Sommaire pour July 2022 de Leisure Painter

EVENTS Art, purpose, hope Last month we reported on the ipaint4hope charity exhibition at the Driftwood Gallery at Photovogue, Frinton-on-Sea in Essex from 30 May to 29 July, which features the work of 28 East Anglian artists brought together with a common goal to fundraise for life-saving cancer research. Organised by Irena Massarella, the fund-raising event will also feature an online exhibition of work by professional artists including Adebanji Alade, Susan Boddy, Roger Dellar, Eleanor Mann, Lynn Maynard, Sasha Niamat, Andrew Pitt, James Power, Tracey Ross, Billy Showell, Haidee-Jo Summers and Graham Webber. The online exhibition will be available to view until 12 August. If you visit the online exhibition you will also be able to buy bespoke merchandise as well as raffle tickets, priced at £2, with a range…

LEARNING OBJECTIVES ■ Mix transparent and opaque colours ■ Mix watery washes to paint broad areas ■ Strengthen the foreground and details with opaque colour Gouache is designed to be opaque, and that is probably the way you have mostly seen it used. Remember those old posters with their flat matte colours? They were often painted in gouache, but gouache can also be thinned down, making it transparent and much more like watercolour. I love the effect you achieve when you use the two techniques together: opaque and transparent. This involves making different strength mixes of paint, often helped by the addition of white. Test your colour mixes before you paint to make sure that you can achieve a transparent and an opaque mix. The transparent mixes are similar to…

LEARNING OBJECTIVES ■ How to draw with a pen ■ Apply watercolour in a loose style ■ Include figures in your work In this series on watercolour for beginners we have examined the paint, with exercises and small projects that were designed to help you achieve control whilst still using plenty of water and working quickly. What if there is a method that allows you to be carefree and less technical with the paint? Well, there is; it’s called line and wash. All you need to do is draw your subject first with a pen then add the paint. To be honest, the drawing doesn’t have to be that good and the paint can also be a bit scruffy. Paintings done this way are often the better for it. As…

LEARNING OBJECTIVES ■ Explore mixing different strengths of paint to make transparent and opaque mixes ■ Using transparent and opaque mixes to suggest perspective ■ Using brushstrokes to suggest movement In Photograph 1 (below left) we can see a reflection of buildings in still water, but where the surface of the water is disturbed slightly by the breeze. We clearly see that the colour of the buildings and trees are not the same in the reflection as they are on the land. The trees on the left-hand side are darker in the reflection; the light buildings and sky also reflect slightly darker. Photograph 2 (below) was taken when this village pond was still. The white building in the centre has straight edges, but it still reflects slightly darker. On the…

WWW.PAINTERS-ONLINE.CO.UK Michael Daley is a marine and aviation artist, who took up painting professionally 17 years ago following a career in the RAF and time working as Hall Administrator at Holkham Hall in Norfolk. Aircraft have always been important to him. Here he explains how he created this painting from a challenge he set himself. To see more of Michael’s work, post a comment or upload your own images, visit www.painters-online.co.uk Encouraged by his wife to turn his hobby into a profession, Michael Daley set up a studio in their garden and, in his words, changed his life. ‘My time in the RAF took me around this country and beyond. Aircraft were always part of my working day and so it seemed only natural to begin by discovering if I…

LONDON ■ Bankside Gallery 48 Hopton Street SE1. 020 7928 7521; www.banksidegallery.com ‘RE Original Prints 2022’: 13 May to 10 June. ‘Society of Designer Craftsmen: Transformations’, 15 to 26 June. ■ Chelsea Old Town Hall King’s Road, SW3. www.chelseaartsociety.org.uk ‘Chelsea Art Society’: 73rd annual exhibition, 16 to 20 June. ■ The Courtauld Gallery Somerset House, Strand WC2. 020 3947 7777; www.courtauld.ac.uk ‘Edvard Munch: Masterpieces from Bergen’, 27 May to 4 September. ■ Grosvenor Gallery 35 Bury Street SW1. 020 7484 7979; www.grosvenorgallery.com ‘See The Richards?’: paintings, watercolours and sculptures by Jim Moir (aka Vic Reeves), 14 to 28 May. ■ Mall Galleries The Mall SW1. 020 7930 6844; www.mallgalleries.org.uk ‘The Society of Graphic Artists’: 101st annual open exhibition, 17 to 21 May. ‘The Sovereign Collection’: solo exhibition by contemporary artist,…

In the summer of 1812, Sheikh Ibrahim emerged from the great slit in the mountain of Jebel al Khubtha, known as the Siq, and came upon the most incredible sight. Before him rose the royal tomb of Al Khazneh with its tall Hellenistic façade, the so-called Treasury. He had stumbled on the rose-red city of Petra, having crossed deserts to find a suitable mountain-top to sacrifice his goat – or so he said. Disguised as an Arab, the good sheikh was in fact the Swiss explorer, Johann Ludwig Burckhardt. He was intent on secretly visiting this remote spot in the Ottoman Empire after hearing of this extraordinary place amidst wild mountain scenery. Burckhardt was acutely aware that he might not survive this trip if his true identity were discovered, even…

LEARNING OBJECTIVES ■ Explore simple painted papers ■ Make a stencil and patterns ■ Adapt found papers It happens to most of us at some point every year: a resolve to eat more fruit and vegetables, especially green ones. In addition to being good for us, however, fresh fruit and vegetables are beautiful to look at and wonderful to paint. One way to begin incorporating extra vegetables into your diet is to paint them then eat them! In this two-part article, I will be showing you how to create fruit and vegetable collages using painted paper. Painted paper collages make wonderful kitchen art and are a great way to use up old paints and recycle paper. Materials This list may look rather intimidating but you will likely have everything you…

LEARNING OBJECTIVES ■ Understand basic shapes ■ Draw a shell in graphite pencil ■ Apply colour using coloured pencils We are now halfway through our 12-month learn-to-draw series so it’s a good time to review and consolidate our skills before progressing to more advanced concepts. This month, we will practise drawing seashells, first with graphite pencils – based on the threedimensional shapes we learned to draw in February – then the technique of layering coloured pencils that was introduced last month. Throughout history, seashells have been used as currency, tools, food and drink receptacles, as wind musical instruments, in jewellery and artwork, as buttons, in horticulture to raise the calcium level of soil, and collected simply for their beauty. With their infinite variety of interesting shapes, sizes, colours and markings,…

PAPER STRETCHERS Stretch your watercolour paper (up to 140lb) and dry it tight as a drum in minutes and it will not cockle or pull away no matter how wet the wash. The board is made from top-quality lacquered wood and comes with four plastic gripper rods and full instructions. This is a simple and certain way to use lightweight paper and save time and money with no fuss. www.artsupplies.co.uk PASTELMAT® PAD PastelMat® offers a coarser surface than velour, but softer than sandpaper. This A4 pad includes 30 sheets of 360gsm paper in a selection of colours, as well as a protective crystal paper divider. Even when rubbing out or wetting the paper, it will keep its original properties. It supports wet techniques without affecting its texture or hanging surface.…

Exhibitions ■ Christchurch Arts Guild Exhibition at the Red House Museum, Quay Road, Christchurch BH23 1BU, 18 June to 17 July. Open Wednesday to Saturday, 10am to 4pm, 12 to 4pm on Sunday. ■ Milford Art Group Exhibition at All Saints Church Hall, Church Hill, Milford SO41 0SQ, 30 July to 13 August. Open daily, 10am to 5.30pm; from 11am to 5.30pm on Sundays and closing at 4pm on final day. Visit www.milfordartgroup.com ■ Roche Art Group One-day exhibition at the WI Hall, Bellingham Lane, Rayleigh, Essex on Saturday 28 May, 10am to 4pm. Visit www.rocheartgroup.wix.com/roche-art-group ■ St Mary’s Art Group Summer exhibition at Holt Village Hall, The Street, Holt, Trowbridge BA14 6QH on 2 and 3 July, 10.30am to 3.30pm each day Entrance is free. Hot and cold drinks…

LEARNING OBJECTIVES ■ Paint from photographs ■ Formulate a concept ■ Use a limited palette TONY’S TOP TIPS • Don’t be tempted to skip the planning stages • Make sure your pens have waterproof ink • Use transparent colours to keep your linework visible Last month, out of three possible views and pleased that I’d gone the extra mile (or in this case just 50 yards) to fi nd it, I chose the photo (left) I took from the gardener’s compost heap as the starting point for a commission to paint a local church as a gift from the congregation to the departing vicar. I also shared how I thought through what I wanted my painting to say and how best to go about achieving that. Top of my to-do…

LEARNING OBJECTIVES ■ Evaluate alternative compositions ■ Add values to create depth, light and life Have you wasted valuable painting time searching for the elusive ‘perfect’ reference photograph? As an alternative, why not try using an ‘adequate’ photo instead, treating it as a jumping–off point rather than your final destination? Creating identical copies of photographs can be a trap for the unwary artist, preventing you from seeing new possibilities, and focusing your attention on minute details instead of allowing yourself to see your painting in its entirety. In addition, photographs can contain huge amounts of unnecessary detail and catch animals in strange poses, so they should always be used with great care. In this two-part painting project, I have taken an example of an ‘adequate’ photograph of an African elephant…

LEARNING OBJECTIVES ■ Rules and regulations for miniature painting ■ Most popular material used ■ Follow a step-by-step demonstration of a 5×5cm painting Painting in miniature has become increasingly popular in the past 40 years, with the modern miniature being a world away from the original portrait miniature dating back over 400 years in England, to Henry VIII. Its origins lie in the art of limning, the painting of illuminated manuscripts on vellum, which reached great heights in the Middle Ages, but had sunk to a low point by the beginning of the reign of Henry VIII. It was not until the mid-16th century that the first English miniaturist, Nicholas Hilliard, rose to prominence. By the 1700s ivory had largely replaced vellum, needing the technique of stippling, using tiny brushstrokes…