Sommaire pour Summer 2021 de Leisure Painter

New English Art Club The New English Art Club is dedicated to promoting the very best figurative, observational and painterly work in the UK. Past members have included such luminaries as Stanley Spencer, David Bomberg, Vanessa Bell, Gwen John and, more recently, Antony Eyton. Its annual exhibition is always eagerly anticipated, featuring work by its members as well as work by emerging artists selected from open submission. The New English Art Club’s annual exhibition can be seen at the Mall Galleries in London, from 25 June until 3 July, with pre-booking required. For exhibition details visit www.mallgalleries.org.uk and www.newenglishartclub.co.uk for more information about the club. LONDON ■ Bankside Gallery 48 Hopton Street SE1. 020 7928 7521; www.banksidegallery.com ‘Summer at Bankside Gallery’: original pieces by contemporary painters and printmakers, 18 June…

LEARNING OBJECTIVES ■ Use a photo as a starting point ■ Form a view and make decisions ■ Create something new and unique The key word for me in the phrase ‘painting from a summer holiday photo’ is from. Its dictionary definition is ‘the place where someone or something starts’ so why do so many of us use the photograph as our intended destination? In other words, we fall into the trap of copying or replicating the image, rather than using it as the starting point for our own take on the subject. As a stepping stone to swapping that trap for the freedom and enjoyment of creating something 100 per cent personal to you, this month’s project is to use my summer holiday photo from Skelwith Bridge in Cumbria…

LEARNING OBJECTIVES ■ Observe and enjoy the various subject options within a local, accessible space ■ Explore practical issues and begin acclimatising to working outdoors ■ Tackle perspective drawing from life, with a simple method Over the next few months, I hope to tempt you outdoors. I’ll be taking you plein-air painting, or at least virtually, and I’ll gradually explain a process that can make this experience hugely rewarding, rather than scary as people sometimes think. Painting or drawing outdoors is popular for many reasons, and you don’t have to venture far. Whilst you shouldn’t feel it is necessary, many artists love it and would say it is of great benefit for honing skills and incorporating spontaneity into their work, among many other reasons. If you’re an outdoor person, it’s…

LEARNING OBJECTIVES ■ How to use a crown-shaped knife ■ Add interest to your seascapes ■ Build your colour-mixing confidence Painting seascapes is a great opportunity to exploit the palette knife fully and enjoy some of the rich textures and forms that can be created with it. I like to use oil paint for this approach, as it is more forgiving and will allow areas within the painting to be manipulated whilst still wet to create smooth or textured surfaces. The combination of knives that work well for me are: the teardrop-shaped RGM 4, the angled blade of the RGM 109, which has a non-stick coating, and a crown-shaped knife, made by Starvast (Figure 1, above left). Each knife makes their own unique contribution of marks to the production of…

Visit www.painters-online.co.uk/store and click on the link to books to buy the latest practical art books available from LP’s online bookshop. There’s also 20% off all Search Press books in our bookshop this month! A lyrical eye Andrew Lambirth’s beautiful new book, Diana Armfield: A Lyrical Eye, celebrates the 100th birthday of one of Britain’s most revered artists. Together with her husband, Bernard Dunstan, Diana has spent her life focusing on the things that are important to her: marriage, family and career. ‘I think we both felt we needed the first two most,’ she writes, ‘though wanting a successful career as well, if possible.’ Initially, she trained as a textile designer, working on fabrics and wallpapers and, in fact, it wasn’t until 1965 when on holiday in Arezzo that she…

PRIZE LETTER This month’s prize letter writer will receive a selection of eight Clairefontaine Paint’ON pads, which are suitable for a variety of media and techniques, courtesy of ExaClair, worth over £75. https://exaclairlimited.com, telephone 01553 696600. The prize will be despatched by ExaClair. We will share the winner’s name and address with them for this purpose only. Impasto for the first time I was interested to read Linda Birch’s article ‘Explore your medium’ in the May issue of Leisure Painter, which included a section on impasto painting using acrylics. I have just started painting again after an 11-year absence and I even used the oils I had tucked away in a drawer that are at least 11-years-old. This was the first time I completed an entire painting using knives. I…

LEARNING OBJECTIVES ■ How to visualise a scene ■ How to work with multiple references ■ Follow a step-by-step acrylic process, practising a variety of techniques In the previous issue, we looked at how we can combine different elements from our holiday photos (right and below) to create a new fantasy landscape. We made tracings, composed them to our liking then transferred them to paper or canvas (opposite). Now it is time to add colour and life to our Caribbean scene. Whilst the following steps will take you through my method of painting this landscape, your fantasy world may have entirely different elements included. This is where it is time to tap into your imagination and visualise what you want to paint. Think about the light and how it falls,…

LEARNING OBJECTIVES ■ Experience painting a white subject ■ Learn to paint a high level of detail In this part of our series, we move on to a more demanding painting: a detailed wildlife portrait (see photo, left). We’ll need to be accurate with the underlying drawing and precise with our brushstrokes to create a high level of realism. I’ve chosen a snowy owl, to give you experience of painting a white subject with plenty of detail. Even when using photographic reference, I also make sketches to learn more about my subject’s appearance and character (right). If you are taking a photograph of a largely white subject, aim to do so on an overcast day or when the subject is in shadow. Unless you are an expert photographer, the white…

LEARNING OBJECTIVES ■ How to apply and lift off masking tape and fluid ■ Practise the wet-in-wet and splattering techniques for a sand-like background Seashells are so varied in colour, shape and detail, they make an interesting subject to get our brushes into. We need to consider a variety of issues, including overall shape, curves, depressions, shadowed areas and highlights – and let’s not forget the fun we will have painting the sandy background. Transfer the image The first thing we need to do is draw the outline of the shell. You can do this freehand, using the grid system, or with graphite-backed paper, which is my choice for this tutorial. Graphite-backed paper is a great way to get an accurate outline onto the paper quickly so you can start…

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WWW.PAINTERS-ONLINE.CO.UK Laurence De Netto is a self-taught landscape artist, based in Nottinghamshire. With the help of a Michael James Smith online tutorial, he has been experimenting with ways to improve his old paintings by re-working them. Here he explains his working process. To see more of Laurence’s work, post a comment or upload your own images, visit www.painters-online.co.uk ‘After decades of painting in watercolour, I wanted to switch to a medium that would allow me to adopt a more detailed and realistic painting style. I also wanted to find a medium that would not dry as quickly as acrylic paint or as slowly as traditional oils and be more predictable and controllable than watercolour. I chose fast-drying alkyd oil paints, because one layer of paint is dry enough to paint…

Opportunities ■ NiddArt trail The popular Niddart Trail will go ahead this year – with both a virtual and actual event. The trail showcases art and creative work by the local artists, craftspeople and makers of Nidderdale in North Yorkshire and surrounding areas. The online trail launches on 1 August, while the actual trail will take place between 20 and 30 August, with participating artists’ homes, studios, galleries, shops and workshops all complying with current Covid rules. If you are an artist, club or group and would like to take part in the 2021 Niddart Trail, go to www.niddart.org.uk to register. Full details are available on the website or email niddarttrail@gmail.com ■ Society of Women Artists There’s still time to enter your work into the 2021 Society of Women Artists’…

LEARNING OBJECTIVES ■ Tips & techniques for using coloured pencils ■ Practise burnishing with coloured pencils ■ Use a gouache painting as your reference material The coloured pencil is vastly underrated and often deemed as a medium only for children to use. With the rise of adult colouring books, however, there has been in an increase in their popularity, but they are often still not used to their full capacity. I love working with coloured pencils. There are so many techniques and styles with which to experiment. Burnishing In this article, we will be practising the burnishing technique, where all your layers of coloured pencils smooth out and merge so that you can no longer see the pencil strokes or even define the different colours. Even the tooth of the…

Part 7 What can we do when we have painter’s block? Andy Walker takes us through six creative ideas for inspiring and supporting us LEARNING OBJECTIVES ■ Try six exercises to reignite your practice ■ How to fill your sketchbook ■ Use your computer to find inspiration Have you ever had times when you were itching to paint, but you couldn’t think of anything you wanted to paint? I have wasted many hours preparing my paints, stretching paper or finding a canvas, rearranging my materials, tidying my brushes, and generally fiddling around whilst I waited for inspiration to strike. The problem is that the inspiration never comes, and I finally give in and pack all my kit away again. So where can we find inspiration when we are wanting to…

LEARNING OBJECTIVES ■ Paint dark to light, thin to thick ■ Work across the entire painting, one colour at a time ■ See things in an abstract way. Divide the subject into several shapes, each one affected by light in a different way There is something magical about marbles; the transparency of the glass, the way they shine through the light, and the colourful highlights and shadows they cast on the ground. I was always attracted to them as a child and now as a painter, I clearly understand where the appeal comes from. By painting them, you will learn so much about light and how it bounces, shines and goes through each object. It is also a perfect exercise for seeing your subject in an abstract way. Indeed, as…

LEARNING OBJECTIVES ■ How and when to apply masking fluid ■ Paint wet-in-wet and wet-in-dry techniques ■ How to find a successful composition I always enjoy a visit to Scotney Castle (www.nationaltrust.org.uk/ scotney-castle), a National Trust property in Kent where the oldest part of the building dates back to the 14th century. I live near enough to go for a day’s sketching and painting as well as taking several photos. While I was there last, I painted the view of the partially ruined castle while sitting on the raised bank opposite the moat (right). I sketched on a Hahnemühle Britannia Panoramic 300gsm watercolour block using a Pentel black sketching pen then painted it in watercolour with ultramarine blue, cobalt blue, raw sienna, burnt sienna, lemon and olive green. Painting on…

LEARNING OBJECTIVES ■ The differences between heavy-body and free-flow acrylics ■ How to work with mediums, pastes and gels Acrylic is such a versatile medium. The paints may be used transparently like watercolour, impasto like oils, mixed with other mediums and materials, or so liquid that they are pourable. All paints are made using pigments and a medium to bind them together. In the case of oil paints, obviously oil. With watercolour, not water, but gum Arabic. Even pastels are made from the pigment bound together with gum Arabic and allowed to dry, but as opposed to watercolour, the pigment is coarser and therefore not so transparent. In the case of acrylic paints, it is the same pigment, but an acrylic medium is used to bind it. Acrylic medium, like…