Chess, Crystals, Christmas Cards, a Clock and Canines - in Watercolours

Anna-Karin finished her chess pieces. She bravely added a transparent (Schmincke) orange to the background and darkened the black fields. The finished picture has a warm and classic atmosphere yet has not lost its spontaneity

Liz finished her second chess board, again a slightly estranged one with it's folded corner... is the opponent unhappy? Or is it just a very good idea of a paper chess board (light and easily transportable).

In the previous post (below this one) you can read about all the watercolours we created with pine cones as subject. But of course there were also Aquarellistas who worked on other beautiful and interesting subjects:

 

 Isabel for instance, who finished her tree as one of the first! she loved the exercise that she cleverly combined with zentangle patterns, and the exercise loved her right back as you can see 😊

After her excellent pine cones Judith had time left to do a portion of her moomin' Zentangle

Marie-Claire's creativity also grew using the Zentangle technique! Look at these soft delicately moving plant-like shapes...

And after finishing the tree, Isabel started a Christmas card, again in Zentangle style!

Michele C. finished her snowflake - it is SO good in every way, well painted, spontaneous, mysterious and a fantastic sparkle!

And here is another awesome icy work, Sylvie D. painted it. It is quite abstract but it tells me a deep story about being little in the winter and looking through the frozen windows

And how about the gorgeous New Years card by Marie-Claire - also snowflake-themed. She used candle wax, salt and white felt pen and it turned out so well!

  

  Violet finished her beautiful still life with pumpkins. It is a present for a family member - who will be delighted no doubt, because it is terrific! The little cute penguin toddler below is also Violet's...

 

 Jutta continued with her cards for friends and family. They will love them no doubt. here you see 4 out of an impressive stack, full of experiments of which she learns a lot. Sounds like clear win-win!

Work in progress: These 4 original cards, designed by Anna-Karin.Mars Black over colours gives depth and feels as if you look through something...

Maud travaille sur un tableau d'une horloge ancienne. Elle a travaillé si dur et au début, la peinture semblait vouée à l'échec - mais maintenant, elle est si belle et je suis très fière de ce qu'elle fait!t!

 Carol finished her awesome group of Norfolk Seals. They are so gorgeous, slowly enjoying themselves on the sand... And se started another animal - a funny -and lovely looking- dog. What a character!

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.

From Chess to Chat - A wide range of subjects in Watercolours

 Jutta's fabulous chessboard, I absolutely love the 'loose' style!

The Aquarelistas are more and more productive - especially now that we also have a session on Thursday! And a post with too many paintings won't get the attention it deserves, that's why I seperately show you the overview of what was done next to the Zentangles in today's other post 😃. Starting with the chess boards and pieces, ending with Maud's Chat - and everything in between

 

The finished board by Michele C. It is astonishing! I am so happy with what she has achieved in such a small period of time!

 Liz's large stone Chess painting is getting sturdier and the composition has fallen into place...

 Anna Karin has added the board underneath. It gives her painting such depth

 

Sylvie D. was away for a couple of weeks. Once back she finished her soap bubble-inspired painting. I think it is seriously awesome

Isabel D. worked on the forground-background exercise and finished with zentangle in the tree.The result is really great!!

 

Carol tweaked her already-gorgeous lonely wind mill on the water front. It is now perfect! We all love it to bits

 

The gorl with the blue scarf by Marie-Claire.Very beautiful, in colour as well as shape! Well done...

Sylvie let herself be inspired by Modigliani for this fabulous nude.

 

Maud a mis le dessin sur son papier, en couleurs Si vous regardez à travers vos cils, vous pourrez distinguer un chat blanc dans une poussette rose et des nombreux jouets: un commande!

As you can understand I am so proud of our group - both by the quality of the painting and the hard work... Especially impressive if you know that we are also working on Christmas Cards... In a next week's post I'll present some of those!