The River Lovers in watercolours

Last summer, the Aquarellista group visited an exhibition in la Colle sur Loup of artist and Hangar member Jo Painter. She paints in oils, and on canvases that are quite large - very different from what we do - but we loved the craftsmanship and the warmth of the colours, the texture and brushstrokes of the oil. One of our favourites was the awesome painting 'River Lovers'.

While admiring it, Michele F wondered if it would be possible to paint something like this in watercolours. And I bravely said - Yes of course!

Then it was summer holiday, then I forgot it for a while, and then - we set to work. It is time consuming and not so very inspiring to create full copies of an existing painting, so we decided to do it the way we have more often made paintings together: we all paint a part, and then connect the parts. It was not at all easy, but we did it! I have to make a special mention of Brenda. She painted many parts, and kept the project going with her determination and enthusiasm...

 

 

Brenda, Carol, Hélène, Brenda, Marie-Claire, Michele F, Brenda, Brenda and yours truly together created a painting, in 12 pieces, on paper, flat, and transparent - that still comes close to the original:

Thank you very much Jo for working with us on this, it was a fun and informative project!

Abstracts & Eyes and more - in watercolours

 Lydia has a great feel for watercolours, amazing this is only her second try...

As part of the getting 'acquainted with watercolours'- program, the starters group worked on an abstraction exercise. First doodle with pencil, colour all compartments without colours bleeding, wash the whole painting and then give it volume using light, shadow and patterns. Amazing, Picasso-like artwork happened last week! I am so happy with it!

 Avril also worked on the exercise and it is already showing real volume, look at those brown checkers and red stripes!

 

 Board member Cassie passed by last week and participated, and this time we used her experiment as a demo and to try stings out. Look how great it looks!

 Other subject: Eyes. Coming weeks we are painting our own eyes, as a preparation for our group expo in 2019... They will form a series and give a personal touch! Here are the first ones:

 Vanessa

 Brenda

 Marina

 Liz

 

 And of course the Bottle & Brush challenge continues! So many great versions - and it looks like we're going to create the perfect one someday soon!

 

Sylvie D. finished hers - and it is amazing!

 Carol did the first brushstrokes, it looks very good, with interesting, sharp white light light

Brenda gave her water a last wash and now it is done, she achieved a very special effect! Love it...

And last but not least, Cathie is experimenting with gesso and other textures. I think this cup is absolutely stunning!!

5 Aquarellistas, 5 Subjects

It was not crowded last session - almost all Aquarellistas were elsewhere! But we had a fantastic, creative and energetic afternoon with Helene, Cathie, Sandra, Bev and myself.

We discussed all kinds of interesting art-related subjects and each of us painted different subjects - with so much pleasure!

Hélène worked on this amazing sunset through a glass...

...Cathie painted more on the cup and saucer watercolour...

 ...Sandra painted this small and colourful graphical composition...

 ... While Bev started an enormous challenge with the Piazza Ducale in Vigevano (we went there during the hangar Springtrip) as subject...

...and I painted hands....

 

A bottle with a story

For last week's still life we had a bottle of Bordeaux 1985: ' La Pissotière de l'Impératrice'. Old, dusty and great looking (but undrinkable - we've tried one) and with a story: Thanks to André we found out that Empress Josephine accompanied her husband Napoleon to the war and at some point she had to go for a wee. She chose the end of a Gironde vineyard and from that moment in 1809 the label reminds us of this historic stop. Anyway, it was a lovely bottle to paint:

 Patience - impressionist version

 

Marina: figurative version

Liz: expressionist version

STONES

André happily soldiered on with his pebbles, they are sunny and colorful (and a lot of work!) hopefully finished by next week...

 Celina made the background slightly darker - and look at the improvement in the before/after picture. She also worked on another Pebble composition - here they are, very different and both really fantastic!

 

 

 And last but not least, Cathie still experimenting with textures and materials - old, rusty and beautifully worn surfaces. Doing a great job that's for sure, here's a sneak preview of the latest...

Bold, Bald & Patterns - good watercolour subjects

Good painting work by Michele C! The eyes really 'look' at you...

The subject du jour was 'Bald heads' and 'do something with them'. Stripes, patterns, tattoos... It worked out fine - so here are the results, of a lovely and concentrated small group of Aquarellistas:

 Liz left the bald head as it was and put the stripes in the background. Very arty effect!

 This is Agnès'painting, inspired by Nathalie Portman (who totally gets away with 'bold') - have a close look at the salt effect on the scalp!!!

Elia painted her version of Sinead O'Connor - with cubist colourings! 

The person who created the bald and bold painting above did not like the result at all, and I appreciate that, yet, this portrait is so strong and spontaneous that I still want to show it to our readers!! And hope you get to work in this way too from time to time: it is not always about the result!!

Anna-Karin 'patterned' a bowl still life - and believe me, the original is even better! The light is amazing...

Because the group was so small I had time to also get some work done in between making tea and trying to get the CD player to work... Thank you Brigitte for the picture!

this is a study for the portrait of Joseph Bermond, a previous mayor of Valbonne. It is some time ago that he had that role: his granddaughter lives next to Brigitte. She is 84 years old 😁

FINISHED OTHER PROJECTS:

 Michele C. finished the Rooster and his girlfriend - Fan-Tas-Tique! Love the shadows, such a sunny picture!

 Elia added a little bit more colour and defined her 2017 bloody Rooster a bit more. 

Very good strong painting!

 Anna Karin finished her Albino painting - very well done, true to her style and quite lively for a still life

And last but by no means least - the fabulously delicate pen and inkpot by Cathie. Amazing work as always!

EXERCISES:

 Brigitte has worked hard on three exercises! Two of them in this post. Above the spheres, now with very convincing, strong-light shadows, and below the layers-exercise:

 Very cleverly done with the white reflection (of the stars) in the orange layer. You may also notice a change in the windows in the picture on the right. And coming session  a bit more 'randomness' needs to be added to the calm water... But all in all, well understood and well executed!!

Next session it's Valentine's day - so watch this space, as deeply romantic works will be created by everyone I'm sure 💗💕💔💓(or NOT!)

Dots as inspiration...

Last week there was a challenge for the Aquarellistas... I prepared their stretched papers by randomly painting 1, 2 or 3 dots on the paper. In neutral, washable Payne's Grey... The challenge was that everyone had to create something with the dots, from their imagination, and then... "fill the paper".

The project started with deep thought...

Everything was allowed - and look at the different ways Aquarellista- imagination works!

'Channa' by Elia B.

 'The Beauty of Parasols' by Sandra (unfinished)

'Party time!' by Liz

 'Fisheyes' by Celina

'Marbles' by Marina (unfinished)

'Bloody Spiderwebs' by Sylvie

'Big Bang' by Andrée

'Coccinelles' by Michele, who works with us from Bretagne!