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...

Unfinished projects II

Iris part one by Brenda... Because there were no examples of roses, she took up another flower. This first attempt looks great already, but it is very small. Coming Tuesday she will start with a bigger version - maybe. Might be in the "cartoon-style" she has been developing lately. Or she begins with a big rose too...

Honeysuckle by Anna-Karin Fast, painted in her recognizable natural, lighthearted style

Bibbi took an impressionist painting and used the flowers in it as example to inspire her to this attractive aquarelle - which may change during the week - she's not completely ready with it...

Peonie of Lies Timmermans - she made two versions and used it as practice for next week's big roses

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

Expo Chateauneuf

The past two weeks have been dedicated to the show in Chateauneuf - many aquarellista's took their turn in having "permanence" in the gallery, and now it's over! We cleared out everything today, and looking back I think we can say it was a great success. All visitors were impressed with the quality of the work and lots of them left messages in our "show book" with very positive comments! The dust has settled now and we're going to have our "rentree" session coming Tuesday... We're going to paint roses, as Aquarellista's do - but different, in fact, very big. We'll keep you posted with the results...

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 III

Coming Monday the show opens - with a vernissage that starts 6 PM in the Salles Pontis, in the old center of Chateauneuf de Grasse... One more Aquarellista shows work in that expo, Marina Teding van Berkhout. This young artist paints in a soft and light, pleasant style and often chooses subjects like children, animals and flowers.

Lately Marina is experimenting with a more contrasting choice of colours, a different brushstroke and other techniques and subjects (horses, abstract) - a very interesting development that you'll definitely see more of. In this blog - or on her future website...
As for the exhibition - it opens its doors on Monday the 31st of August 10AM - and that same day we also have the vernissage - starting 6PM! After that it opens every day including weekends from 10 - 12.30 and from 2 - 5.30PM. It finishes on Sunday the 13th of September.

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!

We're on Holiday!

Even the Aquarellista society has to go on holiday from time to time... Some of us are traveling far, some stay home and clean up their atelier! But last week, in between a fabulous lunch and goodbye champagne, we still did some painting...

Brenda Moorehouse, who by the way has recently developed a very interesting, cartoonlike style - created this "doodle" that has so many interesting bits!
Ann Edwards toyed with the deep sea theme

Lies Timmermans' "View through" from last week

and this is also from her hand! I have a feeling she likes bright colours

Brenda Moorehouse - doodles 2

And Doodles 3 from Brenda Moorehouse

I probably have said it before - this "doodling" is a GREAT way to discover what you like, what's there inside your brain and to get your inspiration back! And if you don't like it, just throw it away....

Next post about our upcoming show in Châteauneuf de Grasse!

Painting a real stone Chateau

We did have an aquarellista session last week - we painted "view-through" - a landscape or something happening, seen through a window or an archway or a couple of pillars. It was very inspiring and there were some truly interesting results... But I forgot to take pictures... That's why you get a report on this week's painting of the Chateau de Castellaras (a commission). And because I often get the question "how do I do stones" I'll try to explain that here: there were a bloody lot of them in that painting...

I always start my paintings from the right hand side! Not the most efficient as I am right handed and have to be careful not to smudge parts that are still wet. I have tried to start left - but it just feels less good. Funny isn't it! Habits -even the wrong ones- are hard to break...

The finished product, 70X50 cm of hard work with a tiny brush. (click on it to enlarge)

One way of painting stones: just "hint" them. In the castle stones I could clearly detect the horizontal, irregular lines, and much less the vertical ones. So that was exactly what I painted in the sunny parts, like the tower. Note that it is important to take your time to observe what "the character" is of the stones. Where does the light come from, how do you see the shadows, how are they shaped, what is their colour, is the shadow and light very clear... The stones under the pillars are regular and square. I vary slightly in colour and paint them on top of each other, so that the rims of the aquarelle form natural shadow lines, and here and there I leave a small line unpainted (white)
Other stones are hopelessly irregular - but most of the time rectangular-ish. And because the light comes from above, the shadow will usually be under the stone.
Above the most varied piece of stone wall. Irregular, in size, colour, material, shadow and shade... I must admit that I "simplified" it a bit. I do that often, also with tiled roofs. (The brain still accepts it as a roof - although the tiles are much bigger than in real life...)

Next post about your work on "deep sea" and then we're on summer vacation!!

Girl Power?

This weekend I had the opening of a private exhibition. Forty of my aquarelles were on display for the residents of a very exclusive domaine.

Over there I met a lovely, mysterious and famous aquarellista. A wealthy man, made his fortune in Japan with his watercolours (yippee, it can be done!) who told me he gave lectures on academies all over the world - but that the English watercolour tradition didn't accept him. I'll be contacting soon to hear more of his stories, admire his work, and I'll let you know all about it.

I am very proud that he appreciated "my DNA". There was another well-known and talented artist present who holds the aquarelle brush from time to time and I'll feature him as well in later posts.
The other visitors were all interested in art - well - the women were! From the comments I received I could make up that they understood what I was doing (or trying to do) with my abstract free work: Use the behaviour of the paint to create something that comes out of ME, my brain, my imagination, my DNA. The result is a surprise to me too, it is never exactly planned and I only show what I like.
But I feel I'm on to something there, something original, that I must work with, and it has to do with the origin - of me, but also of life itself. Very modest, not?

Anyway - the men, with exception of the artists, were all looking for something they could recognise. "I like the protraits much better" was a much-heard remark. "A very free interpretation of DNA" or "doesn't look like DNA at all" were down-to-earth others. And last but not least "I can see you are a woman - you paint textile and fabrics, looks like needlework" .

Don't get me wrong -I appreciate the input and I do wonder if it might be true, as I have noticed before that in general my work is recognized by women, they seem to like it better than men and also somehow understand the "deeper" meaning ... More later! And I'd like to read your comments, so don't hesitate to react. On my website you can see more work...

Swapping II

Cathie van der Stel and Marina Teding -together responsible for this interesting "fruit"

Forest and mist - Brenda Moorehouse and ....

The second swapping afternoon was fun (of course: who wouldn't love to just experiment for the experiment and without any result obligation...). We started out the same as last time, one starts with the background, another chooses and finishes it -

Chagall - Marianne van Wijngaarden & Helene van der Kroft

but this time after the foreground was done, we sometimes let a third person put in the details. Like with this one below, a joint effort of Cathie (background vaguely resembling a face) Brenda (clearly recognized Cleopatra) and Marina (put eye make up and lipstick on her) o well - we had fun Here below is my favourite - it looks so graphical and the colours enhance each other. But the other aquarellista's don't agree!! We left the (white) masking fluid on - the effect is interesting! (I think)

Lies Timmermans en Cathie van der Stel

and then some lovely initiatives like this one by Hélène

We won't get together coming week - I'll post about another aquarellista subject!