Aquarelle Watercolours Tuesday 29 May 2 - 4.30

Flora & Fauna

Because I was travelling, there was no time to post about the work of the Aquarellistas last week. That's why you get an overview of what we did the past 2 weeks right here...

Anna-Karin Fast

Above you see an abstracted impression of a plant by Anna-Karin. As you can see she uses different contrasts and colour combinations: she has been painting outside, with a Swedish artist (the name escapes me - I will give it to you later) and she has learnt a couple of new techniques that she promises to share with us when she returns from Sweden.

Sandra Seymour-Dale

Sandra is studying this subject, interesting in many respects, the effect of light through the fence, the shadows, the contrast... It is not yet quite finished but it deserves to be seen in this stage!

Barbara Kinsella

Brenda's twin sister Barbara visited us last week - and although she has no experience whatsoever with aquarelle (or painting in general) she clearly has the talent of her sister! Shown above are her waterlilies - very well done!

Cathie van der Stel

This lovely happy (smiling?) horse was painted by Cathie, with the help of masking fluid and salt, which gives it the 'ruffled feathers' look...

Agnès McLAughlin

And last but not least, here's the peacock that Agnès painted, as an experiment: she used a 'dripping' technique, where you hardly have control, which means more risk, but the result is spontaneous and original! And as you can see it worked out very well - I also love the background - the yellow on the right hand side has a very thin wash of paynes's grey over it, which suggests distance... the yellow also works well as a good contrast with the violet of the bird...

And last but not least - a couple of 'before and after' images! ☺

...See what a bit of shadow can do! One of the first illustrations for our future cookbook, a recipe for 'Fleurs de Courgette' by Edith Alborni...

...Same here - with a very thin wash of Payne's Grey, Lesley Bufton made her already interesting parasol a very beautiful composition - that feels like it really protects you from the sun...

 ...And here you see Mieke van Papen's rhythm of glass bottles! With the background added, you believe that they are for real - transparent and subtle...

Drawing on Monday morning



Lucia Gualtieri's Pebbles - breathtaking (despite the fact that I threw tea over the drawing)



It was Monday morning and it rained and the plan to go outside to the Notre Dame de Vie didn't work, but three die hards, the hard core drawing enthusiasts still came and had a wonderful morning... We set up 2 still lives, one 'breakfast' and one 'pebbles'. Lucia chose pebbles, Corinne and Brigitte breakfast, and yours truly started with breakfast and the ambition to do the pebbles as well - but that was a bit optimistic. The goal was simple: Realistic Drawing... And we did, have a look, the fun clearly shows! We agreed that this kind of drawing really adds something to the live model drawing - it tends much more towards construction and forces you to 'close one eye', 'squint', and measure. So for all of those who are hesitating if they need to go to the regular drawing class: Go! Try it! It's great fun and totally improves your technique! OK☺so much for the advertorial☺and here are the 3 'breakfasts':

Corinne's free hand version (unfinished)

Brigitte's supersmooth teapot with wonderful highlights

Marina's breakfast

Aquarelle Tuesday from 2 - 4.30pm

Colourful Parasols

Last week Tuesday it was a glorious day and despite the 'changing light' (because the sun moves) Georgie, Liz and Agnes did their painting outside (and thoroughly enjoyed it).

The theme du jour was 'parasols' once more and Georgie worked hard on hers:

Georgina Hole's finished parasols

a transparent aquarelle with lots of permanent rose and 'homemade' violet...

Mieke van Papen worked on these beauties,

the green parasol is finished and like Georgie's it is a true aquarelle, poetic and light. 

This complicated inside of a parasol by Lesley Bufton isn't finished

but already interesting, graphic and super well done!

The other parasols will be shown next week - there was also a lot of activity on our calendar - the months April, May and December are finished, and July, August and October are halfway - looking great!!

And there is another project we are slowly and surely progressing with: our cookbook...

Lesley tweaked her tomato sauce recipe and created this perfect picture

Cathie van der Stel has experimented with gorgeous colour combinations and salt

and she ended up with truffles!

Abstract Class May 14th

Pim came across an article in a magazine about an art exhibition in the US. He was very inspired by 2 of the paintings which he took along to show us. The idea was for the group to seek inspiration in what he showed and produce something original. For some the assignment was easy - others struggled - and some gave up. The paintings he showed are very constructional and have lot of lines. Here is the result of the evenings work:

Merete's interpretation

Michele worked super fast (as usual)

Celina was one of the strugglers

Karin has restarted a coupleof times and is not finished yet.

Off to America!

A private collector has bought Neville Moray's painting 'Flowering Yucca' so a picture created by a member of the Hangar will soon be hanging alongside pictures by Lichtenstein, Albers and contemporary American painters in San Francisco.

Aquarelle Tuesday

Colourful Creations

In our aquarelle session of last week we worked around two themes (parasols and recipes for our Aquerellista cookbook), we finished ongoing projects, proceeded with the calendar and we welcomed two new girls, Gaby and Rose-Marie! A busy and productive afternoon - and everything was about 'colour'! The theme du jour was 'Parasols'. I brought colourful pictures (and real ones - but forgot to show them) and the results were in one word great!

Agnes McLaughlin -original as always- used her own input, one picture for the colours and one for the subject, and painted these lovely little girls with parasols. (Love their little feet!!)

 Georgie Hole hasn't finished hers but it is already so good!!

Lesley started a very difficult construction of a beautiful parasol, more about that next time and Cathie worked on these lovely old fashioned ones:

...and finished this STUNNING basket with pinecones.

Edith Alborni finished her  'mysterious girl with peacock feather'. Isn't is gorgeous?!

In the meantime, work on our recipes goes on. Lesley Bufton works on her tomato sauce ingredients. She experimented with salt on the orange worktop but washed it out again as she wasn't happy with the result. Looks like it might be finished this week!

Lesley Bufton's tomato sauce ingredients. Just some very small adjustments needed and then it's good to go (into our cookbook). The golden bottletop is very well done by the way!

Agnes McLaughlin made the first breakfast illustration for the cookbook. Lots of fun in this as usual. The pinapple originally was a cookie, also note the Porridge bowl and all the handy signs ... The tablecloth with distorted perspective contrasts so nicely with the elegant china! And the silver is very well done...

Model drawing by candle light...

Last Monday we had an extra Model Drawing session because Pim, though on the mend, is not yet working 100%. We used the time to do an experiment that actually worked out so well that we are going to repeat it coming Monday - drawing by candle light... The challenge is that not only you see less of what you are doing, you see also much less of the model. But what you see is touched by a warm and soft light... And everyone was much more able to concentrate and see and draw 'the light'. The results? Poetic! and very good: