COMING EVENTS AND CARD COMPETITION

ART EXTRA CHRISTMAS PARTY.

Bring something to nibble and something to talk about to the meeting on December 17th in the Lilac room at 1-30 to 3-30pm. 

TAS January 2020 Meeting: Critiquing Artwork Properly

 The topic of our next full meeting on 22nd January is: "Critiquing Artwork Properly". Members are welcome to bring one of their own paintings; although we will only be able to look at a small number in the time available. We will have a long list of things to look for. This is an intensive process so the comments will be frank but constructive. Looking at paintings in this way could help you to self-critique and improve your own art. Please contact Di Alexander if you have any queries.

CHRISTMAS CARD COMPETITION

 

This was won by Sue for her Christmas pudding card -voted the best by all the members.

More detailed pictures have been posted by Di on the Facebook page.

PORTRAIT DEMO

LUCY COOKSON PAINTS A PORTRAIT 

Lucy is an artist with 20 years experience including working in Florence.

She works in various media and for us painted a Rembrant style portrait in oils.

 Normally this would take her several months but Lucy showed  us as much of her approach and technique as is possible in one evening.

She uses Jacksons 30 x 40 canvases and Michael Harding oil paints which she dilutes with walnut oil (again from Jacksons) to speed up drying.

A basic ground was applied of Burnt Umber and Ivory Black put on with a rag and then the excess wiped off. The brushes she uses are hog which she wraps in a damp tissue before leaving to dry to retain the shape.

 To start the portrait Lucy first draws a rough outline of the portrait using a No 4 brush and a mix of Raw Umber and Ivory Black with a speck of Alizarin Crimson blended together using a palette knife (this stops paint getting embedded in the base of the brush). Lucy holds the brush at the far end of the handle and stands away from the canvas. Then she puts in the main features and main shadow areas in the background.

  Flesh tones are mixed from Ivory Black, Burnt Umber, Cadmium Red and Yellow Ochre. Shadow colours  are the same but no Yellow Ochre. Other colours used in mixes are Ultramarine ,Titanium White, Naples Yellow and Lemon Yellow.

Tones are judged against each other and Lucy uses two brushes one for the light tones and one for dark. Highlights are placed on the nose, lips, forehead and chin. Blue is added to the darkest colour to paint in the eyes. The pupil is placed as a dot and then expanded and the white of the eye painted in flesh tones which are lighter near the centre of the eye. The point of the curve of the eyelid is above the iris.

 Cast shadow is used under the nose to bring it out but not over emphasise it.   

The top lip is darker than the bottom and the edge forms a triangle with the nose lines.

The tones for the background are chosen from the tones in the face. The paint is mixed and then checked using paint on the palette knife and holding it against the model. The background is not painted down to the bottom - the darkest part is reserved for the shoulder area.

Although not finished this was a beautiful portrait and Lucy had explained her technique in detail with plenty of hints and tips.

Lucy and Portrait

Half time image

Lyndhurst visit continued

Here are some more pictures of the Adventurous Artists work.

ONE DAY SALE contd

Another picture

ONE DAY SALE

The one day sale went well even though there was a reduction in the usual number of visitors due to the bad weather. It was good for everyone to get together for an art event.

Adventurous Artists at Lyndhurst

SKETCHING MARINE PAINTINGS OF THE NEW FOREST

Report from Di

The Adventurous Artists had a very enjoyable morning sketching at the exhibition of marine paintings at the New Forest Heritage Centre, Lyndhurst in November.  The manager and the five exhibiting artists - Barry Peckham, Peter Frost, Richard Tratt, Colin Richens and Barry Miles - kindly permitted the group to sketch some of the work on display.  Rounding off the visit there were delicious hot drinks in the cafe. The exhibition continues until 5th January.

https://www.mlggazettes.co.uk/marine-paintings-of-the-new-forest-exhibition-new-forest-heritage-centre/

https://www.facebook.com/pg/NewForestHeritage/posts/

NOVEMBER MEETINGS

NOVEMBER 9TH ONE-DAY SALE
This will be at the Three-Score Club 10am to 4pm.
 Hand your work in 9-9.30am with the hanging fees and completed form.( Form from Mary or the Web-site)

NOVEMBER 8th AVENTUROUS ARTISTS
 Meet at New Forest Centre at 10 -15. Can park near Bolton's Bench free or use the paid car park next to the Centre.

NOVEMBER 19th  ART EXTRA
12-30 to 3-30pm in the Lilac Room. Do your own thing and have a chat with fellow members.

NOVEMBER  27th DEMONSTRATION EVENING.
Lucie Cookson will demonstrate a Rembrandt style portrait in oils

ALSO  Bring your Christmas card entry - possibly based on a Christmas candle with decorations but can also be your own design. Winner gets a bottle of sparkling wine.

IMPRESSIONIST LANDSCAPE

ELIZABETH BALDIN paints an IMPRESSIONIST LANDSCAPE

Elizabeth used to work in book design but now mostly paints -  particularly in an impressionistic style. She works in most media but not usually pastel.

For a base she uses canvas board, her brushes are usually flats and on this occasion she was using  Golden acrylics. As acrylics darken when dry Elizabeth usually puts the final highlights in using oils. Mixing is done on a baking parchment based stay-wet palette.

Her paintings are usually based on her photographs and she first does a black and white sketch before working out her colour scheme. It is the sketch that is referred to during the painting. The "Rule of Thirds" is a useful guide in establishing the composition.

The painting was started by putting in the darkest dark using Payne's Grey. The sky was then blocked in using a dabbing technique with a flat brush. Impressionist style paintings have no areas of flat colour - instead colour is made up of a mixture of colours eg. grass can be different tones of different greens plus bits of complimentary colours. In this case the sky is made up of one main colour - Cobalt Blue - to which white is added to give different tonal values and  a black which, with the white, gives grey. A mauve is the third colour and this, with blue and white, produces a light mauve.

The background colour was therefore the blue mix and clouds the mauve mix with their base of grey. Light blue was placed just above the horizon. The whole area was then blended slightly. This technique was used throughout the painting.

Distant hills were painted in a grey-green using a smaller brush to get smaller strokes.

Shadows are rendered in purple and green - usually a blue or yellow green.

For this painting the mid-ground and path is rendered in tones of yellow with red and blue flowers in the foreground.

The final stages involve checking that the tones are correct throughout the painting and that the technique is uniform. Then the final highlights are added.

 

Elizabeth is a very talented painter and excellent teacher and gave us an unforgettable evening. Below is the beautiful final painting.

 

Future events

 

WEDNESDAY 23^RD OCTOBER

7.30 p.m. at the Three Score Club, Salisbury Road, Totton,

ELIZABETH BALDIN demonstrates an Impressionist Landscape in Acrylics

See http://www.tottonartsociety.org.uk/tasmeetings.htm

ELIZABETH is a versatile artist who paints a variety of subjects, including pet portraits in oils. She holds workshops in watercolour and Ink, acrylics and coloured pencils.

www.elizabethbaldin.co.uk

 

WEDNESDAY 27^TH NOVEMBER T.A.S. CHRISTMAS CARD COMPETITION

A reminder that we are holding an individual Christmas card competition at our November meeting.  One suggestion is to paint a still-life of a Christmas candle with decorations, but any subject is acceptable. Paint onto a piece of folded card.

One entry per member please.

You could win a bottle of sparkling wine

Nomansland with Adventurous Artists

SKETCHING AT NOMANDLAND

Jean and June arrived first and sketched the chapel while parked by the green. The weather remained very windy and damp everyone went into the Lamb Inn, where David, Peter, Helen and Di did their sketching.  Unfortunately the cattle and pigs made their appearance too late to be included in the artwork on this occasion. Nevertheless the group were pleased with the morning’s work.

 

FINISHED PAINTING

Fiona has sent us a photograph of her finished painting, Beautiful!

photograph of her finished painting, Beautiful!

Adventurous Artists

Meet at Nomansland on Friday 11th October at 10-15 am on the cricket green. If raining meet in The Lamb which opens at 11am.

Fiona's Paintings

These are pictures of Fiona's paintings - one of the finished picture to follow.

Demonstration evening

At the beginning of the evening Mary was presented with her certificate for the Reg Whiting Trophy (won jointly with Di)  and Fred was presented with his cup and certificate for his Silver Award for the Best Picture by public vote (Lesley won the Gold). More details on the website.

The evening continued with:-

FIONA FORBES DEMONSTRATING PAINTING FLOWERS WITH KNIVES 

Fiona painted with watercolours until 25 years ago when she was told to try knives. They have the advantage that they are easy to clean!

She uses mainly a medium sized knife with a small one for detail. Tonight's painting was done on MDF board primed with two coats of white gesso and a coat of acrylic and then the under painting added with water-based oil. A disposable palette is used for the paints which are mixed with a palette knife. Impasto medium is added for texture and to quicken the drying time.

Tonight's background colour was blue made of magenta and mauve with green from various yellows and blues.

Fiona began with the paler flowers using cadmium red, Naples yellow and white  as the basic colour. Using a small knife she started with the background petals. The knife is well loaded to help produce an impasto effect and a small amount of dark colour put on the knife tip for adding detail. Foreground flowers painted later had more texture helped by using some impasto paste.  Fiona suggested that it is best to be open-minded about the colour and be ready to change the colours when working through the painting.

Shadow colour used especially for red roses is mauve and blue blended with white. Dioxine purple, alizarin and cadmium red make good dark colours for the centre of flowers. 

Leaf colours are obtained by mixing either turquoise and orange or a combination of lemon yellow, cadmium yellow, yellow ochre, or raw sienna mixed with any blue. She also uses olive green with white to produce a dark green which is very effective against a light coloured flower. Touches of light green or even white are used to give highlights. 

Fiona paints quickly to get an impressionist effect working over the whole area of the painting. She is very careful putting more paint over wet paint as the lower layer can be dislodged. Make sure the knife is clean! She likes to pause for a few days to re-assess the picture then adding more detail and shadows.

We look forward to seeing the completed painting and thank Fiona for an excellent and inspiring evening.

FIONA FORBES DEMONSTRATES PAINTING FLOWERS WITH KNIVES

 

Fiona painted with watercolours until 25 years ago when she was told to try knives. They have the advantage that they are easy to clean!

She uses mainly a medium sized knife with a small one for detail. Tonight's painting was done on MDF board primed with two coats of white gesso and a coat of acrylic and then the under painting added with water-based oil. A disposable palette is used for the paints which are mixed with a palette knife. Impasto medium is added for texture and to quicken the drying time.

Tonight's background colour was blue made of magenta and mauve with green from various yellows and blues.

Fiona began with the paler flowers using cadmium red, Naples yellow and white  as the basic colour. Using a small knife she started with the background petals. The knife is well loaded to help produce an impasto effect and a small amount of dark colour put on the knife tip for adding detail. Foreground flowers painted later had more texture helped by using some impasto paste.  Fiona suggested that it is best to be open-minded about the colour and be ready to change the colours when working through the painting.

Shadow colour used especially for red roses is mauve and blue blended with white. Dioxine purple, alizarin and cadmium red make good dark colours for the centre of flowers. 

Leaf colours are obtained by mixing either turquoise and orange or a combination of lemon yellow, cadmium yellow, yellow ochre, or raw sienna mixed with any blue. She also uses olive green with white to produce a dark green which is very effective against a light coloured flower. Touches of light green or even white are used to give highlights. 

Fiona paints quickly to get an impressionist effect working over the whole area of the painting. She is very careful putting more paint over wet paint as the lower layer can be dislodged. Make sure the knife is clean! She likes to pause for a few days to re-assess the picture then adding more detail and shadows.

We look forward to seeing the completed painting and thank Fiona for an excellent and inspiring evening.

Mortimer Arms

ADVENTUROUS ARTISTS at the MORTIMER ARMS

Spent a lovely morning in the garden sitting in the sun, sketching, drinking coffee, chatting...........

 Here are a few sketches :-

SEPTEMBER EVENTS

FRIDAY 13TH SEPTEMBER  ADVENTUROUS ARTISTS
10.15  at the Mortimer Arms, Romsey Rd, Ower, SO51 6AF. Take the turning to Paulton’s Park and it is on the right- hand side   
                                                                                                      


TUESDAY 17th AUGUST ART EXTRA AFTERNOON



in the Lilac room Civic Centre 1-30 to 3-30pm 


WEDNESDAY SEPTEMBER 25TH DEMONSTRATION EVENING
Fiona Forbes will show us how she paints a vase of flowers with knives

Members Evening

MEMBERS EVENING WITH DI AND HELEN

Di and Helen had obviously worked hard to produce an evening on which we examined perspective.
Helen started by showing us ways to deal with perspective involving distance and looking at a spherical or flat circular object from different angles and examining how it can be viewed as an ellipse. Di then continued with a demonstration of how perspective depends on viewpoints and vanishing points and how it changes. We then tried out the theories on different subjects from pictures supplied by Di and Helen. It was a very interesting evening and certainly made us think carefully about how we represent structures particularly in landscapes and still life paintings.

We also had the pleasure of applauding Lesley for winning the 50th Anniversary Trophy for the Best painting in the exhibition - "Hoppy" and Fred for being voted the Best Runner Up with his painting of  "The Shrinking Waterhole" Excellent pictures from both of them!

EXHIBITION

THE ANNUAL EXHIBITION has so far been a great success. We have had a good number of visitors each day and many paintings and cards have been sold. There have been many complimentary comments about the paintings and we've had a few people who are going to join us as new members.
The Exhibition was opened on Friday evening by Ray Barnes. As usual the room was crowded and we all enjoyed the occasion.
We would like to thank the Hanging Committee for putting the Exhibition together and Ann, Mary and Claire and husbands Mike and Bob for all the "extra bits" that are so important.
Everyone who attended the Preview Evening was asked to vote for their favourite best picture for the Reg Whiting Award. Reg was one of the founder members of the Society. This year we had joint winners of Di Alexander and Mary Maskell - congratulations to them both!

DATES COMING UP

FRIDAY 16TH AUGUST
Work to be handed in by 10am.
7-30pm PRIVATE VIEW and Exhibition opened.

TUESDAY 20TH AUGUST
ART EXTRA
 Meet in the Lilac Room Civic Centre at 1-30  to 3-30 for a creative and entertaining afternoon.

WEDNESDAY 21ST AUGUST at 7-30PM in the THREESCORE CLUB
MEMBERS EVENING
Come and take part in a different and exciting evening

SATURDAY 24TH AUGUST
Exhibition ends at 5pm - collect work.

Adventurous Artists at Eling

DI'S REPORT:-

SKETCHING AT ELING QUAY

Jean, Sue, Ray and Di spent a peaceful hour sketching at Eling Quay on a sunny morning. Fortunately the rain held off until lunchtime. The Eling Experience cafe is now very smart and an enjoyable hour was spent discussing their own art, T.A.S. and the art scene generally. The sketching morning provides an opportunity not only to practice drawing but also to share experiences with fellow artists.

Di Alexander

July Demonstration

DON’T BE FRIGHTENED OF THE DARKS SAYS JULIE LONGDON

Animal artist Julie Longdon gave us a beautiful portrait of a cocker spaniel at our July meeting. She was this year’s winner of the Best in Show Award at the Association of Animal Artists exhibition.

Julie packed a lot of detail into her painting - all the more impressive because she was using pastels on velour paper. She managed to create fine lines with the edges of the round Unison pastels (the softest and most heavily pigmented type of pastel). Although they are easier to achieve with square Conté sticks and sharpened pastel pencils. (Beware! Pastels blunt pencil sharpeners, use a knife instead.) Velour paper does dull the colours slightly. Alternatively Julie uses Pastelmat, which holds the pastel so that it does not fall off and is easier for fine lines such as whiskers.

“Don’t be frightened of darks” said Julie. “It’s what makes the painting come alive”. Having already drawn the dog with shapes for the different tonal values she likes to use short strokes on the darkest areas first - but not with black. One of her favourite dark colours is the Faber-Castell Pitt 175 Dark Sepia pastel pencil. She saves black until a later stage. The very best colours for animal paintings is the Unison Emma Colebert collection (36 round soft pastels): https://www.unisoncolour.com/product/emma-colbert-animal-36-set/ She used browns, dark reds and pinks to create “splashes of colour” and a cool orange and a warm orange for the eyes. Dogs’ noses are complex and she spends a lot of time on them. She also advised us to vary the direction of some of the hairs.

One of Julie’s tips was to make your own colour/value finder card by punching a hole in white card. Holding the hole over part of a painting and placing a pastel stick or paintbrush next to it makes it possible to compare the two more accurately. Attention to detail is important when painting commissions and a single portrait may take many hours.

Everyone was impressed with Julie’s work. See more of it at the prestigious Southern Nature Art Exhibition at Rookesbury Park, Southwick Road, Wickham, PO17 6HT from 23rd until 26th August 2019.

Di Alexander