Indholdsfortegnelse for Summer 2025 i Artists & Illustrators

For Ken Roberts, wonder has always lived in the details. “All my life I’ve pondered in wonder at the beauty of design and engineering in small things such as plants, hummingbirds, butterflies and even the inner human ear,” he says. This fascination still drives his acrylic landscapes today. Ken’s love of painting began when, aged eight, he was given a watercolour set and a jigsaw of Windsor Castle at sunset. “I recall vividly listening to Wuthering Heights on the radio while I copied the castle in vibrant colours. I was hooked on a lifetime’s love of painting and deep longing to be a full-time artist.” Yet the post-war world had other ideas. With few opportunities for those who wanted to pursue art full-time, Ken built a successful career in graphic…

A CRYLIC ARTIST JIM MUSIL rediscovered a love of painting twenty years after graduating from the University of Minnesota. Having starting as a hobby painter, he is now a successful full-time artist who describes his subjects as involving the natural world, but including a hint that humans are there too. Jimmusil.com I flunked painting at art school. I was so impatient when I was younger and struggled with the detailed craft of painting – colour mixing, prep work, brush care – I found it all pretty tedious. I did well in more immediate mediums like drawing, but not painting. Despite that, I loved being at art school – I met my wife there! I grew up in the house of an artist. My mum was both an art teacher and a…

Want to pit your artistic skills against the best of your competitors in a live paint off at the Raw Umber studios in Stroud? Last year, we went into partnership with Raw Umber for their Portrait Paint Off competition. Our contribution was this stand-alone feature and a six-page feature on the winning artist, showcasing their process and stunning artwork. That accolade went to largely self-taught Yorkshire based artist, Ruth Fitton, who believes that her music education was an unlikely tool in helping her become the artist she is today. “The shared experience of the competition is always great fun,” she says. “When painting alongside colleagues whose work you admire, there’s an electricity to the atmosphere that’s hard to beat. The Paint Off was definitely one of those days. Fantastic painters…

AS SOMEONE WHO SPECIALISES in coloured pencil pet portraits, I’m very familiar with layering fur and capturing texture, but this time I wanted to explore smoother surfaces, bolder shapes and underwater light. It was my first time drawing both a turtle and a water scene, and I was genuinely excited to see what I could create. To push the challenge further, I limited myself to just six pencils. Working with a reduced palette forced me to be more intentional with layering and colour mixing, especially when building the subtle glow of the water and the intricate pattern of the turtle’s shell. I quickly realised how much could be achieved with just a few well-chosen colours and a lot of patience. Drawing water was surprisingly meditative, and I loved figuring out…

MESSAGE OF THE MONTH Jenny Tarr I am writing a book titled Love from, Creativity. It’s a collection of authentic letters addressed to an artistic soul. Imagine if your creativity could speak directly to you – what would it say? This book gives voice to that very question. I am a passionate advocate for creativity and have got so much support and encouragement from reading Artists & Illustrators. Helen Raisbeck I have been a subscriber to the magazine for many years and always look forward to the next issue. I often take the magazine to my mother’s house and we both enjoy having a go at the projects to try something new. My mum usually prefers to paint animals but during our latest art session, she surprised me by painting…

Parks can be as inspirational as anywhere for the landscape painter. My local park has everything I need: sky, trees, water, fields of grass and other foliage. The sky can change frequently, sunlight continually moves, altering highlights and shadows, and seasonal changes significantly alter the scenery. Unmown summer fields are a gift to the artist. I could paint a different park picture every day. Painting outdoors – or en plein air – challenges our ability, creativity and perception of the world around us. We need to look for what we can actually see, not what we think is there; interpreting what we see into a painted image in our own unique way. React to the light and try to forget about local colour (the colour which we know an object…

1 LAY OUT COLOURS Have you ever looked at your mixing tray or scrap piece of paper and found the crudely mixed colours more striking than what eventually landed on your canvas? It is unfortunate that acrylic paint can quickly become dull, especially if it is mixed or diluted too much. If you want vibrant, luminous paintings, mixing directly is a great technique to try. Begin by squeezing out plenty of paint on your palette or mixing tray. To make it easier on your first attempt, consider either working on a smaller scale to get used to the larger quantities, or limiting the number of colours you use. 2 PICK UP PURE PIGMENT I began painting by dabbing a moist 2" flat brush into Cadmium Orange, Burnt Sienna and Yellow…

As an alternative to starting a painting with the sky first and then building up the landscape, it is possible to paint the mountains first and then glaze the clouds on afterwards. For this to work safely, it is essential to use a more absorbent cotton paper. This method requires that the mountains are painted first on dry paper. Once this has dried completely, the entire area of the paper can be glazed with clean water and the sky then applied in the traditional way. I used a small sheet of Saunders Waterford paper for this example and prepared a strong mix of Ultramarine and Burnt Sienna. I also squeezed out a small blob of Raw Sienna. 1 LAYER THE LANDSCAPE I created three layers of mountains, all done using…

Lori Mehta’s art is all about stripping away the excess to reveal what really matters. After years in graphic design and raising her children, Lori returned to painting, finding inspiration in the light and landscapes of Cape Cod. Her work, celebrated with more than 50 awards, focuses on moments that others might miss: moments full of light and simplicity. Her paintings, stripped down to the essentials, leave just enough space for viewers to fill in their own stories. lorimehtaart.com I was raised in a small blue-collar town in a very small home in Connecticut. I was one of five girls. We had a brother who passed at six, so my elder sister and I tackled grief early and, as younger siblings arrived, we were thrust into adult roles at a…

BROUGHT TO YOU BY We’re thrilled to be back with our annual British Art Prize, brought to you by Artists & Illustrators and supported by Raw Umber. This major international art competition will expose winning artists of all levels to a far-reaching platform to gain valuable publicity and recognition for their work. Open to everyone – whether you’re an amateur, emerging or professional artist – all styles, media* and techniques will be considered. Prizes FIRST PRIZE The overall winner of the British Art Prize will receive a £2000 cash prize and a solo exhibition at Panter and Hall’s Cecil Court Gallery! Plus a £750 Royal Talens art materials voucher and a six-page feature in a future issue of Artists & Illustrators. The winning artwork will also be displayed at the…

I’ve come from a very technical background. When I started getting busier and time spent on artwork became much more precious, I began looking for ways to streamline the process without losing the precision detail I was used to. I tried several options such as working to a stricter time limit or working with larger brushes. However, the way that proved most impactful was to find areas in a painting that I could meld into others. This way, I avoided looking at each individual element and treated those areas as one big shape. Most obvious were the areas in shadow as these also tend to mask out details and, conveniently, are the places people don’t really look at. Instead, they tend to follow the progression of light. Immediately, I could…

Painters frequently talk about “depth” in their paintings, which is slightly ironic as paintings in general are completely flat with absolutely no actual depth whatsoever. Of course, what we all mean by depth is really the illusion of depth. Our paintings are optical illusions that try to fool the brain into believing that our two-dimensional flat sheet of paper has a third dimension. Aerial perspective – also known as atmospheric perspective – refers to a combination of various methods we can use to enforce that suggestion. Aerial perspective is real. Distance has a neutralising effect on all of the main attributes of the subject: detail is reduced, edges become softer, colour saturation is lowered, colour temperature changes, and extremes of tone are suppressed. These effects are created by the uneven…

What do we know about gouache? It can produce broad colour notes and atmospheric effects using thin washes, while more opaque applications can produce complex, naturalistic textures and refined details. For those getting started with landscape painting, it’s a little more forgiving than purely working in watercolour and is simpler to set up than oils. Although well-suited to studio paintings – like this demonstration – gouache is also an excellent choice for en plein air painting. The necessary equipment is portable, lightweight and easy to clean up when finished, which is extremely handy when painting outside. Gouache is best used for smaller paintings. The opacity and quick drying times are useful for working in layers too. The paint’s thickness is ideal for producing textured effects common to landscapes, such as…

Lucy Marks starts all of her artwork en plein air. And when she is in the studio, she tends to bring the great outdoors in. Rain or shine, summer or winter, the French doors at the end of her studio are always open, overlooking her picturesque courtyard garden with overarching camellia trees. Lucy takes inspiration from her mother, who showed her the joy of painting en plein air and taught her never to give up on a painting, leading her to discover plenty about her art and technical process. “I grew up in a very creative environment. One of my earliest memories is going out on a picnic with her and sitting in a field of poppies that she was painting.” Her love for the British landscape comes from a…

Editor’s pick… The UK AIDS Memorial Quilt, featuring 42 quilts and 23 individual panels, honours 384 individuals affected by HIV and AIDS. Part of the world’s largest community art project, it has been shown globally since the 1980s. This display at Tate Modern is the largest UK showing to date, aiming to raise awareness and break the stigma surrounding HIV. Admission is free. On from 12 to 16 June 2025 at Tate Modern’s Turbine Hall. tate.org.uk Don’t miss… Rare Earth, a striking solo exhibition by British painter Deborah Tarr. The show channels the raw energy of nature through abstract expressions, blending memory, landscape, and inner experience. Tarr’s emotionally resonant works explore geological forms and cosmic cycles, creating a profound dialogue between the organic and the constructed. A powerful meditation on…

For more than two decades, Folk Clothing has been at the forefront of contemporary, design-led fashion, renowned for its distinctive approach that blends simplicity with artful sophistication. The brand was founded on the belief that clothing should be an expression of individuality, where every piece tells a story and serves as an extension of the wearer’s personality. Folk Clothing merges high-quality materials with innovative design, producing timeless garments that are both versatile and statement-making. Drawing inspiration from the world of art, each collection integrates subtle artistic influences, making it easy to incorporate high-end, thoughtful design into everyday wear. Folk Clothing’s collaborations with renowned artists such as Nick Goss, Tom Hammick and Kate Gibb further elevate their collections, infusing their garments with unique artistic vision. These collaborations bring together fashion and…

The Royal Academy’s Summer Exhibition makes its selection from approximately 1,800 submitted works. Royal Academicians like Katherine and also Vanessa Jackson, Philip Sutton, David Hockney and Michael Craig-Martin are allowed to display up to six works – or a maximum artwork of 80 square feet – annually but the majority of paintings, sculptures, prints, architectural follies and video extravaganzas are submitted blind, with no such guarantee. That was Katherine Jones’ situation up until 2004. She was born in Sussex in 1979 but brought up in Herefordshire on the Welsh border. Before having children, her mother had been the editor of ‘Arts Review’ (antecedent to the current Art Review) and her aunt was Marion Jones (1952-2021), “A brilliant painter and teacher,” says Katherine. Katherine studied printmaking at Cambridge School of Art…

MY HUSBAND AND I HAVE JUST RETURNED HOME after spending an idyllic five weeks in the south of France. I am an artist and illustrator based in Teignmouth, south Devon, where my husband and I run our own gallery featuring my original paintings, limited-edition prints and a variety of products featuring my designs. We chose the French Riviera for our trip, as it has long been a haven for artists, from Monet to Matisse, all drawn to its dazzling light, shifting colours, and Mediterranean charm. I love that each artist had a slightly different interpretation of the scenery, but they all agreed on its beauty and magnificence. The light of the French Riviera is legendary, and for good reason. It has a luminous quality and a clarity that transforms everything…

It is the most difficult. It has also, I believe, the most simple kind of composition. Because no one can stop us from imagining the world in the way that pleases us most.” So said André Derain, one of the foremost practitioners of Fauvism. Most, if not all, of the artists in this special landscape supplement would agree. Denis John-Naylor, known as The Man that Paints in the Park, shows you how to assess the scene, mix colours and evaluate your landscape painting as it progresses. Watercolour favourite Grahame Booth describes the not-as-easy-as-it-looks concept of atmospheric perspective; while in a separate story he explains why this very subject can help when plotting cast light and shadows. Hashim Akib guides us through an abstract painting of a stream, tree and rocks…

Sunsets are possibly one of the most popular painting subjects – at least when you’re starting out. More experienced painters are often wary of such subjects as it can be quite tricky to portray those beautiful sunset colours and tones without slipping into garishness. In a sunset, almost all of the interest will be in the sky. The bright setting sun will be directly in front or slightly to the side of us, creating what is essentially a silhouette of the landscape. One of the challenges with this type of subject – especially in watercolour – is working out how to subdue the daytime colours and make the silhouettes appear dark enough while maintaining sufficient light contrasts to avoid the painting becoming flat and uninteresting. You can’t shortcut this effect…

In this article we are going to push colour. The shapes and value patterns are the underlying structure of the painting but, rather than looking for accents and details, we are going to see if the painting works as a series of colour patterns within their correct shape and value. These exercises are to help us understand that it is not the detail that makes a painting work but the big and simple compositional choices, firstly through values, then colour harmony and now colour balances. We are not looking for the subtlety of values or colour variations, but reducing them to their largest forms. I think what we find most difficult about a landscape is to reduce the information. In the studio, we are in an organised environment, with controlled…