Sommaire pour December 2024 de Leisure Painter

Mixed media Due to popular demand, here is a bonus demonstration to complete my series on British butterflies. The wall butterfly (Lasiommata megera) is an interesting subject to paint with its intricate wing markings. This butterfly is widespread in northern England and southern Scotland. It is named after its habit of basking on walls and rocks, where it is well camouflaged. The following demonstration practises the technique of using a combination of oil and acrylic paints in the one painting, thereby exploiting the specific drying qualities of both media. Oil paints are slow drying, with some colours taking up to a week to dry, and even longer if applied thickly. Acrylic paints, on the other hand, dry within minutes. This means the normal oil-painting process can be speeded up by…

Over the past few months, we have been on a mixed-media journey together, exploring how to combine watercolour with other media to increase the breadth of artistic possibilities. In this final article, we will pull many of the techniques together in an artwork. First a warning though. Watercolour is a beautiful medium with lots of technical challenges. Do not use mixed media as a gimmick or to paper over a lack of technique. It is at its strongest when it brings a new language to your work. Developing your practice When I first started to explore mixed media I found journaling was incredibly useful. It is a powerful tool to help you explore new ideas and to develop your mixed-media practice. This intimate and personalised process allows for experimentation, self-expression,…

Sidmouth Society of Artists Roger Marks writes: Last month's demonstration for the Sidmouth Society of Artists featured mid-Devon artist, Julie Dunster. A substantial audience of members assembled at Sidmouth Conservative Club to witness her production of a subtle painting of a calm country landscape. She had ‘one she made earlier’ also on display so that we could see what she was striving for. The theme of her presentation was entitled ‘Atmospheric perspective of landscape, in oils’. Her composition contained no buildings, roads or other regular features, which many artists rely on to establish perspective and no straight façades that resolve at a vanishing point so, in effect, there was nothing lineal available to indicate perspective. We could see from the picture she was following, which featured fairly random trees, hedges,…

Great master work ‘Discover Constable and The Hay Wain’ will be held in the Sunley Room of The National Gallery, London from 17 October to 2 February. The exhibition explores the social, political and artistic context of the English landscape at the time of The Hay Wain‘s production. The exhibition commemorates the 200th anniversary of when The Hay Wain received the gold medal from the French King Charles X at the 1824 Paris Salon. One of the National Gallery's principal aims is to show how Constable came to be established as his work entered the collections of major galleries and museums. The exhibition will also look at the ownership of the painting and its acquisition by the National Gallery in 1886 and examine the rise in popularity of both Constable…

A major new exhibition that explores different approaches to landscape painting from the 17th century to the present day will be held in Norwich Castle over the coming months. The exhibition brings together works by JMW Turner, Claude Lorrain, Canaletto and Paul Nash. Featuring seven oil paintings by Turner alongside nine of his works on paper, Turner's visionary approach is compared and contrasted with works by many other artists – from those who influenced him, such as Claude Lorrain and Canaletto, through great contemporaries like John Constable and John Sell Cotman, to those he influenced, such as John Ruskin and Philip Wilson Steer. In total over 70 works by more than 40 artists are on display in the exhibition. ‘JMW Turner and Changing Visions of Landscape’ at Norwich Castle Museum…

You will need ■ Surface • Saunders Waterford 300gsm rough paper, secured to a board with brown gummed tape, 9x12in. (23x30.5cm) ■ Brushes • Da Vinci squirrel-hair rounds, Nos. 3 and 0 • Rigger No. 0 ■ Schmincke Horadam watercolour • Yellow ochre • Vanadium yellow • Burnt sienna • Burnt umber • Vermilion • French ultramarine ■ Miscellaneous • Faber-Castell Pitt Artist XS pen, black (archival and water-resistant ink) • Daler-Rowney FW white acrylic ink • Isopropyl • HB pencil • Kneadable putty eraser • Wax candle Step 1 With the HB pencil, roughly sketch an outline drawing. I used the photograph as guidance for size and proportions. I worked these out in the way of units, counting the head as one unit, for example, then saw how…

In this, the last in my series on working with sketchbooks, I wanted to look at a few departures from the norm, by virtue of the medium, the subject, or the support, which might help you to maintain a lively approach to capturing scenes while on the move. Unless otherwise noted, by the way, everything here is from my 21x21cm sketchbooks. Daler-Rowney (and probably others) produce an A6 size watercolour paper postcard on which you can paint a scene, tear it off and post it home. Working at a small scale develops good discipline and a grasp of scale when you are setting out a sketch. Postcards (above) shows two efforts. I used waterproof 0.1 fineliner pens for both: black UniPin for the first and a Zig sepia drawing pen…

The Royal Institute of Oil Painters’ Annual Exhibition 2024 will be held at the Mall Galleries from 28 November to 14 December. The ROI's exhibition always attracts the work of talented young artists alongside established members. Expect to be surprised by the vast array of styles and subjects on display. Booking isn't necessary. Visit Mall Galleries, The Mall, London SW1. www.mallgalleries.org.uk…

This month's project is to draw and paint one or both views of a wonderful vintage car I saw in a local car park (left and below). The owner told me it's a Henry Ford Model T, commonly known as a Tin Lizzie, and that it was built in 1924 so it's celebrating its centenary this year. Don't worry if you're not used to drawing cars, vintage or otherwise. I'll show you with another classic car in the following demonstration that, if you can draw a square and a couple of rectangles, you're already well on the way! And you can follow the same process for Tin Lizzie's front view and adapt it slightly for the side view. Next month, I'll show you step-by-step demonstrations of my versions of Tin…

DANIEL SMITH COLOURS USED IN THIS ARTICLE Aussie red gold – great for autumn scenes and glowing skies. Green apatite genuine – a rich green with heavy granulations when applied in strength. Hansa yellow light – brilliant cool yellow that will liven up a landscape. Hematite violet genuine – a blobby, brownish colour that works well for dark rocks or bare ground to give a lumpy textural quality. Lunar black – most of the time I avoided black in the past, but this colour produces stunning granulations and mixes well. Lunar blue – the granulations are a bit unpredictable in this lovely, moody colour. Moonglow – a popular plum colour useful for distant hills and shadow areas, or for atmospheric skies. Quinacridone sienna – a fiery colour that produces dramatic…

When I'm demonstrating to art groups and societies, I am often asked about the materials I use and why. My answer is always the same: use a small number of the best materials you can afford. This advice applies to all materials but to brushes in particular. Pro Arte is a long-established brush maker based in Skipton, a small town bordering the Yorkshire dales. I chose three of the company's brushes for their quality and durability. All three brushes point well and hold lots of water and colour, enabling me to cover large areas but at the same time having the ability to pick around shapes without the need of masking fluid. ‘Painting the impression of leafy branches from an overhanging tree in the top right-hand corner was a dream…