Indice dei contenuti per August 2021 in Leisure Painter

EVENTS NiddArt Trail Follow the NiddArt Trail both online and in reality this year, as artists, craftspeople and makers from Nidderdale and the surrounding areas of north Yorkshire open their homes, studios, galleries, shops and workshops for the annual trail. The actual trail, which is fully compliant with current Covid rules, will run from 20 to 30 August, while the online trail launches on 1 August. For full details go to www.niddart.org.uk Young artists Don’t miss the Royal Academy of Arts Young Artists’ Summer Show, featuring works by artists aged between 5 and 19 selected by a panel of judges including Royal Academicians and RA Schools students from over 32,000 entries. The exhibition can be seen at the Clore Learning Centre, Royal Academy of Arts, Piccadilly, London W1 from 13…

Flowers can be a source of light in a room, glowing on a tabletop, and this is how Armfield often portrays them. The chaos of nature, of primal matter, is present in a jug of wild flowers, but so is the ordering hand which arranges them. It is left to the artist to capture both: the one impetus figured in the other. Thus the flowers must not be too carefully ordered, but have that touch of disarray that allows life to breathe through the composition. Let us turn to specifi c paintings to illuminate Armfi eld’s achievement further. Firstly, to Wild Flowers in the Old English Jug, 2017 (right). This superb example of Armfield’s tabletop still-life painting, a genre she has made her own over the past half-century, is a…

LEARNING OBJECTIVES ■ Build confidence in your drawing skills ■ How to simplify a complicated scene ■ Make tone an important part of a subject Following last month’s questions, here are five more common problems related to building confidence when drawing outdoors, using your sketchbook and making more successful sketches and paintings. PROBLEM 1 I want to draw outdoors, but don’t have the time or the confidence SOLUTION Do it anyway, but keep it simple You know you ought to, and you want to, but it never quite works out. You take your sketchbook, make a few marks then get disappointed. There’s the embarrassment of strangers peering over your shoulder and saying: ‘Do you mind if I look?’ without waiting for a reply – and somebody always does. Sketching from…

WWW.PAINTERS-ONLINE.CO.UK Marjorie Firth’s colourful and uplifting painting of flowers and seedlings on a windowsill with a partly opened window represents her thoughts about the freedom experienced by the gradual relaxation of restrictions. Using colour, light and carefully controlled composition, the painting is full of hope, of new life and better things to come. Here she explains her thoughts behind the painting. To see more of Marjorie’s work, post a comment or upload your own images, visit www.painters-online.co.uk ‘I’ve always been interested in art but have had no formal training. I have an English degree and my career was in primary education. When I retired, I joined an art club, started to paint, and haven’t stopped since! ‘I’ve been a PaintersOnline member for many years and love chatting and swapping ideas…

Sea and sky Inspired by light and life, artist Rose Burns will be showing recent work in Sea, Sky, Sirens, Marigolds and Covid Corner at Harbour House Gallery, Kingsbridge, Devon from 24 August to 5 September; www.harbourhouse.org.uk for more details. LONDON ■ Bankside Gallery 48 Hopton Street SE1. 020 7928 7521; www.banksidegallery.com ‘Summer at Bankside Gallery’: original pieces by contemporary painters and printmakers, until 1 August. ‘The Life and Works of Maurice André Kaspar, 1892-1946’, 3 to 8 August. ‘Chelsea Physic Garden: A Year in the Life’, selected artists from the RWS and the RE who have recorded a year in the life of the gardens, 12 to 30 August. ■ Chris Beetles 8 & 10 Ryder Street, St. James’s SW1. 020 7839 7551; www.chrisbeetles.com ‘Chris Beetles Summer Show’, until…

LEARNING OBJECTIVES ■ Tips & techniques for using coloured pencils ■ Practise the burnishing technique ■ Use a gouache painting as your reference material How have you been getting on with the colouring pencils since last month? I hope you enjoyed the last article where we practised the burnishing technique. For this second and final part in the series, we will be studying another creature, the red admiral butterfly, based on my gouache illustration (right). I originally painted last month’s image and this butterfly as part of a diptych so hopefully you will end up with two beautiful artworks, the bee and the butterfly, that can be framed alongside each other. I will be using St Cuthbert’s Botanical Smooth 300gsm paper and, as with the bee drawing, I suggest you…

LEARNING OBJECTIVES ■ Practise painting (and discover the benefits of) using just three colours ■ Choose an outdoor composition and paint it without being too ambitious ■ Test equipment set-up for comfortable and enjoyable outdoor painting In part one last month we looked at a few subject options and sketched in pencil as a good introduction to the whole business of working outdoors. This series of articles is intended as a progression so it might be helpful to refer back to what we already covered. This time, we’ll set out with a determination to paint in watercolour, but again with managed expectations of the outcome. I consider all my plein-air watercolours to be sketches in the way many people use the term, and yet also the fi nal product, since…

LEARNING OBJECTIVES ■ Add texture to your paintings using knives ■ The materials and techniques for adding collage elements to your acrylic paintings ■ Know what your materials can do for you I’ve been working with palette knives and oil paints for some years now, but only recently decided to combine knife work with collage. Acrylics rather than oil is a more appropriate medium when applied over paper collage, as oil and solvents from oil paint can cause the applied paper to degrade over time. The choice of subject helps to dictate the type of approach needed when applying collage materials. I like to collect all types of brochures and publicity pamphlets, which are kept together in a folder for use when creating artwork. I’ve produced quite a few pieces…

LEARNING OBIECTIVES ■ How to paint from photographs ■ Practise colour mixing for land, water, vegetation and figures ■ Follow an oil-painting process On one of my painting retreats to Fiji, my group of students and I were painting on location at Savusavu Bay under the shade of a huge rain tree. The daughter and young granddaughter of one of my students came along to this location with us and were having fun playing further down the beach. I looked up from my painting mid-morning to see the perfect composition unfold (above right). It was a spontaneous moment that passed quickly so I was pleased I had my camera with me to capture the magic. All the elements for a great painting were there – a beautiful backdrop, an interesting…

Inspiration in the everyday Andy Walker’s challenge to ‘just... draw whatever is in front of you’ in the summer issue of Leisure Painter provoked me to do just that. I looked up, grabbed my iPad and stylus, and made a quick and simple sketch. Thanks to your sister publication, The Artist, I have also been following Melanie Cormack-Hicks’s online course ‘The Art of the Sketchbook’ and this inspired me further to turn my initial drawing into a collage-based sketch. You might wonder if I was on holiday, or just lucky enough to live somewhere with a lovely view? Well, no, I was reading the magazine whilst sitting up in bed, and the ‘landscape’ was the shape of the bedclothes lying over my feet – a feature now referred to in…

LEARNING OBJECTIVES ■ Use a photo as a starting point ■ Form a view and make decisions ■ Create something new and unique Last month I suggested that, rather than fall prey to the temptation of trying to replicate my holiday photo from Skelwith Bridge in Cumbria (right), you enjoy the freedom and fun of using it as the start point for your own unique version of Lake District Cottages. This month I will show you how I used the process I outlined last month to produce my version. The locals wouldn’t recognise the cottages, but that’s not what I set out to achieve. Instead, my sketch says these are Lake District cottages loud and clear to me and I enjoyed every step along the way, just as I hope…

LEARNING OBJECTIVES ■ Paint detail in watercolour ■ Use the lifting-off technique ■ Practise wet-in-wet and wet-on-dry techniques Last month, I discussed how to transfer the image of the seashell (below) onto watercolour paper to create a simple drawing (bottom left). I went on to demonstrate the techniques and colours I used to paint the background of the study, a sandy beach. We left the painting at the point where the background was complete (bottom right) so this month I will show you how I painted the detail on the shell itself. I hope you enjoy working on this painting. Remember I would love to see your version of this tutorial (see my contact details at the end of the demonstration). Demonstration Seashell Study You will need ■ Surface NOT…

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! Drawn to Animals Award-winning artist and archaeologist, Dr Susan Poole, is passionate about animals, and shares that knowledge and love of all types of creatures – wild, free, domestic and endangered – in her new book, Drawn to Animals. Over 100 sketches and finished paintings are arranged in alphabetical order, from African wild dogs to zebras, with ducks, horses, koalas, prawns, turtle dragons and vultures in between. These beautiful, sensitive pencil drawings, in both graphite and coloured pencils, etchings, watercolours and one oil painting, demonstrate the wonder of the natural world and each is accompanied by…