News Update at 30th Dec 2020
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We wish you all a happy new year and hope you will remember to renew your membership for 2021.
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There has been a change to our April booking which will now be a Zoom demo of portraiture in pastels from Rob Wareing.
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There is an EXTRA too! The opportunity to paint along with NZ artist Richard Robinson on 14th Jan. Fiona Gale gives all the info you need to know HERE
NB Sorry but Mobile phone view is NOT recommended for this site. Laptop is much preferred
Write-ups of this year's demos
1st Nov 2024: Painting Snowscapes with Phil Creek
Thank you, Penny, for this account of the demo.
Phil Creek shared with us his expertise in painting snow in acrylics.
He used two of his photos of East hill as a basis for his composition, and made decisions which parts to include as he went along.
Here are a couple of other snow scenes by Phil.
He painted on a white canvas panel, using galleria acrylic paints, in the colours yellow ochre, cerulean blue, Cobalt blue, raw umber, black, Titanium white and orange. He mixed a grey brown for the drawing, just making ‘landing points’ with a rigger brush. He then moved onto large flat brushes to start placing the colour.
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Phil started with the sky, using a mix of cobalt and cerulean blue, then adding white. He used a brown and blue mix for the right side of the landscape, then lighter strokes on the left, loosely painting at this stage. He lightly indicated the tree over the sky with thinnish paint, then added slightly thicker and darker paint for the trunk. He used the rigger brush for the branches.
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The second layer of paint was built up, using fairly dry paint, but allowed some of the underlayer to show through. Phil emphasised the importance of working across the whole painting, throughout the demonstration.
Members were encouraged to ask questions, and as usual, we learned a lot from Phil’s generous and lively commentary.
4th Oct 2024: Towards Abstraction with Liese Webley
Liese provided us with an exuberant and enjoyable overview of her artistic outlook and methods. She studied at Exeter Art College where her interest veered from representational art towards abstraction. But it was during a stint of teaching art in a brightly lit Cyprus that she developed an emphasis on vivid colours and turning real scenes into intuitive compositions of colour and form. Her favourite painter, Matisse, likewise explored this avenue of simplified shapes and joyful expressive colour.
A handful of Liese's photos of the bold shapes and colours that surround us. These make useful starting points
Liese's painting interests evolve intuitively, and as well as compositional harmonies she hopes to retain an element of surprise in her work.
She may work on maybe five pictures at a time, each informing the others. For us she began three paintings based on a street in St Ives, another in Antibes, and a view of the back beach in Teignmouth.
Using oil pastel she loosely sketched the outline compositions and began filling areas with acrylic paint, diluted with water. She likes to apply oils later on, giving a more richly textured surface. Paintings are often put aside for days, weeks or much longer and then worked further when inspiration strikes. What we saw may be just the beginning of some long journeys to completed works.
St Ives Street View
Antibes
Teignmouth
Liese's art materials for the demo.
Some of Liese's finished paintings. Recent work can be seen on her instagram page
7th Sept 2024: Painting Beach scene in Oils with Tom Stevenson
Tom Stevenson, an elected member of the Royal Institute of Oil Painters (ROI), is based in Devon where he works from life to create paintings that follow a path between figurative and abstract styles to explain the light and colour of his surroundings. In his paintings Tom relies upon the uncontrollability of oil as a medium to build a fresh and organic surface. He works from life and is drawn to subjects such as the coast, figures and the dramatic skies seen over the surrounding countryside. His work is underpinned by strong composition and is often constructed around a simple compositional idea or collection of colours which form the starting point and focus of the painting.
Tom often works alongside his partner, Marie Rose [see June 2024 demo]
Working in plein air requires finding a versatile yet limited palette, in Tom's case typically titanium white, cadmium yellow, lemon yellow, yellow ochre, cadmium red, quinacridone rose, veridian hue, chromium oxide green, ultramarine blue, phthalo blue [a little goes a long way!], umber and burnt sienna.
Tom prefers not to use photos as reference but rather to depend on sketches made in situ.
He uses sketches to formulate compositional ideas, often using these as the basis for more detailed works. Composition is top of his list of considerations, followed by drawing [especially if referencing a recognisable subject such as a known building], tone, then colour, and finally 'surface' - i.e. are the paintmarks physically interesting - a component of oil painting that is not shared by all art mediums.
Since this demo was not in plein air, Tom brought the following selection of beach studies and referenced them to create different elements of a beach scene
Tom began with some very sketchy marks with thinned paint, often smeared with a rag. This was progressively built up upon, creating realistic impressions of people and scenic features with economical strokes.
Tom commented that painting is a surprisingly tiring process since it requires intense concentration and a huge number of decisions while seeming to be a relatively passive activity. Most OVAS members would probably agree! Tiring yet rewarding.
Tom also observed that a second or subsequent version is often much quicker and easier since many of the decisions about composition, light effects, colour and tone have now been resolved.
A fairly early stage
... and the finished work, a fairly modern take on the impressionist tradition.
5th June 2024: Painting Landscape in Oils with Maria Rose
Maria Rose is part of the UK's growing plein air movement, with a contemporary take on the great British landscape painting tradition. Working predominently in oils, Maria works mostly outside in the elements, letting nature and the seasons guide her, attempting to capture the essence of a place or a moment in time.
Maria provided a fascinating demonstration of how to build up a record of a scene that she had previously painted in situ. It was a lovely spot in the upper tidal reaches of the River Dart at Sharpham, looking towards Totnes and beyond to Dartmoor.
A photo of the view
If painting plein air you need to travel light and Maria uses a limited yet versatile palette for speed of working. Two hours is usually long enough out in the elements.
She began with a quick compositional outline in a mix of raw umber and ultramarine and white, on MDF board using a small filbert and gradually built up areas with a mind to tonal values.
We watched mesmerised as Maria brought the scene into vivid life with the transformation of golden diagonals of sunlight on the scene.
And then Maria used a rigger to add many details to the scene. Apologies that the final photo is not in better focus.
Next day, Maria ran a workshop. Here we see Maria herself and her attendees practicing the skills they have learnt.
3rd May 2024: Woodcarving with Simon Gray.
How does he know there's a duck in there?
A mother and small daughter were looking at one of Simon's blocks of wood and some of his his carvings of waterfowl. This was the question that Simon overheard the little girl ask her mum.
A very good question. How does Simon know there's a duck in there? Simon did his best to answer in his entertaining talk as he walked us through the process of turning a fine-grained block of wood into a highly realistic mallard or other waterfowl.
The first stage was drawing cut-outs [above] and attaching them to the block. Then hewing out chunks within these limits to get a first approximation.
Simon was able to explain the umpteen intricate stages of carving, each highly skilled and needing extraordinary levels of patience, imagination, and 3-D visualisation. Wood became overlapping feathers, which became shades of brown through the use of pyrography and, to a small extent, application of acrylic gouache for the final touches.
6th April 2024: Portrait Painting with Amelia Webster
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Amelia Webster is a Devon-based portrait artist. While still young she was inspired by the art of the Renaissance, both the technical side and the stories they portray. She aims to combine this with the more modern expression of emotion and passion in painting.She has been involved in many exhibitions, both locally and nationwide including in the Sky arts portrait artist of the year 2019.
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Painting in oils, using an effectively economical palette of red, yellow, raw umber, white and black, Amelia got a long way towards producing a finished portrait of our sitter, OVAS member Tracey.
