Watercolour of Vincent van Gogh

Did you know that even Vincent van Gogh was an aquarellista in his early days!

Everyone knows him from his poetic yet tortured impressions in oil - but in his early period he worked in watercolours!

The Van Gogh Museum in Amsterdam just added this one to their collection:

Picture credits to AP Photo/Van Gogh Museum.
Mike Corder, Associated Press

It is from 1882, he was 29 years old and still working hard on getting the perspective right. At the time he was mostly working in black and white sketches. I personally think is it quite muddy - but you probably have to take into account that it is painted in Holland, where the skies are grey. And the light, around the willow and in the sky, with the blue patches, is very good. Enlarge the picture by clicking it. It seems that Vincent was happy with it:

He wrote about it in a letter to his brother Theo and that letter is now displayed next to the aquarelle in the museum. He writes that he thinks this is one of the best of a series of watercolours he painted that summer...

I tried to find more watercolours by van Gogh on the internet but gave up as hundreds of watercolours by amateurs 'after van Gogh' showed up. Some were very well done - good for you guys! Keep working on those aquarelles! Below one that seemed authentic to me, great strong colours,  most certainly done in watercolours (with cauliflowers to prove that) and I guess ink for the outlines and the masts:

Boats at Saintes Marie

Nice Airport Vernissage

Last Saturday, the exhibition 'Les Abstraits' was officially opened! It was very well visited as you can see on the picture below!

The artists were introduced by the organisation and the attaché culturel de La Gaude. The nice looking guy on my left is Olivier Menu whose explosive art was printed  on the invitation:

The art was also visible on the monitors!

This exhibition is on until the 30st of July, in both business centers, of Terminal 1 and 2...

Waterlilies & Chateauneuf part II

We worked really hard and concentrated last week - inspired by Riviera's Jazz Radio... Only one aquarellista didn't work on our suject du jour "waterlilies and  Chateauneuf":

Marina Teding van Berkhout, who made these beautiful studies of a female nude...

In the Waterlily section Denise Holt did another version of last week's first attempt after she hadn't touched an aquarelle brush for ten years...

Improvement clearly visible - although I also really liked the first one...

Cathie van der Stel finished hers... Isn't it fantastic!!

And so did Anna Karin Fast - she added some small touches and all of a sudden there is perspective in the picture!

This is a little in-betweeny by Anna Karin - painted while her other painting was drying.

A good idea, and sometimes the start of great works of art.

...~o0()0o~...

Ann hadn't been in for some time and started with a simple view of a street, with lots of contrast... and didn't it come out fine! She's ready for a good old Chateauneuf painting  if you ask me...

A lovely, subtle and poetic view on Chateauneuf by Cathie van der Stel - who else...

And the sunny side of the street - in Chateauneuf -  by Sandra Seymour-Dale

Coming Friday we 'll start putting up the paintings for the Chateauneuf exhibition - It opens the 12th of December and of course I'll update you about it!

5 Aquarellista's present...

Last week most members of our aquarellista group were in bed with severe colds - but five die-hards were present! We had a fabulous afternoon, with lots of tea, extensive discussions about composition, colours and contrast, and deep concentration! There was a "plants" group (Anna Karin and Bibbi) and a "Chateauneuf village" group (Sandra and me) and then Cathie - who worked on both!

Anna-Karin Fast worked on her tomatoes,
aren't they gorgeous...:

Amongst other things Bibbi Isaksson painted this
stunning waterlily (very large size as usual :))

Cathie van der Stel started -and finished- these gorgeous
stylized flowers

And Sandra and I have started working on Chateauneuf Village, I painted a view of one of these lovely little streets and Sandra started on a great looking door (the old village has many of those! Cathie is painting one too...)

Work in progress: Sandra Seymour-Dale's door in Chateauneuf, autumn leaves to come...

View on a sunny street by Marina Kulik

Vases and water

The week before last we started with a still life of flowers in a vase filled with water. This led to the need for more research on water and glass:

The "breaking" of the object (like a stem of a flower) by the water...

Bibbi Isaksson

The composition of water, glass and flowers I:

Titia Brandwijk

The reflections of light in the glass:

Beverly (now back in the USA for a couple of months) 

The composition of flower and glass II:

Sandra Seymour-Dale

The reflection of the background in the glass:

Bibbi Isaksson
 

Reflection of the light in the water:

Lies Timmermans

The importance of contrast and background:Karin de Bruine

And then there is some work in progress, from Ann amongst others - to be shown next post...

Reflections in Aquarelle

Last week's new theme was "Reflection". I have left out the "unfinished projects" - the next post will show them finished, we will work on them coming session. Everybody has been working really hard, the sun was out just long enough and the results were great!! Marianne van Wijngaarden has been working on the reflection of a white heron in the water...

and so did Hélène van der Kroft - who was very productive!

Here's a "sleeping beauty" also from her hand...

Snowy Mountains and a Lake... Switzerland versus Canada!

By Brenda Moorehouse...

...and Lies Timmermans

Anna Karin painted branches on a mirror, but the reflection was so sharp that with this subject it is hard to see what's reflection and what not... When we are painting outside, we are sitting under the trees - and she also painted the reflection of the leaves...

all in all a very lovely and special composition!

Bird in the water - Anne Edwards gave it two tries! Maybe next week we can show the third and final attempt! She's almost there...

And I couldn't help myself - I have made a reflection-picture of beach tents.

The reflection comes out of my fantasy - if you find mistakes-don't hesitate to write a comment!

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!!

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.....