SERA LIVES DANGEREROUSLY

Sera Knight announced "I'm living dangerously this evening" at the begiining of her July demonstration. She is a spontaneous artist who particularly enjoys painting dancers. She was born in Turkey, worked as an architect in Norway and now lives in Woking.

 

Her first stage was a simple outline of a flamenco dancer with Neocolour II crayons she quickly moved to the second stage: collage.  

 

Applying smallish shapes of coloured newspaper to the foreground and background with PVA glue., Sera created an unusual structure, which was the basis for an unusual painting.

Prints of Sera's work

 

More texture was introduced in the third stage by sticking on pieces of acid-free tissue paper with diluted glue. Sera said that the effect was similar to the texture of an oil painting. The tissue also decreases the colours in parts of the picture, particularly the background.

 

After drying the picture, there were still plenty of white spaces left and Sera began the fourth stage. Using a dropper (she also uses a spray) Sera applied strong transparent coloured inks to glaze sections of the picture and then spreading it with a brush. The magenta was used on the figure and background and the yellow and blue areas on the background behind the figure.

 

Sera at the end of the demonstration

 

Sera prefers to use acrylic paints and watercolour brushes  in a dry brush technique for the fifth stage. She aimed to keep the colours tranparent, fearing that too many layers will create 'mud'. Should the painting be too wet, the colours sink into the paper; so it is helpful to leave it to dry overnight.

 

Her fifth stage was to increase the tonal contrast in some areas, for example painting light colours on the face using a small brush and darkening the negative spaces around it.Only a small portion of the figure was a natural skin tone. She also made no attempt to copy the folds of the skirt, preferring to move the brush in a flowing motion.

There was a lot of interest in Sera's work at the end of the evening.

 

Sera sent us a photograph of her painting after she had put the finishing touches to it at home. Her work is framed under glass. She has had exhibitions of her work in Trkey, Norway and London since 1983. We were indeed fortunate to see her at work.

  

Sera's finished painting

JUNE WORKSHOP WITH TOTTON ARTISTS

The Totton Art Society 'In-house' workshop on 1st June was all about experimenting. It was very successful, producing some good work at the end of the day. 

Our experts were:
Glennis Courtney demonstrating using Interactive acrylics to create a seascape,  
Mary Maskell using acrylics to create a coastal scene. 
Ruth Edwards using watercolours to create a forest scene.  
Claire Palmer using pastels to create a full-length portrait.

 Lesley Grosse and Kay Cavalier are seen here with their fabulous acrylic paintings .

Henry Needham created his own seascape.

Audrey Sharrar's delicate watercolour forest scene was painted under the guidance of the President of Totton Art Society Ruth Edwards.

David Butcher's forest in watercolour had quite a different atmosphere.

Glennis Courtney's demonstration painting was a seascape in the Roy Lang style, but with interactive acrylics.

Mary Andrews used dramatic lighting in her sunset scene.

Rosemary Cunliffe's enjoyed trying pastels with Claire Palmer.

Shirley Lester painted this accomplished, well-balanced coastal scene.

Muriel Hiscott did something completely different with this exotic forest scene.

Everyone who attended found the day found it to be relaxing and fun experience.

MAX SHOWS HOW TO BE CREATIVE WITH ONE BRUSH

Max Hale loves a challenge and in the May watercolour demonstration he overcame lots! He demonstrated without the use of microphone or camera. The support was upright so there were a few 'dribbles' - but he made jokes about them.

 

 

Advocating the use of large brushes, he proved his point by using the one inch flat brush all evening. Max said that some artists spend time fiddling when they should be expressing feeling and using a time constraint can make your work freer.

He achieved vibrant colour through applying as few layers as possible and by pre-mixing colours as little as possible. They were mostly blended on the paper. Look very hard at the beginning and observe the tonal values advised Max. Work on the whole painting rather than resolving one part too soon. Leave the option to make changes after the paint has dried.

 

 

Max showed how to measure proportion, symmetry and draw ellipses and circles.

Other tips were: (1) give cast shadows hard edges and shadows formed on a surface soft edges

 (2) paint glass as if it were a see-through mirror.

 

 

From the initial pencil drawing to the finished picture, Max showed how to imorove your painting through attention to detail and  confident brushwork. Look out for his next article in the September 2013 issue of The Artist!

SUBLIME PAINTINGS AT ROY LANG'S WORKSHOP

Members who attended Roy Lang's Workshop on 14th May produced beautiful seascapes which follow the 'sublime' tradition. Sublime paintings became popular in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. They portray the power of nature and invoke heightened feelings in the viewer.

The subject was a dramatic marine scene with waves breaking over rocks. Roy has studied the sea intensively and he reproduces subtle lighting effects for example:

(1) light shining down onto water and wet rocks, (2) passing through waves and spray and even (3) light reflected from the sea bed. 

He demonstrates in oils, premixing the colours and using a variety of brushes and methods for applying the paint.

Those attending were: Caroline Beech, Glennis Courtney, Rosemary Cunliffe, Jill Gillespie, Anne Hamerton, Shirley Lester, Claire Palmer and John Shotter. Claire reported that she and everyone else thoroughly enjoyed the workshop.

Roy says that 'there's something magical about water'

and there's certainly something magical about his paintings.

 

Click on the links below for more about Roy's artwork.

 

Roy Langs's Website

A YouTube Demo

 

 

 

INVITATION TO SEE THE EAST BOLDRE PAINTERS' EXHIBITION AT LYMINGTON

 

Muriel Hiscott invites everyone to an exhibition by  East Boldre Painters, at the Walter Simmons Gallery in Lymington Community Centre* from 8th June to 5th July. Entrance to the exhibition is free .....should anyone be in the area, please come along!

 

Muriel says that she and June Green belong to the group which meets most Monday mornings.

 

 

*Exhibition Venue Address: Lymington Community Centre,  New Street, Lymington, SO41 9BQ

THE ART OF PHOTOGRAPHY BY BETTY & TONY

Tony & Betty Rackham January 2013

 

Photos: T.A.S. Editor

 

Fellows of the Royal Photograhic Society Betty and Tony Rackham exhibit their photographs with Romsey and Southampton camera clubs as well as showing paintings with Totton Art Society. The January 2013 meeting  revealed how they produce superb photographs of nature and wildlife using rules of composition, viewpoint, natural light, artificial light, abstract shapes, and lots of experience! They projected their digital photos onto the screen and provided an absorbing commentary. Also on show were their own cards and paintings.

 

Betty informed us that not only do they use the 'thirds' rule - placing important focal points one third from the top and side, but they also believe that eye goes to the top right of the picture first of all, folowed by the top left, bottom right and then bottom left.

They also confirmed that 'hot' colours appear to advance towards the viewer, wereas on the other had, cold colours appear to recede. Her photographs are usually taken with a Panasonic Lumix camera wth interchangeable lenses or this Fuji FinePx F600EXR compact camera.

 

 

Tony showed how to improve images by digitally cropping, increasing the tonal contrast (making sure that the highlights are adjusted to show more detail before adjusting the dark areas), and possibly changing or removing unwanted elements, such as rocks.

 

He enjoys using using his technical knowledge to achieve unusual special effects. Both he and Betty look for abstract patterns and shapes within natural subjects, for example: a seed head looks like a piece of engineering. They sometimes prefer to use a black and white image instead of the usual colour image.

 

Taking close-up photographs is frequently successful. The small group of red and purple autumn leaves with white frosted edges was so simple yet so beautiful. He advised always to take a photo before making changes and setting up the final scene. He confessed to removing petals, repositioning objects and even throwing a stone in the water to create the ripples of a rising fish.

 

The audio-visual films at the end of the evening were beautiful and with the music, quite emotionally moving. The passion for nature that Betty and Tony share is forcefully shown through their photography. Finally they urged us to manage our digital photographs by discarding unwanted one, sorting, labelling, storing and backing up to two or more separate disks, lest we lose them all when the computer develops a fault.

 

Artwork by Tony & Betty

 

The demonstration ended with warm applause and questions from members.



 



CHRISTMAS PARTY

LAUGHTER  FROM THE START

Helen Davies kicked off the evening with 'blind drawing'. One person at each table wore a mask while the others gave them instructions as they attempted  to draw a Christmas picture.

 

Here Pam advises Glennis

 

Jim is helped by Roy to the amusement of Mary and Ruth

 

John is helped from both sides!

 

Pat Osborne takes charge on this table

 

Pat Scammell makes sure that the draw operated perfectly

 The next activity was a 'speed dating' session - to give members with paintings a chance to write an appreciative comment about the paintings of the other members on their table.

 

 

 

 

 

The final part of the evening gave everyone the chance to see Helen hold up each painting and to hear the artist read a comment from the list of comments about their artwork. The list became a 'Certificate of Appreciation' which each artist kept. 

 

 

 Party organisers Helen and Di were delighted to receive bunches of roses for their efforts. Many thanks to Anne, Claire and the other members who contributed to the successful evening.