Karen Margulis, pastelist

Check out Karen's blog, especially if you are interested in pastels: http://kemstudios.blogspot.com/
She writes about a wide variety of pastel, life, plein air, and blog issues, as well as her travels, including Normandy recently and Iceland last year. She offers lots of advice for artists that is useful regardless of your choice of media.

Unusual Watercolor Technique

Lines and colors (again!) has a post on the watercolors of Ottorino De Lucchi, who uses a "drybrush" technique to create luminous still lifes.
http://linesandcolors.com/2015/07/12/ottorino-de-lucchi/

Ottorino references Andrew Wyeth as another painter who uses this technique. It's not the same as drybrush that is dragged across the top of the paper for texture. I recommend also clicking on the link to handprint.com, where Ottorino describes his approach at length. More paintings on Ottorino's website, too. And if you have time, handprint has tons of good info.

Pastel Animal Portraits

Irish artist Emma Colbert paints awesome animal portraits. She also paints people and landscapes, but her dog portraits are my favorites; they are quite expressive. She also shows step-by-step demos. In some of those photos, you can also see her pastel set-up in her motorhome.



http://emmacolbertart.blogspot.ie/

Gouache Virtuosi

I wonder if gouache has a reputation for being even harder to work with than watercolor. At any rate, here's a link to James Gurney's blog--worth exploring in its own right. The link goes directly to his post on masters of gouache:
http://gurneyjourney.blogspot.com/2015/06/some-of-my-favorite-gouache-masters.html

Verna's Art Travels

This post is from Verna R., who's been traveling and seeing some awesome art:

Joan and I visited the Wisconsin Artists Showcase (Jura Silverman Gallery) in Spring Green, Wis.  Lots of great stuff there, but Dave Bielot was my favorite.   He has a Facebook page, but not an actual web site, apparently.  

I pulled a few paintings below and you can see a couple more in these web sites. He is a high school art teacher and watercolorist.

 

https://www.facebook.com/david.bielot

http://www.channel3000.com/madison-magazine/arts-culture/a-world-of-watercolors/32256654

http://www.uplandsguide.com/calendar/57/114-The-Wisconsin-Artists-Showcase-at-the-Jura-Silverman-Gallery-featuring-Watercolors-by-David-Bielot/

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

You know how when you're researching something, you always find other things :

This website has wonderful pastels by Susan Klabak:

http://susanklabak.blogspot.com/2014_09_01_archive.html 

And this one has watercolors by Vicky Lillaart:

http://www.vickylillaart.com/gallery.html

Cezanne's Watercolors

Taking a break a couple of days ago, I googled "still life + watercolor." One of the results was the text Cezanne in the Studio on the Getty's website. You can dowload the entire text or read it online. Later in his life, Cezanne painted some wonderful watercolors, including Still Life with Blue Pot.
Here's the link:
http://www.getty.edu/publications/virtuallibrary/0892366230.html

June Program - Jeff Hagen

June is almost here! The Wabash Valley Artists Society has a great program planned, Tuesday, June 16th, 7:00, at the Tippecanoe Arts Federation , with Jeff Hagen. You can read about Jeff and see his paintings on his web site:
http://www.jeffhagenart.com/