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

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Painting a Colourful Portrait in Oils – 1

July 9, 2009 By Leave a Comment

On occasions you meet someone you  just love to paint. This happened on Monday when I met Judy, a beautiful young woman from Kenya. She arrived for the portrait session  dressed, very simply,  in blouse and jeans. She  tentatively suggested, however, that I might be interested in seeing her in her traditional costume which she had also brought. I readily agreed.

When she reappeared, my immediate reaction was “Wow!” Such fantastic colours, patterns and shapes. A million miles from the  jumpers, cardigans or business suits I am normally requested to paint. No contest.

This first sitting lasted two hours. It is a large canvas measuring 30″ x 40 ” and is in oils.

Judy

Portrait of a Kenyan Lady

I did not do any preliminary drawing, but went straight in with the brush and paint diluted with turps. Initially, I was planning how much of the figure to include and having done so , concentrating on positioning it on the canvas. It was then down to getting the scale of the head in the correct relationship to the rest of the body and checking the position of the hands. When I was relatively happy with that I focused on the head , and established the various proportions. My normal guidelines, however, were rapidly abandoned as was my usual palette. No more yellow ochres and cadmium reds, but wonderful mixtures of burnt umber, raw sienna, ultramarine, viridian green, purple and orange.

At the end of the two hours, the painting was as above. I was happy with my morning’s work. The composition had been established and the likeness was beginning to appear.

Judy

Portrait of a Kenyan Lady

Since then, I have been working on the costume, blocking in the large patterns and vibrant colours. At this stage it is still fairly crude. There are such wonderful textures of material and beadwork , I really must do them justice.

Judy

Portrait of a Kenyan Lady

Over the next few days, I shall continue to work on the costume. My next “live” sitting is on Monday when I will focus on painting head and hands. At the moment, we have four sittings planned, but it may take more. I shall chart the progress of the painting over the next few weeks.

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A bold approach to portrait painting in oils 2

January 10, 2009 By 1 Comment

I now begin to focus on establishing the features. If the canvas is overloaded with paint, or I need to move things around, I can scrape it down with a palette knife and paint over.

My normal starting point is the eyes. To establish their position, I measure from them to the top of head and to the bottom of chin. I check the line through them, the distance between themA bold approach continues and their relative sizes. I look at the length, angle and width of the nose, and run imaginary lines up from the edge of the nostrils to check them in relation to the eyes.

I then  tackle the mouth. Does the centre line of the mouth run up at all? How wide is it? Most importantly, it must be in the right position between the bottom of the nose and bottom of chin. Too high or too low and the likeness will not appear.

I lighten the background and in doing so  adjust the contours of the face and top of the head. I also block in very roughly the jumper and shirt.

Shadows and half tones must now be tackled because it is through them that the underlying structure and form of individual features will be rendered. These are painted in at the side of the forehead and nose, as well as the  cheek and under the nose.

This first session draws to a close. From blank canvas to this stage has lasted just under two hours. Throughout, I have used a palette knife and large brushes and worked very rapidly. I am pleased that a likeness is beginning to emerge.

TIPS
Even at this early stage of the painting, one has to start measuring, checking and adjusting the proportions of the various features. One cannot simply hope that a likeness will appear.

Regard it as a fascinating problem solving exercise.

As Anthony Storr said: “Creativity is about bringing order out of chaos”.

Go to part 3

Go back to part 1


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A bold approach to portrait painting in oils 1

January 9, 2009 By Leave a Comment

On occasions, it is exhilarating to try a different technique from normal and to move out of one’s comfort zone. In this portrait, I will be demonstrating a much more spontaneous approach to my usual carefully considered one.

Such a process gets the adrenalin flowing and can even be scary, particularly if one is demonstrating in front of an audience. Will it work? Will I be able to pull the rabbit out of the hat? Could it be my Waterloo?

A bold approach to painting a portrait in oilsI begin with my canvas stained with a pale wash of Viridian Green. As I wish to work quickly, my colours are already pre-mixed on the palette. With a large brush and lots of turpentine, I indicate the basic shape of the head and  the position of the features. But I am aware that most of this will change as the painting proceeds.

I now make liberal use of the palette knife and large hog’s hair brushes to lay on slabs of colour. I go straight way for the mid tones, allowing the cool underpainting to show through in places. It appears to be chaotic, but is it? After about 25 minutes of hectic activity, the painting looks like this.

When it was shown to the sitter, his look of horror said it all! “What a horrible daub! Does this man really know what he is doing?”

Watch my subsequent blogs to see how the painting developed!

FIVE TOP TIPS
Try something different, a new approach.

Don’t panic if it seems to be going wrong.

Expect the unexpected .

Take advantage of those happy accidents.

Most of all, enjoy.

Got to part 2


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Charcoal sketch to portrait painting in oils

December 6, 2008 By Leave a Comment


Having decided on the finished preparatory sketch, I now prepared to do the oil painting. I chose to work on a fine linen canvas which I had stretched before applying two coats of size and two coats of oil primer. I then stained the canvas with a transparent wash of raw umber. This gives me a very useful mid tone on which to build my lights and darks.
I drew the figure in with a brush and fluid paint ( lots of turpentine) before moving on to the blocking in stage. All this time, I am checking angles, proportions, rhythms through the figure, and ,of course, position on the canvas. There is nothing worse than painting a fine head only to discover it’s in the wrong place!
The accompanying illustrations show the painting in various stages of development. The head is well under way, the hands are just rapidly sketched in , and there are still large areas of the original staining. In my next blog I will show how the portrait was developed further.

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