Long stripey legs - and more...

Inspired by Hanna Meninkheim's little sculpture in the 'Quel Cirque' exhibition, the aquarellistas went to work on a stripey subject... The challenge was to really bring out the round shape, with no or hardly any drawing! It was picked up quickly by everyone and the results are great. Look what caracter these socks have!

Elegant and a bit shy by Michele

Flexible and brave by Sylvie

Firm and careful by Sue

Funny and strong by Celina

Careful and sweet by Carol

Crazy and daring by Edith

Funny and festive by Liz

Beside the feet, most of us were also finishing projects! Last week's masking fluid exercise for example:

 Carol took off the masking and although the letters look very good and colourful, she feels it is a bit white on the rest of it and she's going to work more on it as soon as she's back from the UK...

  Agnès spent most of the afternoon rubbing off the masking fluid - but once her 'Andy Warhol' Tulips were uncovered it turned out to be worth the effort!

 Cathie is working on a series of stone angels and cherubs with real flowers. 

They are SO beautiful! above's one for a first taste...

 Anna-Karin came up with another take on stripey... She used a picture she took herself in Africa for inspiration - and behold the watercolour-impression... One word: fantastic!

 Liz finished her odd couple with some more background and shadows

 Laila our group assistant had half an hour left to paint and chose herself one of the beautiful thistles from the still life cabinet. Can the girl paint or what...

2016 - an excellent Aquarelle year

Linda's

Sorry guys, forgot to press the 'post' button for this one... about the die-hards who got together the last time in 2015...
We were only 4 and did a lot of chatting and it was very very 'Zen'

Sylvie's

Sue's 

Liz's

Agnès's

The veins of a leaf - an exercise in 'leaving out the white'

Not-painting when you need white in watercolour is one of the typical parts of the technique: your white is the colour of the paper... With the aquarellista starter group we worked on a very simple exercise, "leaving white" the veins of a leaf in 3 different ways: 

 The Linda method*: draw the veins lightly with pencil, paint outside the pencil lines, let dry, rub out the pencil and there are your delicate white lines...

 The Masking Method: draw the lines with masking fluid (mix with a little bit of water for more fluidity and thus thinner lines) let dry, add paint, let dry again, rub off masking...

 Lifting method:  first paint the leaf, let dry, then lift the paint by wetting your brush with clear water, draw the veins with clear water, then dry the brush and lift out the paint. The veins will never be completely white, but the effect is very poetic!

*named after Linda Nulens who came up with the idea to draw with pencil then  rub out: it makes creating fine lines so much easier!

Linda, Carol and Sylvie tried it out, and are now done with the basic exercises!

 

Carol worked on an extra one, to which she added a background using salt. Very decorative!

Also by Carol: Stonehenge. So well done, very simple and quiet. I absolutely love it. 

 Sue's Christmas wreath one step further. She used the starters exercise for the blue leaves and don't they look fab'n crispy!!

 Elia has worked on another version of her wave.The grey lines are masking fluid - they will be the lightest colour of the painting...

For some exciting Circus-paintings, go to our Hangar News blog

Passepartout - demo and watercolours to put inside...

Anna-Karin's aquarelle in a hand made passepartout (a serious one in thick carton)

Last week we had no theme but I gave a demo of very-easy passepartout cutting. If you missed it, most of the information is in this post:  http://www.aquarellista.blogspot.fr/2015/11/quick-n-easy-passepartout-cutting.html

Anna-Karin created another gorgeous acrobat in a hoop - fantastic style!

The starters group is almost done with the exercises! Linda and Sylvie both worked on the next layer- exercise to suggest transparency... They both did a great job - I'm sure you see the curtain in from of the bird-sculpture. Next: 3 ways to (not) paint the nerves of a leaf - and working with salt.

Cathie almost finished her mustard jars - only a little reflection to add. What can I say... Superb!!!

Agnès was in England and visited Jane Austen's library. She created this lovely aquarelle

 Liz finished her colourful painting of the fruitstall in Plascassier. It worked out really good and is very 'autumny' with all the pumpkins and butternuts...

 Sue started a true project, a gorgeous Christmas wreath in green tones. When it is finished it will sparkle - the masking fluid-dots will be the only white in this painting...

 Edith spent most of her time cutting a passepartout! But she still showed het talent in two different ways... Above the finished portrait based on Adèles face and below o so cute mother and baby polar bear...

Aquarelle Acrobats

 Anna-Karin's amazing painting of a trapeze artist with hoop - created after one of her sketches made in the live model class

Fantastic work on 10/11 in the aquarellista group! We're preparing for an exhibition with 'Circus' as a theme - other artists are very jealous of us because we don't need much time to finish a painting, we just have to make many versions - and choose the best for the exhibition!

 Another good candidate for the expo- birth of a harlequin... By Liz

 Sue, our new Aquarellista started this trapeze artist! 

It's going to be a spectacular painting! Watch this space...

 Edith with a similar subject as Sue - a trapeze artist with ribbons. 

And what a great light in there!! Impressive. Well done!

 Sandra's work in progress, with an elephant, a girl in clowns' costume and rainforest leaves, all merged into a painting that tells a story!

There were also a couple of other projects, Sylvie did impressive work on her orchids - but she had to leave early and there's no picture. Next time...!

 Cathie's sodabottles. Finished with a very light warm background, that unfortunately is not visible in my picture. But still - how wonderfully intricate are they!!! Bravo!

 Liz's red wolf is finished. Well-camouflaged and a lot of expression in that beautiful face!!