Aquarelle on Tuesday 2pm - 4.30pm with Marina

It rained and rained but nobody of the Aquarellistas noticed: we were painting portraits! It is definitely a subject everybody likes - check out the results of Tuesday the 14th!

 Wise Woman by Christine

 

Karen - a portrait with scarf (in progress) by Cathie

Beauty in progress by Edith

Anna-Karin's grand daughter

'Steve' by Brenda (He could be Paul McCartney's twin bro do you agree?)

 'Nigel' by Sandra Seymour-Dale

 Two versions of Christiane's grand daughter - first a thorough practice round in black and white and then the coloured version! Way to go & well done!

 Fabulous painting by Nusch inspired by John Singer Sargent

 And another gorgeous one by Pauline inspired by Roger Oncoy

 

 Vicky started a portrait of her son - by no means finished but getting there...she's joining Cathie and my 'One-hair-brush-club ☺

Lush portrait of classic beauty with transparant dress by Agnès

Fabienne worked on her wash-and-then-add-volume-exercise and did a terrific job!

And Anna-Karin did 2 more portraits, this time of apples, a subject she's very good at and she has lots of commissions for...

And talking about Anna-Karin, on Tuesday 21 October, she will tell us all about the workshop she followed in Bordeaux. It is going to be very interesting! Watch this space for pictures and results!

More portraits...

Last Tuesday the Aquarellista Group proceeded with the portrait project, this time with mostly 'loved ones'. Difficult because you are extra critical on yourself if you know your subject really well... But as always, the results were impressive and in some cases really interesting!

 Work in progress by Anna-Karin 

(Sorry! the camera was still on black and white when I took this)

 Brenda with another touching portrait - shame that the photo doesn't do it justice

 

 Christiane's beautiful babygirl grand daughter. 

A touch to the eyes and she's ready - for the coloured version

Christine's impressive portrait, in progress - more next week!

 Curious little girl by Constanza (a little work needed on the eyes and then it will be superrr!)

Clever little rascal! By birthday girl Edith

Beauty in a veil - fantastic work by Liz

Nusch is back! - she created this wonderful contrasty watercolour inspired by Roger Oncoy

Sandra's Greek god - with poetic circle... intriguing painting! Love the shoulder...

Vicky's portrait, fantastic style!!

In the meantime Avril worked hard on her starters exercises - I love what she did sofar!

And last but not least, Cathie, just back from a short trip to the Carib, worked on one of her rusty still lifes (in progress, focal point coming up) already soo good and interesting!

EXPO Les Artistes des Pays-Bas: RECOMMENDED

VERY BEAUTIFUL EXHIBITION. OPEN UNTIL SUNDAY 12 OCTOBER

Try to visit this one, I recommend it, because it is truly great to see all that diversity and quality artwork. And by the way, things are moving, there is so much sold already! Some of the dutch Hangar students are exhibiting, but also teachers Nelly, Pim and yours truly have work there!! It is interesting to see that the three of us clearly have similarities in the sizes and the importance of colour in our paintings, yet our works are so different!

Click on the pictures for a closer view

 Nelly's two paintings - large sizes, very symbolic. The one on the right (Sacrifice au dieu) shows an African woman with two dolls between her breasts. This refers to an African tradition, to give a woman who lost a child a doll, that she has to take care of (feed, clean, dress) for at least 6 weeks. This woman lost twins. And there is so much more in the painting that is open to interpretation - you can look at it for hours and it makes you think...

Pim has two abstracts, large size, colourful and with shapes that cannot really be defined or understood. The titles are 1 and 2 so it is completely open for everyones interpretation. Just stand in front of it and see what it does to you. Very interesting!

Marina (yours truly) is a bit in between: I am still on a path to somewhere I don't yet quite know - researching, trying out and totally enjoying the ride - as you will be able to see from my paintings!! I will show it on my facebook page and website, and if you visit I am sure you will see it, as it is very hard to miss! ☺

***Note that all of the above is my interpretation - feel free to leave your opinions and criticism in the comments section!!

Aquarelle on Tuesday afternoons - with Marina Kulik

Portraits!

Brenda's back! and she made a very good start with this wonderfully light portrait

Last Tuesday because we all really felt like it, we started another round of 'Portraits'. I explained the basics of proportions, how to make skin colour and how dark shadows actually are (and how they can improve the expression) The idea is to paint loved ones, we'll start doing that coming Tuesday - but this was a practice round and gosh!! How great are the results! I am very proud of you all!

 Fantastic poetic and fragile portrait by Christine.Looking forward to more by her!

Great portrait by Liz - that naughty look...! To be finished.

 Christiane - she already started with a loved one, but, a monochrome version to get the shapes and contrasts right! It worked out, what a cutie!

  Very expressive portrait by Laura, note the hair - it is shades of purple! Works so well

Confident beauty by Pauline - the light shining through the veil is amazing!

Sandra couldn't join us but worked along with us from home and started this portrait - she will add poetry in the next stage! 

You can look forward to more of this in one of my next posts about our aquarellista group

Aquarelle for beginners - also on Tuesday afternoons!

Aquarelle watercolours have a reputation of being difficult. The strange thing is, that it is actually very easy to use, everybody who has been to kindergarten has worked with the
little naps of paint, a brush and a jar of water. And that's how you work with Aquarelle too. 

The only thing is, it's transparent - and that requires a very different way of thinking and planning your painting. That's why it is difficult - it is difficult to make something beautiful with it, you need experience! For the Tuesday afternoons of our Aquarellista group, we have a 5-afternoon starters workshop. In those 5 afternoons you will learn all the basic technical stuff there is to know. After that you will have to practise, but you will have done everything at least once!
There is a course-book with all the exercises (front page designed by Sandra Seymour-Dale) that you can order through Blurb
There are a couple of starters now, they all have experience in other media but not with watercolours Their paintings are wonderful - and they are having fun! Here are some examples of the first exercises:

 'Get the colours right' exercise (abstract) Above Avril, below Fabienne

'Eyes' by Maryse

part of Maryse's skin colours try-out. I love it!

ART EXPO in Theoule sur Mer, from October 5-12

Un exposition not to be missed! Next week, in our well known

 ESPACE CULTUREL in Theoule-sur-Mer.

This time organised by DE NEDERLANDSE CLUB, to celebrate their 55th anniversary.

A big group of Dutch artists have put in their art pieces to be exposed, and they are for sale too.

From Pim's Abstract classes, we are 3 to participate: Michele Verhagen, Sylvia van der Weide and me.

You are all invited!!  A bientot

Live Model drawing on Mondays, with Marina Kulik

 I sneaked out early last time, and Charmian kindly took pictures of the work. I invite you to have a look, and I think you will be as impressed as I am! The pictures show the peaceful beauty of the model as well as the talent of the drawers!

We always start with very short poses as a warming up, and finish with a pose that lasts one hour...

It is very difficult and after our 2 hours everybody is exhausted (in a good way). 

Interested?

I will organise a starters class from halfway October, on Friday mornings probably. As I have to give the first couple of lessons in my house (the Hangar is not available due to a ceramics workshop) I have an absolute maximum of 6 places, 2 (Patrick & Gaby) already booked. If you want to participate, drop me an email...

Some of the artists are quite daring in their impressions!