Pine Cones in Aquarelle

 Michele C created these two 'Pommes de Pin' and I am so happy with her painting, it is so  transparent and strong at the same time !

 

The Aquarellistas (nowadays painting together on Tuesdays ànd Thursday afternoons) worked on a theme that is  representative for the time of the year, good for Christmas cards and also the perfect shape for a zentangle! We had pictures and real ones to choose from and actually everyone chose to just paint them beautifully! Enjoy these lovely watercolours, they are all created in around 2 hours!.

 This great looking set, has a great contrast. It is painted by Vanessa. Clearly a sunny day, you can see that in the shadow!

 Judith's pine cones have such a wonderful light. She used burnt sienna to create the warm and still neutral colour of the surface. Well done!!

 This wonderful set of three different cones was created by Michele F. I love the composition

Awesome standalone pine cone of Helene - painted using complementary colours, well done!

Brigitte was participating for the first time, she is a very good oil painter - and as you can see she instinctively knows how to use watercolours too! Excellent!

Same for Mona - experienced in Trompe l'oeils - very fine painting, she tackled the 'boules' and the 'pommes de  pin' in a short time with such a loose and spontaneous style. I can't wait for her next aquarelles!!

 And here are Diana's pine cones, they are so spatial!! The salt gives it just enough texture and the light does the rest. Lovely painting!

Many more paintings were started and finished, with other subjects. You can admire them in the next post or by clicking here

Snowflakes in watercolours (& Zentangles & Christmas card ideas & more)

The snowflake Judith created has it all - the cold, the transparency, the imperfection of the real (not plastic) crystal and the smoothness of freshly fallen snow in the background

Snowflakes or Ice Crystals was the subject of this week. Good for interesting watercolours, with possible use of making fluid, candles, fatty pastels (white) and salt. But also great subject for Christmas cards, and zentang-ling. Results as always creative, original, very different and hopefully inspiring!

Celina's imaginary snowflakes - wonderfully zen and good composition with a lot of depth!

The beautiful snowflakes by Hélène - the amazing background is achieved with different shades of blue and then adding salt

 Michèle C. used a little bit of masking fluid for this fantastic crystal that shines like a star and wll be even more delicate when it is finished...

Here a combination of candle wax, salt and different shades of blue paint, spontaneously combined by Marie-Claire. Next time she will add a couple of stars in white ink to perfect the picture...

Diana combined the snowflake with zentange patterns and created a lovely looking square...

 Diana's crystal is the bridge with the Zentangles that were produced and finished - a great way to spend the last 10 minutes for instance like Judith did last Thursday:

  

The start of another Zentangle by Judith, so early stages that  it is not yet completely abstract! 

 Marie-Claire's production. Her zentangles - although very different, both in colour and pen - look like aquarium- or deep sea pictures, very zen and inspiring!

  

Michele C.'s funny zentangle cats now have some starrs and balls in the background to make it all come together...

 Of course there are also the aquarelistas who paint their own subjects. Here's what they achieved this week, we start with the animals:

Carol is looking for 'bleak skies', something we don't have here in the South of France, where the sky is (almost) always blue. These Norfolk seals are so gorgeous - even when they don't have a sky yet! Watch this space for the next stage...

And how about Cathie's sheep?! Two strong and independent characters well-painted with a lot of humor - and the one-hair-brush 😊. Fantastic Cathie!

 

 Maud wasn't happy with the cat she painted last week, and started over. She was right, this one (below) is so much better & cuter! Above a portrait of Hedwig, Harry Potters' cat. Special is the use of gesso on the wings, which gives an interesting structure...

 After finishing her first robust Chess Game painting, Liz felt like doing another one. More about that next time. The large, stone pieces on the rocks are finished and the addition with a part of the black and white fields is excellent

Sandra has created these tulips in a freestyle way with a big brush. lightly inspired by Carol Carter (who will come back in this blog one day- an interesting artist!)

 Vanessa has started the portrait of her granddaughter, the lovely and funny Esmé. Drawing is the difficult part and that's now done! Very well done even . Can't wait for the next step: Adding the colours!

And last but not least: the ongoing Christmas cards-production is going pretty well ...

 (The first batch of Jutta's cards)

Michele  - Vanessa - Violet and  Diana created  some good-looking cars

Like Jutta, Leonie started a whole series of cards with different ideas...

 

Zentangle - Aquarelle version

 Michele C

Most of you are doing it, or have done it: 'doodle'! While you are on the phone, in a meeting, having a lecture - you make simple little drawings. A very 'right half of the brain' thing, very personal and often looking surprisingly good. That doodling now has a name and a lot of official websites, classes, youtube channels and blogs!! It's called 'Zentangle': Creating beautiful images by drawing structured patterns. 

The Aquarellistas gave it their own swing: we start on a base of colour. As you can see we love doing it - and we love the results, they are so original!  It is a good thing to do when you are fed up with copying from photo's or other paintings, but don't exactly know what to do instead....

NB: if you want so see the lines and patterns in their full glory - click on the picture to make it bigger!

 Vanessa created 3 Christmas cards, the first a delightful one with zentangle baubles

Judith finished her fantastic version. It is inspiring to look at it -you keep discovering new stuff!

Katherine did an absolutely awesome job on her first zentangle set! Not finished yet, more later!

This amazing work is done by Ilse- in the real zentangle, the green is darker and more varied, but it works even without that...

Celina's zentangle feather is so delicate and dreamy... Could be a successful series...

Marie-Claire has filled her Zentangle in a much more open way. Very original, it is as if the objects float. Next one with an even thinner fineliner!

Diana's wonderful Zentangle with such interesting patterns... love it.

Soap Bubbles in watercolours

The lightest, airiest soap bubbles by - Ilse

A big group of Aquarellistas got together in the Hangar last week, to paint 'soap bubbles! It is a truly difficult subject - we painted from photos because the still life doesn't last long enough for us 😜. The results are surprisingly good and we learned so much from it! The great thing about working from photo's, is that you start recognizing the basic 'rules' so with a bit of practice we will be able to do this more spontaneous. But here are some stunning examples to start with!

Liz's truly soapy foamy bubbles

Very strong light in this impressionist bubble work by Michele C

 Interesting bubble with refelcting highlight from Hélène 

 And another set of bubbles by Ilse

 Judith finished her broken plate and just started with these bubbles. You can already imagine how good they will look with highlights and a slightly darker background!

Luckily I already told Sylvie D. that exceptionally, the photo somehow doesn't show how good the painting is! The real thing shines and shimmers and has a beautiful mystery... more next time!

Diana painted this amazing set of bubbles! People were asking, is this a watercolour? YES it is. With lots of Payne's grey and Indigo... Diana then started a next one, with a more transparent approach. Needs some highlights here and there and then it will be very convincing as well!

 

This O-so transparent soap-bubble painting by Jutta was the inspiration for Di and she is right, this painting will be awesome when it is finished!

If Celina pulls this one off it will be legendary!!! I look so forward to the next step & finished painting! Love the little girl - somehow reminds me of aquarellista Bibi.

As always there was other artwork produced next to the 'sujet du jour'! Last week's lonely buildings were finished:

 Glen's 'birds view' on a Tuscan lonely farmhouse - great stuff!

Hélène let the sunshine in! Lots of stories imaginable here too...

And last but not least, Jutta's lonely little building - it is so cute!!

 

 Remote aquarellista Sandra has made real progress with her tangle of leaves, painted on heavy, paint-absorbing handmade paper. Exciting developments - I wonder what this will look like when it is finished!

 Liz also tweaked her silver beads - and they are ready to be picked up! (Maybe as a logo for a jewelry maker?)

The broken plate - now finished. Judith did a good job on the contrast, and I see a story here as well, because brokenn as it is, it looks so complete...

 

Maud a fait un travail formidable sur cette photo de vieille Grasse. Note qu'elle a utilisé du gesso pour lui donner plus de texture, aspect un peu 'antique' reussi!

And last but not least, Marie-Claire put her own beautiful cat in the misty flowy background. It will be refined and detailed next time - but it already looks like a good start!