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!

Art Supermarket in Valbonne

Super Marché de l’Art

July is the month of the street theatre festival in Valbonne, and within that, the artothèque organises a "Super Marché de l’Art" - an Art Supermarket, from 9 to 11 July.

This supermarket is an exhibition combined with the possibility to buy original artworks (paintings, sculptures and objects), built up like a traditional supermarket: The visitors can shop and fill their baskets with original artwork - or just admire! Creativity and humor will surprise the public, there will be stands where the artists are demonstrating - and you may be invited to join in. There is a very special wine stand, a fish "rayon" and much more...

One of the 15 artists who present their work is Aquarellista Marina Kulik. She will present her Multicolour Roses, and the necklaces, bracelets and earrings she designed for Dutch jewelry brand "MERRL" within that same theme.

The Supermarché de l'art takes place from 9 - 11 July

Pré des Arts – parking de la Vignasse

06560 Valbonne village

More information:

Artothèque l’Art Tisse 14

Rue de la Fontaine

06560 Valbonne Village

Tél. : 04 93 42 04 56

art-tisse@wanadoo.fr

http://www.art-tisse.com/

Provence continued

You may remember that a part of our aquarellista team is going to have an exhibition in Valbonne in September, and that we have decided to let ourselves be inspired by "Provence". A broad subject! But close to us... Last week we did a couple of versions of "olives". It's fun to see the different styles!

Cathie van der Stel's olives - with a lavender bush

Sandra Seymour-Dale's airy version

a classic olive version by Marina Kulik

an olive inspired artistic impression by Helen Bate

In the coming weeks we will develop and work out all kinds of other Provence inspired aquarelles: with landscapes, poppies, villages and more... Preparations already started!

Poppy by Sandra Seymour-Dale

Landscape by Horst Timmermans - painted around his real subject: the sky...

Provence cloud, also by Horst Timmermans (well done!)

and to top it all off Horst painted a quick Provence onion

and last but not least Provence Irises by Lies Timmermans! note the background - just cerulean in a couple of washes - it works!

Abstract Aquarelles

"Just for the colours" by starter Gisela Dijksterhuis

The aquarellista group is working on a Provence project (see post below) yet there is plenty of room and time for some abstract experiment !

Cathie van der Stel is definitely on to something spectacular with her new "line" of abstracts!

a work in progress, also by Cathie van der Stel! She has not looked at it for a week and will finish it tomorrow

Fabulous and funny abstract - by Helen Bate. You can look at it for hours and still discover new things. The bright white spots are actually silver (real leaf silver), so much better looking in real life, but they didn't photograph well... you'll have your chance to see them in our September expo...

Please scroll to see the Provence-Post

Aquarellista's go Provence

Entrance to Mas in Grasse, Beverly Ellsley

The past week as well as the coming month, our work will be dedicated to the Provence. Because it is a source of inspiration, with so many different possibilities, from landscapes, to villages, to flowers, to abstracts based on colours or shapes! And also because six aquarellista's will have an exhibition in Valbonne in September, showing... their view on the Provence!

Here are a couple of  impressions:

Parents of the groom by Brenda Moorhouse

 

Provence lansdscape by Horst Timmermans

We're slowing working towards "getting the hang of it" ... so watch this space!

"Artour" in Villeneuve Loubet

Saturday 19 June yours truly participated in an exhibition meant for business people of "our" Silicon Valley, Sophia Antipolis - the high-tech area of the Côte d'Azur. This one-day activity was organized by my agents from Ambre international and held in the Citadel of Villeneuve Loubet, the property of  Marquis De Panisse.

The location was stunning! It is built in the 12th century and completely renovated in 1900. It is all perfect and inspiring and these pictures do not do the place justice... It is actually quite a romantic place! And not open for visitors... it was quite an opportunity for artists and invitees alike.

 From the remparts there is a 360° view on the sea, the villages, Nice and the mountains.

And around the citadelle is a very well-kept forest that has all kinds of interesting medicinal and rare plants.

We had put up our artwork (paintings and sculptures) outside in the courtyard, the sun was shining and we were giving demonstrations and telling the interested visitors about our work...

And then it started to rain!

I was lucky to have brought lots of plastic, I could cover my precious aquarelles and lend some to my neighbour Michel who makes Japanese-style ink drawings - on paper...

An hour latere the sun came back and stayed for the day. I thought my work looked good in the evening sun with the shadows of the palmtrees!

New Website for Marina Kulik

Just wanted to let you know that I have a new website, that has more functionality and looks better and more modern than the one I used to have... Take a look and let me know what you think, comments are very welcome...
http://www.marinakulik.com/ (click to check it out!)

And scroll down for the regular post!

Swapping!

Cathie van der Stel is developing and experimenting with a whole new style... Looking great if you ask me!

Sandra Seymour-Dale was on a roll today

Have I ever posted about one of our favourite subjects in the atelier in Chateauneuf? We call it "swapping" and for one reason or another it is best enjoyed in the summer, when we are outside...yes, I have posted about that: last year, same time... If you want to read about it and see last years' results...:

Click here for the first swapping post

Click here for the second swapping post

a closer look on Sandra's explosive abstract

It is a very simple principle, and really suitable for aquarellista's because they are (have to be) less afraid of failure and less control-freak about their own work:

Create a background and then give your work to somebody else ("swap")! That way you are very free while creating your background, you can experiment and use colours and shapes you wouldn't normally (keep thinking, "who cares it is for somebody else..." it's good for you) and on the recieving end you get shapes and colours that will inspire you to show that you're up to it!

Cathie van der Stel: sheep inside

Anyway - last week we created the backgrounds, with lots of water, laughter, teasing and of course creativity and inspiration - some came out really gorgeous! Coming Tuesday we are going to paint the foregrounds...

Mireille Bonnaud: houses outside

Next to the swapping project we worked on the Inside/Outside theme, and we discussed the September-aquarellista-exhibition. In short, a busy -and fruitful- day! I keep the swapping pictures for next week (when they are hopefully finished), used as illustrations in this post are some of the results of last week...

 Roses (one dry, one fresh) by Sandra-Seymour-Dale

dewdrops exercise by Helen Bate Well done! They're rolling from the paper!

Marina Teding van Berkhout's "old ladies on the market"

"Outside" in Chateauneuf

This is what an aquarellista-afternoon looks like! The lush green is real - so are the girls and their aquarelles... We are still working on our theme "inside-outside" and everybody is having their own interpretation, very interesting! Most of the work is not finished yet, but I thought, I'd give you a sneak preview of the work in progress...

On the outside - Ann Edwards' version, with mysterious windows looking in ...

Brenda Moorehouse was just sketching a bit to get the inspiration going - and look at this, it's just a study but I like it a lot! She started, roughly, with the colours and added the dark lines later. It works!

Beverly Ellsey started this great 'look inside', what's the finished result going to be - a warm, South French evening atmosphere maybe?

And a completely different and clever interpretation by Marianne van Wijngaarden in which she shows inside and outside by means of these tulips...

Brilliant work - but bad bad photo's

This is the FANTASTIC aquarelle of Mireille Bonnaud! Leaves, in a whirling wind. I'll take a better picture of this one and post it again next week!

The aquarellista group has been working hard and motivated on a couple of things. The starters did VERY GOOD on their next project, "spheres", the others worked on flowers and began experimenting with our theme: "inside/outside"...

But silly me, I pressed some button on my camera and the pictures turned out so small that you can hardly see what's on them!! Luckily most of the work wasn't finished, soI'll get another chance tomorrow!

I will show you the minuscule piccies though, for a preview....

Experiment with spheres by Helen Bate

Butterfly with volume by Mia Schraa

Iris by Brenda Moorehouse (look at that background!!)

Tulips by Sandra Seymour-Dale

She did lots more by the way, on her dried roses series - but you'll have to wait for that until next week, just like Cathie's, Marina's and Ann's work on the inside/outside theme...