An artist’s journal from John Glover

November 11, 2009 By 1 Comment

Now it is time to concentrate on various portrait painting commissions. I have commisions to paint four children. A six year old in oils and three others , ranging in age from four to ten, in charcoal.

I also have a large double portrait in oils of the Sheriff of Huntingdon and her husband to complete.

Teaching continues also. I teach three classes a week at the Lothbury centre near Newmarket. Portrait painting,  oils and acrylics, and of course my own paintings for pleasure.  I also run day schools on portraits or life drawing and painting, at Grantchester and Barrow. These are held on a Saturday or Sunday and last from 10-4

Something else which is proving popular is one to one tuition whereby I ask any student to bring along samples of their work for review. We then work on a project together and I set ‘homework’ for the following session.

Bookings for me to demonstrate to art groups continue to come in for next year.  The latest are for a landscape demo to the Comberton art group and a watercolour portrait demo to the Bury Art Society.

Next September, 3-10 th, I will be teaching during the Art Holiday for Inspiration Holidays in Menorca.

If you are interested in any of the above art holidays, art classes, painting workshops or art demonstrations please contact me on 01284 810 460 or e-mail me at   john@gloverart.co.uk

Filed Under: Holiday News Tagged With: , , , , , , , ,

Royal Watercolour Society Friends in East Anglia Exhibition

October 7, 2009 By Leave a Comment

For the next two weeks I am taking part in an exhibition in Newmarket. It is by the Friends in East Anglia of the R.W.S.

Exhibits are not only in pure watercolour, but also include any water based medium such as gouache , acrylics, or pen ink and wash.  The subjects are very diverse  -  from East Anglian seascapes and landscapes to further afield.  Abstracts, animal portraits, flower paintings, and architectural interiors are also included. Below are  a few examples of the paintings on show.

Pretty Prawn

“Pretty Prawn”  by Tessa Shedley Jordan

Swimmer

“Swimmer”   by Gillian Marklew

Prospect of Whitby

The “Prospect of Whitby” by Les Williams

Old Hulks, Pin Mill

“Old Hulks, Pin Mill” by John Glover

The exhibition is in the Palace House Mews Gallery

Exhibition

and runs until the 18th October.

Filed Under: Artists Blog, Holiday locations Tagged With: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

Suffolk Art Society Exhibition

July 12, 2009 By Leave a Comment

An exhibition of work by the Suffolk Art Society is now taking place at the Church of St. Peter and Paul in Lavenham.

IMG_9399

It is a popular venue in an elegant setting. There are oils, acrylics, pastels, watercolours, pencil, and pen/ink  drawings covering a wide diversity of subject matter from popular local scenes to animals, figure studies, still life and portrait.

Exhibition in Lavenham Church

Exhibition in Lavenham Church

I am showing three paintings, all acrylics.

The first was done purely for fun, a far cry from the normal rigours of portrait painting. In the recent scorching summer heat I set up my easel in the garden and attacked the canvas with abandon. I used palette knife , glitter glue, acrylic inks, gold and silver paint as well as the usual pigments and mediums. I intentionally heightened the colour to express the warmth of the day. It was not a photographic representation of the scene before me, but rather my emotional response to it

Summer Garden

Summer Garden

My second painting is of an old hulk I discovered whilst teaching a painting holiday in Kirkcudbright earlier this year. Marvellous textures of wood and rusting metal. Most of the painting was done thickly with a palette knife and the fine detail added in the form of glazes or fluid pigment.

Old Hulk

Old Hulk

My third painting is of “Venetian Rooftops”. I loved the interlocking patterns and richness of colour of this scene.

Venetian Rooftops

Venetian Rooftops

The Exhibition in Lavenham runs until the 20th July. The Society’s next exhibition is in Holy Trinity Church , Long Melford from 1st-17th August.

For further details of the Suffolk Art Society and its members visit www.suffolkartsociety.co.uk

Filed Under: Artists Blog, Holiday News Tagged With: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

A traditional method of painting a portrait

February 27, 2009 By Leave a Comment

In this blog, I will demonstrate a much  more traditional method of creating a portrait. In my previous one, it was the “alla prima” method. i.e. painting direct and tackling both tone and colour at the same time. Here the idea is to focus on the drawing and tone, before considering the use of colour.

To speed the process up, I will use acrylics as an underpainting and will be working on board primed with acrylic gesso.traditional portraiture

I use titanium white, raw umber, viridian green and Paynes grey. The aim is to produce an almost ghostly image, with the depth of tone lighter than in the finished work. If I make it too dark I will be unable to apply my coloured glazes successfully.

The image shown is after about an hour’s work. I am getting the tilt of the head, the basic proportions and have begun to establish the features. Because acrylics dry so rapidly, it is easy to obliterate mistakes and move things around.

Filed Under: Artists Blog, Holiday News Tagged With: , , , , , , , , ,