Rentree of the Aquarellistas!

 Big Rose Flip flops by Elia B.

We've been on a well-deserved summer break - to relax and enjoy the sun, and most of all to absorb impressions and get inspiration... I still owe you the work that was created the last time we saw each other, the 1st of August (feels like ages ago!). To prepare for the holidays we had a 'beachy' still life with flip flops, towel, sunglasses, sunscreen, a hat and espadrilles

Andre first finished another painting and didn't finish but his version looks great!

Liz painted a contrast-rich and quite glamorous looking beachy watercolour

Patience was very much impressed by the brave pilot whose plane was heavily damaged by the egg-size hail stones in Istanbul, and who managed to land the plane perfectly.

So she used that as inspiration for this painting - SO strong! Fantastic!

More finished work:

Elia's 'old couple'...

...and her 3 faces with ribbons.

Agnès's 'Paris Street Orchestra'... so lively, you can almost hear the music!

Sandra's 'Spring Onions' - they have her signature orange light which makes them extra interesting

Cathie's old man - a combination of watercolour with brou de noix. Fabulous painting, with so much character!

Cute Couples

Guest Aquarellista Annabel Clarke painted this characterful image. I love everything about it, the style, the colours, the composition - and the subject. Big compliment!

Subject du jour was 'Old Couples' last Aquarellista Tuesday, and we decided that many of them have the same effect on us as baby animals. A big AWWWW factor... Have a look for yourself...

 

Work in progress by André. He will leave the couple white (rub out the pencil lines) and create a vibrant abstract background

Fabulous watercolour by Liz... Are they going to the dance? Or returning from it... 'She' definitely has dancing feet!

Fragile and so lovely, this old couple by Elia B. (in progress)

And how about this pair - painted by Michele. It is very well-observed and also she outdid herself with the dark contrasts!

 Cathie worked on an old single - as you can see it is super textured, her speciality! This is a watercolour, on canvas, with a thick, irregular layer of gesso.

  

 An other texture watercolour by Cathie. Same technique, totally gorgeous!!

Carol finished her fabulous  still life with garlic... 

 ...and started a new one with pomegranates. A complicated one that will keep her busy in the holidays 😜

'Carol at the Hangar' by Patience. This kind of small portraying happens often in our group! It is so much fun to secretly sketch one of the hardworking and not-noticing aquarellistas...

 Patience was on a roll last Tuesday. With the motto 'Less is More', she wrote down some other famous quotes, on an interesting abstract background - on a big piece of rough-grain paper...

And with the same intention painted this fabulous abstract. Enlarge it by clicking, it contains so many surprising shapes - and is also beautiful to just look at as a whole... Well done!!

Sandra is working on this still life with spring onions that has such a fantastic indian summer light...  

And last but by no means least, this a-ma-zing street orchestra in Paris by Agnès! No doubt it will be in her blog soon - in finished form, but I already love it in this setup. Note how the transparent tape, used to mark the border actually functions as a curtain...

  It is not the first musical painting for Agnès: during the Hangar-25 year party, she got the inspiration to create  this fabulous, colourful painting of the band!

Mushrooms & more...

Cathie hosted another zen Tuesday afternoon and the subject du jour was 'Weird Mushrooms'. We're talking shape and colours, not effect on your perception of course... They are often pretty abstract and therefore it is easier to be inspired by them, instead of copying...
She sent me pictures of the results and I am impressed!

Brenda finished another painting and started this intricate play of lines, which will next week become a full colour aquarelle inspired by complicated funghi

Michele painted these mushrooms, very well done! She used masking fluid and experimented with salt

André created a whole composition of brightly coloured mushrooms. I love the purple ones!

Last week there were bougainvillea, but also 'Weird Flowers' for inspiration. Elia used one of those to paint this stunning luminous flower

Agnès is back from Canada and started this true challenge of a monumental building, full of detail... She will add colours next time. Can't wait to see the results!!

 Brenda also added a bit of colour to het view on Lucca. Looking great. And finished!

 Sylvie finished her painting of an old door - and started with a new one. 

A high production as always - and 'garden pots' are clearly a great subject for her!!

 

Imaginary Garden Pots

What fun last Tuesday! It was a splendid, sunny afternoon, we got together, ate Brigitte's fantastic birthday waffles and painted garden pots. Not from pictures and only lightly helped by a couple of pots on the table that were meant to give an idea of the shapes. Actually, this is what that that looked like exactly:

 Bev sat down and painted the randomly put down pots. And managed to make them look pretty good!!

The other paintings are all coming from the Group's imagination, inspired by what was on the table, and sometimes with light influences of artists like Shirley Trevana and Mary Fedden....

 Sylvie painted this gorgeous looking bunch, with the use of a pinch of salt and lots of dark Mediterranean shadow!

 

 Carol's Big and Bold vases - yet her style is still recognizable!

John-Carol's-brother was our guest star. Never done watercolours before in his life - well, he must have it in his genes because this looks pretty amazing! And original!

Brigitte painted without an exercise to hold on to, and look what happened... the painting is not yet finished, but it has  potential for a  true Shirley-type composition!

👀

Sandra worked on the Mary Fedden-inspired watercolour with distorted perspective. Great to see that the perspective is used for its shape and not to suggest depth - and that it attracts attention that way. Can't wait to see the finished painting!

André worked with a tiny brush on most of this big painting, the paint pot doesn't look out of place at all and he managed to almost finish it! I'm curious what has been painted with that red  paint...

 😏

And last but not least Liz, who worked with her typical bold gestures, and a delicate flower here and there. Also she must have been slightly inspired by Shirley Trevana, created shapes from empty spaces, and transparency where it can't be there. Interesting! Look forward to seeing it finished...

If you are missing paintings here - I am so sorry! I don't have them here, but will put them in asap. Of course it also means that you have actually read this post! Thank you so much for that!

 Brenda used her Aquarellista time to finish two drawings for our big Théoule exhibition in September and October (more about that later!) They are drawn in Lucca while we had our painting trip - and are both accurate and funny!

NB: I will be away for 3 weeks, doing art-projects abroad! Cathie will host the aquarellista sessions and I will still send out 'Weeklies' and post blogs - remote!

Beautiful Wild Flowers - in aquarelle

Anna-Karin has gone to Sweden for the summer, and the last watercolour she made during the Zen afternoon is so fabulous! The flowers, leaves and the diffused light are painted in a way that makes you smell the forest. Fantastic. Looking forward to September when we see you again A-K!

 Sandra used wild flowers and wild leaves for this painting. She put watercolour paint on them and pressed them on the paper. A great idea, and yet another experiment that makes me want to see more of that!

 Bev painted the bunch of wild flowers that we had in our still life and combined it with the sunflower from her own imagination. The result looks so very summery...

 André worked on his watercolour/ink painting of the square of Mouans-Sartoux! I think it worked out very well, it is a playful and light picture. Well done!

This modern industrial landscape by Liz  is not yet finished - the masking fluid is still on it. Yet it is already so good! The reflections, the crane, the bridge... I can't wait to see it in the next stage.

 Bev also finished her cherries... They look so yummy - both the actual cherries and the reflections

 

Sylvie finished a painting of an antique blue glass vase. She has really caught the irregular, slightly faded features of such a vase - using salt. 

NB - Cathie al-most finished the suitcases, you'll have to wait another week to see the final version - but I can tell you, they are absolutely amazing - and already sold!!

Cherry Picking

New week, new subject: we placed a row of mirrors on the middle of the table and set up small still lives. A fantastic coincidence was that there were gorgeous cherries left over from lunch! We put them on the mirrors and voilà! I am ashamed of the bad quality of my pictures, but the talent in the paintings is still unmistakable:

 There is more than one way to suggest reflection in a painting. But the most important is that the reflected subject has a slightly different colour, and the highlight is slightly darker...

The styles are so different - yet they all look fabulous in their own special way!

 Amazing and somehow lighthearted variation

Very thorough and well-painted version

No reflection, but still so beautiful, these plums!

and how about the shiny stones, so delicate and well done

 And how about Janis Joplin, now finished! The painting is great looking - and there are so many layers and surprises in it... I sure hope it will be in the Theoule exhibition...