ADVENTUROUS ARTISTS

SKETCHING GROUP

The Adventurous Artists will meet at 10.15 a.m. on Friday 8^th December in the car park of the New Forest Wildlife Park Deerleap Lane near Ashurst SO40 4UH (site of the former Butterfly Farm at Longdown).   If the weather is good some of us may enter the park and sketch  (Adults £11.50 and Seniors £10.25) or sketch outside the park. Otherwise there is shelter in a large café with picnic benches Contact Di if you need more info.Tel. 07979905192  Email: dga@dialexander.co.uk

ART JOURNEY AND RAINBOW COMPETITION

Helen's Art Journey paintings

ART JOURNEY & RAINBOW COMPETITION

The Art Journey table had three very different works by Helen Bartlett and there were eleven entries for the Rainbow Competition. Members voted for many entries. The winning artist was Di Alexander with her Rainbow Trout which she had created using acrylic inks over white gouache on dark grey mount-board. The Competition Entry fees will be donated to the Rainbow Project in Southampton which assists young people to gain employment.

 

Collage of the Competition paintings

 

Di with her winning painting


 

WILDLIFE IN ACRYLICS

Wildlife artist Kim Thompson loves walking with a sketchbook. Her outings inspire her to create her artwork including fabulously detailed, colourful wildlife paintings, in acrylics or oils, which are exhibited and sold far and wide.

Kim works on drawings until she is happy with the composition. Then she transfers it to her board (such as illustration board or gessoed MDF) or canvas. She is meticulous in keeping her work clean and tidy, continually checking the accuracy.

The demonstration in acrylics was a portrait of a barn own on mount-board which Kim was copying from another that she had previously painted. She does not favour a stay-wet palette, preferring to work with small quantities of paint. Although she works in layers, Procolour and Chromacolour are favourite brands with a matt finish and higher pigment content than Winsor & Newton or Daler Rowney acrylics, which are too transparent for her purpose. When painting subsequent layers, she leaves small sections of underpainting to suggest layers of feathers. Kim began painting the dark eye of the owl with a No. 1 Series 7 sable brush using tiny strokes and worked outwards, moving the brush in the direction of the feathers in the concave eye area. A No.6 brush was used to paint the gold feathers on the head. Wriggly strokes in a darker colour emphasised the broken edge around the feathered disk around the eye. Pale blue shadows and cream reflected colour areas were scrubbed on with a worn brush. Feather textures were suggested with a small brush between the blue and cream areas. Brushes have to be kept clean in order to achieve the purity of colour which is a feature of her work.

Kim looks for pattern and texture.  Areas of the second layer was created with flicking movements and cross-hatching. Softer feathers remained untreated. Cerulean blue, black and white for light grey feathers over the gold body was, in turn, overpainted with darker grey feathers and subtle spotted patterns, avoiding applying the paint too thickly.  A cerulean blue and white gouache glaze was applied at the highlight in the eye.

After the break Kim showed slides featuring her illustrations in books and advertisements and her adventurous trips to Botswana, Zambia, the Himalayas and even a remote Scottish island for its birdlife. She sketches and paints in gouache on location as much as possible because it can provide more detailed information than a photograph. In conclusion she urged us all to draw as much as possible.

Di Alexander

NOVEMBER 22ND MEETING

KIM THOMPSON WILDLIFE

Kim will show us how to paint wildlife in acrylics.

ALSO

Claire will be taking bookings for places on the ABSTRACT ART WORKSHOP taking place on FEBRUARY 3RD.

DI needs QUESTIONS for the meeting in JANUARY

QUESTIONS FOR JANUARY MEETING BY NOV. 30TH

REQUEST FROM DI

MAKE OUR JANUARY MEETING A SUCCESS 

I am looking for your questions / suggestions for topics to discuss at the January meeting on Wednesday 24th. I shall be selecting video clips to show at the meeting. What topics would you like to know more about?

If you do not mind asking a question in person on the Question Time Evening in January, you could win a prize. Alternatively your questions or suggestions can be anonymous if you would prefer. Just send them to me  by hand, post  or email by 30th November. See website or programme for contact numbers

ONE DAY SALE

SENT FROM ANNE

We  are over the moon -what a day! Ten members came forward and with all the help and support that you gave we had everything set up easily by 9.00 a.m. and the atmosphere was amazing. Everything had been put back by 4.15 p.m.  and best of all we took over £1,000, the highest figure ever.

Thanks to you all -  this was the best One Day Sale EVER!

 

 We would all like to thank  Anne, Claire and the Committee members who made it such a success. 

NEXT EVENTS

ADVENTUROUS ARTISTS
Next outing is to the King Rufus , Eling Hill, on Friday, November 11th meeting outside the pub. at 10-15 am. Kate will be hosting this time. Contact info Tel. 078500 16940 or e-mail katerodrigues@kitsmail.com

ONE-DAY SALE
Saturday, November 12th starting at 10 am. Help needed setting this up. See website for more details.

Dee Cowell

DEE COWELL ON DYNAMIC WATERCOLOURS 

Dee started the evening by telling us about some of her favourite materials and items of equipment that she uses.

 She likes Derwent materials and one of her favourite products is their table pencil sharpener!  Favourite brushes are a squirrel hair mop brush and a swordtail brush.

The mop is used for washes or with the pointed end for dry brush work. To work wet into wet colour is put down and the second colour added leaving a space between the colours for the colours to merge without muddying.

The sword tail is used vertically for fine lines and on its side with broad sweeping strokes for other effects.

Gouche is a favourite paint as it can be restarted from dry. It is particularly effective used straight from the tube on black paper. It is also easily lifted off.

To start a flower painting Dee does a thumbnail sketch then places her main flowers on the strong points where the thirds cross. She uses a Daler-Rowney mixed media pad for her work.

To start the Hydrangeas she first sprays water in scattered areas then drops blue in and allows the paint to spread. This is followed by yellow and again the paint is allowed to spread. Some of the paint is then lifted with a tissue to form petals. The same method is repeated with brown paint to produce a darker flower.

For the roses she paints a squarish shape with water then adds yellow and spreads and drags the colour out with the swordtail. The petals are outlined and shadows put in using quinacridone gold. Irises are painted in dark blue in a similar way.

Texture paste can be added with a palette knife but needs an hour to dry. It can then be re-wetted a small area at a time and colour dropped in around the area. This will then spread into the centre of the petals. 

Watercolour pencils are used throughout the painting process eg for outlining leaves or painting stems.

Other useful products are Aquawax available on line from Colourcraft and Schimke gel. Both can be used to give texture.

Backgrounds were painted in using various greens and the versatile swordtail brush.

This was a very informative evening with Dee introducing us to some new materials and producing a beautiful flower painting by the end of the evening.