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...





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!!!

Aquarelle Tuesdays 2 - 4.30pm with Marina Kulik

 

Last week the aquarellistas didn't get together. We helped bring the late dear Brigitte Jansen to her last resting place and had memorial lunch afterwards. It was sad and beautiful. We will miss her so much and never forget her.

 

Ornaments

 

Yet the week before we all worked very hard on all kinds of ornaments... Below some of the results.

Agnès created a tongue in cheek 'welcome to Oxford' by funny (but also quite threatening) gargoyles

 

Cathie finished an impressive piece of monument...

Cathy worked on a very complicated pattern and did such an excellent job combining masking fluid with Payne's and Davy's grey! (and water)

Liz Douglas' Bacchus in stone - the ultimate ornament, so well done...

Sandra's interesting and complicated gold-ornamented pillars, seen through an intricate construction... A couple of hour's work to look forward to - but already intriguing...

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!!

 

 

 

Aquarelle Tuesday - with Marina Kulik

Wet-in-Wet!

 Squall, a clever picture by Brenda Moorehouse: she combined the wet-in-wet technique with 'washing out' to create this tropical rain

 

Last Tuesday was our 'Rentrée' and we decided to work wet-in-wet for a change. Usually we work with wet paint on dry paper, now we made our paper soaking wet, and then dripped plenty of paint - with lots of pigment - on it, or painted it on it.
Some had an idea before they started and some just waited until the paint had dried to determine what they would actually make of it... It was very exciting and although this was more about the fun and the process than about the result, some paintings came out very very well...

An excellent landscape painting, with interesting light and shadows and beautiful warm wet-in-wet colours by Brigitte Jansen

Cathie van der Stel waits for inspiration to finish this -

do you see what it is going to be?

 

Yannick, a new member of our group, combined wet-in-wet with a very precisely detailed technique for the buildings

Cathy created a super wet-in-wet landscape - and with the help of lots of salt and a couple of lines suggested a very interesting foreground

Corine, another new Aquarellista, created this superb abstract landscape - with lots of things happening and a very interesting light

Jim as always approached the exercise in a more intelectual way, combined with 'feeling one' with the paint - and came up with this excellent fantasy image of 'the Fjords'

Aquarelle Tuesdays - with Marina

Last weeks' abstract background by Brigitte Jansen was finished and ended up as a surprisingly lighthearted and funny illustration-like aquarelle

The last Tuesday with the Aquarellista's before the summer, was started with an excellent lunch and then we all felt like painting -and we did, and how! Admire the results above and below...

A pair of beautiful blue eyes by Cathy Dariel

Cathy has now officially finished the starters exercises (apart from paper stretching - we'll do that with everybody after the holidays) and although she herself is modest about it, I think she has done a great job and now really understands the basics of watercolours!

Cathie van der Stel finished her abstract - very beautiful, rich in detail!

(Enlarge by clicking on the picture)

The candy still life of Edith Alborni is almost finished... End result in September ☺

Jim Kane's beautiful and interesting version of the 4 layers exercise

As usual, Jim tackled the exercise (dark blue sky, orange water & lights, black buildings, gray waves)in his own way. He used masking fluid for the stars and the water so that he could let that wash go from light to dark, and - after the first orange wash- also for the windows. In the picture the windows look white but in fact they are very light orange...

Brigitte Jansen's butterfly - just out of its chrysalis... Beautiful light!

Cathie van der Stel had 5 minutes left after her abstract and spent it on this quick sketch! Note the light, the beautiful flow of the greens - and the overall spontaneity!!

And we end this last Aquarellista-post with a 'tribute' to Sandra Seymour-Dale. She thinks in an original way and her watercolours are sometimes real struggles because Sandra is also bloody serious about her art and not easily satisfied. Her final results always look fresh and spontaneous! Click on the pictures to enlarge them and appreciate the detail...

Abstract with yellow geyser (or is it...?)

Jump!

After lots of little tweaks the 'Cave' is now finished. And impressive!