Demonstrations 2024
February 2024 - Liz Balkwill - A Portrait in Pastel
Liz kept her whole audience enthralled. with her amazingly true to life portrait and all within two hours. Liz likes to sketch out the basic structure of the face with pastel pencils. Here she explained proportions and alignments of various features. She then blocks in tones with soft pastel sticks to start achieving a three dimensional feel. We were all blown away with the likeness to the sitter.
See more of Liz's work at www.lizbalkwill.com
March 2024 - Stephen Martyn - Watercolour Landscape in the Style of Edward Seago
Stephen used the style and techniques of master watercolourist, Edward Seago, to create an atmospheric coastal scene. Interspersed interesting highlights of Seago's life. Stephen demonstrated how Seago painted his skies by applying the cloud washes to dry paper giving them some hard edges, how he used a minimal foreground to draw the eye in and how this was all achieved in only about three layers of paint.
April 2024 - Peter Partington - Wildlife in its Habitat in Watercolour
Peter Partington treated members and guests to a masterclass in drawing birds and wildlife. Using his many years of experience drawing out in the field he is able to capture the different bird species in just a few lines. Starting with a streamlined tear drop shape for birds and a bean shape for mammals, then adding an appropriate head, neck and legs. Peter's paintings tend to evolve based on his previous experience and knowledge of particular animals and plants. We were all seriously impressed by his drawing skills.
May 2024 - AGM and Critique of Members' Paintings by John Shave and Sue Williams
The AGM part of the meeting was swiftly dealt with then on to the fun part, the critique of about 20 paintings brought in by Members. Professional Members, John and Sue aimed to give a positive but helpful evaluation of the diverse artwork submitted. Their most useful advice applied to composition, the use of reflected light to allow the colours of surroundings to appear in an object to act as a link, hard edges to draw the eye to a focal point and lost edges to help an object or plane to recede. The importance of complimentary framing was also mentioned. A lot of food for thought and ideas to try.
Of all the work on display John chose the still life on a plate as his favourite, because the artist perservered with this painting and created something wonderful.
