"Rain drops keep falling on my head..."

The pictures submitted for the RED theme will appear in a couple of days on the blog and on the Instagram page but meanwhile hopefully you are anxious for a new challenge!

And I've picked a sunny dryish week to suggest the next theme! But knowing the peninsula, it might rain sooner rather than later.





With that in mind, the next theme or challenge is RAIN - and that can be interpreted in any way you like.

To encourage you, here are some great rainy photos.








Hazel Soan did some great umbrella and rain watercolours if you have her books.

Included here are some images 'borrowed' from the internet but go and surf for yourself or sit there when it pours down and watch. Take a snap. Feel the atmosphere and try and reproduce it.

I particularly like the paintings by Leonid Afremov, a Russian Israeli, who died last year in his last home town, Cancun, Mexico.






He cleverly used monochrome to give the impression of a scene lost to the elements but brought out a few hints of colour.

He was following in a tradition and so I have pulled out a famous French Impressionist, Gustave Caillebotte's famous rainy painting too.



You don't have to go out and get wet to attempt this theme (though we'll be VERY impressed if you do!!).


It can be rain drops on plants (as in this pencil painting left) and in this photo below, or on window panes and, even on a car.  Have you seen how rain drops group - especially on a well waxed car's metalwork - on a car's hood or bonnet?





These can provide food for some marvellous abstract creations.

 



  


Work can be done in ANY medium so please remember to tell us what you used, and the deadline for submitting your works is 15 July 2020.






WORK TO BE EMAILED TO NONINICHOLS@GMAIL.COM

An idea for the weekend

It's a bit of an iffy and chilly weekend coming up. And - of course - you have done your latest challenge painting, a red one.
I'm sure you were impressed wit Marcelle's tomatoes and it set me thinking that they were also red(dish) and a great challenge. Just look at those seeds, the delicate structure keeping the flesh together and harbouring the juice.  Look again, and you will see that she only cut ONE tomato and hinted at others.


Why not have a go yourself? Most of us have a few tomatoes in the kitchen - and they always make a good salad if you have cut one up - but if you don't, I photographed three different types of tomatoes and you can use these as an inspiration for a painting.




And, just think, if you haven't done your red painting or drawing, this could be it!

Win Hazel Soan's latest book? Read on...

Hazel has put out a watercolour challenge on her Hazel Soan page on Instagram.

You have a smartphone or computer (of course you do - you are reading this on one!) and if you have installed the app for Instagram, then you can enter. It's free.

If you haven't yet done so, now is a good time to download the app and begin following Hazel and myriad other excellent artists.

Hazel is giving away five copies of her new book to five lucky winners on July 9th, the day the book is officially published.

The theme of the competition is a watercolour landscape that you have painted during lockdown.
You upload it onto your own Instagram page and include the tag @hazelsoan and write a bit of a story behind the image. No doubt lots of pictures will be good and so the 'story behind the picture' will help identify the winners.

Go for it and good luck!

Seeing Red. A New Painting Challenge

Time to get fired up fellow artists.

We're thinking RED.

Warm. Bright, Dark. Light. And maybe contrast it with green.  No blues or yellows but nice greens or perhaps greys, browns, blacks or great mauves and purples as in Cézanne's classic work below right.

If you want to think just RED that is fine.

Red makes a statement.

Look at these paintings 'borrowed' from the internet and from fellow FHAS artists.

 

 

 

  

One sees how the artists use red to great effect. For some it's a hint of red, for others it is full on.
But it doesn't have to be as complicated as all those great works above.

Think smaller items: sweets and candy, autumn leaves, socks, peppers, lipstick, a mug, a glass of Cab Sav, tomatoes, flowers, a hat ...

Look at some photos where red is again important. You are sure to be inspired!

 

 

DEADLINE for your paintings in any medium: 30 June 2020.

Send your work to noninichols@gmail.com or zwets@mweb.co.za and remember to tell us in which medium you did the work.

Cynthia - with apologies

How could your blogger have misplaced this beautiful painting by Cynthia? She did. I apologise profusely, Cynthia,  especially as it was not only on time but one of the first to be received.
Delicate, round and totally delightful. I love the way the vase fades to nothing. Less in more!

Watercolour and pen, Cynthia, or black paint?







































Our Pres, was a little late in submitting her work - she's an artistic lady and was meeting another creative deadline - but she makes it in to this entry. Thanks Ann. I'm guessing this is watercolour.  A lovely mix of colours and objects.


Thank you to all of you who take part in these ideas. That old maxim (from the days of the original ancient Olympic Games?) holds: It is not winning that counts, but participating.

Please participate with other members of Fish Hoek Art Society!

A new challenge will be offered tomorrow. Get ready with your paints, pens and pencils.

Posting your pix - round and glass

We have to thank John for taking this theme and tackling it, once, twice, thrice ... I gave up counting!

But just look at what you can produce on a round shape. He found some wonderful subjects and adapted them to the shape.

The parallel suggestion was glass.


Starting off with an allamanda in a blue base from Fiona done in pastel pencils.

John's cat? Wishful thinking.
Watercolour, we guess.

Marcelle's marvellous tomatoes. Drawn and painted. So low key but excellent.

This reminds one of stained glass windows with its wonderful vivid colours.
Watercolour by Marie Rowe.

Maugie also thought of gold fish and cleverly combined the glass fish 'pond' with a round background.

This is a lesson for us all from Maugie.
She was walking and found this old paint lid - a good circle in which to start a painting. And so she did! A young girl looks wishfully out on a world under a starry sky. No doubt longing for the end of lockdown!

Nicky also decided to combine round with glass and placed her red wine glass on a white plate. Clever idea and a nice trompe l'oeil.

I'm not too sure what kind of a fish this is but John got it to pose in a circular form!
What medium John?

Portuguese Man of War from John. There must be lots of jellyfish with round shapes. Have a look when you can next walk the beach.

Pretty flower idea from John.
This could be converted to placemats for the dining room table.

Is this a cabbage, John?

Do remember to look a veg as well as flowers when searching out interesting shapes.

Another of John's: a wonderful sunset.

Another watercolour by John. Tulips in a square glass pot - reminds me of old ink pots. Great colour combination.

Look how glass 'deforms' what we see through glass. Another work by John.

Two delightful carp lending themselves perfectly to the round shape.
Good colour combination.



















Flowers in the round, by Fiona. Another potential plate mat if it wasn't for the square mount!






And lastly a glass jug and lemon by John.

If you are wondering what the next theme is...stay in touch. It will be revealed in a couple of days.
Meanwhile, keep soaping, keep your distance and keep painting.