Carnaval de Venise - a project in aquarelle

Lots of great work again last Tuesday...! We have started a project inspired on Lesley Bufton's visit to Venice - where the carnival happened to be in full swing!! She had exciting pictures - that unfortunately were a bit too small yet gave us plenty of ideas and we found what we were looking for on the internet. Some of us worked on their own pictures:

Brigitte Jansen on her way to finish another very interesting and deep aquarelle!

Most striking is the mask but also interesting that she has used lots of salt on the hat, with a refined effect (much salt gives little dots, a few grains give big shapes)

Lesley Bufton started on an ambitious - and very cool - picture of an 'Arlequino'...

Helene van der Kroft created on a composition of two masks...

And then there was teamwork! We are making two really big paintings - with 4 artists. This means constant communication, on sizes, measurements and colours, quite a challenge!

Liz Douglas and Edith Alborni started a wonderful picture in flaming colours... They hope to be joined by two more painters coming Tuesday...

 And the second team painting by Sandra Seymour-Dale, Anna-Karin Fast, Cathie van der Stel and Marina Kulik

It already looks super if you ask me - coming Tuesday we'll try to finish most of the work and you can actually check all this out on the next Café Culture (Wednesday 21 March), when we'll exhibit them - and more aquarelles - in the Hangar!!

Merry Christmas to all of you!

Until 10 January the Aquarellistas won't come to the Hangar for their weekly 'Zen' Tuesday afternoon.

We had our last gathering on 20 December and it was cosy as always, and they gave me the most wonderful gift, a beautifully wrapped handmade Christmas card, with tiny delicate aquarelles on it, put together and made into a 'whole' by Sandra Seymour Dale... I was very touched and also very excited that I now actually have an original collection of some of the aquarellistas' work in my possession!!

'Small Guardian Angel' by Bibbi Isaksson

Ball & Tree by Edith Alborni

Xmas puppets by Cathie van der Stel

Christmas Rose by Brigitte Jansen

Wicked wish by Sandra Seymour-Dale

Small Christmas apple by Anna Karin Fast

Fun in the snow by Agnes McLaughlin

Snow Man by Liz Douglas

Christmas quartet by Lesley and Roly Bufton

Robin by Helene van der Kroft

 I'll use my weeks-off to frame this wonderful gift!

Autumn leaves

Autumn leaves by Brigitte Jansen



Last Tuesday was organized and catered for by Cathie van der Stel. She made sure the afternoon was very cosy and relaxed and she inspired the Aquarellistas to paint 'autumn' -leaves or otherwise. As always the resulting paintings are very personal!

Misty autumn landscape by Anna-Karin Fast

Falling leaves by Helene van der Kroft

Autumn Leaves drifting by Agnes McLaughlin

Edith Alborni's selection of autumn leaves

and this is not all - there is also wonderful work-in-progress, by Liz Douglas, Bibbi Isaksson and Anna-Karin Fast, coming up next week!

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...

Aquarelle Tuesday, 2- 4.30pm

The Hangar classes have started again! It is great to be back and everyone is full of energy and inspiration! The aquarellista group has a couple of new members, that you will definitely read about on a regular basis because they are very talented!! Right now they are in different stages of the 'starter program' and as far as I know, enjoying it... As you can see the weather also helps...

The spheres-exercise was finished, by Brigitte, Agnes and Liz. They did a wonderful job, all three of them - and learned a lot about light, shade and dark shadows, complementary colours and -as you can see- suggesting volume...

All starters worked on the 'wash-first-then-suggest-volume' exercise, a great one for experimenting with aquarelle and as you can see - with interesting results!

Volume I by Agnes McLaughlin

Beautiful poetic composition by Brigitte Jansen

Two stages of Liz Douglas' surrealistic composition

And then of course there were the regulars, the experienced aquarellistas!! They worked on different projects: 

Anna Karin Fast used the apples from her garden as inspiration for two wonderfully lighthearted still lives 

Helene van der Kroft painted a lovely couple of dancing flamengos

And Cathie van der Stel worked on these pelicans - look at that reflection!

Aquarelle Tuesday July 5th 2011

As Charmian mentioned in the post below, our beloved atelier is getting ready for the summer and so are the artists! Lots have already gone on holiday -or have visitors- and the groups are getting smaller. Same goes for the aquarellistas, but it has no effect on the quality of the work, on the contrary... Most of us are still working on their villages for the expo in September!

You can admire the pictures in alphabetical order: A,B,C,E,H

(we need Dominique, Francine and Gwennaelle to perfect this list !)

Very small village by Ann Edwards. Just a try-out, with bird's view perspective and shadows

Village fountain by Brenda Moorehouse - to be finished asap, looks promising!

Small street in Valbonne by Cathie van der Stel.

Village by Edith Alborni

Greek god with pink pattern by Hélène van der Kroft - great picture!

Aquarelle - Expo 'the Village' and other interesting work

Valbonne by Brenda Moorhouse

Last Tuesday, the aquarellistas that will participate in the exhibiton 'Le Village' in September, worked on their entries and here are some sneak previews... 

Valbonne by Cathie van der Stel

3-in-one village impression by Edith Alborni

Village by Edith Alborni - not finished but very promising already!!

Wash by Marina Teding van Berkhout - also not finished & very promising!

And then there were the other ongoing projects - Lesley is now almost finished with her blow-up of a cute metal toy:

Metal duckie by Lesley Bufton

 Seascape by Marianne van Wijngaarden

Pelicans - very lively and funny - painted by Helene van der Kroft

Lies Timmermans' monochrome rose