Indholdsfortegnelse for Issue 32 i Australian How To Paint

For as long as I can remember, I have drawn and painted and have always had an interest and awareness of the environment. When I was 15, my father’s job took him to Fiji so instead of pursuing a career in commercial art after I left school, I found myself living in Nadi for two years. I revelled in the uniqueness of the people, flora, fauna and the uniqueness of the landscape and I painted constantly. This culminated in my first solo exhibition. Various jobs over the next 20 years, including secretary, bookkeeper and sales manager, still allowed me time to indulge in my passion for art. During this time I gained a TAFE qualification in Fine Arts. Having a young family prevented me from relinquishing my full-time employment to…

Patricia Williams readily admits that she has had no formal background in art, although she loved to draw as a child many years ago. She did not study art at school – she has simply developed her creative skills by learning from books and observing the work of other people. After leaving school at the age of 15, this lady trained in the Public Service and became a secretary. She married young and raised a large family; simultaneously completing nursing and midwifery training in her late twenties. Circumstances led to her remarrying before she was blessed with another daughter (together with several stepchildren). During all those busy years she was primarily occupied with work and had no time for hobbies apart from reading. “When I retired in my fifties, I…

I live on a beautiful property just outside Cowra, NSW, and I travel into town, where I have my studio, six days per week. It has been very important to me over the years to have this separation of home and painting, especially when my children (now in their early 20s) were younger. When I think about what I do as an artist it seems to me I spend my days painting irrelevant details, well, what others may consider irrelevant, but to me these subtle colour changes and details are what make a painting really work. Our eyes look for these details as they scan a painting, even if we are not aware of it. The hard part is the balancing act of using these details without letting them take…

Highly qualified Queensland artist Helen Lawson has a BA from Queensland University, an LTCL from Trinity College of London, and a Diploma of Education from Monash University. Her early years were spent on the Darling Downs in Queensland, where a long-term love for nature and colour began. She completed her secondary and tertiary education in Brisbane. After Helen married, she pursued a teaching career which included transfers to Southport, Melbourne, Sydney, Mackay, Perth and Terrigal. She is finally ‘home again’ on Queensland’s Sunshine Coast at Noosa Waters. While moving from place to place, Helen furthered her tertiary education and was also blessed with two sons. During this time she created many beautiful gardens and acquired numerous family pets. Each fortuitous move brought her into contact with differing aspects of art,…

MATERIALS • Colours used: Cadmium Lemon; Permanent Rose; French Ultramarine; Sepia. Vanua Levu, one of the outer islands of Fiji, promises all the recognised hallmarks of an island escape … and much more. For the past three years, Leonie Norton has been taking two botanical painting groups and a holiday sketching group each year to Daku Resort – a small privately owned resort situated on the waterfront near the town of Savusavu. Modern bures offer comfortable accommodation, with the added bonus of being lulled to sleep in the evenings by the rhythmic lapping of water on the sand. Leonie is a highly sought after international artist and tutor. She is a prominent professional botanical artist who balances fine botanical art with her spontaneous pen and wash sketches. STEP ONE Over…

I have always drawn. I cannot remember a time when I wasn’t sketching something. My uncle used to holiday with us for two weeks each year and he would spend the whole time teaching me to draw. I absolutely loved our time together. My father was a design engineer draftsman and would bring home large sheets of paper for me to use. As an enterprising child, I used to run drawing classes for the neighbourhood kids. Instead of going to sporting fixtures on weekends, I went along to oil painting classes in the garage of a couple who were both artists. Strangely, however, the lady who ran the classes was allergic to terps. I can still remember her yelling whenever she smelt it. Kind of hard to get away from…

• Don’t worry about your washes being messy and scrubby. All will disappear with the layers of drybrush over the top. • Be very patient when drybrushing - wait for an area to dry before continuing, otherwise you will end up with ‘holes’ in your painting. • Remember that the painting may not look that wonderful until you are around 90 per cent finished. Don’t prejudge your work whilst in the middle of painting, otherwise you will not want to finish! Keep working. • Try not to use more than three colours at once when mixing up a colour. • Get yourself a book on watercolour paints and learn which ones are transparent, semi-opaque, and opaque. The more you know about your colours, the better your work will become. •…

MATERIALS • Paper: Arches 300gsm hot pressed smooth watercolour paper• Pencil: I used a 0.5mm HB clutch (propelling) pencil• Grey kneadable eraser: for removing pencil lines• Round Sables Brushes: Raphael and Winsor and Newton sizes 1,3,5• Palette: I prefer a ceramic palette with 10 or 12 individual sections to keep colours separated. It is also easier to clean.• Colours: Winsor & Newton Artists’ quality 5ml tubes. I always work with a very limited palette and try to keep my washes to a 2-colour mix, which ensures the colours remain clean and bright. Overglazing at the final stages gives areas of the painting a glow and enhance the underneath colour.• Colours used: Cadmium Lemon, French Ultramarine, Burnt Umber, Quinacridone Gold for overglazing, Raw Sienna. THE PLANT SPECIMEN It is necessary to…

MATERIALS • Prismacolor Col Erase Pencil• Colourfix primer• Liqutex Gesso• Pencils - Prismacolor, Faber Castell Polychromos and Derwent Coloursoft• Cheap brush with the bristles cut off for blending• Piece of felt or cotton makeup pads• Letraset aqua marker• Workable fixative• UV protective varnish• A4 sized custom made wooden frame I love experimenting with new materials and techniques and applying them just like I have done with my demo. This custom made wooden support is basically a “wooden thick edged frame”. I have seen these available from overseas suppliers and I am lucky enough to have a father who is fantastic at all things wood, so he made some up for me. WORKING WITH WOOD One of the advantages of working with these wooden frames is that you can finalise your…

• If the drawing is not correct, the painting will not be correct, so take care with the initial drawing. • Ensure you do a colour study and record the colours and mixes you use. Practice painting a leaf and other components to ensure you are confident when you begin your painting. • Try to mix enough colour to finish the painting. It can be a nuisance if you have to keep rematching and remixing your original colour. Make a large batch of a Master Colour in a separate small mixing dish. Do not contaminate this with other colours. It can be taken from the dish and put into a section of your palette. Other colours can be added to this and the original master colour remains true to the…

ITALIAN ARUM FRUITS AND SNAILS Down in the far corner of our back garden, next to the compost bins, there is a clump of Italian Arum (Arum italicum). Early one morning, after heavy overnight rain, I spied the dramatic orange fruits and the snails that had emerged from hiding to feast on their bounty. While I love using colour, I must confess that drawing is an absolute passion. It is immensely satisfying to create a work of art using simple materials that every Australian school age child takes for granted – a sheet of paper and a pencil. For this particular tonal drawing, I selected a softly marbled sheet of pale pewter-coloured paper. Because my style is precise and detailed, I prefer to use propelling pencils and 0.5 leads. Beginning…

EASEL SELECTION  Choosing the right easel is an integral part of the painting process. The importance of having the correct easel is often overlooked but having a firm and steady easel can be as important to the finished painting as choosing the correct paint, canvas or brush. One of the first considerations when selecting an easel is the type of material it is constructed from. Timber is primarily used for the majority of easels although some easels are constructed from aluminium. Whatever material is used, the object is to create an easel that doesn’t move, shake or vibrate when in use. North American Red Oak, or any Oak for that matter is the finest material for constructing easels. It is an extremely hard wood, so glue and screws do not…

• When starting, always chose 3 values of colour so as to not get overwhelmed with choices and too many pencils. Practice on a piece of paper if you are unsure which colours to use. • Holding your SHARP pencil in an upright position allows you to also get into the hills and valleys textures of the wood if you are looking for a rich colour saturation. • Blending on wood is difficult; a big brush is great as is pushes the pigment around. It’s a great technique for layer areas such as backgrounds not just on wood, but on all supports. • Using a circular technique with your strokes (lots and lots of little circles) goes a long way for details and lots of colour. • Pressure. Constantly check…

• Let your subject excite you. Flowers have distinctive characteristics and the possibilities are endless.• See the painting in your mind, so that you will have something to work towards.• Use a big brush, and block-in areas lightly. This approach allows you to see where you are up to and expand on what is happening – or change course altogether.• Use plenty of paint. Genesis paints do not dry unless you dry them, so there is no waste. Your brushes can be loaded with all the tones ready to paint. Use a large glass palette so that you can lay the colours out, leaving plenty of room for mixing with spaces in between to keep your colours clean.• Allow yourself to demonstrate that you love what you paint. This will…

• Be passionate about your subject.• Observation is the key to a successful painting.• The larger the area painted, the larger the brush required.• Put your work on a vertical surface to view it. Balance and tonal contrast can be more easily identified. Any imbalance will ‘jump’ out at you.• Do not work on only one section at a time. Build the painting up as a whole.• Always use artists’ quality paints and the best Sable brushes you can afford.• Always use a live plant specimen when painting.• Use a definite light source which will indicate three-dimensionality and solidity of the subject.• Work with a limited palette to keep the colour clean and pure, and try to keep individual colour mixes to two. More can turn the colour muddy.• Preferred…