Table of contents for July 2021 in Leisure Painter

Payne’s grey I echo readers’ views about the use of black in art and in a recent article on Payne’s grey, by Stephen Coates. I seldom use black in my work, because we rarely experience true blackness in life. My father was a miner and I once asked him what he did if his lamp went out. ‘Nothing,’ he said, ‘because you can’t see. You just wait until someone else, with a lamp, comes along and go up to the surface with them.’ I have since been down a mine and the darkness is truly Stygian. You can’t see a single thing. At night or in a darkened building we can see, via reflected light, many different shades once our eyes become adjusted to what light is available. Even the…

LEARNING OBJECTIVES ■ Compose a scene from various sources ■ How to transfer drawings ■ How to visualise a scene Part of the fun of painting an invented scene is the process of combining random reference to create something entirely new. For this painting, I took inspiration from photos of Barbados, taken by my friend Philippa, along with a photo I took of a harbour in Cornwall. I was being slightly conservative in my choice of reference, as I wanted a particular tropical look, but there’s nothing to say you can’t fi nd your own images and incorporate more fantastical elements, such as a pirate ship or a giant crab! The following demonstration shows how I drew the scene, ready for the paint. Don’t worry if you are unsure about…

LEARNING OBJECTIVES ■ Try these loosening-up exercises ■ Be creative with materials and ideas ■ Follow a watercolour painting process Until recently, our lives had become increasingly limited, but making just small changes made a huge difference to the quality of my days – and set me on a journey of discovery. I decided to add new activities to my daily routine. I set myself fun physical exercises to do, played more with my art, and connected with at least one of my art friends or family daily. As my new regime came into play, early each morning I cycled or walked into the countryside or a local park, carrying basic sketching equipment. Arising from this, another task flourished – writing and illustrating a diary. This was a great success,…

LEARNING OBJECTIVES ■ Practise a variety of watercolour techniques, including lifting-off, wet in wet and wet on dry ■ How to work with white watercolour Welcome to another of my wildlife tutorials! As you can see, we will be working on a colourful ladybird, which some scientists call lady beetles and many across the Atlantic call ladybugs. These are amazing little insects that very often put a smile on our face with their bright colours and round shape. I used to make the mistake of calling the colourful back of the ladybird ‘wings’, but in fact these are actually the wing cases. I graciously stand corrected. There are over 100 species of ladybirds in Europe, of which 40 species are resident in the British Isles. The colour and number of…

LEARNING OBJECTIVES ■ How to build up layers of colour ■ Create the effect of old, weathered paintwork and metal ■ Paint reflections In September 2017 I led a painting holiday in Altamura in the Puglia region of Italy and visited some stunning locations, including Aberabello, famous for its round Trulli houses; Polignano a Mare with its tiny little beach in a gorge; and Matera, the oldest continuously inhabited town in the world with its dwellings built into the bedrock. They are all beautiful in their own way, but one of my favourite places, however, was the coastal town of Trani, which has a harbourside cathedral. It was also fascinating for the way in which it was beautifully modernised and catered for the tourists whilst maintaining its identity as a…

WWW.PAINTERS-ONLINE.CO.UK Trevor Lawrence is a recently retired postman, living in County Antrim, Northern Ireland, who has always drawn, painted and illustrated. Before moving to Ireland from England, Trevor worked as an illustrator, storyboard visualiser, art director and art tutor. Here he explains how he was inspired to capture this glorious riot of colour. To see more of Trevor’s work, post a comment or upload your own images, visit www.painters-online.co.uk ‘A Summer Garden was inspired by looking at flower beds in the courtyard of Antrim Castle Gardens near to my home. I found that, if I crouched down to flower level, I could see a multi-layered composition before me – graphic vertical lines of grasses that could enter and exit the canvas, large splashes of colour from daisies and poppies and…

One of the most rewarding aspects of my painting career has been my relationship with Leisure Painter, and this July marks the 40th anniversary of when I wrote my first article for the magazine. Before I became a professional artist, much of my inspiration came from Leisure Painter and The Artist so I was delighted when Cherry Briers, who was then the editor, not only accepted my offer of an article on sketching mountains and moorlands, but she asked for two to run in succession. In those days the magazine was mainly in black and white, with articles from such luminaries as Edward Wesson, Rowland Hilder and Ernest Savage. The July 1981 issue cost just 60 pence. Stage-by-stage paintings were rare, as you needed to be a good photographer and…

LEARNING OBJECTIVES ■ How to add highlights and create depth in your pastel landscapes ■ How and when to blend colours ■ Tips for working with soft pastels and pastel pencils Demonstration Step 1 Use a fine point liner pen to mark your outline. Don’t use a pencil as the pastel will not stick to the pencil lines. (Find an outline drawing on my website; see the ‘further help’ panel at the end of this demonstration.) Step 2 1 Using the side of the pastel stick, begin by laying in a base colour of light blue 505.8 over the entire sky area. Overlay this with phthalo blue 570.7 through the middle of the sky and ultramarine deep 506.7 at the top. At this stage there will still be patches of…

LEARNING OBJECTIVES ■ Create different textures with knives, brushes and your fingers ■ How to handle different consistencies and mixes of paint Springtime is a season of bright, fresh colours. It is when nature bursts into life in an inviting explosion for the senses. Fields of rapeseed are now a regular feature in the UK landscape and, whether you are on foot, in a car or looking out of a plane window, huge bands of intense bright yellow can be a breathtaking sight and bring pleasure to your day. The subject for this demonstration is the rapeseed fields near my home in Stourbridge. As well as using brushes and fingers, we are going to explore different ways of applying paint with a palette knife. This can vary from thick and…

LEARNING OBJECTIVES ■ Explore different uses of a painting knife ■ First steps with creating texture with a knife ■ Practise with your chosen knives Last month we started exploring ways of creating texture. In this issue, we’ll take it a stage further by discovering the uses of painting knives. The painting knife differs from the palette knife in that it has a more flexible blade and a cranked handle. The cranked handle allows the artist to apply paint to the surface without touching the support and the potentially wet paint, with their hand. My preference is for the teardrop shape, two or three inches in length. The pointed end allows small marks to be made, while the blade length allows long, sweeping strokes. An important rule is always to…

Art club news Wareham Art Club Club member, Jon Wright, shares news of how the Wareham Art Club has fared during the pandemic. ‘Since March 2020 when we went into the first lockdown, our club was unable to meet for weekly workshops so we began setting painting challenges for members. These have included a still life (from a photo), painting in monochrome, Corfe Castle, Old Harry Rocks, a view from my window and pets, amongst others. Over the year, 330 painting have been produced by members, all of which can be seen on our website gallery at www.warehamartclub.org.uk ‘Our exhibitions have obviously been cancelled but we are hoping to hold some later in the year at our usual venue at Wareham Town Hall. Hopefully, we will be able to meet…

A celebration of the life and work of Dame Laura Knight opens at the Penlee House Gallery & Museum in Penzance on 17 May. With a career spanning nearly 80 years, the artist produced a huge variety of work. This ranged from landscapes of Cornwall to designs for china and glass made in the 1930s. Highly acclaimed work as a war artist during the Second World War and posters for London Transport and LNER will be on show, as well as paintings of ballet, theatre and the circus, right through to paintings of gypsies in Malvern made towards the end of her life. The exhibition brings together over 70 works, many of them rarely seen paintings from private collections. Laura Knight: A Celebration can be seen at Penlee House Gallery…

LEARNING OBJECTIVES ■ Sketchbooks and kit you may need ■ Make a coloured pencil palette ■ How to choose and use a basic sketching kit Sketchbooks are a great way to keep your paintings and ideas organised. I used to plan paintings and make sketches and drawings on scraps of paper or on loose watercolour sheets then, of course, lose them. I could always remember what I had drawn, but could never find them again! I don’t think I am alone in this and, unless you are a person who is unusually organised, I expect you will have experienced the same thing. My sketchbook collection then came to my rescue. Now I keep everything in one book or another and it becomes much easier to locate a painting or an…

LEARNING OBJECTIVES ■ How to paint sky, ocean, fish and coral ■ Follow a step-by-step acrylicpainting process ■ How to work with tone over colour With this painting, Moorish Idol, I wanted to create an unusual split-screen effect whereby the viewer has a glimpse above and below the waterline. I decided to depict the species of tropical fish, called the Moorish idol (zanclus cornutus), because of their interesting shape and dramatic patterns of colour. The Moorish idol is a common inhabitant of tropical to subtropical reefs and lagoons throughout the Indo-Pacific and usually mates for life. It takes its name from the Moors of Africa, who believed it would bring happiness. In the 2003 Disney animated film, Finding Nemo, a Moorish idol, named Gill, was one of Nemo’s tank mates.…