Tuesday 20 September 2011

Cathie van der Stel: Aquarellista!

Cathie van der Stel was born in Australia and before she moved to the South of France in 2001, lived in England and the Netherlands. Cathie specializes in portraits, architectural renderings and natural scenery.  She recently attended an extracurricular art training at the Academie superieure des beaux- arts in Grasse and she is a member of the Aquarellistas. She is an incredibly talented painter, who in her paintings mostly uses accurate, straight lines -yet always with a surprisingly loving touch that makes her subjects, whatever they are, friendly, peaceful and welcoming. I love her paintings and it was hard to make a selection, because she has so much and it is all of excellent quality!
For more work of Cathie, visit her website: http://www.cathievanderstel.com/

Valbonne Hotel les Armoires

City view

Books

Flower

Icecube

Sandra Seymour Dale: Aquarellista!

Sandra Seymour Dale is from the UK but lives and works in France. Her work is very special and personal: strong, in colour as well as subject and always very creative, often experimental, with other materials. Her style shows mastery, her subjects, together with the specific tonality, make her paintings sometimes slightly unnerving - It's art and I'm a big fan!
In Casablù she shows three very special impressions of villages - and in this blog you can also see Sandra Seymour Dale's view on portraits and roses...

Fishing Village at dusk

Volcano - experiment with kitchen paper

Botox girl

Come to mama

 Spice girl

Rose 1
Rose 2

Monday 19 September 2011

Brenda Moorhouse: Aquarellista!

Brenda Moorhouse comes from Isle of Man, but whenever she resides in her house in the South of France, she joins the Aquarellista group in the Hangar. She has a great talent for quick, direct and often funny notations of reality...
Brenda combines watercolours with pen, in a very recognizable style.

Blesle village house, a prizewinning aquarelle, to be admired in Casablù - now sold!

Bridge in Brassac

Casablù Valbonne

Happy couple

Parents of the groom



Marina Teding van Berkhout: Aquarellista!

Marina Teding van Berkhout lives and works in the South of France since 2000 . She paints in watercolours and mixed media in a light and pleasant style. She attended many workshops in England and the Netherlands and just finished her studies at the ‘Academie superieure des Beaux-Arts Anca-Sonia’. She is a member of the Aquarellistas and painting in aquarelle watercolours is a passion in which she has now developed her own style: a great mix of wet-in-wet and more precise, dryer painting. Her paintings have a much-appreciated lyrical, lighthearted quality. She specializes in portraits of children, pets and other animals. In the Casablù exhibition, Marina shows her inspiration related to 'le Village'. Below a couple of aquarelles, more of her work can be admired via her website http://www.finewatercolours.com/

Plascassier

Men at work

Dreamy Door

Ines

Grapes

Three pups

Edith Alborni - Aquarellista!

Edith Alborni is one of the French aquarelistas of the group: she was born in the south of France, and her interest in art was encouraged when she met Georges Bard, dean of the Grasse painters and art teacher. Less than a year ago she joined our group of Aquarellistas in Le Hangar and she quickly developed her knowledge of the technique - as well as her own style! She has a tendency towards surrealism, strongly shown already in het acrylic paintings but I'm sure that will also be more and more visible in het watercolours... 

One of the paintings for 'Le Village'

Roses

Surrealistic fantasy


Iris

La Musicienne

A very impressive surrealistic dream... No aquarelle but just too good to leave out...

Edith Alborni's work can be admired in our exhibition 'Le Village' in Casablù in Valbonne, until the night of Friday 23 September...

"Née dans le sud de la France, mon intérêt pour l'art a éte stimulé très tôt, notamment par la rencontre de George Bard, doyen des peintres grassois et professeur d'art plastiques. De plus en plus passionnée, j'ai rejoins le groupe des aquarellistes du hangar, sous la tutelle de Marina Kulik qui m'aide à évoluer dans la technique de l'aquarelle et à améliorer ma créativité."
-Edith Alborni

Sunday 18 September 2011

Anna Karin Fast - Aquarellista!

In the series about the members of our group who have an exhibition at this moment in Valbonne's Galerie Casablù, I'd like to present you: Anna Karin Fast - Aquarellista!
Anna Karin is from Sweden, she has been working with aquarelle for a long time and she has developed a very special style. She always works direct and 'Fast', with a large petit gris 'pinceau à lavis'. Most of the time she uses only one wash for every colour, leaving a thin line unpainted - with a very interesting 'mosaic' effect. She is ever exploring the characteristics of aquarelle, with interesting results. Anna Karin's subjects are mostly related to nature, she also likes to paint (transparent) glass and the overall impression of her work is quiet and dreamy - yet determined and with character, never insecure.
Below a couple of examples of her work, illustrating the spontaneous style and also showing her talent for observation...

One of Anna Karin's exhibited 'Village' paintings

Eye of the Lizard

Glass is a favourite subject

From the 'Ikea bowl' series


A magic Pumpkin

Aquarellistas exhibition 'le Village' II

From Saturday 17 - Friday 23 September, seven aquarellistas show their impressions of ‘le Village’, in aquarelle watercolours in Gallery Casablù, Rue Eugène Giraud in Valbonne.
The vernissage will take place on Sunday, 18 September from 3 - 6pm - come and have a glass and some nibbles with us!
The aquarellistas are: Anna Karin Fast, Brenda Moorhouse, Cathie van der Stel, Edith Alborni, Marina Kulik, Marina Teding van Berkhout, Sandra Seymour Dale

They work together in the Hangar and for this exhibition each created a number of aquarelles, inspired by the villages in the South of France.

The paintings are absolutely wonderful, it is more than worthwhile to pass by and have a look if you happen to be in the neighbourhood! The galerie is open from 10am - 6pm...
 Before...

 And After... Cathie van der Stel and Anna Karin Fast's aquarelles make a good combination!

More pictures of more work will follow soon...

Sunday 4 September 2011

You have until Monday (5th sept) 20:00


This has been a really busy weekend art-wise. Many of you have probably visited the exhibition in Valbonne. Two of us decided to go all the way to Villefranche to see the exhibition Franchement Art. For starters, I'd like to say that it was well worth the trip. The exhibition takes place in the old citadelle which has a really nice atmosphere. There is a mix of artists and galleries showing their works in all different materials and all different styles.
When entering the citadelle the first piece of art that catches your eye is an impressive red sculpture by André Jaume (http://www.jaume-art.com). A bit further along one passes through a sculpture courtyard. There you can see several really impressive sculptures. The one above by Quirin Mayer (see: http://www.mayer-quirin.com) stood out.

Further along several other sculptures catch your eye. There is a whole collection of sculptures made from tires. And then there are the striking abstract sculptures by Christophe Boyer ( http://www.christopheboyer.com/) that you can see above.

Further along there is a section dedicated to artwork you can have indoors. Some of the artists showed some fascinating techniques (which they of course would not fully disclose). We talked to Tatjana Hilker (http://www.tatjhilker.net) who told us that she had been collecting sand from different places all over the world for the last 17 years. She has some fantastic abstract pictures made from sand on display.

And then there is our favourite Hangar aquarellista - Marina Kulik.

Marina has a small selection of her portraits on display (I'm sure you will recognize some of the people) and some of her abstract work.

And above you can see an atypical piece of art. The style reminds a bit of other work she has done - but what's new is that this has been done in acrylics. That's not a medium she usually uses. Congratulations on the good work.

There are lots of other artists worth mentioning - but if you are interested you should hurry along before it is too late.