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Welcome to the Art Events Newsletter which we hope you will find interesting and informative. We have just published the new autumn/winter programme 2011 (details are on the Programmes page)which provides a wide choice of one-day workshops and 3-week mini-courses in watercolour, acrylics, pastels, pen and ink,mixed media and oils. Painting! Linda  FIGURES IN ACTION with Karen Pearson started our January mini-courses this year. Karen has a great tip for making figures look as though they are moving. Do not outline them in any way, but break up the line and leave some 'fuzzy'. Also merge parts into the background. This works really well and the class produced some excellent examples. PAINTING AND DRAWING ANIMALS on February 19th also with Karen Pearson was our first Saturday workshop this year. Karen demonstrated her techniques for creating life and movement in animals, similar to those for she uses for figures. The class then produced their own paintings with her guidance. A valuable lesson on a difficult subject. MEDITERRANEAN LANDSCAPES IN SPRING on 5th March with Chris Forsey was a welcome subject on a cold day! Chris showed us his method of using mixed media, layering one on top of the other and the class all produced some lovely, colourful work.    
 CHRIS FORSEY had been elected a member of the Royal Institute of Painters in Watercolour. A great achievement and very well deserved.  
  Lettice Lachelin is exhibiting her paintings in her home at The Old Coach House,Cooper's Hill Road, Nutfield RH1 4AS from 9 - 11 April 10 am - 7pm. Preview with wine on Thursday 8 April 6 - 8.  
 TO BE ANNOUNCED  
 ACRYLICS - Either use a staywet palette, cover with wet kitchen paper or spray with water as you are working to keep the paints moist. BRUSH STROKES AND MAKING MARKS - Our brushes can achieve a great deal more than we normally use. Try splaying the brush with your fingers (not your best sable!) and then dragging it on the paper for making marks - great for texture. Also, laying it flat on the paper and replacing it in random places - good for walls or stones. Dry brush we know about usually, also great for texture. Using fingers, sticks, feathers or anything you fancy can be good for making interesting marks. Try applying a blob of deep, gooey colour then taking a sharp pointed stick (bamboo is great for this) and making quick upward strokes through the paint - great grasses! BENT BRUSHES - If your brush has been bent out of shape just dip it into boiling water until it regains its shape. Tip from Rosemary Brushes. COLOUR MIXING - Chris Forsey always works out the colours he is going to use in a painting before he starts. It is well worthwhile taking the trouble to do this as it avoids the syndrome of 'maybe I will try a little green here - or perhaps not - just a bit more blue might work! We have all been there and the result is sludge! Chris also advised us to try mixing the colours on the paper sometimes to get interesting effects and avoid a bland look. See below an example of Chris's painting. MORE COLOUR Chris also puts five or six colour together as a 'swatch' and saves them for future reference. Once he has found a combination that works he just uses it as he feels appropriate. Thus he retains a knowledge of exactly how these colours behave and does not have to keep re-visiting his palette for each painting. His suggestion is to keep a set of these 'swatches' in a workbook as a reference. DRAWING - In our mini-course 'Winter Trees and Woodland Scenes' in watercolour, Tessa Spanton gave us the following tip. Before putting pencil to paper follow the outline of your subject first in the air with your finger. Or, if working from a photograph run your finger around the subject. Then use your pencil or brush on the paper. Apparently, our muscles have a 'memory' and by using this technique our drawing will be more accurate. Sounds strange? Try it and see how you get on! DRAWING - Margaret Clapperton gave us a good tip in the mini-course 'Drawing for the Terrified'. When using a pencil - hold it lightly and in the middle rather than tightly near the end. This gives much more flexibility and produces a more artistic effect. If a darker tone is required, then more pressure can be used, but going over the same patch again and again with a light touch gives a better result. Also, when drawing objects or figures draw the spaces in between first (negative drawing) the objects are more likely to end up in the correct relationship with each other. Seems difficult at first but works! FIGURES - Margaret Clapperton's method of drawing figures from the feet up and concentrating on the negative spaces has proved highly successful in getting people who are scared of this subject to produce good results. FIGURES AGAIN - Roger Swan has a different approach and advises a method to ensure that figures have life and movement. Start with a short stroke to indicate the angle of the head and follow this by a quick 'line of movement' which shows the attitude of the whole body. This is important as then the drawing will follow this line and ensure a dynamic result. Do not ever start to draw an outline from the head down, but 'scribble' lots of lines with quick fluid movements and then only use the ones that are accurate. Of course, measure as you go! FIGURES IN ACTION - Karen Pearson's tip is to break up the outline, keeping some parts 'fuzzy and merging others into the background. This works really well and gives the feeling of speed especially. FLOWERS - Julie King, in the Saturday workshop on painting spring flowers always drops in a dash of warm yellow when painting red or pink flowers as this gives the colour depth. FLOWERS - Julie King in her workshop on 'Inspired by Gardens' showed us her simple method of keeping flower colours fresh and vivid - simply paint them first! She splashes on delicate washes where the main blocks of plants are and then works into them later. Greens come afterwards so do not 'muddy' up the colours of the flowers. FLOWERS - For those flowers with paper thin petals Jo Hodder uses white gouache over a watercolour background. Stroking on the gouache delicately gives the impression of transparency with the colour showing through behind, and for the highlights she just drops in more gouache. FREEING UP - Roger Swan gave us a good tip for those who feel their work is too tight and wish to get more freedom and artistry into their paintings. He explained that is is no good painting in the same slow paintstaking way that a botanical artist, for instance, would use, but that we should put some fast music on and speed up! FUR AND FEATHERS A fan brush (mongoose is best) is very effective in making marks on fur and indicating feathers. HAKE - In our mini-course'Winter Trees and Woodland Scenes'in watercolour, Tessa Spanton introduced us to the versatile and often underused hake brush. They come in three sizes and we used the small one. This brush can make some very useful marks, from broad washes; turned on its side for tree trunks; on its end for grasses and tufts and if the hairs are gently separated and excess water squeezed out, it makes great twigs. It does, however, soak up paint and so really big washes have to be prepared in advance. Well worth trying. See Tessa's painting below all done with a hake. LACE - Sandi Grey gave us some good tips for painting lace. There are several methods starting with masking out; using a soft shadow colour to paint the negative shapes. For raised embroidery on the lace she again paints around the shape in shadow colour. She advises not to paint and entire section of lace in detail but only a small part leaving the viewer to supply the rest. Adding lace to a still life or flower painting never fails to add interest and is much simpler than it looks! LIGHT FILLED SHADOWS - Chris Forsey always uses e says it never fails! MASKING FLUID - Karen Pearson gave us a good tip about using masking fluid. She first dips her old brush or toothbrush into some washing up liquid and then dips it into the masking fluid. This makes it much easier to rinse off afterwards. She sometimes uses masking fluid throughout a painting putting it on after each wash when it is dry which would be a good experiment as most of us just use it at the beginning. MARTIN IRELAND also gave us the same tip about using masking fluid but he uses a bar of soap before dipping the brush in the fluid. He also uses a spray bottle to blow masking fluid onto his painting. MIXED MEDIA - Chris Forsey describes mixed media as spinning plates in the air, hoola-hooping and quoting Shakespeare all at the same time! It is all about creating interesting marks and textures, some overlapping, some hidden, some in focus or out of focus. There are constant decisions on what makes a painting and only constant practice can give us the confidence to make the right ones. Mixed media can be watercolour used with acrylics, inks, oils pastel or pastel, resists, graphite almost anything goes. It produces the most vibrant and exciting work and is well worth trying. OVERWORKED PAINTINGS. If your painting becomes overworked a good tip is to put a glaze over it with a transparent colour such as Qinacradone Gold or Raw Sienna. Brushed carefully across the whole, or part of your work will soften and 'lift' it. PAINTING BEADS - Another useful tip came from Roger Swan in 'Decorative Art'. When drawing or painting beads around a neck or adorning any part of a figure, do not show every bead in detail. Fade some out and only partly paint others - this is not only more artistic but helps to emphasise the shine in the detailed ones. PEN AND INK - try using a bamboo pen or dip pen instead of an Edding one. The line is much more expressive being of different thicknesses and gives your drawing more personality and individuality. PREPARATION - Chris Forsey advises that a quick pencil thumbail sketch made before the main painting should always be done first, even if we are working from photographs. This enables us to change the composition and work out the tones before starting which saves making too many alterations as we go along - a hazard we are all familiar with! PROGRESS - Chris also advised us to take our best painting from the year, frame it and put it up at home to enjoy. After a while, he said we would look at it and say, 'It's time that came down, I have done a much better one!' There is also no better way to monitor our progress than putting our paintings into an exhibition. Once our work is up there with all the others we will get a much clearer idea of its worth than when it is sitting at home on its own! SKIES - Wen painting skies in watercolour it is essential not to overwork it. The best results are usually gained by laying down the glazes and washes in one go without returning to fiddle about which will only obscure the transparency. Put it down and leave it! The white of the paper should also be allowed to shine through. Constant obversation of the cloud shapes is vital, otherwise you end up with a string of sausages. Chris thinks that it takes ten attempts to produce one great sky! SPATTERING - Done with a toothbrush this can be hapzard unless areas are masked off with paper. Julie King showed us a method of controlling the area needed by using two brushes - holding the largest in one hand she simply tapped a smaller brush loaded with paint on the handle over the area she wished to spatter. With this method there is more control. TONAL VALUES - Chris Forsey advises us to turn our references upside down and then use a pencil to sketch the main tones from the darkest dark to the lighest light. This is a very good tip and makes an amazing difference. Try it yourself and see!  PETER RUSHTON an Art Events member is offering an on-line gallery for artists to display and sell their work, either as original paintings prints or greetings cards. For more info check out www.artrush.co.uk HELEN MILLS who has recently attended some Art Events courses and who is a part time artist and photographer, has her own blog at www.scarletdesigns.blogspot.com Helen says 'I would thoroughly recommend joining their classes. They are friendly, fun and great value for money!ck o A new on-line art supplier Rainbow Island Art might be of interest to members. Check out Rainbow Island Art LOOKING FOR A PAINTING HOLIDAY? Check out the website below www.coeur-de-france.info CHECK OUT THIS HOTEL IN LONDON - GREAT FOR ARTS EVENTS AND WHAT'S ON www.guesthotels.com/whats-on-london/ AN INTERESTING WEBSITE FOR GLOBAL INFO ON ALL SUBJECTS http://www.edirectoryworld.com/Arts.html A NEW VENTURE FOR PRINT MAKERS Ochre Print Studio is a new venture open access print studio, welcoming and encouraging artists and printmakers of all abilities to engage in the creative process of both traditional printmaking and contemporary print technology. . Ochre Print Studio is based at Lockwood Day Centre in Guildford, Surrey. The centre cares for adults with learning difficulties and is also home to Lockwood Arts through a successful collaboration based on an exchange of space and time. Lockwood Arts are an inclusive group of artists with further facilities for glass making, ceramics and a forthcoming digital editing suite. A great community spirit is encouraged at Lockwood, with skill sharing at its heart. The residing artists all share their creative talent, skills and experience with each other and the service users at the day centre. Julie Hoyle and Annee Robson are dedicated to the ongoing building of a safe, friendly, inclusive. professional, non-profit making studio. Initially opening with the facilities for fine art screen-printing, dry point, monoprint, collagraphy, digital and textile printmaking, the studio also offers regular open access sessions and a varied programme of visiting tutors conducting courses, talks and demonstrations. Ochre Print Studio is a non-profit making organization any profit will go towards equipping and improving the studio. Julie and Angela Poole are unpaid directors and founders of Ochre. Tutors, technicians and helpers receive a fee or in lieu printing time. Websitewww.ochreprintstudio.co.uk |
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