Graphical Nudes in Aquarelle

Cathie van der Stel

The aquarellistas embarked on a challenge last week that is now halfway and looks interesting as well as totally beautiful! We worked from sixties pictures of women with light and shadow projected on their naked bodies... Here are the first results... amazing don't you think!

Agnes McLaughlin

Anna-Karin Fast

Edith Alborni

Liz Douglas

Mieke van Papen

Brigitte Jansen

Georgina Hole worked on one too but didn't get so far because she also finished her Parrots:

 Lies Timmermans returned from Switzerland (with the sun) and started with these lovebirds to get back into the groove! She'll join in on the graphic project tomorrow...

And last but not least Liz Douglas finished her view on Plascassier

Aquarelle - Tuesdays 2 - 4.30 pm - Marina Kulik

Portrait of little sister, wonderful strong portrait by Brigitte Jansen -
So sorry! The photo came out unsharp! But you can still recognize the quality

Last Tuesday the aquarellistas got together for a good old serious painting session and most worked hard on the subject 'old pictures and documents'... One of the challenges was to work more or less monochrome, in brown-grey-sepia tones as old documents and pictures have faded and yellowed.

Classy Lady with ball sculpture by Lies Timmermans

Classy Lady with draperies and bright light - by Agnès McLaughlin

Some chose to do one picture, like Agnes Lies and Brigitte (pictures above) and others combined them in order to create a scrapbooking efffect - indeed a trompe l'oeuil like these ones in-progress by Cathie and Georgie...

Ladies, documents and stamps -by Georgie Hole

(she has wisely taken the time to decide on composition and drew several versions before she started this serious job)

Dried roses, love letter, stamp, photograph and more.. amazingly beautiful and delicate painting-in-progress by Cathie van der Stel

Others worked on their own things, most of those are not finished and will be published in future posts, but Liz finished her metal-project-inspired still life and she definitely deserves a big compliment, it has come out so unbelievably metallic and shiny!

Metal still life by Liz Douglas

Aquarelle - Tuesdays 2 - 4.30pm Marina Kulik

Last week, most of the time we painted our cartoons for the New Years reception, but some actually found the time to also work on serious subjects! And the results are absolutely wonderful...

Beautiful landscape with swans by Anna Karin fast

Fish by Cathie van der Stel... Newspaper background will be added!

 Seagull with reflection by Gunilla Hammarlund who just joined our group - looks like she has everything an aquarellista needs and will fit in greatly!!

 Beautiful delicate orchid subltly painted by Lies Timmermans.

Tricks and treats - in Aquarelle

Striking candle by Brigitte Jansen

Here's the treat: a post with fan-tas-tic paintings, created during the last Tuesdays by a couple of  Halloween-inspired Aquarellistas!

Lies Timmermans' Halloween Landscape

The trick is basically 'the white': that is actually the colour of the paper, we do not use white paint!! In combination with dark colours... So the moons, stars and flames ('the light') are left unpainted (white) and everything else is darker than that!
Now check out how well that worked:

Soft candlelight by Liz Douglas

Helene van der Kroft introduced daughter in law Aafke and granddaughter Lois and the two of them did excellent and totally scaring work on pumpkins!!!

Mean laughing scary pumpkin by Lois van der Kroft

Creepy pumpkin in chilling background by Aafke Sikkel

Frightening landscape by Helene van der Kroft

Candle by Agnès McLaughlin

Another candle by Brigitte Jansen

Mieke van Papen painted this candle in her 'big gesture' style and as you can see, even then the "white" rule works!

And last but not least another very Halloween witch- in-the moonlight painting - by Helene van der Kroft!

Watercolour class on Tuesday afternoons

On Tuesday afternoons the Hangar offers a watercolour class, with yours truly as a teacher. We start 2pm and finish painting 4.30pm, and after that we have a line up and evaluation...

I always suggest a subject, and sometimes all join in creating their variations on that theme. This is very interesting because you see the surprising differences in style and personal view... I'll show you some of that later because we have a small group of starters, working on the same exercises and already showing a wonderful variety in design and expression.

Lately, most of the advanced participants have brought their own ideas and subjects, and I thought it would be nice to show you some of the results of that...

Yachts

Roly Bufton loves the sea and everything to do with watersports... here you see his silhouette looking at a classic boat  and below work in progress.. on another classic boat.

Landscape

In our Aquarellista group the theme 'landscape' often means something quitre different from the ordinary.

Like this one by Sandra Seymour Dale

Or this colourful and poetic forest painted by Anna Karin Fast. She used handmade paper of another type and the effect of this paper is amazing: the paint granulates so much more than on our regular Arche Torchon (enlarge picture by clicking it to appreciate what this looks like)

A weird yet very interesting landscape with great perspective by Hélène van der Kroft

This more classic landscape was created by a guest, Ellie. It is very well done - and will most definitely be stunning when the shadows of the village are added...

Still life

Fantasy still lifes by Liz Douglas and Brigitte Jansen (below), inspired by the starter exercise on 'transparency'. Note the differences, knowing that they worked from the same example in the 2nd Hangar Watercolour Book 

China still life by Cathie van der Stel with experimental background, made with wet aquarelle paint and cling film

Cup designed by Lies Timmermans, with her initials

 Surrealistic still life with many interesting aspects by Bibbi Isaksson

Next week - People, Animals, Halloween and more...

The last aquarelle session of the summer!

Ice cube by Cathie van der Stel

On 19 July we got together for the last true painting session (we will meet up tomorrow, but that will be for extensive lunch and 'loose ends') and it was worth it! Lots of great 'work on ice' that was started the week before (to cool off in the hot hot weather) and our visitor Georgina created a wonderfully natural flowing composition...

Waterlily by Georgina

Marina Teding van Berkhout worked on (and finished) two lovely aquarelles in her very recognizable style

Used Tubes by Marina Teding van Berkhout

Watching 'Boule' by Marina Teding van Berkhout

Work-in-progress by Edith Alborni, one step further - getting better and better...

Village in Provence by Edith Alborni

And the last three paintings of the summer season are ice-related:

Iceberg by Lies Timmermans 

Icecold water by Mieke van Papen 

Snowy Mountains by Ann Edwards

Aquarelle - Masking Fluid on Ice (and on other subjects)

Iceberg in the storm by Lies Timmermans

We are in the South of France and it's hot! That's why last week the small group of aquarellistas did a bit of cool painting - based on the subject 'Ice'. And we used masking fluid, to preserve the white. Often it is easier to just not-paint (and leave white) but in the two examples shown here, masking fluid is more effective. For Lies it works for her 'lightning', because the sky behind it can be one ongoing, homogeneous surface if she can just paint over the masking fluid. And in Cathie's case, the tiny drops have dark rims, which would be an impossible job to do one by one. With masking fluid, the dark rims will appear if the applied lightblue wash is very wet.

Both Lies and Cathie will finish their paintings tomorrow - and I'll proudly show the results next week!

Cathie van der Stel's Icecube - stage one

Edith Alborni started promising new work for the Aquarellista-expo 'Le Village' in Valbonne in September, which she will hopefully finish tomorrow...

 and  Cathie finished hers: