Indholdsfortegnelse for August 2023 i The Artist

Artists, artisans and art materials will be brought together for this year's Patchings Festival in partnership with Painters Online, The Artist and Leisure Painter magazines, from July 13 to 15. This year the popular St Cuthberts Mill festival marquee, hosting watercolour and mixed-media demonstrations by artists such as David Bellamy, Soraya French, Peter Cronin and Billy Showell, will be joined by a new festival marquee which will feature a programme of demonstrations in oils and acrylics. The Royal Society's marquee is another new addition, featuring work by ten artists from the Royal Societies, including David Curtis, Haidee-Jo Summers, Jenny Aitken, Graham Webber and Roger Dellar, who will be meeting visitors and demonstrating techniques. Materials will be available for you to try and test as usual in the Art Materials marquee…

IN CONVERSATION Fascinated by the ever-changing characteristics of light, Patricia Haskey enjoys how the light dissolves or sharpens detail and alters any colour it touches, evoking mood and atmosphere. Based in the north west of England, Patricia looks out upon the mountains of the Lake District National Park and takes every opportunity to explore the area, walking through the countryside and hiking up the hills. She loves to sit and sketch, absorbing the experience, witnessing first-hand the fast-moving weather fronts that sweep over the coast and countryside. ‘My fascination is with the distinctive shapes of the mountains, dramatic skies, meandering lanes and clusters of tiny buildings punctuating the shapes of fields and trees, dwarfed by the expanse of the surrounding hills. The desire to express the diversity of the landscape…

When drawing it is crucial to appreciate the process rather than to focus on the end product. The business of looking and translating what you see into a two-dimensional image is absorbing and relaxing as well as demanding. The fact that pens can't be rubbed out emphasises the value of a bold and explorative approach. There are many ways to use a pen and many marks to be made. A good starting point is to have a ‘play’ with a range of pens. I tend to use the Uni-ball Pin fine line and there is quite a difference between, for example, 0.03 which is very fine and 0.8 which makes a much darker, thicker mark. The quality of the mark is also affected by how you move your hand, how…

LONDON Bankside Gallery 48 Hopton Street SE1. 020 7928 7521 www.banksidegallery.com Chelsea Physic Garden: Celebrating 350 Years in Paint and Print; until June 25. Royal Society of Miniature Painters, Sculptors and Gravers; June 28 to July 8. Quentin Blake and Linda Kitson: Portraits, Playhouses and People; July 12 to 23. Dulwich Picture Gallery Gallery Road SE21. 020 8693 5254 dulwichpicturegallery.org.uk Berthe Morisot: Shaping Impressionism; until September 10. The Gallery 340 Kings Road SW3. 020 8693 5254 thewappinggroupofartists.org.uk The Wapping Group of Artists; annual exhibition, July 9 to 21. Long & Ryle 4 John Islip Street SW1 020 7834 1434 www.longandryle.com Kate Montgomery: Pattern Book; June 30 to July 27. Mall Galleries The Mall, SW1. 020 7930 6844 www.mallgalleries.org.uk New English Art Club; annual exhibition, June 23 to July 1. Korean…

Everyday is the theme of an exhibition by the Dorset-based art group Southern Contemporaries, at the Shaftesbury Arts Centre this summer. New work in a wide range of media will celebrate the commonplace in often extraordinary ways. Everyday can be seen at the Shaftesbury Arts Centre, 13 Bell Street, Shaftesbury SP7 8AR, from July 27 to August 8. The centre is open daily, from 10am until 4pm, and until 2pm on the final day. Admission is free. For more information about the group visit www.bournemouthartsclub.co.uk For details of the exhibition venue, visit www.shaftesburyartscentre.org.uk…

PRACTICAL WATERCOLOUR Peter Cronin works from his studio in south Wales. He is a member of the Royal Society of Marine Artists and was one of the art experts for the Watercolour Challenge programme in 2022. He has produced two books with Search Press: Pure Watercolour Painting and Sketching for the Absolute Beginner and is a regular visitor to art societies, giving demonstrations of his watercolour and sketching techniques. See more on Instagram and at www.petercronin.org As a young man working in the once mighty steelworks at Port Talbot in south Wales, I would take my breaks sitting right at the end of the unloading jetty and watch the five tugs acting like sheepdogs, cajoling, pushing and heaving the 300,000 tonne iron ore carriers into dock. These huge vessels often…

STEVE'S FOUR EXERCISES TO TRY Continuous line/tone sketch Using only pen and water-soluble ink, create an entire sketch using one continuous line, never picking the pen up from the paper (below left). Once the sketch is completed, you can enhance it by adding colour or tone. Seven stroke sketch Using a couple of your favourite paintbrushes, paint a sketch with only seven total strokes. Every time you put your brush to the paper and then pick it up again counts as one stroke. Free your mind of the need for detail and have fun seeing what you can create with just seven strokes of your brush (above far left and above right). Ten shape sketch (image not shown) Choose a few of your favourite brushes to articulate value and tone…

Try using the clock method to help you draw things that involve angles. Set up a simple still life with two or three cups or mugs. Close one eye and line your finger up with the side of the mug in order to gauge the angle. Focus on your finger and ask yourself what o'clock is it? Ten to? Five to? Make a quick sketch and look again at the objects to check you've got it right. Noticing negative spaces also helps with this sort of exercise. Another example of a line only approach came when I was visiting the beautiful town of Ludlow for a drawing day with a friend. We entered the market square and had just ten minutes to capture some of the feel of it. Again…

DIGITAL ISSUE EXTRA CONTENT I focus on the quality of the light, which is my main subject. The summer colours must appear washed out and conjure up the feeling of past holidays and the memory-illusion’ of perpetually sunny holiday trips to the beach. I hold on to this idea throughout the painting and try hard to keep my tones light, within a narrow range from mid tones in the foreground, to whispery pale suggestions of shapes in the bleached-out distance. The horizon will be barely visible and this lift’ towards the top of the painting should help with the painting's soft, light feel. COLOUR CHOICES To create aerial perspective, my palette will move from gold to, then blue/green, ending towards the upper areas with soft blues. I avoid moonglow and…

‘I found the glazing properties of the Rosa watercolours to be outstanding, allowing me to build up strong, bright transparent washes without disturbing the underlying paint and resulting in clean colours within the finished painting.’ The Watchtower, Lazaretto, Rosa Gallery Watercolours, 12x16in. (30.5x40.5cm) Rosa Gallery watercolour is designed and produced in Ukraine. The paints have been developed by collaborating with, and listening to the needs of, professional artists. If you are just beginning to paint in watercolour or are looking for an alternative with which to paint, these are well worth trying! The paints are made from organic gum Arabic, which provides good adhesion and colour flow, and premium, finely ground natural pigments. Originally available in a range of 60 vibrant colours, this range has recently been expanded to add…

Australian artist, Eril Nisbett moved to the seaside town of Worthing in West Sussex 10 years ago. ‘I have always been a maker, whether with my hands, with tools or digitally and have always come back to painting. I started aged 15 with acrylics, moving on to oils in my 20s, working sporadically, usually as a request from family or friends and the very occasional commission. Moving to the UK in 2013, I rediscovered my art and when a friend encouraged me to join and exhibit at the Worthing Artists Open House art trail, I quickly found my feet. I haven't looked back, with artwork now hanging on walls around the UK, US and Australia. ‘For Cornwall Colours I was liberal with the composition. The scene was loosely based on…

In praise of watercolour Thanks so much to Paul Talbot-Greaves Why Watercolour? and Barry Herniman Beauty of the Night in The Artist March 2023 for their generous explanations. I particularly appreciated Paul's comments about the simplicity of watercolour for travel and not being too restricted by rules (other than light to dark). I commenced a sketch-a-day practice about a year ago following a friend's suggestion, and then occasionally met up with other urban sketchers picking up tips and ideas for using watercolour. Time permitting, I'll do a course. Capturing vignettes of life by sketching in watercolour is peaceful and rewarding. Presently, I am bikepacking with my husband around the UK, Ireland and Scotland. A small lightweight watercolour palette and sketchbook is perfect for collecting memories of our trip, particularly as…

When painting en plein air, I find myself unconsciously matching colours exactly as I see them, especially when the light is changing fast, and you must make rapid decisions. There is nothing wrong with this of course and I've produced several paintings that represent the scene in front of me in a relatively realistic way, but sometimes you want a less than realistic interpretation. It is possible to paint outside in pastels providing you have everything set up in a way that makes life easy for yourself. Although pastels can be a speedy medium when it comes to laying down colour, there is nothing more frustrating than scrambling around looking for just the right colour. So, if you're working en plein air you need to be organised, and this means…

Sometimes people ask me which white I use, and whether it is a brighter white than normal. I wish I did have access to a brighter white! But no, the surprising thing about the blinding whites of sparkly lighting is that they are not usually pure white. Instead, there is a lot of surrounding off white and warm colour providing a sun-like corona for the illusion of glow. Any strong light affects at least the immediate vicinity, so bear this in mind when you paint it. Obviously everything we see is only visible due to light. Just as the sun reveals the world, it affects our perception of colour, depending on the quality of light. In contre-jour work, just as the light is warm, objects between us and the sun…

Marie Antoniou is an artist and art tutor living and working in Essex. Her works explore a range of themes either in acrylic or coloured pencil, with a particular emphasis on wildlife. Marie has exhibited extensively, in a variety of venues. Her work has also been published in Artists’ Painting Techniques published by Dorling Kindersley books and she is a regular contributor to The Artist magazine. Her work has been featured as set dressing in TV and film including the new Magic Mike's Last Dance movie, which comes out in 2023. Marie has won numerous awards and accolades and has been a finalist at the prestigious David Shepherd Wildlife Artist of the Year exhibition from 2014 to 2021. See more of her work at www.marieantoniou.com All paintings should have mystery,…

PRACTICAL Working with opaque media means using white to make lighter values and tones and, if used incorrectly, it can lead to messy results and a chalky finish to the painting. This is especially so when using the alla prima technique, which I am using here. I prefer to use titanium white, which is incredibly strong, and whilst it will create a lighter value quicker and easier than using a zinc white equivalent, it can also pollute colour where I don't want white. Because of this, I leave it out of the painting for as long as possible or until it is needed. A problem can arise when even the smallest amount of white is accidentally picked up, say when a sky has been painted too soon and a dark…

I have spent many years drawing and painting outside en plein air. It is something I have always enjoyed and I have introduced many people to its obvious delights. Some years ago I was in Prague at an exhibition of a friend's paintings. She knew of my love of outdoor sketching and introduced me to Rajesh Dhawan, a founding member of the Urban Sketchers Prague chapter. The origins of the urban sketchers stem from a Spanish journalist and illustrator, Gabriel Campanario, who was living in Seattle, USA, working for the Seattle Times. It was there he promoted journalistic drawing in a blog called Urban Sketchers Correspondent in 2007, which was broadcast as a blog on Flickr. The idea was to combine drawings with stories, which provided the background of the…