Aquarellistas exhibition 'le Village'

From Saturday 17 - Friday 23 September, 7 aquarellistas show their impressions of ‘le Village’, in aquarelle watercolours in Gallery Casablù, Rue Eugène Giraud in Valbonne.

The aquarellistas are Anna Karin Fast, Brenda Moorhouse, Cathie van der Stel, Edith Alborni, Marina Kulik, Marina Teding van Berkhout, Sandra Seymour Dale

They work together in atelier des beaux arts 'Le Hangar' and for this exhibition each created a number of aquarelles, inspired by the villages in the South of France.

The paintings are absolutely wonderful, it is more than worthwhile to pass by and have a look if you happen to be in the neighbourhood! The galerie is open from 10am - 6pm...

 Before...

 And After... Cathie van der Stel and Anna Karin Fast's aquarelles make a good combination!

More pictures will follow...

Expo Aquarellistas in Dutch Consulate in Nice

From March 1st onwards, until 2012, a couple of aquarelle watercolours created by the Marina Artist Team will be on display in the Dutch Consulate in Nice. The Marina Artist Team are Marina Kulik, Marina Teding-van Berkhout and Cathie van der Stel, three aquarellistas, who work together on commissions for houses, portraits (of people and pets) and wedding bouquets.

The Consulate already owns a portrait in aquarelle of her Majesty Queen Beatrix of the Netherlands, made by Marina Kulik.

Shown are a puppy 'Senna' and 'Grapes' by Marina Teding van Berkhout

'Black Beauty' a portrait and 'Poppies' by Cathie van der Stel

'Helena' a portrait of a little girl and 'Cat & Frog' by Marina Kulik.

All aquarelles on display are for sale and the MATeam looks forward to your commissions!

The exhibition is open to everybody visiting the Dutch consulate - which will most probably Dutch people, hence the Dutch translation below...

Vanaf 1 maart jl tot 2012, zijn er zes aquarellen, gemaakt door het Marina Artist Team, te zien in het Nederlands Consulaat te Nice. Het Marina Artist Team bestaat uit Marina Kulik, Marina Teding-van Berkhout en Cathie van der Stel, drie ‘aquarellista’s’, die samenwerken aan opdrachten voor huizen, portretten (van mensen en dieren) en bruidsboeketten.

Het consulaat heeft al een aquarel van Marina Kulik in haar bezit, namelijk het portret van Hare Majesteit Koningin Beatrix.

Er hangen een Berner Senner pup en Druiven van Marina Teding van Berkhout, een portret van een prachtige donkere vrouw en klaprozen van Cathie van der Stel en een portret van een klein meisje en ‘Cat & Frog’ van Marina Kulik. De tentoonstelling is te bezichtigen door iedereen die het consulaat bezoekt. Alle getoonde schilderijen zijn te koop…en het Marina Artist Team is ook zeer geinteresseerd in uw opdrachten!

A CREATIVE AND INSPIRED 2011 TO ALL OF YOU!

In both of these aquarelles (the planet on handmade, very rough paper and the abstract below, on smooth satin paper) I used salt. Salt gives a wonderful effect, in the same line as the aquarelle paint itself: you can never exactly know what the effect will be, but if you don't try to control it, it will not disappoint or frustrate you, but provide exciting results.  

Other 'salty' aquarelles:

Christmas card by Marina Teding van Berkhout

'Nebula' by Bibbi Isaksson

'See through' by Birgitta Engvall



'Chateauneuf' by Anna-Karin Fast

Provence - Part III

The aquarellista group is working seriously on the "Provence" theme for our exhibition in September, and the results are getting better all the time! Here's some of the work we produced last week in the gorgeous Provence sun - with lots more to come and to be finished!!

Sandra Seymour-Dale's Provence window - sunny and hot!

Cathie van der Stel's Farm in Lavender field

Carol, aquarellista from Devon and frend of Ann Edwards, visited last year May and returned this July to create a fabulous village view!

We actually had another visitor, from Australia, Cathie's dad George. He started with a couple of drawings in pastel, then switched to watercolours and turned out to be a worthy member of the aquarellista group! He liked the material a lot and promised to develop further back home.

He made one landscape that was subtle and simple - and when we did the roundup some of us found that it looked better upside down... You decide...

Visitor George's 2 versions of the same landscape...

George creating his aquarelle

Excellent old Provence door by Horst Timmermans

Olive-fantasy II by Helen Bate

and the intriguing "Jardinier in the mist" by Marina Teding van Berkhout

We'll have another session tomorrow, where some interesting work will be finished - you can look forward to that in the coming weeks!

Poetic Portraits exhibition

The Poetic Portraits exhibition of the Marina Artist Team in Casablù in the heart of Valbonne is still on and will last until Friday 12 February PM. Don't miss your chance to check out their great aquarelles!

Cathie van der Stel amidst her paintings

The show opened with a very well visited vernissage! We made a lot of new friends, did good business and received so many compliments! Rest assured we'll stay modest and realistic as aquarellista's go - but the fact that aquarelles can get these positive comments, even from non-connaisseurs, did us good!

So here's a proud picture of us with one of our youngest models (see the portrait below)...

Portrait of Ines by Marina Teding van Berkhout

EXHIBITION Marina Artist Team

PRESS RELEASE

Casablù, Modern Art gallery in Valbonne exhibits the poetic watercolours of the “Marina Artist Team”. From Saturday 6 - Friday 12 February

The Marina Artist Team: three artists, who work together on commissions for portraits of people, animals and houses or views. Working as a team makes them more efficient, using each others’ strong points, feedback and inspiration. This synergy increases the quality of their work while prices remain reasonable.

The Marina Artist Team is Marina Kulik, Marina Teding van Berkhout and Cathie van der Stel. All three are living and working close to Valbonne, with the same passion: painting in aquarelle watercolours. All three are members of the “Aquarellista!” movement and working as autonomous artists as well. The team started end 2007 with the two Marina’s (hence the name) who helped each other with their commissions. When they couldn’t handle more work they looked for another Marina – and in the end chose for the best and her name turned out to be Cathie…

The Marina Artist Team paints portraits of their clients’ nearest and dearest (people as well as pets), or (second) homes. Real estate firms often commission paintings of properties as a gift to their customers.

Aquarelle uses transparent paint that is as fluid as water. The paint is hard to control and because of the transparency, mistakes are hard to correct. Aquarelle paintings have to be ‘right the first time”. That’s why it is known as a “difficult” technique and not too often used for serious artwork
Before the definitive aquarelle is made, many sketches, studies and versions see the light.

An aquarelle watercolour is painted on mould made or handmade paper, the Marina Artist Team works primarily on 300 grams Torchon rough grain paper.

More images: http://www.marinartisteam.com/

Other Projects

Apart from our weekly theme (see post below), a lot of other aquarellista-projects are going on - that are definitely worth showing! Here some examples... Flowers in progress by Marina Teding van Berkhout

Reflection by Cathie van der Stel

Pebbles by Anna Karin Fast

Fantasy landscape by Birgitta Engval

Finished projects and new starts

Week before last, the aquarellista's painted straight forward reflections, in water and on mirrors. Most of that is in the post below this one, but two more were finished and they happen to have come out so good that I show them in an in-betweenie piece...

Cathie van der Stel's fabulous reflection painting - first stage and finished product

Stage 1 and 2 of Beverly Ellsley's Taj Mahal

And then some worked out other ideas: Marianne, Marina and Bibbi

Marianne van Wijngaarden is finding out ways to paint in a more spontaneous and direct way. With this cow she seems to have found the right direction...

And Bibbi Isaksson started on an impression of autumn vine-leaves

(as did Marina Teding van Berkhout: I owe you a picture of her painting when it is finished)

Iris

Loose end: Last week I promised to let you know what Cathie had done with her half-finished rose - cut it off, leaving a portrait painting, or add another rose and end up with a landscape painting... As you can see she did neither, and worked out the whole flower... She added some darker tones and the result looks positively stunning!!

~o0()()()0o~

New subject: when my daughter Iris was born, I created her birth-cards, 80 little aquarelles of Irises on hand made paper.... a lot of work as you can imagine - and I became a very very fast Iris-painter! I have none of these cards left, but the original design (50 X 70 cm) is still in my possession...

The Aquarellista's used the Iris as inspiration for their vertically-inclined work last week: we worked on easels instead of sitting down, resting the boards with stretched paper on a table... We agreed that that way still works best - but nevertheless, the results of painting - standing up were outstanding!!

The beautiful transparent Iris of Lies Timmermans: also look at the background! It really brings the flower forward by modestly being beautiful...
Cathie van der Stel's Irises! From light to dark, from fluttering to robust -and delightfully painted A yellow Iris by Hélène van der Kroft - another way of composing a background that brings the Iris out: dark and with a suggestion of leaves and stems The next (third) Iris of Brenda Moorehouse - and the best sofar if you ask me! A wonderful painting of yet another Iris by Beverly Ellsley to end this post in style!

It was a great session, we worked hard, experimented and got some fine results.....

Big Roses

Phew - last time I actually remembered to bring some examples of roses - and the aquarellista's present painted like crazy all afternoon!! We did a fabulous job, as you can see below:

Big Rose I by Cathie van der Stel

Big Rose II by Cathie van der Stel
(not yet finished - will be portrait or landscape together with another rose...)

Rose & broken heart by Birgitta Engvall

Lily by Bibbi Isaksson

(it is huge and still has "the light" - wonderful work)

Pink Rose by just-joined Aquarellista! Beverly Ellsly - great to have her as a new member

And I did 2 experiments, one "graphical" - monochrome with lines and surfaces only - is that still a rose? I think so...

And one in a non-rose colour. Still a rose, but a bit artificial looking..

Tomorrow we meet up again and will do vertical shapes and forms! More about that in the next post...