Wednesday 28 November 2012

DRAWING - Monday morning with Pim

Pim, hiding behind his still life...
 
Last Monday it was Pim's turn to give the drawing class, and he announced that the group was going to work on 'Volume and Perspective'. An interesting and certainly challenging subject! As always the still life was very much on topic and after a theoretical introduction everyone was ready to draw... Here are the results! Perspective checks out, as does the volume, suggested by dark shadows and light surfaces!
 
Betty Schep
 
Anita Frenkel made two versions, here's number 1...
 
...and version 2...
 
Brigitte Jansen

Gaby Berendsen


Lucia Gualtieri

Neville Moray


Monday 26 November 2012

Aquarelle - Tuesday afternoons 2pm with Marina

Sunsets & Vitamins
...in all possible styles, by the Aquarellistas!
 
Agnès's Amazing African sundown... a passionate painting with brush and knife
 
Subtle Sunset by Anna-Karin
 
Rhoda Seymour-Dale visits France from time to time and then passes by to paint with us.
She painted two beautiful aquarelles, the one up here and the one below...
 
Sandra's Sunset, another completely different impression! Sandra used the typical watercolour 'cauliflowers' to create a snowy landscape. Very fragile, misty and cold!

Both starters Jim and Cathy created wonderful sunset landscapes, inspired by the same pictures. They both worked out fine, and for both I had a remark to improve their work. Because I like photoshop so much, I changed the pictures to show what I meant...
The horizon in Jim's aquarelle was not a straight line...
In the version on the right I have straightened the horizon for an even better image!
 

The reflection of the hill in the water needed a bit of tweaking, in the picture on the right I added a bit of reflection (not sure if it really improved things
 
In the meantime starter Wendy did a GREAT job on the 'Volume' exercise, very well done on that!
 
And then on to the volume of healthy, vitamine rich fruit!
Here for example the juicy apples and pears by Liz...

Almost finished: Brigitte's Atmospheric Autumn still life
 
And last but not least, Cathie's unbelievable fruity fruit!!
 
 
 

Sunday 25 November 2012

One theme - and different results

The Abstract class has been worked with mixed media paintings using corrugated cardboard. Some worked quickly and finished after 2 sessions - others have been working (and some struggling) to complete the assignment.

Below you can see some of the artwork in progress.







And the really difficult part is to decide when the piece is finished.

Saturday Acrylics Class with Pim

On Saturdays a "gang of regulars" meet up at the Hangar to do acrylics with Pim.  Sometimes there is a special project - but most Saturdays, participants choose there own subject. As you can see from a small selection of this weeks paintings in progress - there is a mix of abstract and figurative art.




And here you have some of the artists at work.



On Saturdays there is the opportunity to participate in the shared lunch - and this Saturday it certainly did look yummy - snacks, smoked salmon etc. and of course a glass of wine.

The class is open to all members of the Hangar - beginners and experienced artists, French and English speakers. You can come for the morning or the afternoon or the full day.

Monday 19 November 2012

Aquarelle Tuesdays 2pm - 4.30pm with Marina Kulik

'Evaluation'

Usually we end our aquarelle session around 4.30pm, then we line up the work of the afternoon and we talk about it. If the group is big, this may take some time and last week the participants were saved by the Hangar Board meeting that started 4.30! I promised everyone that I would say my piece in this blog - so here it is:
"One of today's leading themes was 'Colourful & Vitamin-rich'! Anna-Karin Fast, who was working in her usual loose, 'one big brush'- style, has added a bit more contrast lately, well visible here in this still life with apples and pears. It was still wet when I took this picture (see top right) that's the hurry we were in! But luckily it didn't drip. Great, interesting work in beautiful technique that does the spontaneous character of our fav medium justice!!"
 

"Another excellent, still wet and no way finished example of a Vitamin-rich still life by Brigitte Jansen. She used autumn fruit and red leaves - is already very nice-looking right now and can only get better with the contrasting dark background that is planned!"

"Anna-Karin's pinguin, that was already gorgeous last week is now even better - stronger, better grounded and more character... Just by adding a little bit of colour in the eyes and under the feet... What a excellent picture this is. Love it"
 
"Normally I wouldn't show work in this stage but on the other hand it is explanatory - and of course very well done, what else would you expect from Cathie van der Stel! As you can see, the drawing is simple, just a few lines, but each little berry (blue-, black-, rasp-, and straw-) that has colour, is so very well done and the light reflects exactly right on all those different types  of surface (velvety in the blueberries, shiny in the blackberries etc)... A bit of an experiment going on with masking fluid on the strawberries...can't wait to see it finished!"

Agnès McLaughlin as always worked spontaneously and experimental - although this time there is no funny caption. I especially like the blackberries, I think they work very well here. The more I look at it the more I see a hard wind and a big fire in the background. Very serious actually. Agnès also brought two versions of 'the guy with the cigar'. I'll post about them and other versions later..."
  
"Edith Alborni worked on her dancing girl. She added a dark background, in Payne's Grey, with drops of crimson and cerulean and a lot of salt. It is very expressive, especially the top part, and the light is amazing too! Well done you!"

"Wendy Boyer is a brand new aquarellista, with experience in other painting techniques but none in watercolours, but she is enthousiastic and picks it up amazingly fast! She did the 'washing' part of this exercise with energy and curiosity and as you can see already understands about 'creating volume! There is plenty 3D in this pinting - and more to come!!"
 
"Another fruity still life, this time from Liz Douglas - and you can almost taste the vitamins, that's how bright they are! Liz used grey masking fluid to protect the white spaces, and they shine because of the flash... but that actually gives a good impression of what it will look like when it is finished: then everything else will be darker than the white of the paper and that white will be very bright!
"And last but not least the third painting by Anna-Karin! Is she on a roll or what? This  is a new one of the 'Ikea Bowl' series where she places different objects in the same bowl, this time 'apples'. The picture's come out a bit brighter than the real painting, which is actually a bit better balanced, but you get the overall impression, with yet again good contrast and especially in this one, good transparency. Chapeau Anna-Karin!"
 
Apart from the above there were a couple of 'Guy with Cigar' pictures, which I will write about next week in the Aquarellista blog...

Thursday 15 November 2012

Drawing on Monday Morning - with Pim

We proudly present the results of the last drawing session: the participants drew the biggest still life ever: The Hangar!! They worked in pen and ink, with truly heartwarming results...enjoy!!
 
 
The library table - by Betty Schep
 
The cupboard with sculptures - by Brigitte Jansen

The Workbench - by Lucia Gualtieri

 Pim's cupboard - by Neville Moray

Workbench with woorden sculpture - by Gaby Berendsen

Monday 12 November 2012

Aquarelle - Tuesdays from 2pm with Marina Kulik

Last Tuesday we were with a small group (it's holiday in the South of France) and there were several projects that the 'select six' worked on. One of them was a portrait from the Help section in l'Aquarelle... read more about that following this link to the Aquarellista blog
 
Jim Kane started another portrait in the best and most efficient way for watercolours: determine where the light (in other words 'the white') is, and leave those areas unpainted, then paint everything else in the lightest colour... and in the next stage, add shadow and other colours, then start with the details... We will see more of it in the next post I'm sure!
 
We have a new aquarellista, Wendy Boyer, who is a painter in other media but just started with watercolours! She did a very good job on the colour transparency exercise and than happily started experimenting with colours, mixing them wet-in-wet and noticing all the interesting effects... The painting above is not finished but already looks great!
 
And then there are two paintings that I really want to show you because they are soooo great:
 
A perfect pinguin by Anna-Karin - not yet completely finished but already so much character! Click picture to see bigger version...
 
Anna-Karin Fast has discovered a new way of using colours, involving black - a colour we tried to avoid up to now because I always said, black is boring... But it looks like I was wrong!! I hope to get Anna-Karin to write a guest-post about her technique, or maybe tell us all about it and I'll do the posting.


Old cracked paint - a try-out by Cathie

Cathie van der Stel has also discovered something she likes and that involves old walls and ornaments... This is one of her first tries, she combined a couple of things like the ornament on the left, and the combination with rusty bolts  and handle and it looks so well together! Can't wait to see future versions of this!

Monday 5 November 2012

All Couleurs Locales!


To check out all the artwork that was displayed during the 'Couleurs Locales' click this link:
 

presentation created by Jim Kane (of the Woody Allen portrait)
 
and now it's really over...

Sunday 4 November 2012

The end of a successful exhibition

Today was the final day of the Valbonne exhibition - celebrated with a closing party. Below are some pictures from the event. The exhibition has been very successful - beautiful artwork on display, many visitors and quite a few sales. Congratulations to all.

Ørjan discussing with Lucia

Marina explaining

Add caption

Charmian and Neville

another orginal from Helen H.

Studying the details


The evenings bar keeper