid (above) and Oil pastels (below)

Sonya did paint and wasn't happy with her result - but she still deserves a mention for her amazing cocktail! Recipe: Cointreau, Champaign, Cranberry Juice and a couple of pomegranate seeds. Too good!

CHEERS!!