ADVENTUROUS ARTISTS JANUARY MEETING

On FRIDAY JANUARY 13TH we will meet at DIBDEN GOLF COURSE CLUB HOUSE at 10-15 am to sketch views of Southampton Water etc. More details on the web-site.

AN EVENING WITH CHARLES EVANS

AN EVENING WITH CHARLES EVANS

 

Many of us remembered Charles from his previous visit and were very pleased to welcome him again from Northumberland.

First he showed us as a photograph on his phone of the Italian scene he was going to paint. This was not referred to again. He then made a pencil drawing (using an Ikea Pencil!) of the main features, deliberately pressing hard on the outlines of buildings.

His basic palette consists of the following colours - Ultramarine, Cobalt Blue, Alizarin, Light Red, Yellow Ochre, Sand, Burnt Sienna and Raw Umber. He also uses only two brushes - a 1/4 inch and a 3/4 inch flat. Colours are mixed first and water added after to get the correct consistency. This gives deeper colour mixes.

With the 3/4 inch brush he painted the sky with Cobalt Blue mixed with a very small amount of Alizarin running down into Yellow Ochre on wet paper and leaving a small area of Yellow Ochre at the base. He then took out clouds with a damp brush.

Next the distant hills were painted in Cobalt Blue and Alizarin taking out some colour to give shape to the hills and adding Yellow Ochre and finally Hookers Green to form the valleys. Light Red added in places to Hookers Green on Yellow Ochre gives a variation in colour. All the mixing is done on the wet paper and Charles continues working on another area of the painting to allow the first to dry naturally - using a hair drier removes the size on the paper.

Continuing with the buildings Charles put on a light wash of Yellow Ochre and added Sand colour on top. He then dropped more Yellow Ochre and Light Red, Raw Umber and Cobalt Blue and blended them using a damp brush. Windows, shutters etc were carefully avoided. Charles rarely uses masking fluid as it leaves a hard edge. Cobalt Blue and Light red produced good shadow colour for walls etc as did Cobalt Blue, Alizarin and Burnt Sienna for shutters and edge of roof.

Returning to the foreground hills etc Charles used Hookers Green for these and the Cypress trees, producing shadows with Burnt Sienna and Cobalt Blue.

By working rapidly so that the paper is really wet mixing the colours does not produce "cauliflowers"

For the foreground stippling was the main method used to get the paint on the paper starting with a creamy Yellow Ochre followed by Hookers green and then Cobalt Blue to produce depth. The wall in the very front needed Yellow Ochre and Sand with shadows of Raw Umber and Burnt Sienna .

Charles and Painting

Italian Scene

To finish the first half Charles showed us how to paint trees using a rigger brush and a flat. The main thing to remember here is "not to fiddle" Rocks ( using Yellow Ochre and Ultramarine with Ultramarine and Burnt Sienna for shadows) and a dry stone wall (Sand then Sand and Cobalt Blue) were produced with flourishes of his credit card. Using triangles and rectangles he also produced some geese, sheep and cows. He continued with a snow scene and YP people.

Helpful tips

After the break Charles painted a moorland scene with a path in the foreground.

Firstly the sky was painted using a base of Yellow Ochre with Burnt Sienna above on wet paper Then Ultramarine was put on the top part bringing it down to the base and mopping up drips. Then a richer mix of Burt Sienna and Ultramarine was added for the cloud bases and white taken out above with a brush. The "rain" then drifts down.

Yellow Ochre Burnt Sienna and Hookers green were used on the mid and distant ground with Ultramarine in the far distance. The distant path was painted with muddy water and the near path with Ultramarine and Burnt Sienna flicking up the edges. The fence posts were also added. Finally Charles surprised us all by scratching out highlights in the foreground vegetation using his fingernails!

Moorland Scene

Charles is a very entertaining speaker and gave us plenty of information about handling water colours. In fact, it was one of the best evenings we have had and we are very grateful to Charles for travelling all the way from the North to visit us!

CHARLES EVANS

CHARLES EVANS

 

Prepare for a brilliant evening this Wednesday, 23rd November, when Charles Evans visits us to show us how to paint a continental scene from holiday photographs. Visitors are always welcome!

ONE-DAY SALE 2016

ONE-DAY SALE 2016

 

Members produced an excellent display of paintings and other art work for the sale. Unfortunately the weather was against us and people obviously didn't want to brave the wet to come out and buy. A total of 12 paintings were sold which is down on previous years.

 Di, Helen and Ali stood in the centre of Totton talking to the passers-by in the morning and afternoon and gave the sale some good publicity. Our thanks are due to them and especially to Mary who masterminded the event and to Anne, Jean, Glennis and Janet who worked hard all day.  Grateful thanks also to the husbands who helped set up and take down the exhibits.

The paintings from the close-up competition were also on display in a special not-for- sale section and gave added interest to the event. The Sale is important in that it gives the Society publicity and also allows us to get together socially and to display our work and from that perspective was a great success.

 

Di and Helen



Jean, Glennis and Janet

Close-up paintings

ADVENTUROUS ARTISTS AT THE KING RUFUS

It was a beautiful sunny morning and we had a good session at the King Rufus  (Eling Hill).

Philippa Goold made us very welcome. She had creative lots of artistic touches in the dining room along with her own paintings on the walls.  Kate, Joan, Jean, June and Di stayed indoors and each chose to sketch a different feature. Harry and Catherine sketched outside in the garden. Harry drew  the bust of a young Roman man and Catherine drew a charming group of everyday objects. A giant Buddha presided over the outdoor games area!

 

Philippa told us how she had studied textiles and yet always continued to paint. She showed us a fascinating painting which was an intricate pattern of rectangles inspired by scenes from her own life. It could even inspire us to paint our own autobiographical paintings! 

 

Philippa invites all of us to drop in for a drink or a meal and to see her highly individual artwork in the dining area. All her paintings have a story behind them - so do speak to  her to find out what they are.

 

The Adventurous Artists sketching group meets again on Friday 13th January. The venue will be announced at the next meeting.

Catherine in the restaurant area 

 

Harry in the sun

 

Comparing work

 

Play area

 

Phillipa serves the tea

 

Painting by Phillipa

EVENTS IN THE COMING WEEK

EVENTS IN THE COMING WEEK

 

Don't forget :-

                        1. Adventurous Artists meet at 10-30am on Friday 11th. November at the King Rufus on Eling Hill.

                        2. One-Day Sale in the Tree Score Club. Paintings for sale and work from the Close-up Competition to be brought by 9-30 am and collected after 4pm.

 

All work from the competition to be labelled with title, name and 'phone number on the back. They will be put in a special 'Not for Sale ' section.

 

Details of entry fees, labels, etc for sale items on the website. Entry form must be included with the paintings.

 

                         3. Sketchers wanted in the Precinct. Contact Di Alexander (02380  483 958) if you can help with this. Hopefully it will raise awareness of the Sale and perhaps boost the sales!

SEA AND SKY WITH DAVE WHITE

  Dogs, especially Red Setters, are Dave's favourite subjects as well as sea and sky. As he hadn't brought a dog he would show us how he paints the sea and sky.

Dave is keen on recycling and will paint over canvases a few times to re-use them. This he had already done using a red-biased blue ie. ultramarine. Landscape is the preferred format as this gives a large expanse of sea. The paints are mixed in small plastic pots so that the paint can be kept workable by storing the pot upside down. The brushes used are synthetic watercolour ones. Paints are massaged or shaken first before opening to ensure that the pigment is well mixed with the base and care taken on closing to turn the lid back a part turn. Save old lids to replace damaged ones.

 

Using titanium white, ultramarine and cobalt red deep Dave darkened the top half of the painting, blending the paint in with a 2 inch brush. The proportion of water and paint used differs with the size of canvas to be covered and judging this becomes  easier with experience. Dave works in long strokes covering the whole of the canvas and finds this is easier when standing up. The paint is put on the side of the picture and then blended in.

 Transparent colours mix in with the underlying layer to give a new colour eg. yellow over blue gives green.  This was done in the lower part of the painting. The opaqueness of a colour can be increased by mixing with white. To blend these colours Dave started in the centre and worked outwards across the whole canvas. A few reflections were produced by dragging the paint vertically downwards. When the water is placid the reflections are shorter. After this stage Dave dried the canvas by waving it in the air.

  

  Clouds add depth to a picture. The clouds are smallest near the horizon with the largest taking up the top 2/3rds of the sky area. The shapes of the large clouds vary greatly and to help this effect clouds could be painted in the different shapes of eg. countries. They are roughly painted in grey first using a mix of the previous ultramarine and cobalt red colour with cadmium yellow and lemon yellow using a 1 inch round brush. The smaller basal clouds are painted using the same colours.  The clouds are blended into the background at the base. The shapes must be different with the edges going towards a vanishing point and light source below the horizon. This will produce a sense of disappearing into the distance. The edge of the cloud is brightened with white which is blended in with fingers, tissues or sponges etc.

 

  The sea is painted using viridian or hookers green plus ultramarine with some titanium white added to show up the colours. If the light source is on the lower right above the horizon then white is blended in with the fingers on the appropriate side.  

 

  Returning to the clouds Dave used burnt sienna to build up the colours above the opaque base. Blended in with the fingers this will change the basic colour to a range of greys. Repeated below the horizon it will produce a good reflection effect.

 

  The next feature to be painted were the sun's rays. Taking a small amount of titanium white Dave brushed rays away from the light source then wiped them away with a dry cloth. This process was repeated about eight times giving a blurred edge to the rays. To get the broadening effect use a flat brush on edge near the light source then twist it over onto it's flat surface as it moves away from the source.

 Dave usually has three paintings on the go at one time as he paints about three layers  for the background and allows each layer to dry overnight. He also pointed out that the opacity or transparency of a colour will vary with the different make of paint and advised making a colour wheel ( over black lines ) to test this.

  Finally Dave summarised the different steps used to produce a painting. Firstly the background is layered on then the clouds are roughed in followed by the sea. Glazing is then used to build up the colour and finally highlights added.

 

  Dave explained his method very clearly and we were all very impressed with the result not only of the evening's demonstration work but with all the paintings he had brought to show us. He has kindly said that he would be willing to do a workshop for us so keep a look-out for details. So we thank Dave for an inspiring evening and look forward to meeting him again soon.

Half way Stage

One done earlier

Dave and his paintings