OTTERS IN WATERCOLOUR

Demonstration by Joanna Rose Tidey

 

The evening started with Kate thanking everyone for their contribution in making the Exhibition such a success either in producing paintings or with the "backroom work."

Di Alexander and Claire Palmer were then officially presented with the Reg Whiting Trophy for their "Best in Exhibition " paintings. (see earlier blog). They will share the trophy for 6 months each.

Kate then introduced Jo as our Demonstrator for the evening. Her subject was a pair of otters which she had become very fond of during her work as Artist in Residence at the New Forest Wildlife Park at Longdown.

While she was working she entertained us with accounts of her time at University and her career so far in becoming a professional artist. She also told us stories of her experiences in the art world interspersed with philosophical reflections on art.

  She usually uses watercolour paper and draws first from photographs of the animals which she has taken herself.

 Drawing animals from life is difficult as they move so quickly but she advises starting on small sketches and then with more experience and practice get larger and more detailed.

  Her paints are a mixture of tubes and pans  - tubes give deep colours and pans are good for washes.

  After drawing the outline of the otters and putting in ears, eyes and whiskers she wet the paper and then, when it was almost dry, dropped in colours. This was done with a fully loaded brush held horizontally. The colours were Cadmium Yellow, Alizarin Crimson, Ultramarine and Turquoise. After allowing the paper to dry she carefully added black for the eyes, ears and muzzle.

 To paint the foreground Turquoise, Lemon Yellow and Ultramarine were spattered into wet paper. She uses a liner brush to represent wet fur and doesn't usually put in a background for watercolours, only for acrylics.

  To finish the evening Jo showed us how she adds touches of gold leaf to her paintings. Size is painted on in appropriate places and allowed to dry - usually for 10 minutes. The gold leaf is then brushed on using a mop brush - the gold sticking to the sized areas.

   Jo had given us an  interesting and unusual evening and we will certainly approach our animal paintings in a different way in the future.

Jo and finished painting