Design sketches

Sue Murphy is a member of Ross-on-Wye District U3A. She wrote to say ‘Our U3A were hoping to have a big celebration display in June, which will obviously be postponed but our Art Group have planned a display board of 9 x9 cm paintings representing different groups (there are 49). It’s very challenging in terms of ideas and size.

Here are a couple of my ideas, trial sketches and also a first idea of an illuminated letter. Those monks knew a thing or two, didn’t they? The book, incidentally, is a collection of all Leonardo’s drawings.’

Autobiographical Paintings

Diana Woods-Humphery writes: ‘This piece is painted in acrylics and dates from a task which Tony Bateman suggested i.e. an autobiographical memoir in paint. In this case it is paint with some collage. I ended up with something a bit strange but it does relate to people in my life - apart from the Staffordshire figure which represents a current obsession of my own.’ She suggests ‘it might start off other people with the autobiographical memoir thing.’

Art doesn't stop

Although we cannot hold our usual monthly demonstrations nor paint together in confined spaces, our members are still continue painting and drawing. We shall be sharing some of their work on this blog from time to time.

Here's the first few

by Ian Fountaine

by Ian Fountaine

Croome Landscape Park by Richard Hyde

FEBRUARY DEMONSTRATION WITH PASCALE BIGOT

Pascale made a return visit to Ledbury with her adventurous and creative mixed media demonstration using Pebeo paints, acrylics, inks and gold leaf.
Her relaxed and imaginative style belies her careful preparation and attention to detail which results in exciting and carefully executed works of art.
Her previous favourite medium was pastel and she brought along a collection of books which contained her vibrant works.  
In addition she has now branched out into costume jewellery, again with that delicate and detailed approach.

Beginning with a detailed drawing Pascale introduced us to the application of gold leaf into her first design - not for the faint hearted!  The final element in the design would be the addition of dragonflies at the tip of the lavender stalk!

Her second design demonstrated the use of Pebeo paints in subtle shades of gold.  Mixing the colours directly on the surface with a stick she blended carefully between the lines. Close inspection showed the luminosity of this medium and the glass-like effect it has.

Still using Pebeo, Pascale chose a further design to demonstrate the use of the cloisonne technique, building up the colour between the carefully drawn petals and central eye of the flowers.  The final photograph shows an example of Pascale's fine detailed work of a kingfisher using gold leaf.  A stimulating demonstration much enjoyed by all who attended!  Thank you Pascale!

George Boyton - Planning your watercolour

This was a real treat for the watercolour artists among us and I hope many of the tips such as composition and using contrasting tones to create a focal point to draw in the viewer's eye were useful to those working with other media.

Drawing

George has been greatly influenced by the Australian painter Joseph Zbuvic and the stages of planning and producing a watercolour painting he uses:

  1. Observation/imagination
  2. Composition
  3. Drawing
  4. Wash
  5. Wet-in-wet
  6.  Dry brush strokes

He explained the compositional choices he was making as he made his drawing - in this case dividing the paper into two main shapes with the smaller shape in the upper part. A diagonal line across this upper shape divided distant land from sky and introduced a dynamic element. The boat house and foreground boats introduced some medium sized shapes. The aim would be to lead the eye to a focal point in the region of the boat house where the early morning light coming from the right would strike the right hand elevation of the structure.

George set out his plan for the wash stage and then proceeded with it. He began with a golden wash creating and leaving a bead near the  division of the two major shapes, taking this wash up into the sky area and then adding a thin wash of lavender (a cooling colour) at the top. While leaving that to merge with the golden wash the bead was picked up again and the golden was taken down so the upper two-thirds of the support was covered and this was then merged with a green/blue wash to which darker marks were added to give the illusion of ripples. The paint needed to be moist but not very wet for this to work well.

NOVEMBER DEMONSTRATION

November's demonstration was a return visit by Eric Watson   demonstrating animal painting in pastels. Eric worked mainly with pastel pencils and moved to coloured pencils for finer details towards the end. His favoured support is now Clairefontaine Pastelmat which has a smooth cork grain surface. Animal reference photos for artists are available online.

More information about Eric's work can be found on his website https://www.ericwatsonart.com/

Below are a few images from the demo.  Thanks to Eric for an excellent demo.

Showing the difference between pencil and pastel
Eye to the left in pencil
Eye to the right in pastel

Many colours in the eye

Background added after most of the snow leopard
has been painted

Some whiskers added

OCTOBER DEMONSTRATION by Jo Francis Dowden

Our October demonstration was by the hugely popular and energetic Jo Francis Dowden.  An acknowledged master of the art of watercolour, Jo had driven up from the Sussex coast to a packed audience of the Ledbury Art Society.

Jo had visited us some years ago and was welcomed back by the Chair Richard Hyde.

Jo had taken a scene and traced it first, then transferring it to his Arches paper.

As light is a key element of all his paintings, Jo demonstrated how he used masking fluid (Holbein) to pick out where key light elements were.  He mixed a considerable amount of paint using Pthalo Green and Yellow with a little burnt sienna, pointing out that most of us mix way too little paint for those initial first washes! Using a hairdryer (or two) he ensured the masking fluid was dry, leaving those annoying large blobs to manage later.

"Masking creates the space" and urged the audience to use the concept of space more fully when creating a composition.  When asked about the paper he uses, he divulged a catalogue of information on the types and processes of paper making and uses across the globe!  

Placing paper scraps over the river bank he proceeded to spatter water with a sable brush (No 12 Rosemary) as sables release water far better than synthetics.

Using a larger brush he used the spattering technique further and added Cad Lemon to his previous mix to create power and strength of tone in some areas, adding that it was better to "correct your mistakes sooner" than leave them!
All Joe's pictures have no narrative and no title but he was adamant that they were about "seeing" and that value is the key.  "Value does all the work : colour gets the glory."

Using a mix of Payne's grey he added the darks and the detail of tree trunks before working on the water and the path, checking the placement of the trees with the tracing.  The water was pthalo blue and burnt umber before adding more greens and detail with the brush.  After drying he added more layers for intense darks, transitioning as he worked upwards.  Using Naples yellow and a cobalt turquoise he added further detail to the trees.  Quin.Gold was added for the water keeping it wet and adding Cadmium yellow for pure highlights before adding reflections of trees and a little blue in the water.  Using a damp brush, he lifted out the colour to portray the muddy underwater.  Carefully removing the masking Jo finalised the painting with highlights in areas of the path and bank and water's edge lightly with a brush.

The finished painting with the mass zones blended and the break zones broken up.  Jo checked in a mirror the reflections and revealed the image to warm appreciation from all.

Thanks Jo for a masterclass full of light and humour!  And good luck in the future!