Sue Chatterton’s demonstration on May 22nd taught us all how to raise our game especially when painting ‘Big Game’.

The elephant was well and truly in the room for all to see and how instructive her talk was with lots of tips on creating personalised animal portraits in stunning watercolour.

Sue is a British wildlife specialist who now lives in Stafford having spent a lot of time in the past studying wildlife in her native Botswana where elephants inspired her to paint. Working from photographic references Sue first created a pencil sketch then applied paint directly to non-wetted 425 gsm Sanders Waterford paper without stretching.

Using plenty of water for the background she mixed her colours on the paper not on the palette using her favourite Rosemary and Co brushes. Three predominant colours were used throughout: Burnt Sienna, Cobalt Blue and Veridian, which she certainly made the most of giving us all lots of encouragement to explore different colour contrasts in two hours flat.

Whilst Sue ran short of time and did not complete the portrait it mattered not as the tips she gave were extremely valuable and well appreciated. It was also great to see many new faces who we all hope will return for future demonstrations. Thanks Sue for an outstanding evening – and do come back soon!