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)

Deep Sea

The weather was great last Tuesday - we worked outside in the sun and let ourselves be inspired by the "Deep Sea"... Some took that as a theme for abstract expression and others were more realistic... Enjoy the results!

Birgitta Engvall started out with this "fishbowl"

And then went on with the spiral to end up with this fantastic fantasy!

Clown fishes by Anna Karin Fast.

She just "hinted" the eyes, which works from close by, but at a distance it turns out your brain needs a little bit more information! Maybe more about this next post (and maybe not!)

Great work by Ann Edwards -as always!!

The light has a true spakle and there is so much to imagine in this picture - it needs no comments... A more abstract take on the Clown Fish by Bibbi Isaksson - very graphic!

Clown fishes by Beverly Ellsley

And last but not least, a deep-sea scape, by Lies Timmermans.

She didn't like the result much - but I resized it a bit and look at it now!! One of the best...

That's one of the very good sides of aquarelle, it has another view on what to do with your painting. I'll write about that in another post, where I'll also show some experimental work of Sandra Seymour Dale: so watch this space!!

The Chateauneuf Expo

As promised, I'd post any article that would appear about our Hangar Exhibition. And there actually was one, in last week's Letter of the Mayor, the bimonthly magazine of the "Commune de Chateauneuf". Typically, there are no pictures of our aquarelles in it. This proves again that Aquarelles need a lot of publicity, so spread the word! Right now it is an acquired taste - not everybody likes it, mostly because it is not understood (and maybe people aren't interested in art with poetic beauty, subtlety and transparence??!!) And then of course there's the challenge that I mentioned before, that if you combine oil (or acrylic) paintings with aquarelles, you won't see the latter! That's why I always try to have exhibitions with sculptors. I can recommend that... Anyway, here's the article:

Not bad at all and at least it mentions us! And the very good news is that we will be there AGAIN from 10 - 20 December!

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.....

Aquarelle Experiments - and unfinished projects

What's this then? - No "Big Rose", this is an experiment: Sandra thought of using kitchen paper on watercolour paper to achieve "relief"... The results may not all be as beautiful - but when dried up, they looked at least promising. Worth looking a bit further into!

As you may remember we were going to do good-sized paintings of big roses. I promised to take examples with me and... I forgot. (Brought everything else though :). We'll now do "big roses" next session, and worked on other projects last Tuesday. Here are some results, mostly unfinished projects:

Rooster by Marina Teding van Berkhout - look at the beautiful plume-tail, very typical Marina style!
First big rose -with tiny dewdrop, by Cathie van der Stel. She finishes this week, look forward to the result!

Next to her kitchen paper experiment, Sandra started a portrait of two special roses - a female figure with dried rose

Ann will start a rose coming Tuesday - And may finish this gorgeous waterlily. I wonder if she should "finish" it - actually it looks great as it is now!

Next post will present you the work of Lies, Bibbi, Brenda and Anna-Karin

Exhibition in Chateauneuf - the Vernissage!

And then the expo opened...We started with great drinks and appetizers and an informal speech "en Provençal" by the mayor of Chateauneuf (R), who by the way told us he was very impressed by the quality of the work - and he wasn't making that up: he is going to write an article in the Chateauneuf Newspaper about it!! (I'll make sure I get that and scan it and post it - with a translation)

After the mayor's words, the president of our atelier, Anton Dikken (L) spoke -with quite a bit of humor in it - and that left the audience in such a good mood that some good deals were done on paintings - and especially those of the aquarellista's I might add (I am proud of you)!!

A lot of people visited the vernissage, but also the following days there has been a lot of interest!

The show is on until Sunday September 13th 4PM, if you haven't been, don't forget to pass by, the art is great, truly worthwhile!

Exhibition in Chateauneuf II

Dewdrop by Brenda Moorehouse

A couple of days ago I showed you some work of the Swedish aquarellista's, that you can see "live" in Chateauneuf de Grasse from the 31st of August onwards. Also exhibiting beautiful as well as interesting aquarelles will be 3 members of the Manx/Australian/UK subgroup, Brenda Moorehouse,Cathie van der Stel and Sandra Seymour-Dale.

Brenda will show acrylics in the Chateauneuf exhibition, but I still had this great "dewdrop" of hers in my possession that I will treat you to! She is developing her style into a more clear, almost cartoonlike brushstroke, but her older, poetic aquerelles are also worthwhile...

Cathie van der Stel is not only a very talented but also a diligent aquarellista, and she has so much excellent work that it was difficult to choose what to show on the exhibition... The painting of the peonies is a classic and it shows her mastery of the medium as well as her patience! Cathie is able to work for a very (really) long time on one piece of work and still preserve the light! That combined with her great feel for composition and subjects, all of her paintings are more than worthwhile. In the exhibition she will show a couple of portraits, pebbles and more.

Cathie van der Stel

And last but not least Sandra - with yet another style and vision! She uses dark tones as well as light ones, uses the contrast, with a big brush and on quite a large scale... and in general her work is interesting and full of character...Sandra Seymour-Dale

If you are in the neighbourhood of Chateauneuf de Grasse the first two weeks of September, I can recommend you have a look at this quality work! And then I haven't shown you the paintings of the Dutch and Italian aquarellista's! I'll post about them shortly...

Exhibition in Chateauneuf

From 31 August until 13 September you can admire the beautiful work of a couple of aquarellista's in Chateauneuf de Grasse! There is a group exhibition there, and some of us participate with 2 or more paintings... As soon as I know more (which will be very soon) I'll publish the details - but for now it seemed like a good idea to give a sneak preview of what you can expect! I'll start with the Swedish delegation - Anna Karin Fast, Bibbi Isaksson and Birgitta Engvall. All three are original and creative - but that's where the resemblance ends, in their work they are very different. Bibbi's work is surrealistic and magical - the images look familiar, but the light, the combinations, the surroundings are dreamlike - and they will make you look - and look again!

Des temps immémoriaux - Bibbi Isaksson

Anna Karin looks for her themes in nature - she works realistic, in a poetic, lighthearted way and always gives the subject something extra - via her compositions, the way she uses her colours and the effects of the aquarelle paint

Pebbles - Anna Karin Fast

Birgitta has joined the aquarellista group not so long ago and she is still exploring the possibilities of the medium. With a very contagious enthusiasm! She researches the effects of the combination of aquarelle with other materials (salt, soap, crayon, masking fluid) and is not always looking for a beautiful picture! Good for her - but this one we all love:

Horse Nebula - Birgitta Engvall

During the exhibition in Chateauneuf, in "les Salles du Pontis et du Village" there is much more from these three - as well as from "the others" whom I will introduce to you in coming posts!

Faces II

Last week we semi-finished the faces, leaving room for experiment and other subjects - but all related to "light". Here's an overview of the results up to now:

Girl smelling washing powder by Cathie van der Stel Two versions of a wedding portrait by Brenda Moorehouse
(one in Acrylics - one in Aquarelle, I know which version I prefer :-))

Girl reading music by Ann Edwards

Stage one and the finished product of Sandra Seymour Dale's "Nude"

Above... 3 stages of Marina Teding van Berkhout's Boys.

She will finish this and then I'll show you a bigger version!
And to top all this off, a subtle landscape

by Marianne van Wijngaarden

Tuesday we'll meet up again and we'll do a "swapping" session: I'll update you about it later, but the idea is that you create a background, knowing that it is for somebody else: after you finish you give it to another aquarellista... It is a very good exercise that helps you get out of your comfort zone, leaves room for experiment and makes the need for "result" a bit less strong. More about it next post!

Eyes

The Hangar Aquarellista's had another fruitful session, researching perspective in complicated architectural structures (pictures will be posted later), finishing projects like the "Dead Sea" above, (Cathie van der Stel) and last but not least - we toyed a bit with that beautiful theme: "eyes" - and more specific- "cat's eyes".

With interesting results!:

Birgitta Engvall

Anna Karin Fast Cathie van der Stel

Much more was painted - and that will be used for illustrations of later posts... Are you an aquarellista!? Why don't you join us! We need all the support and inspiration we can get, to fulfill the objective of becoming a worldwide known and respected movement!

Drawbacks of Aquarelle

Everytime I meet artists who use aquarelle as their main technique, I notice that we share that enthousiasm and motivation for the medium.

We all try out other types of paint, and other media, but most of us come back to using aquarelle. I have already written a couple of posts about "why that is the case" and I am pretty sure more will follow, but to avoid the impression that this is a new religion - I'd like to point out a couple of drawbacks!

Aquarelle by Sandra Seymour-Dale

The first is one that I have encountered -many times: Aquarelle is transparent and therefore "light" and subtle. This is a BIG disadvantage if you show your work together with oil, acrylic and other paintings with opaque media. Nobody will notice your work when it is hanging between an oil and an acrylic... (Solution: have your expo's together with sculptors...)

Aquarelle is painted on paper and has at best the "grain" of the paper, but the big fat relief that you can have with other media is not possible. All the 3D will have to come from suggestion, shadows, shading etc. The painting itself is very 2D...

Aquarelle is not water resistant - it needs to have glass in front of it for protection. No big deal, but, when you do exhibitions, it is fragile. It reflects, lighting is important and the alternatives, matted glass or plexiglass are less beautiful.

Aquarelle by Bibbi Isaksson

And did I mention "heavy"? My paintings are rather big, I use simple aluminium frames, but a 70 X 100 cm frame weighs 7 kilo!! If I have an exhibition of 20 paintings I have to drag around 140 kilo's from my atelier to my car and from the car to the gallery... My next expo will be 30 paintings!! But I'll just walk up and down 30 times - aquarellista's fitness!!

Uhmmm. Yes, of course - last but not least: it is a difficult technique. You have to plan for the white, as the "white" (or the light) in an aquarelle is the colour of the paper - you can only go darker... It drips and bleeds. (these are also the good points by the way) And you cannot really repair mistakes - I'm doing several versions of one painting - and must admit I throw away the ones that I don't like. The more experience you get, the less that happens by the way...!

Did I leave out important disadvantages?? Please don't hesitate to give them!! It proves where the character is :)

Long live the aquarellista's!

Aquarelle by Cathie van der Stel

Needed: good websites of other Aquarellista's (member or not) We have Catherine Earl's and mine... There must be many more...