Fall paintings this week

Fall is drifting away quickly, but is such a lovely time of year to paint. Last week we were bitten by the Gwendolyn Best bug. She is a wonderful painter of whimsical cats, and her latest show can be seen at the Orange Gallery in Ottawa. All students created wonderful and creative pieces based on Gwendolyn's theme, cats and pumpkins. Below are the ones from Wednesday evening. In doing these paintings, students reinforced their learning on negative space, composition, and thumbnail drawings.

This week we will concentrate on fall themes, using any technique we have explored. I will provide some photographic resource, or students can work strictly from their imagination.
   At left are some of the paintings produced by Tom (bottom) and I on our recent plein air trip to the Opeongo Region. Tom's is at the beginning stages. Although our styles and media are different, we both try to create a piece that reflects our experience at the time.
   However, I think it would be lovely to reinterpret images and scenes in a more vibrant manner back in the studio. I will confess I have some difficulty doing this. Look at this stunning image below - I can't identify the artist as it was embedded in a FaceBook message, but wow!

In any case, this week we will grab a piece of fall beauty and hold onto it through the upcoming months!