Sommaire pour February 2022 de Leisure Painter

News ■ SPWMO Open Painting Competition 2021 The winners have now been announced in the second annual Open Painting Competition 2021 organised by the Society of Painters in Water-Mixable Oils (www.spwmo.org.uk). Entries were invited in two categories: amateur and professional on various themes. The winner of the Leisure Painter prize for the best portrait/figurative painting in the amateur category went to Rachel Boxall for her painting Old Girl from Morocco. Rachel wins a year’s free subscription to Leisure Painter magazine. She writes: ‘I have been painting most of my life but some time back I decided to do it properly and have been studying fine art with the Virtual Art Academy online, which I enjoy very much, and my work has evolved and improved with study. ‘This painting was done…

Stuck in a rut with your painting? Are you doing the same-old, same-old every time? Why not learn a new language? The language of mark making. Recently, a student commented, ‘I hate mark making for the sake of it’. I found this strange, to say the least, as every painting I know is the result of making a mark of some sort. The artist, Emily Ball perfectly describes marks as, ‘a dictionary of possibilities to create a visual language… an essential tool without which no work can be created’. She also goes on to note that investigation of your materials improves your painting skills and develops your individuality. Simply put, do what you’ve always done and you’ll get what you’ve always got, so why not extend your visual vocabulary and…

Flowers have been painted in many different ways and in almost all cultures throughout the history of art, but today’s artists are especially fortunate in having a far wider choice than previously – once-exotic blooms such as azaleas can now be seen in many parks and gardens, and a wealth of choice is offered by florists and even supermarkets. Those who can grow their own flowers can choose from a range of seeds and seedlings to decide which types of flowers interest them most. The medium The great Dutch flower pieces of the 17th and 18th centuries were painted in oils, while botanical artists used watercolour, a medium still very popular with flower painters. But acrylic seems almost tailor made for the subject, because it is so versatile. You can…

You will need ● Winsor & Newton Cotman watercolour tubes: Ultramarine, light red, raw sienna and burnt sienna ● Stephen Coates Spearhead No. 8 Round brush ● Pro Arte Prolene No. 2 Round brush ● Bockingford NOT 140lb (300gsm) paper ● Palette or tray for mixing ● Dry rag or cloth Last month we looked at how watercolour is different from any other medium. First and foremost, watercolour paint is a fluid. The mixture of paint pigments and water produce a truly unique result, but beginners often use too little water. Hopefully, the exercises that I suggested last month helped you to understand how fluid the paint should be and that the water is not to be feared. In this second article of this 12-month course, we are looking at…

In this my second article in the series, I’d like to talk about subtlety, in observation as well as in recording, since we must be able to see and recognise before we can paint. Paris Pluie (above) shows some ways of bringing a little more finesse into the painting of a scene. After some limited masking of mainly thin slivers of light, I laid down an underpainting (more of this in a later article) of lost-edged colours using a 1in. hake, to establish the mood and major tonal passages and to provide unity before adding all the finite, hard-edged information, including pedestrians, vehicles, buildings and street furniture, in a second stage. There is a feeling of airy, open space in the boulevard in the top left quarter (above and Figure…

When you are inspired by any subject the desire to start painting quite often overrides any thought of planning. To give yourself a better chance of success, each stage should be planned before you begin. Just because snow scenes are generally more tonal than colourful, it doesn’t mean that there is less need for planning each stage. This lovely, rendered cottage (below) sits at the edge of a field near a busy road in Chelmsford, Essex. I have passed this cottage many times and it has never really inspired me enough to take out my painting material, but after looking through my snow scene folders last week, I thought I would give it more consideration. The simplicity of its composition in many ways makes it a good subject for a…

Pen, ink and watercolour is one of the most versatile of techniques. It is useful to watercolourists as an extra tool and, for those who prefer drawing, it is a way to work with watercolour painlessly. In this article, I want to look at ways of working with pen and watercolour. Which comes first, watercolour or ink? The choice is yours; either way works well, although there are differences. Watercolour The partnership between line and wash is a balance, where both complement each other. When using watercolour with line, try to keep with transparent colours rather than the opaquer ones, as opaque colour can blur and diminish the effect of line. Avoid heavy use of yellow ochre, cerulean blue, light red, lemon, cadmium yellow and cadmium red, and keep these…

Last month we looked at painting calm, smooth sea, where the trick is to keep the gentle waves looking smooth with the use of subtle blending. Painting a more agitated sea, as it breaks on rocks, for instance, or as it comes up a steeply shelving pebble beach, needs the use of different techniques for applying the paint but it is not as difficult as you might first imagine. There are a few tricks that help to make the result look more believable, if not entirely accurate. You will need to look for and observe first hand the way in which the wave behaves as it comes towards the shore. There are various elements that contribute to the behaviour of the wave, including tide direction, coming in or going out,…

STAR LETTER Barry Sullivan wins this month’s star letter prize. He will receive two new Saunders Waterford Rough pads, courtesy of St Cuthberts Mill, worth over £64. The prize will be despatched by St Cuthberts Mill. We will share the winner’s name and address with St Cuthberts for this purpose only. www.stcuthbertsmill.com Art club inspiration I think you’ll agree that there’s been precious little to shout about recently, but, as we discovered at Tadworth Art Group (TAG), some rather unexpected artistic benefits have come about purely due to the lockdowns. Suddenly faced with no weekly meetings, no workshops and definitely no exhibitions, it was a case of ‘what happens now’? At first, inertia set in, where creativity was conspicuous by its absence, but Sky Arts Portrait Artist of the Week…

Best in Show Bury Art Society The Bury Art Society was delighted to be able to stage its annual exhibition in 2021 at the Bury Art & Sculpture Museum, thanks to the support of the museum’s staff who also organised the public vote. Anne Fryer’s work (above) was chosen by the public as their favourite. Members of the society meet on Mondays from 6.45 until 8.45pm. New members are always welcome. For details visit http://buryartsociety.com NEWS Collaborative zooms The zoom demonstrations organised by the Sidmouth Art Society and the Exmouth Art Group have proved invaluable during lockdowns and so popular that the groups plan to continue them throughout the coming year. Sidmouth Art Society member, Terence Crook tells us about some recent demonstrations: ‘Two workshops were organised to fit in…

There is something magical about frost. It covers the ground like a thin white veil and turns all the bright colours to beautiful greys. It shimmers and sparkles with the first rays of sunshine then disappears and quickly melts away. Frost doesn’t have a colour as such. It is not as thick and opaque as the white snow, and it isn’t as smooth and reflective as water. In a way, painting frost is a bit like painting a landscape covered with a semi-transparent light grey layer; the colours of the grass, leaves and flowers are still showing, but their saturation and intensity are diminished. Areas still covered in frost are often in the shade, and therefore often contain cool, muted tones, which can contrast nicely with bright areas in the…

Let me introduce you to Misha (above), who was one of two grey wolves based at Paradise Wildlife Park in Broxbourne, Hertfordshire. Misha shared her home at the park with her best friend, Tatra, and I fell in love with both girls the first time I laid eyes on them. After a few times of visiting, Tatra would come to the front where I was and sniff my hand through the tiny gaps in the wooden structure of the fence to say hello. I was totally in awe the first time she did this and even more hooked on them both! Misha, however, was the one that I got the best photographic footage of over the years, because she was the more inquisitive of the two. This image of Misha…