Nigel Street - Aspire Watercolourist of the Year

Great news for LAS member Nigel Street. He's been named Aspire's Watercolourist of the Year.

Robin Holder - River Severn in Oils

We are very grateful to Robin Holder for stepping in at only a few hours notice to do this demonstration after Mike Skidmore was taken ill. When Robin came to us in February of the previous year he had used watercolour to paint the Severn at Kempsey. This time it was the Severn in Worcester showing the old Rowing Club boathouse behind the racecourse at Pitchcroft. You may have guessed that most of Robin's landscape work features the Severn. He does very little studio work and much prefers to get out in all winds and weathers ... and he's prepared to stand in flood waters while painting! I just hope he's been careful about where he stands in the last couple of weeks as the Severn reached record levels coming slightly higher at Barbourne than it did in 2007.

The demonstration painting was based on a painting that Mike had done a few weeks before. That had the sun coming from the left but for the demonstration he's repositioned it. Even in winter the sun would be higher in the sky when looking south but artists are allowed licence and this painting contre jour allows interesting light to play on the water. The photographs I took were so poor this time that I only include one here and that doesn't show the colour achieved. However, even with the original the tones did suggest moon rather than sunlight.

Do take a look at his website http://www.robinholder.co.uk/ to see more of what he does and find out about the tuition he offers.

Christine Russell - Still Life in Pastels

The still life composed ready for action

Christine achieved some brilliant and subtle colour with pastels. The photos don't do her justice.

She set up a triangular composition with a black backdrop and lit it from the front right. The diagonal with red  stripes in the photo is not part of the composition but the leg of her easel.

She began by quickly sketching in some outlines of the brass pot and the apples, making sure that the oval shape of the pot top was horizontal. She told us she works top to bottom and applies darks before lights. Blending with the fingers is only used for backgrounds. All other blending is done using the pastels themselves by applying pigment with a light touch.

For more information about Christine and to see some examples of her work and get details of workshops and holidays visit her website http://www.art-christinerussell.co.uk

The photos that follow show the demonstration at various stages of progress.

Charles Evans - Watercolour Landscapes

Lindisfarne Castle

Charles Evans enthralled and amuses us with his rapid painting and quick-fire humour. This painting of a scene in Northumberland took about 25 minutes to complete.

His approach is quite literally broad brush - he only had four brushes and although his support was almost vertical throughout that didn't create any problems. Any runs or large beads were soon picked up with the tip of a 1½" brush.

Once he had completed this painting he show us some techniques and after the break did a painting of Alnwick Moor in just 20 minutes. As well as my photos which show step by step progress of the two paintings in this demonstration you can see more on the News page of his website http://www.charlesevansart.com/index.htm

Max Hale - portraits in charcoal

I couldn't resist the temptation: this sketch of Max captures a moment in his demonstration as he answered a question. This is not  charcoal and it's not really creative art as it only reproduces an element of a photograph taken while he was in full flow.

Max used vine charcoal (made from willow twigs) for portraits of two LAS members. Thank you to our sitters, Jane and Tony.

Max achieved a subtlety of tone that I hadn't realised was possible in charcoal - all achieve with just three methods: pressure of application, blending with the finger and erasing with a plastic eraser.

For more information about Max's art and the workshops he runs, visit his website http://www.maxhaleart.co.uk

The pictures that follow show progress with both portraits. Artist  and photographer had a different viewpoints of the sitters.

Nigel Street - landscape in watercolour

On Tuesday I enjoyed a morning with Hereford Art Group watching Nigel Street demonstrate how he paints landscapes in watercolour. Although at the end of the session he had not quite finished, we gained a clear idea of where he was going and picked up some useful tips along the way.

Not quite finished

Having taken part in one of Nigel's Understanding Watercolour weekends a year ago, it was good to get some reminders even though I have a slightly guilty conscience about how little watercolour painting I've done in the last year. For more information on his courses visit Nigel's website.

Hereford Art Group paint most Tuesdays and only have a couple of demonstrators a year: very different from Ledbury Art Society where demonstrations and occasional workshops are the normal pattern.

Nigel's standard landscape palette is worth a mention. He uses plastic palettes with deep wells set out in a 6x2 grid. In the two wells furthest from him he puts pigments useful for atmosphere and distance: cobalt blue light and raw umber (insoluble opaque). The soluble transparent colours are arranged on the left so coming forward from the cobalt blue he has phthalo blue, sap green (which is an optional addition to the basic palette), primary yellow and alazarin crimson or permanent dark red. Notice how the order takes you from background to foreground. At the very front of the palette he has French ultramarine and burnt sienna (insoluble and dense). Yellow ochre is an optional addition which he places to the right of the primary yellow. This is insoluble and opaque and is a good carrier of colour.

Jon Davis - landcape in pastel and acrylic

I'm always fascinated by the many approaches taken by the different demonstrators who come to us each month.  Jon Davis had prepared an canvas board by painting it with white acrylic and he already had the basic scene depicted in light black. Only the sky has been added roughly at this point in the demonstration.

Jon studied classical portrait painting in the studio of Ken Paine. While we were setting up Jon told me how that came about. He had seen Ken working and rather rudely tapped him on the shoulder and asked what he was using. "Pastels.", was the reply and after a searching gaze Ken then asked "When's your birthday?" A date was named and Ken then announced "I've been waiting 20 years for you." They shared a birthday as did Ken with his tutor and so on back through several generations.