Joy and creativity - Orange in transparent watercolours

 Liz's absolutely awesome patchwork. Loved, no - adored by all! And rightly so.

Last Aquarellista Session we worked with a colour-theme again; Orange. The colour that symbolizes 'Joy and Creativity' - but also stands for Dutch, and 'is the new Black' and is an important colour for Halloween. In short - many interpretations possible, some of which you can admire below! Above the finished patchwork painting by Liz - fits the orange-bill but was actually from last time. I mainly opened with it because I'm such a fan!

We start with flowers - these poppy's are created by Anna-Karin. She's a true master with the big wet brush, look at this fantastic watercolour!

And how about these orange daisies by Liz - she is really on a roll!

Michèle C has returned from Bretagne - and she did a great job on these orange lilies!

Hélène worked hard on the orange Gerbera she succesfully adapted the background to make the image more sunny

This well-painted delicate little branch with orange leaves was created by Glen. Well done!

Jutta is done with the exercises and now belongs to the advanced Aquarellistas. As you can see, she does a really good job with this long haired 'Ginger' girl within the orange theme!

 Same for Judith - she painted this orange veiled girl with breathtaking light green eyes. What an expression... Well done!

And the last orange-themed painting: a big Nemo-clown fish by Celina. Great stuff!!

Non-orange -but fish nevertheless, Marie-Claire's beautiful big and small! I love it.

Brenda water-coloured her outside-sketches, the one above created during drawing class with Pim, below created during our short trip to Tourtour! Both looking fresh and spontaneous.

Nearing completion, Maud's commission! 
The name of the restaurant and some small tweaks and it will be done and dusted...

 Two watercolours were finished, this one is Jutta's, with a black tear on the apple...

 Judith's hand - hesitating to take the apple - which almost looks as if it is moving... So light and carefully painted...

 Ilse worked on the last exercise and did a wonderful job on suggesting the transparency... while that one dried she started on the masking fluid experiment below, and that is looking very good already, almost a shame to take that masking fluid off...

 

Watercolours patchwork

Carol's patchwork quilt - only halfway done, but already absolutely gourgeous, in colour and in shape.

In this blogpost you'll get an update of the creations of the aquarellista group, who met up last Tuesday in the Hangar in Chateauneuf! The sujet du jour was 'rolled up quilts' and most took that subject and didn't quite finish. But the first results are already impressive and I can't wait to see them finished - as always they are as different as the personalities of the painters. Watch this space to see the completed versions in the coming weeks!

Celina's rolled up patchwork, in recognizable Celina-style!

Michele's beautiful quilt, only needs a bit of shadow to give it depth and volume!

The first colours on another awesome Liz-interpretation of the subject...

Glen cleverly used the patchwork theme to try out the full wash, how creative! This is the painting after washing it, so in its palest form - next time she'll add the patterns

Another creative interpretation, of Anna-Karin. She is still undecided how this optical illusion will develop,

Above are pictures of the work of all the experienced Aquarellistas, there is also a group of starters. They are working on exercises that introduces the typical properties of watercolours and lets them solve all the challenges with different solutions.

Eyes behind the mask by Judith

Eyes behind the mask by Jutta

How to suggest transparency - of a curtain. You'll see the solutions next post

In the next exercise,  Judith and Jutta were free to do what they wanted within the instruction: 'cool background first, then warm foregound, then details.' 

Both were not too impressed with the results - but I am, because they both showed originality!

Tree-like shape by Jutta

Under-water landscape by Judith

And then there were also the ongoing projects and the personal paintings

Carol's Odd One Out

 

The awesome apple of our long-distance participant Violet!

Bev's piazza in Vigevano àlmost finished!! We will definitely see the end result before she travels back to Connecticut

And our new participant, Maud, started a street view, on request of a friend...

In the meantime we are also working on a completely different project: we are proving that in watercolours you can achieve the same depth of colour as in oils. So together we are creating a copy in aquarelle of the oil painting 'River Lovers' by Jo Painter. Brenda has really done a lot to make it happen, but also Carol, Marie-Claire, Liz, Hélène and yours truly part-icipated.  Cathie has promised to do one also - and then we are ready to see if we were right! Here's a preview:

Round & Rectangular

Cathie and Carol worked on still lives, they are very different, except that both are absolutely awesome!

Last Tuesday we got together to paint with watercolours. The weather, the music and the tea all helped to get the best out of all of us. We finished the Totem poles, started a new project (nothing to show for yet but you'll see some results soon) and the three new aquarellistas worked on their exercises, with success! See and enjoy all below:

Michele's Totem Pole, Detailed and Funny. Well done!

Last Week's Jury prize in it's full glory with luminous star on forehead by Violet

Absolutely fabulous, this totem by Brenda. It is the blue sky and the light and shadow that makes it so real. Love it!

 And here's another funny totem, by Marie-Claire - the stick it has between its teeth says 'Marina' . I interpret it as being the thing that helps it bear the pain 😆

Ice cream with sprinkles to make your mouth water! By Liz

Glen joined us again and painted the blossom tree with amazing light - as well as a very contemporary still life with tomatoes.

Lynne worked on the background of a flower still life. It will all be about the detailed sunflower that is not yet there - but it is already looking fantastic!

So looking forward to see this wet-in-wet painting of a rainy day (by Liz)  when it is finished! There's still quite some masking fluid on it and the white will make all the difference.

And here are the amazing results of a first (and second) tries of 3 new aquarellistas:

Ilse has washed her painting of last week and is now using the dark and light tones and 'patterns' to suggest depth and volume!

 The Balls I - by Judith. They look fantastic - and the lower 3 on the left are done with complementary colours, see how 'soft' they are?

 The Balls II by Jutta - completely different, very soft and balanced.

Then they started with the Washing Exercise and it is amazing how fast they go.... ! Both are already quite strong and exciting - Next stage they will be washed and become very light and transparent - and then get volume. Above Judith's and below Jutta's