Jenny Neale – Botanical Water colourist

Here are some spectacular photos from our recent demonstration from watercolour artist Jenny Neale.

Welcome back Time Rose!

On 28th March we once again took pleasure in welcoming back Tim Rose who recreated a truly wonderful street scene from San Francisco in two stunning hours using watercolours.

Tim has the unique ability to bring a scene to life with some deft brush strokes whilst at the same time talking through his subject in a most engaging style whilst giving some most helpful tips on making the best use of light and dark.

Tim also showed us how to effectively use Saunders rough high white paper which he was trying out for the first time on the night! His demonstration involved minimal drawing with paint (manganese blue) applied straight to paper without a lot of water.

He used a fairly restricted palette of colours too working quickly to capture the essence of the subject but not slavishly copying it! His tips were many and included looking at where the light was coming from and the contrasts light created. He used Soft blue for the San Francisco sky and Naples Yellow to great effect.

“Paint with the lights and draw with the darks” he said.

Altogether it was yet again an inspiring and most interesting demonstration by a craftsman who knows his subject both inside and out and so well done Tim for a truly great evening!

Christine Adams Flowers in Watercolour

CHRISTINE ADAMS – flowers in watercolour

Our first professional demonstrator for 2017, Christine Adams set the calendar off with a delightful splash of colour giving the illusion of a still life pot with flowers. With her easy style and humorous anecdotes we were in for an entertaining evening.

Christine uses Bockingford 140gm stretched in the bath, she likes painting large, the bigger the better. Her love of flowers came from feeling uncomfortable painting landscapes alone in the countryside, and by using real flowers the colour combinations could zing out with her impressionistic style. Using three reds, three yellows and three blues, she creates all the colours she needs and will only use Windsor & Newton because, she says, they are the best. Although she doesn’t like the new tubes because you can’t see what you have got – W&N take note!

A large blank canvas and a pot of flowers should be quite daunting when you don’t sketch out what you are painting, not so for Christine who likes to work flat at home in the studio, as she likes to see how the colours work with each other. For our benefit the work was upright and the composition progressed in sections, wetting the paper with a sponge as she worked and using a large part sable brush, paint was applied capturing the general feel of where flowers would be placed. The composition was as much about where the paint fell and how it looked and the still life merely used as a guide.

There were plenty of tips along the way, like when using blues in the painting they come forward and for foliage which was meant to be behind it didn’t look right, so tone them back. Also when painting the centre of a flower (say) in a bolder colour, don’t use the same colour as a shadow as it just looks like another flower centre.

Christine painted a fabulously colourful still life, creating the illusion of flowers, giving us all the inspiration to have a go. Thank you Christine, what a great start to the year.

PS. If you feel uncomfortable about going out into the landscape to paint on your own, then join the Walk and Draw group on Tuesday mornings, get some fresh air and sketch along the way.

Carol Hill Watercolour Landscapes

Carol Hill’s demonstration evening Tuesday 22nd November 2016 –Review by Paul Lockton

Tuesday night was for me full of surprises. Not least because I had expected the routine and mundane – desolate farm scenes in winter are surely not the most edifying or cheery. But instead I found myself inspired and eager to learn from a most accomplished artist and one who is also an undoubtedly brilliant art teacher. Yes, I’d love to be in her class!

Carol Hill knew Derbyshire Dales landscapes and for two hours re-created it’s rustic secrets, even if those were captured in the dubious splendour of a run-down farm one misty, cold autumn morning.

The presentation began with a detailed verbal explanation of the scene and of her use of a quite limited water-colour palette (limited for me who likes to make full use of colours). Lesson 1: to use colours selectively and mix colours on the canvas. Lesson 2: try painting dry not wetted (helped by the use of pre-stretched canvas) all intelligently blended on the canvass not mixed in the palette!

Working steadily progressed down the page helped by some diligently sketched pencil lines, and members saw emerge a gem of a picture in under two hours. Carol’s finishing touches featured the clever use of light and shadow of a lightening-struck tree in the near foreground and at the end her generous donation of the finished picture for the Club to auction for Rainbows. Thanks for everything Carol!

Carol Hill Demonstration with watercolour

Tim Fisher March 2016

Tim Fisher’s demonstration with pen and wash watercolour

Tim delighted us with his technique yet again. Thank you for visiting!

Tim Rose and Hero’s Day!

The Club had a great outing at Charnwood Community Hero’s day even though the music was deafening the weather was fine and we met quite a few interesting possible new members.

The best comment of the day was the organiser came up to us late in the day and said that there was a guy further down the market place who was sketching having seen us he started again after years of not doing anything.

That’s what the day is all about!

Charnwood Community Hero's Day Loughborough

Fairground at Charnwood Community Hero's Day by Peter Hollis

Our club demonstration evening was fronted by artist Tim Rose, his subject was Architecture in watercolour some of his work on show included highly detailed views from inside St Paul’s Cathedral.

We were all captivated by Tim’s paintings, here’s the finished results

Tim Rose

28 July Tim Rose Watercolour Architecture

Tim specialises in architecture, his free style and use of colour with lots of water will entertain us all. His work is displayed in public, private and corporate institutions throughout the world.

http://www.timrose.co.uk/

Charles Evans demonstration

In March we had the pleasure of a visit from Charles Evans, a popular artist, demonstrator and TV personality. He travels the country demonstrating and doing workshops using Windsor and Newton products, of which he says there are 150 colours in their range and he uses only 8!

Charles produced two watercolours, one before the break and one after, with a running commentary with many tips and wrinkles along the way. The first scene could have been in the Northumbrian hills, taking a pencil he drew a simple scene with hills and valleys. Then with a big brush and loads of water he wet the sky area, again with his large brush swept colours into it, he then squeezed out the brush and began to take out colour to form the clouds, moving it from one place to another, it was very effective. Sky done.

Now on to the hills, building colours, mixing on the palette and dropping them into the picture and leaving a blank line right across the middle. Filling in the foreground with the lighter colours, building them up as well – they all dry 50% lighter.. Finally the blank line in the middle, lots of different darker shades were sploshed into it, and then whilst still wet, Charles produced a piece of plastic, not unlike a credit card and began scraping across the tops of the dry stone wall and forming the bricks within it – amazing effect!

He then started darkening the foreground under the wall and to the front of the picture, telling us to mix a black never use a premixed one as it makes the picture flat, the final touch was scraping upwards with his finger nails to create grasses within the wall which was also an interesting and effective technique.

Charles second painting was at the seaside, again building the sky first, then the coastal hills and sea areas, again using his credit card to scrape out the rocks on the beach and the headland, a few darker spots to emphasise the grasses coming over the headland and the picture was almost done. He then showed us how to place people in the picture, he said we must remember a letter ‘P’ and ‘Y’, ‘P’ forming the body with a head on top, and ‘Y’ forming the legs.

It was a very entertaining evening, much banter and a lot of hints and tips along the way, most people seemed to enjoy it. Charles donated the paintings to the club, thank you Charles looking forward to seeing you again.