HEATHER JOLIFFE PAINTS LYMINGTON AT NIGHT IN WATER-MIXABLE OILS

 

Heather Joliffe teaches at her Solent Art School near Lymington. In February we were able to see her painting on gesso-primed canvas paper using water mixable oils. Surprisingly the paints can take a week to dry and so advises using an oil, such as Artisan, rather than those for oil paints.

Working from her photograph and loose outline in acrylic, Heather roughly scumbled on thin layers of colour, not completely covering the white background. Her vivid blues are a mixture of cerulean and cobalt and she uses cadmium red and rose madder in the warmest shades.

The angles of the buildings were important when depicting Lymington’s steep cobbled Quay Hill. Heather suggested that perspective lines radiating from a focal point are like a clock face. Her limited palette makes colour mixing important and she used a mix of burnt umber and cobalt blue for the dark areas. The blue sky colour was repeated in the shadows on the buildings.

Heather’s tip for painting thin glazing bars on windows is to place the tip of a chisel edge brush on the paper, lift off and continue in that way all along the line, rather than dragging the brush. The cobbles were ‘printed’ with a small square flat brush creating irregular broken lines. White patches resembled light shining from a street lamp. Heather recommended experimenting with ‘lifting out’ with a damp brush as a way of removing colour in a controlled way. Heather had created a colourful night scene using pairs of complementary colours.

Heather and her pictures of Lymington