EXHIBITION AQUARELLISTAS IN LA ROQUETTE

You may have heard it on the radio, or read it in Nice Matin: From 3 - 31 August, Eleven Hangar Aquarellistas have a beautiful exhibition of their amazing watercolours in the mairie of La Roquette. The work is selected on quality and beauty, hence the title 'Festin pour les yeux' (or 'eye candy').

Participants are Cathie van der Stel, Sandra Seymour-Dale, Edith Alborni, Agnès McLaughlin, Liz Douglas, Avril Howard, Costanza Rock, Beverly Ellsley, Patience Devas, Brenda Moorhouse and yours truly - Marina Kulik

The exhibition is open every day from 8am - 4pm and there is a vernissage on Friday 7 August from 6.30pm.You can look forward to seeing works like these - and many more...

Aquarelle - Tuesdays from 2 - 4.30 with Marina

 Harp by Brenda Moorhouse

In preparation for the Aquarellista 'Eye Candy' exhibition, everyone is going 'beautiful'.
Which is a challenge in a way - yet gives such pleasing results...

Both violins by Edith Alborni

Poppies by Sandra

'Blood red cherries' by Sandra

 Both 'Marbles' by Liz

Linda worked hard and smart on the 'spheres' exercise

'Syphon' a delicate transparent by Patience

an intriguing play with shadows in the desert, by Costanza

Avril is almost done with her icon, painted with self made tempera - and she is now an expert in adding gold leaf! Final tweaking next week...

Aquarelle - Tuesdays 2 - 4.30pm - with Marina

 Agnès started an aquarelle with two trompettists - here still masking fluid-only...
Can't wait to see the progress

 Last Tuesday - a regular watercolour session, with tea, Adèle songs and a theme: 'Music'

Avril started a painting of an antique 'Bandoleon''

Brenda finished her 'overgrown house' and started with this harp-front, that looks promising...

Edith was really inspired by the subject and started this one - doesn't she make the colours sing!!

Costanza used to play the violin and still has one at home. You can see from this excellent painting that she understands the instrument!

And then on top of all that there were projects that were finished:

Agnès's Princess

Brenda's Overgrown House

Cathie started a new watercolour in her 'Jewelry' series - this is a bracelet in a birds' nest, so delicate

Edith finished her painting and I recommend you to click on it so you can see all of it, because there is so much in there! 

We saw the shape of a girl sleeping, a dreamy cloud (in the shape of a man, or a child, or something else), an egg that is pushed out, and towards a hole, a landscape, a close-up on the beach, an abstract and more...

Liz wasn't happy with this painting for some time but I think she's nailed it!! 

Eyecandy by Sandra!! What more can I say - Festin pour les yeux!!

And the very last dots and strokes complete this strong 'n stunning seascape, also by Sandra

Aquarelle class of 2 June: making egg-tempera with Bev

A previous painting of Bev - on the paper she recommends (when there's no board with prepared surface available) : Arches 300grs Hot Pressed (grain satiné)

Making our own egg tempera...

After the aquarelle session of 26 May where we created our own transparent watercolour paint with gum Arabique and pigments, we went even further out of our comfort zone: We made our own egg-tempera. An enthusiastic and knowledgeable Bev, who had previously taken a class in the States, liked it, and practiced well, took care of the ingredients and explained & showed how it works:

* Seperate the yolk from the egg-white.
* Put the yolk on a piece of kitchenpaper, roll it around until is has no white anymore.
* Hold it above a jar and pierce it (membrane must not end up in paint, stays in kitchenpaper)
* Mix yolk well, with the same amount of 50/50 water/vinegar.
* Paint with mixture of pigment & egg (bit thicker than aq)
* Clean brushes with water, dry before getting new paint

The paint dries up with beautiful soft shine - to avoid unpainted parts that are matte, start with painting the whole surface with just a colour-less layer of egg tempera...
The yellow will fade, so the 'warm' effect of the yellow gets less
The paint takes approx 2 weeks to cure - then it is waterproof
With that in mind, think of cleaning your brushes well!

One of the nice effects is that you can scratch the paint, with the back of your brush for example. The effect is like masking fluid...

Experiment by Cathie - with glass effect

Amazing lily with scratching - by Patience

Experiment by Liz - with frog

Marble with scratching by Marina

 Fantastic bright-coloured icon by Avril

We all think that Cathie will soon be able to do wonders with this medium

If this is all to confusing, just look it up on google or youtube, there is a lot of info all over the place about this technique!

Edith had already done some research and tried out painting with egg white! The effects can be checked out on this picture (click to enlarge):

Bev also finished her Castello painting (aquarelle, not tempera)

Costanza painted this fragile flower. Supernice!

Aquarelle, Tuesdays from 2 - 4.30 with Marina Kulik

Spring is in the air!

Anna-Karin's blossom

Our Aquarellista-group had an open theme last week, 'Spring'... Everyone had to think of their associations with 'Printemps'

Avril's finalized Waterlily!

Costanza's stylized crocuses

And more spring flowers, also by Costanza

Edith's beautiful blossom flower. In progress

Patience's weird but very interesting flower/animal

Agnès's fan-tas-tic Carnival de Venise watercolour

Anna-Karin also proceeded with her fragile butterfly mandala

Christine has now finished her fruit bowl. Extra contrast and a background definitely did the job!

Liz finished her boats - aren't they bobbing calmly?!

Cathie embarked on an excellent new project! Old golfclubs and golfballs.

My Cat Is Sad - by Edith

This is going to be such a lovely picture! Can't wait to see it finished... Baby Giraffe by Sandra