INTERMEZZO CLASS.  Vino Bottles:  painting on glass. 
Before going back to school, our junior guests joined us for this change-of-pace project.  Turned out to be fun for us seniors, too!  
After soaking the labels off of the bottles and drying them thoroughly, I applied a base coat of latex paint (white or cream color).  When dried, a coat of acrylic paint was applied---in this case, blue as background color for our Landscape theme.  My inspiration bottles included a Tuscany scene on a wine bottle and a Florida beach scene on a Perrier water bottle.  

As you can see, the girls followed their own intuitive path with very personal palette choices and creative images.  Turquoise and blues with playful birds and flowers emerged.  

We used acrylic paints and made sure none of our watercolor brushes got into the pot with Acrylics-Only brushes!

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INTERMEZZO LADIES are back in the studio! We're attempting a looser style, learning to "let go" and let the watercolor flow! Months devoted to practice and learning, we're more confident about facing that blank white canvas. We're ready to trust some intuitive decisions regarding color choices, brush size, mixture of pigments, and various techniques.

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ALTERED ART GUESSING GAME. My Intermezzo Ladies watercolor class took a break from painting and explored Altered Art. Guess which one the educator is working on. And the quilter? And which one looks like my creation?

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INTERMEZZO. "New Beginnings". Inspirational example of lifelong learners: two Left Brainers willing to learn how to creatively express themselves by delving into never-before-explored Right Brain exercises. Love it!

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INTERMEZZO LADIES. "Flipping Hobbies". Quilt Artist turned Watercolor Artist. Inspired by the world around them, this neighborhood group continues to express colorful responses to their observations and feelings about a new way of "seeing".

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INTERMEZZO LADIES. "Later in the Game". Honestly, these women are serious about their new "hobby"! Quick learners. Their progress has been "molto rapido"! Exercises of blending colors, value studies, and practice-practice is paying off.

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INTERMEZZO LADIES. First Brushstrokes. Six courageous women eager to enter the world of watercolor. Shopping for supplies, then loading up new art bags and baskets. A "first" for everyone---taking an art class to explore a very challenging medium.

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PAINTING WITH BONNARD. One of the founders of the turn-of-the-century Les Nabis movement, Pierre Bonnard used intense and close value colors. We studied his technique by personal interpretation of one of his interiors---one of his many "open window" paintings. When I discovered that quite a few of my scraps and strips from old watercolors were close to his palette, I ended up with a collage approach to my own study. Other Intermezzo ladies painstakingly mixed colors from their own palettes to mimic Bonnard's choices. Beautiful results!

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INTERMEZZO Ladies. "One does not discover new lands without consenting to lose sight of the shore for a very long time." ---Andre Gide.

"Losing oneself" is a frequent experience of artists. In our water color classes these past few weeks we've noticed how quickly time slips away from us. We become so engrossed in practicing a new technique and experimenting with our new tubes of paint that we literally lose all sense of time and space. For us "seniors," this is a good thing! We are enjoying a new passion and a new pursuit.
Last week we practiced laying down a wash, inspired by the blues of ocean and seascapes. This week, inspired by a watercolor from an artist in Maine, we tried a more subtle, atmospheric approach. We sought to define a horizon line, a middle ground, and tall grasses in the foreground.

Our personal painting styles are beginning to emerge, as evidenced by our varied "responses" to the same subject matter!

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LEARNING BY PLAYING. Retired teachers and professional women are lifelong learners. In our Beginner Watercolor classes it's stimulating to participate in such an enthusiastic learning environment. . . . Similar to the energy generated in an art classroom full of Kindergartners or First Graders!

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INTERMEZZO LADIES WATERCOLOR CLASS. Our neighborhood group is brimming with creativity, beyond watercolor painting! Fabric arts, quilting, and cooking talents, combined with a passion for reading. Today was a summer reunion session, peppered with stories of travels, celebrations, serious illnesses, and family history. Lessons from life. Just as all art is rooted in real life.
One member's current interest in wool felting, roving, etc. was truly inspirational. She introduced us to the unique techniques and labor intensive process. We marveled at her mastery of the medium---as evidenced in the painterly style of her lighthouse "landscape painting" executed on a secondhand wool sweater as her canvas.

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