This weeks work by Jo

"Strawberry, Vanilla, & Chocolate" 8x10 Oil on board

Three children on a bench Or strawberry, vanilla and chocolate. 
Still in Canada enjoying the experience of painting with sister and bro in law, each to our own thing, found a snap of children enjoying ice cream and thought it would make a charming painting depicting innocent enjoyment in the sunshine. Usual mistake, didn't take enough care selecting the painting surface so it was rough going and hard work to get any detail in so took longer than usual.  Next time gesso and sand at least three times!!

"Lady under Hat" 8x8 oil on board

Lady with hat. 
This from a photo taken whilst in France earlier this year - tells a story of a lady waiting or “Where the hell has a he got to now?” and maybe tired and a little bored having traipsed around a tourist spot under the hot sun. Oils on a very smooth board which made painting the ancient weather beaten stones a real pleasure.

Painting a Face

From Jo

"Rachel" by Jo 16 x20 oil

This is my first attempt at painting my daughter, Rachel and upon presenting the yet unfinished portrait to my art teacher, Martin Smith, he reserved judgment and merely recommended I look up a portrait of Matisse painted by Andre Derain.
Now on holiday with my sister Barbara and her husband John we had the opportunity to do this project together intending to learn what Fauvism was all about.   The penny had dropped! I can see that I need to be aware of contrasts  (Martin's mantra is ' complimentaries are our friends')  and  to cease being so obsessed with blending.
Martin can be seen here: Martin Smith

From Babs
Jo's practice piece I decided to keep Jo company, we both have a tendency to be far too detailed with our painting. I know my brain tends to talk to me while I have the brush in my hand every stroke is far too fussy. this was an opportunity to try something out of the box. the painting style is called Fauvism extremely loose and colours I would never choose for a face, but, the amazing thing was as we used similar complimentary colours  my piece grew, very quickly. I was intrigued to see the outcome when I finished, the face certainly isn't correct one eye isn't in the right place and colours not correct,but, all in all a great experience and enjoyable and I learned a lot. thank Mr Smith !

Matisse by Derain

Copy by Babs

Copy by Jo

The "Grackle Coffee Shop"

"Grackle Coffee Shop" 11x14 oil on board SOLD

From a photo I took mid July. The lady and the dog have been moved over to improve the composition.
This was a fun painting to do lots of looseness combined with some sign writing.
I tried hard to not let the sign dominate, and think I succeeded.
As I worked on this it made me appreciate the charm of Main Street Schomberg, especially if you squint!
Lots of lovely foliage and no parked cars. How different the reality.
Grackle Coffee is a delightful place, wonderful service, splendid rich coffee and a great supporter of Main Street and local artists.

Grackle Coffee Company

John

See this and the Schomberg Series of Paintings now on sale at the Grackle Coffee Company

Valentino Rossi & a Ducati

"Rossi with a Ducati" 16x20 acrylic on canvas

Lesson learned, when there is so much detail to be painted choose the smoothest canvas 'cos you can't signwrite accurately on bumpy stuff.  It's been with me for a matter of months but feels like a lifetime. The early preparatory stage was enjoyable, it just got more challenging as it went along, and of course there are parts I'd like to re-do but have been persuaded to call it finished. The client is satisfied and that's good enough. So goodbye Valentino Rossi, I shall miss you!

Jo

Orange & Bottle

Orange & Bottle oil on10x10 Taler board

This subject was chosen by teacher from a selection of printouts I took to class to copy as my first oil painting.   Qiang Huang's work is very attractive and learning from this example was enjoyable.  It's my first effort painting 'loose' which seems to be favoured by art classes these days.

I'm looking forward to gaining experience from other artist's work and eventually developing a 'style' of my own.

See Qiang Huang's work is here :

http://qiang-huang.blogspot.com

Jo

The Natures Arrangement Challenge

Hortensia By Jo 6x6 acrylic on board

From Daily PaintWorks 


This Challenge was to paint out doors with a very limited palette.

Jo's  "Hortensia"

Having just 'tidied' the garden, the hydrangea was the only one left unmolested with a small pathetic example of a flower left intact.  Sat myself on a garden chair with permitted colours and worked in several short bursts as the acrylic paint dried quickly in the very hot sun. Stuck to the allotted time and avoided the temptation to 'go back in'.
Surprisingly enjoyable exercise!

"Daisies in the Weeds" by Babs, 6x6 Oil on board

Bab's "Daisies in the Weeds"

At first, when I chose the subject white daises,
and realizing white had to be used sparingly
I was going to be in trouble, but, to my surprise as I worked on the background then putting in the made up green it all fell into place. I was really pleased with the effort and now understand less is more!
A neat bit of info!

Bamborough Beach

Bamborough Beach 16x20 oil on Canvas

Bamborough beach is in Northumberland, just below Bamborough Castle in the UK
This is from a photo taken by Brian Bond

I have always painted very light colours, and I'm beginning to understand more how important to squint and see that grasses particularly long grasses have many colours in them including swathes of dark patches as the wind takes them.
The sky and clouds were fun to do, perhaps the water should have been a little darker not enough squinting!

Babs