CLAIRE WILTSHER LECTURE

 

Claire is a well-known artist who lives in Lyndhurst and is influenced in her painting by local landscape( Forest and the Coast), music and poetry.

She started the evening by playing music and getting everyone to draw the image the music produced in our minds. She herself plays music while she is painting.  The poetry eg of Ted Hughes will affect her thinking and is often used in her pictures or she will write and  include some of her own poems. She started writing after attending Creative Writing classes and finds it helps with her art. She then went on to mention the artists which had influenced her such as Turner (expressing emotion), Pollack (structure) and Gustave Moreau ( colours and symbolism). She has also travelled widely.

She then went on to describe her working methods. Claire works from a variety if sources including sketches and photographs as well as poetry and writing. She usually uses 4-7 colours and spends about 40 minutes mixing them. Among the colours used are Lemon Yellow, Cerulean or Ultramarine and Raw or Burnt Sienna A painting normally takes her a day but she will return to it later. Working mainly in oils she uses techniques such as flicking with fingers or brushes, using liquin to liquefy the paint or spraying with white spirit and scraping with eg credit cards. Returning later, details are added with many layers and textures and perhaps some collage. Often a wash is put on first and the later layers of paint scraped back to show the original colour. The base can be acrylic inks or watercolour and put on with a roller. The background washes are bled into each other and then a dark foreground added. She does a final glaze of liquin not varnish. Claire always has a wide tonal range in each painting and uses complimentary colours such as red and green making sure that there is a balance between the two. Most of her work is spontaneous with only a small amount of planning involved.

Finally, in response to a question from the audience Claire described how she does monoprinting. A photograph is placed under a sheet of acetate and a painting done on the acetate using oil paint. Then a sheet of paper is placed over the painting and so a print is produced. To get variety try using acrylics and different types of paper or card.

The evening was very informative and entertaining and we thank Claire for giving us the opportunity of seeing her beautiful paintings.      

        Claire and her paintings

THE ANNUAL EXHIBITION 2015

 

The exhibition was opened by Peter Rodrigues (who captained the Saint's cup - winning team) on a well attended pre-view evening. The paintings had been hung  that morning by the "Exhibition Team" and were well displayed. Some paintings were quickly sold and Harry Yearsley's beautiful painting of Kingfishers voted best in the exhibition. We had a steady stream of visitors during the next week with a good number of paintings and cards sold. Favourable comments were received on the high standard, wide variety and styles of the pictures. Our thanks are due to all who helped with the organisation and who spent many hours arranging an exhibition declared to be "better than ever".

Peter Rodrigues opens the Exhibition  

Discussing the Exhibition

Harry and his Kingfishers

Success at New Forest Show

Congratulations to Anne Hamerton who has been awarded "Best Seascape" for her painting at the New Forest Show. A beautiful painting which is well worthy of the award. Unfortunately from our point of view the painting has been sold so we can't see it but Anne managed to take a photograph of it with it's medal:-

Anne's Seascape

   

REMINDER TO MEMBERS for August.

All works for the Exhibition should be taken to the Palm Room between 9 and 10am on Friday, 21st August. Details of how to frame paintings etc are on the website.

The Preview Evening is Friday, 21st August between 7-30 and 9-30pm.

 

The next Demonstration Evening is on Wednesday 26th August when Claire Wiltshire will be giving a powerpoint presentation on "Journeys" with audience participation involving acrylics.

 

The next All-day Workshop is on October 17th and full details can be found on the website. 

Linda and her painting

TONAL VALUES by LINDA APPLEBY.

 

The tonal range of a picture gives it vibrancy and life. The tones produce form and  texture and are dependant on the direction of the light on a subject while high contrast is used to give a focal point to a composition. Contrast can be exaggerated by placing a light part of a painting against a dark part and vice versa.

In colour we see the lightest colours e.g. yellow as the brightest and the darkest such as deep purple as the dullest. To lighten the tone white (or water in the case of water colour) is added. To darken the colour neutrals are added such as violet, Paynes grey, sepia or indigo. Using water colour start with a concentrated mix then dilute it until the lightest tone next to white is obtained. Very little pigment is needed for this tone.

For oils or acrylic add white to the darkest tone. Acrylic paints do not have the range of intensity compared with oils but dark colours can easily be mixed eg add green or red to indigo to get a dark colour which can be used in a mix. Raw umber with cobalt and cadmium red or violet with cadmium yellow and indanthrene yellow are other mixes. In watercolour start by leaving the paper white for the highlights then add darker and darker tones. With oils and acrylics start with the very dark tones and gradually work up to white highlights.

Linda then started to complete her painting of a stream and bridge by putting in extra tones. First she mixed a variety of yellow tones to fill in the background to the foliage. She uses a light yellow/green to depict sunlight through the trees and cuts in sky areas in trees using a light blue tone. If too many highlights result from this she goes over and adds darker tones. The denser areas such as branches are painted in with a swordtail brush using green with Payes grey as an intensifier. The same mix is used to give finishing touches to the leaf area.

Paintings can be assessed for their tonal range by taking a photograph putting it into a computer and changing it to monochrome. This will show up the darkest and highlight areas extremely well. Alternatively turn the painting upside down and stand back from it.

We found this evening very informative and are grateful to Linda for making us take a closer look at our paintings and check their tonal range.      

Next Demonstration Evening

Lynne Appleby will speak on tonal values in various mediums on Wednesday 22nd July .  Also entry forms for the Summer Exhibition should be returned.

 

Adventurous Artists

Next adventure will be to Minstead on 15th July meeting at the Trusty Servant at 19-30. ( SN43 7FY) Bring a sketchbook and drawing implements.

 

 

AN EVENING WITH MELVYN GATES.

 

A scene at Keyhaven with boats and the Harbourmaster's Office was the subject of Melvyn's painting at our last meeting. He started by sketching an outline of the boats and buildings on a sheet of Arches Rough watercolour paper. He then laid washes of mainly cobalt blue with a base of crimson in the sky area using a 1" squirrel hair mop. To soften the clouds he used a clean wet brush and took out the hard edges. The upper part of the sky was then darkened with deeper cobalt blue.

The water was painted with cobalt and viridian and the distant Isle of Wight with cobalt, alizarin crimson and yellow ochre bringing the yellow down onto the shingle beach. These colours were also used individually on the boats and buildings and mixed to produce greys used for shadows.

Melvyn thinks that colour temperature is important particularly with regard to greys and plays a part in the way the painting is viewed.

The shapes in the picture were strengthened by adding shadows in greys of varying depths and colour mixes. The shadows on the boats are deepest on the stern and under the keel and highlights - important in the windows - are left as white. Difference in tones of grey as well as colour give texture to walls.

After darkening the sea in the foreground and adding details such as boat supports Melvyn took a final look at the darks to see if they needed deepening to bring the picture together.

 Four or five colours are the usual number for Melvyn to use in his paintings. He also tends to "break the rules" - a sentiment with which we all agreed!

Melvyn currently has an exhibition running - the first for many years - at Artsway, Station Road, New Milton and obviously well worth seeing.

          Finished painting

Half-way stage.