Monday 28 January 2013

Aquarelle - Tuesdays 2-4.30 pm with Marina Kulik

Painting the light
 
Where is the light in this picture??
 
Last week the aquarellistas got together and worked on a theme: 'light'. What is light in a painting... Simply said, it it the lightest possible colour. It works like that also in actual life, and it is relative. If you are outside in the dark, the stars or the moon or the streetlanterns are the lightest - but often that 'light' is pretty blue (or orange or grey) compared to 'white'...
Same goes for your painting in aquarelle: the lightest colour is the coulour of your paper - in other words the spots that you don't paint...
To illustrate all this, I brought a picture of John Singer Sargent's masterpiece "Carnation, Lily, Lily, Rose". The lanterns in this painting are really shining - although they are not white... 
The reason why they appear to be lights, is that they are the lightest in the painting: the 'white' of the dresses and the flowers is darker than the lanterns. And suggestion helps a lot too: the contrast (bluish versus orange) and the warm orange reflection on the faces, the hands, the dresses and the hair of the girls makes your brain believe that there is actual light... all in all, it works...

In this black and white version, you can see (you see it even better when you squint) that the lightest colour is indeed in the lanterns.

We did an exercise, trying to achieve this effect, some using the original painting as their guide, some choosing another subject. And here are the first results:


This version works well because of the contrast blue/orange and the dress is a fraction darker than the light!

Good job here! The lantern really stands out in the dark background...
 
An interesting combination of three versions
 
 
In the next version of this poetic painting the background will be darker!
And that will definitely make the painting stronger, I agree :)

 
Same for this one - it is a lovely image with all these flowers !
yet the lantern doesn't really shine...
here's one of the reasons why:
 
And then there were some other images with light in them:

 Work in progress by Liz... what a beautiful transparency!

Reaching out - an interesting watercolour with lots of extras by starter Wendy
 
Sandra accidentally dripped a brushh full of Payne's grey in her light source (on another painting).
While contemplating if she would just tear it up or try to repair, she created this little beauty!

And talking about beauty - work in progress by Cathie - despite the fact that there's a lot of white still-of the paper itself, the lantern already shines...
 
All in all it was a worthwhile exercise and we will proceed with it in the next session...



Drawing - Monday 28 January - with Pim

Every other Monday morning Pim treats his students to one of his special still lifes. (Eh, that is, in the winter... as soon as the weather permits it he takes them outside to draw perspective, villages, trees, hills and ruins...)
 
This Monday the challenge was this. So beautiful...
And here are some of the resulting drawings: realistic, with contrasting shadows and a warm atmosphere...
Betty Schep
 
Anita Frenkel

Lucia Gualtieri

Neville Moray

Christiane Halsey


The Hangar New Years Drinks

Last Sunday, 27 January, the 'Hangar New Years drinks' finally took place! Just in time as some visitors commented - but I have to admit that the original planning was for 20 January, only it rained and stormed soo bad that day that the committee decided to postpone...
 
The festivities started at 4pm, with champagne and a variety of wonderful nibbles. The Hangar was warm, looked great with decorative lights and -more importantly, paintings on display, this time created by Nelly van Hijfte's Oil group!
Charmian Murleys Happy Babygirl!
 
President Hans van Wijngaarden spoke a couple of words, mentioning the 20 different nationalities we have in our membership.
The President (from the back) and some visitors, admiring the artwork on display

A lot of them passed by, Hangar members, associate members, friends, family and introducées alike - and together we chatted the night away in a terrific athmosphere!
  
 Boardmembers Celina and Sandra next to Chris Herliq's Dove
 
More oïl paintings - don't they look great!

For those of you who missed the party, the bottomline is that the Hangar community wishes you a very happy and creative New Year!

Monday 21 January 2013

Aquarelle Tuesdays 2-4.30pm with Marina Kulik

WET IN WET
 
In this first session of the new year, the aquarellistas started off with a video, about the Polish aquarelle artist Ewa Karpinska. She works wet-in-wet and in this video demonstrates how she works... with paper soaked in water for 5 minutes (so that's really VERY wet) and then with jars full of high-in-pigment watery paint. In this way of working there is much more coincidence, though it was clear that with experience comes some form of mastery of most of the effects. It was very interesting and we spent the rest of the afternoon trying it out - with explicitly no 'result' obligation!
 As always Jim was the one who uninhibited experimented with it - and he came to the conclusion that Ewa must use some kind of medium because her paper doesn't dry! Our atelier Le Hangar is quite humid, but the paper dries pretty quickly... We decided that she probably uses Arabic gom in her water and Jim will experiment with that this week (conclusions will be presented later).
Anyway, we all worked with hands and biggg brushes and kitchenpaper and creditcards and sponges, and made a great mess...
 
...yet still the results (although that wasn't an important issue) were impressive and sometimes even stunning!
NB: the titles are mine, let me know if you hate them and I'll change 'em 
 
'Cheetahs'
by Agnès McLaughlin

'Bamboo'
by Cathie van der Stel

 'Pebbles'
by Anna-Karin Fast

'Red flare falling'
by Cathy Dariel

'Bouquet drifting'
by Constanza
 
'Watery Landscape'
by Christiane Halsey

 'Magic Light'
by Edith Alborni

 
'Heavy seas'
by Jim Kane

'Red feathers & Fireworks'
by Liz Douglas
I am pretty sure that you will agree with me that the ones with white in them (white = not painted) are the most interesting!!!

Model drawing - alternate Mondays, with Marina Kulik

A good start of 2013
on Monday 21 January we had our first Hangar drawing session, with a small -yet enthusiastic- group! Our model du jour was the beautiful Marie-Jo and after a warming-up with 10 poses of 2 minutes, we drew her in two other positions for around 10 minutes each. Then we had a lovely coffeebreak - to catch up on the latest after which we spent a full hour with the same pose.
Marie-Jo sat so still, admirable because it is not easy and after we had finished it took her 5 minutes of stretching to get some feeling back into her limbs...
 
Some worked on one detailed drawing, others took different positions and did several, and overall everybody did a good job! Rusty? hah! Not us, not anymoer ☺ Here are some of the results....:
 
Charmian Murley
 
Neville Moray
 Sandra Seymour-Dale
Betty Schep
 
 
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If you read this and think the drawing class might be a nice thing to try out, just know that you are most welcome!! There is a drawing session every Monday, one with a still life and the next with Model... On 28 January it will be 'Still Life' With our Super Teacher Pim. Don't hesitate to drop in to have a look - or to actually participate!

Friday 18 January 2013

DATE CHANGE FOR NEW YEAR DRINKS !!!

Sunday: 27th January 16:00 - 19:00 (NEW DATE !!!!)
The traditional New Year Reception will take place at the Hangar. Members and friends are invited - the more, the merrier. Due to the forecasted weather conditions it has been moved one week forward.

Dimanche: 27 Janvier 16h00-19h00 (NOUVELLE DATE !!!!)
La réception traditionnel du Nouvel An aura lieu au Hangar. Membres et amis sont invités. En raison des conditions météorologiques prévues, il a été déplacé à la semaine suivante.


Monday 14 January 2013

Aquarelle - Tuesdays from 2-4.30pm with Marina Kulik

The last watercolour session before Christmas
 
As expected we were with a small group of die-hards. Well, we had a great time, with music, big cups of Verveine-Menthe-Orange tea, my special brew, and even a glass of champagne during the evaluation... It was a nice last class of 2012! And some good painting happened as well...
 
Liz Douglas worked on her big commission of the scarves

 Edith Alborni finished her Dutch winter landscape
 
Mieke van Papen worked on a new and different ornament

And Wendy Boyer did a colourful experiment with a background, foreground and détails
 
On 15 January 2013 the Aquarellistas will get together again to finish the work - or start with fresh new developments!