Aquarelle Tuesdays, 2 - 4.30pm - Marina Kulik

Portrait by Edith Alborni

Although the quality of the work was high, the picture above was the sure winner of last Tuesday! Do you see how stunning the light (=the white of the paper) is. That's very difficult to plan, well done! And also a big compliment for the folds and shadows, the proportions and the hair... In not more than a couple of weeks Edith has become a true aquarellista, with her own ideas and way of working! I'm content and look forward to more work from her...

Sea view by Ann Edwards

Ann painted two sea views - one that you can see above, a nice balance with wet-in-wet and wet-on-dry painting, and also she finished (in less than half an hour) 'Venice' after Turner, excellent practice for working quickly, with wet brushes that give clear, determined rims when dry, and it worked out very well - but I managed to blur the photo, so I owe you that one, I guess I'll keep it for a whole series of Turner-inspired paintings, as Cathie van der Stel is also working on one (blurred too, so sorry!) that looks very cool and light and interesting.
Aquarellista Marina Teding van Berkhout joined us and worked on a super aquarelle of a french window with Italian shutters, wash hanging outside and strong shadows within the theme 'Le Village' for our expo in September. And I didn't take a picture - so next time, when it is finished!
Lies Timmermans, Hélène van der Kroft and Brenda Moorehouse worked on the 'roses without thorns' for the Grand Prix d'aquarelle and I can't show you what they created because the work for the Grand Prix must be new and never shown! but I can assure you that especially Brenda is working on something spectacularly beautiful...
And then last but not least, Hélène van der Kroft (apart from a couple of roses) made a postcard for the Summer Fête that I like a lot (and that can be won on 19 June):

Cat licking paw - by Hélène van der Kroft

Hangar Spring Trip V

The afternoon of the last day was spent creating posters, in the style of Toulouse Lautrec, that would communicate the 'feeling' of the trip, and could be used (as a logo) in communication about the trip ... A difficult exercise, and the participants were working very serious and concentrated! Also, because there were going to be two jury commissions, the Public jury (the non-painters) and the Professional jury (Pim, Caroline, Paul and yours truly) who promised to be very strict... 4.30pm the work was done and we numbered the posters so that the jury would not know whose they were. The results were creative, funny and completely different from one another! (I still can't tell you exactly who made which one! but I'll give it a try, and please! fill in the blanks and let me know where I went wrong!)

 Baye, Betty and Brenda

Charmian, Gina and ?Pim?Gonnie?

 

Joop, Horst and Karin

 

Piep, ?Lies? Sherry? Lucy? Anton?, Titia

Then the Public jury was invited in... They all got 2 votes...

George Buter, Hennie Loerts and Jan Smit seriously busy judging...

Emmy Kulik, Arie van Limborgh and Henk Schep discuss the finer lines while participants Charmian and Gina think they can sneak out without being seen (ha! caught on camera!)

From the next stage, the judging of the profesional jury, I have no pictures: way too involved in that one, it was so difficult!! But that night -during another very good and well-decorated dinner- we could announce two winners (and two runners-up):

The winner of the Public Jury: Titia Buters' affiche!!

She received praise for the humorous and complete way she had expressed the atmosphere of the trip, and especially for the portrait of Anton playing guitar (so la la la la etc...) Her well-deserved prize will be presented in the Café Culture of September, dedicated to this trip.

And the winner of the Professional jury: the poster of Marij van Schijndel!

She received praise for the wonderful portraits that she did of Pim and myself (very flattered Marijke thank you), for the symbolic people holding hands, and for the useability as a logo for all communication concerning the Hangar trip! She also will receive her prize during the Rentree Café Culture in September...

No prize but definitely a honorary mention from the professional jury for Charmian Murley and Karin Geurtsen. And for all others, because actually, all affiches had their own character and Pim and I were very proud of all of you!!

After the main dish, Jan Smit gave a wonderful and funny speech to thank the teachers and Piep Tissot who organized our stay in the Chateau for this trip

And the three of us were not only applauded, we received a very heavy Toulouse Lautrec-'BOOK'  with 3 abslutely fantastic bottles of 2005 Gaillac from the Cave de Labastide de Levis (with Toulouse Lautrec labels!)

Thank you so much for this gift!! We appreciate it very very much!

After the desert, the serving-crew was invited and Anton Dikken gave a speech to thank them, and Caroline and Dario received envelopes with interesting content!

And Paul de Vilder, 'Seigneur de Aiguefonde', received a memory-poster, created by the teachers, picturing himself and with everybody's signatures on it. He liked it a lot, and promised to frame it and put it in view - Piep and Joop will soon check that out...

And that was the trip. I look back on it with a very happy feeling, and can't wait to go again! Pim thinks of Corsica next year, so who knows....?!

CLICK HERE FOR KARAOKE VERSION OF OUR SONG!!

Hangar Spring Trip V

In the morning we nourished our eyes, in Albi, where we visited the Musee Toulouse Lautrec (did anybody even wonder where the entrance tickets came from?).

The museum is housed in the former Bishops' Palace, built in the 13th century and next to the cathedral Sainte Cécile and it is a truly impressive fortress that houses over 1000 works, including the famous posters by Henri Toulouse-Lautrec...

Especially the Model Drawers appreciated the quick sketches of the 'girls' undressing, weren't they perfect!!

The posters were fantastic as well, as were the paintings and the overall history of this tiny but hugely talented guy...

At 12.30 the museum closed - and we went to the restaurant 'vieille Alby', that was booked for us, and only for us by Lies and Horst, familiar with Albi. And it was a great choice!! We had a very good lunch, I'll never forget the potatoe pancakes with cranberries that accompanied the duck...MMM

After lunch some went to see the rest of the exhibition and the others admired the imposing Cathedral Sainte Cécile next door.

It was very full of tourists, maybe also due to the heavy rain - but we burned candles and looked at the beautiful wooden sculptures in the choir, the intricate woodwork patterns and the immense paintings of judgement day...

And then it was back to the Chateau, with enough ammunition for the poster contest!

Monday Abstract Classes

For the past couple of years the same group has got together on Monday evenings to do abstract paintings. Right now everyone is preparing for the big event this summer: - the exhibition ABSTRACT VIBRATIONS. Pim is the guide, teacher and master of the class. Here you see him at the end of the evening, happy with everyone's work.

During the time the group has spent together- time has been devoted to different artists and movements. Everyone seems to have their favourites. Here you see Sylvia van der Weide working on her painting influenced by the COBRA movement. To see some of her work you can visit her website: http://sylvia.hangarart.org

This is Michele de Laat working on her last piece - it is a "typical Michele" - everyone in the group has learned to recognize it.

Merete Frickmann has produced a lot of paintings - usually they are very Scandinavian in their colours. Monday evening she started working on a much smaller format. If you would like to see Merete's work take a look at her website: http://merete.hangarart.org

Anne Holtermann also has a very characteristic style. Pim has for quite some time tried carefully suggesting that she should try out some new colour palettes. Maybe she was influenced by the sunset on Sunday - here she is working on a pink masterpiece.

Lisbeth Petersen has also developed a characteristic style and uses earth colours. Here she is discussing with Anne how to proceed. Being able to discuss ones work with fellow artists is one of the things this group really likes about the sessions.

Anne Marie Viborel started on a new painting. If you would like to see some of the work she has finished take a look at her website: http://amviborel.hangarart.org

Aquarelle, Tuesdays 2 - 4.30pm - Marina Kulik

Last week as a special treat & inspiration we started with a CD of the documentary "Sheila Hancock Brushes Up: The Art of Watercolours ..".

Sheila loves watercoulours - and knows a thing or two about them, for starters her father was an amateur watercolourist. For the documentary she sets out on a journey and shows all kinds of great watercolours, from the Alps, to Venice (Turner and contemporary artist Nicola Tenderini  who shows how Turner painted the San Giorgio Maggiore) to India (Lady Canning and contemporary Milind Mulick (who demonstrates painting the Taj Mahal). She visits Tate Britain and shows even more fabulous Turner watercolours and also shows the new functionality of watercolours: in warzones, where camera's are not allowed or too confrontational and where watercolours can be easily applied and give a very strong impression. She talks to war artist Doug Farthing who is a soldier in Iraq and shows his work as well of that of 1940 war artist Paul Nash... Impressive.

For those of you who missed it, you can borrow my CD (thanks for burning it for me Sandra!) or see some clips on  http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b00yzgtn you can find everything else using Google!

After all that Anna-Karin felt like painting the Turner way and she produced this excellent painting - in a couple of strokes - isn't it wonderful!!

Ann Edwards finished her night view!

Brenda Moorhouse created a post-card size artwork for the Summer Fête

And here's a sneak preview of some of the other artwork from the Aquarellistas...

Hangar Spring Trip IV

And then on the second day of our Spring trip to Aiguefonde, there was the other group that wanted to discover the surroundings of the Chateau! The weather was great, and we started with a stroll - to decide who was going to draw what - and where... We found several fabulous spots, quite far apart and some very high up and yours truly lost a lot of weight running around to 'advise' everybody! But the results were in one word: excellent!!!

Betty Schep's romantic impression of one of the statues - jokingly called 'David on the phone'

Brenda Moorhouse drew wonderful a birds' perspective of the chateau, in pen and ink

Charmian Murley did two amazing drawings of the fountains - one shown here, both to be admired on the Trip Post Mortem Café Culture (date tba)

Gina Smit did a fantastic job with pencil on the mysterious ruin with the curious stone construction

 

Joop Kulik found a perfect location on top of the hill and made his daughter proud with his pen & watercolour work!

Karin Geurtsen tried out several materials, one of them pastels! The artwork has come out very interesting, in colour as well as composition - and Karin was green all over...

Marij van Schijndel was on a roll and did three excellent drawings. With a very good David on the phone - click the picture for more detail

Sherry Spetz did several try outs of which the white chair came out best! 

 Titia Buter experimented with the combination of colour and simple lines to give David a bit of decorum. It works...

This is the group, waiting for their quick lunch! After which they hurried back for more drawing and painting

The evaluation of the work of both groups by the teachers...

...and another delicious dinner - for those who like rognons (kidneys)

Hangar Spring Trip III

On the second day, a part of the artists group undertook a trip to the wonderful, high up in the Midi-Pyrénees, village of Hautpoul. We were told that to enter the village gates you first had to climb a terribly steep path, but that the view was one hundred percent worth it... (The other half stayed in the chateau because there was truly enough inspiration there for several days...).

It turned out to be not such a bad climb and Gonnie, Lies, Horst, Baye, Anton, Piep and Lucy drew the city wall, the gates and the streets in sepia ink. And then had a wonderful lunch in Hautpoul's only restaurant (that happened to be owned by people from the Côte d'Azur!) where Pim did another hilarious conference (this is all hearsay! I wasn't there - so correct me if I got it wrong... )

Below some of the artwork, and the rest will be exhibited during the Post Mortem Café Culture (to be announced)

The old stone city wall with loopholes, by Horst Timmermans

Anton Dikken drew the same subject

Beautiful impression of the gates in Hautpoul

pen drawing washed in with sepia and blue ink by Baye Loerts 

Lies Timmermans hard at work on her version

Gonnie, Lies, Piep, Lucy and Baye watch how Pim demonstrates 'washing in with ink'

Some of the results of 'the other half' - that worked on the (surroundings of the) chateau will be posted next time!