Renaissance Techniques Using Acrylic Glazes

Copy of Giotto's Christ

What a treat for members of the Market Harborough Art Club, everyone was engaged with Glenn Badham's power point delivery on Renaissance art. In addition, he did a practical demonstration on how the three kinds of under painting can affect the colour when thin veils of paint and medium are applied to the surface.

Giotto did his under paintings in green and like magic Christ’s face was transformed to brown when a red glaze was applied to the painting using a soft brush.  Glenn then added transparent yellow and orange to warm those browns. He then showed us how the addition of white for the highlights removed any trace of the underpainting.

Two more demonstrations, the second and easiest to do was a bistre showing the folds in a garment.

The three pre-prepared paintings

The third a grisaille (grey tones) detail taken from the famous painting done by Vermeer of a “Girl reading a letter at an open window”. Adding thin washes of yellow over his pre-prepared  grey scale painting, then red and blue in darker areas, Glenn transformed the grisaille into colour. He said that by working in this way, an accurate drawing or sketch would not be lost when colour was added.

Glenn’s presentation and demonstration was highly informative and full of tips and techniques, a lot to take in, so if your art group books Glenn Badham, make sure you take your notebook!

The transformation of the grisaille to colour using renaissance glazing techniques.

See Vermeer's famous painting here. 

Painting Competition

Archie - Animal, vegetable and mineral

It was our AGM this month and after we'd got through the business in hand, it was time to enjoy ourselves by taking part in the Painting Competition, which is designed to take the stress out of the AGM!

Thirteen members took part and we were allowed to vote for three paintings which we liked. After a refreshment break and milling around the paintings, it was time to count the votes and announce the winners.

This year, Archie scooped 1st place with his painting "Animal, Vegetable and Mineral". New member Helen came second with a miniature painting of her kitten "Poppy". Lastly, two members shared third place, David with "Euphorbia" and me (Frank) with "Cow".

Everyone got at least one vote and the voting and social atmosphere soon banished any trace of the dullness of an AGM!

Helen - Poppy

Frank - Cow

David - Euphorbia

Cityscape in Watercolour

Finished painting - Meeting Street, Quorn

In his demonstration, Leicester based artist Andy Shore gave us a demonstration on how to paint a cityscape (meeting Street, Quorn) using watercolours. He came prepared with a Saunders Waterford 140lb stretched paper pre-drawn with portions that were masked out using a stencil and sprayed with latex. Andy said that this was a much cheaper option than masking fluid and easier to remove.

Prepared paper masked off using latex sprayed over a stencil

Andy at work

After wetting the surface of the paper and using Winsor & Newton professional watercolours, he first set about quickly laying a wash for the sky using lemon yellow and venetian red. Other colours used in the painting were Cobalt Blue, Cobalt Violet, ultramarine and burnt sienna. The two cobalt colours were mixed to paint the foreground shadows, after peeling off the latex.

Andy said that it was possible to glaze darker colours only two or three times before they started to look muddy. The trees were blocked in at first, then the finer branches were done using a sword brush. Lastly, finer details were added, though Andy said that it was best to suggest these somewhat. Another finishing touch was to lift out some of the paint for highlights and smoke from one of the chimneys.


This was a super demonstration, much enjoyed by our members.

Source photo

A watercolour workshop with Michael Edwards

Michael guided the art club members through watercolour washes for beginners. As a beginner it was perfect combination of demonstration, and instruction, far easier than following a book and DIY.  Looking around the room I could see the experience water-colourists’ also benefited.

We were gently guided through:

1.   Background wash

2.   Foreground grass

3.   Removing hard edges, branches and twigs

4.   Direction of the light, and tones

5.   Finishing, making additional statements

Creative but not constrained as the members of the group were allowed to choose and develop their own work. Had I had been taught watercolour by Michael before my art may have taken a different direction. Having said that I will apply what I have learnt to my sketchbook work.

A big thank to you Michael.

Christmas Painting

Our art club met for the last time in 2018 with an informal painting session. We were spurred on by a quiet, relaxed atmosphere and an unhealthy supply of the most sumptuous mince pies, provided by Ken in celebration of Christmas!

 Archie produced this fabulous landscape in next to no time, while Frank got lost in the detail of this classic car. Jane was very much taken by a blackbird she'd spied eating the berries on a pyracantha on the hedge next door and proceeded to sketch it.

Ken was very much in seasonal mode with his painting of a church in the snow and Leslie went into illustration mode sketching a buddha's head ready for a painting.

Lynda surprised us all when she got out her knitting needles and started to Knit, then amazed us by producing these three bespoke Christmas cards!

On the whole, the evening showed what true diversity our members have when it comes to art.

A Collage workshop

On Friday 26th October, Ken led the members into making collage pictures.

He began by saying, 'The art of collage goes back into the beginning of paper making by the Chinese before the Egyptians,3000 BC or even earlier; it is not a modern art form. Collage comes from the French "colle" - glue or "coller " to glue and that is what we
shall be doing tonight.' He then referred  to two books that had been an inspiration to him, "Collage , colour and texture painting " by Mike Bernard and Robin Capon and a more definitive source ,"Creative collage techniques. He exemplified

the use of some of their suggestions by showing some of his own creations. A painting of Dresden, which had sold at one of our exhibitions and a transcription of a Monet using coloured tissue paper to create the stratification of the cliffs at Etretat and then adding acrylic and inks.He suggested  preparing a sketch book for holidays with random shapes of paper stuck to the pages and  using cafe receipts as a background and showed examples of both. Similarly he showed how a still life could be begun with random shapes stuck on to the paper. He also had  part of his course work with local artist Brian Taylor using tissue paper to create trees in a landscape painting before adding colour and then putting more PVA glue on the dried painting to give a gloss,bringing  out the colour.  Frank Bingley and he had been to a workshop by Daniella Vaughan who makes collage using coloured magazine pages but torn, not cut.

     



         Frank showed his

'Seagull painting' and Ken, ' a Robin'. After another session with Daniella, Ken had created a political portrait of Donald Trump beginning with a background of newsprint of articles about him. To get members started Ken suggested they might try making a towns-cape and showed Julian Trevelyan's painting. They might prefer to use their own ideas and subjects using newspaper or magazine coloured pictures. And off everyone went and 'Wow' what pictures they created!

Water colour demonstration - Helen Neave

Helen Neave

Helen’s Norfolk up bringing influenced her love of the natural world. She trained in art and design at Bournemouth art school, and started out in graphic design. Sitting at a computer all day did not appeal, so she used her watercolour painting skills and her love of wildlife to develop her career in art. Now she gains commissions linked to her passion for wild life and conservation. In addition to this she teaches adults water colour painting.

Helen’s taster and tips demonstration was seasonal being based on ‘autumn’.

Her mantra, work,

‘Light to dark’,  ‘soft to sharp’.

Advice

·      Know your paints, each manufactures colours work differently.
·      Plan ahead.
·      Note the direction of light and paint accordingly.
·      Avoid going in with heavy with paint.
·      Start soft and misty.
·      Apply clean water with an ample brush, creating a damp surface and not a puddle.
·      Start with very dilute paint and allow the highlights to show through.
·      Remove drips with a clean brush by lifting off the blob of paint.
·      Allow the paint to dry before applying more layers; a hairdryer can be used to speed up the process.
·      Dampening the paint surface with clean water, before adding a second layer of paint in this way tones can be built up.
·      Paint leaves before twigs, Helen favours sap green, which can be glazed over with yellow to create light effects, and the dark areas can be glazed over with blue.
·      Twigs use a rigger to apply clean water to where you want the twigs to be; once the paint hits the water you create a snail like effect.
·      Trees look at the colour, pattern and texture and use that knowledge to paint a tree, do not paint individual leaves.
·      White flowers are not pure white, look for the colour in them
·      With flowers start drawing in the middle and work outwards.
·      Negatively paint and hint at the masses through light and shade
·      Sharp edges are done on dry paper.
·      Backgrounds give context so negatively paint around the flower.
·      Neutral Tint is used to darken paint without changing the colour.
 
A big thanks you to Helen for a very informative evening.