Indholdsfortegnelse for December 2023 i The Artist

Want to comment on something you've read, or seen? Email me at theartistletters@tapc.co.uk or visit our website at www.painters-online.co.uk/forum We are so proud of the excellent work of our award-winning artists in The Artist category in our 2023 TALP Open Competition that we have made the decision to bring forward the presentation of their work to the front of this month's issue. We hope you will be as inspired as we are by the quality and breadth of subject matter, media and creativity of our winners’ work, presented in the next few pages. One of our judges, David Curtis ROI, RSMA, has commented on some of his favourites in the captions to the winning paintings, but he also wanted to highlight a few other works that he feels deserve a…

Art for Charity Collective, a global collective of artists raising awareness and funds for carefully chosen charities, will hold its next exhibition at the newly refurbished The Swan at South rop, from November 22 until December 11. Several artists took part in an Artist's Day at Thyme on September 13, painting in the beautiful gardens there, and these paintings will be on sale as part of the exhibition. A live Instag ram auction streamed from The Swan and hosted by Jack Savoretti will close the exhibition with all money raised going to Tusk, supporting forward-thinking and successful conservation intervention in Africa. For more information visit www.artforcharitycollective.com…

Royal Academy of Arts Burlington House Piccadilly London W1 J 0BD 020 7300 8090 www.royalacademy.org.uk November 25 to March 10,2024 Impressionists on Paper: Degas to Toulouse-Lautrec at the Royal Academy of Arts this winter explores how Impressionist and Post-Impressionist artists working in late 19th-century France transformed the way works on paper were perceived. Instead of merely preparatory sketches, works on paper, which included pastels, watercolours, temperas and gouaches, began to be seen as works of art themselves. Opening with works from the early years of Impressionism, from the 1860s and ‘70s, the exhibition continues through the decades concluding with works from the 1890s and 1900s, by which time works on paper were receiving evergrowing appreciation. Over 80 works will be on show, from artists including Mary Cassatt, Paul Cézanne, Edgar…

Tom Shepherd kicked off his art career using graffiti pens to draw bright and colourful custom artwork on guitars, but the infinite variety of subjects, and the endless possibilities of other media was always beckoning him. Subsequently daring to pick up a brush, his encounter with more traditional media, opened a world of imaginative inspiration. Now, with watercolour very much at the forefront, Tom loves the challenge of tackling a wide variety of subjects. Find out more at www.schoolofwatercolour.co.uk Email: tom@tomshepherdart.com Instagram: tomshepherdartist/@tomshepherdartist The final step in this painterly approach to watercolours is to achieve diversity of edges. Although it is the last piece of the puzzle, in many ways I feel it is the easiest to understand, and with a few pointers, relatively straightforward to apply to our paintings.…

In the final part of this series on drawing the human form, we will focus on how some of the structures and major landmarks of the human anatomy can be identified and used within our drawings, to give us a better structure while demonstrating an understanding of the placement of the most dominant muscle groups that we can see just under the surface of the skin. In the first two parts, we looked at a number of drawings as examples to discover a range of mark-marking approaches when working with line and techniques as we observe the figure; from measuring, to using negative shapes and relative angles to draw the anatomy and show the form of the human body. Adele Wagstaff trained at Newcastle University and the Slade School of…

1 Sable brushes can hold more water and bend gently without pushing back from the paper. 2 Synthetic brushes hold less water and do push back from the paper. 3 Sable brushes create a softer stroke whereas synthetic ones can be used with slightly more force. 4 Sable brushes are good for delicate work and soft washes. 5 Synthetic and sable brushes act differently when dipping, scooping or stirring the paint out of the palette. This will in turn affect the amount of paint on the brush. 6 Paint can be mixed either in the palette or on the paper. If it is mixed on the paper then the traditional way of layering is used to build up the tone, drying the layers between paint applications. This is often done…

CARAN D'ACHE Keith Haring was one of the most renowned of the young artists, filmmakers, musicians and performers whose work responded to urban street culture in New York in the 1980s, inspired by the graffiti artists whose marks covered the city's subways. Keith Haring mixed media water-soluble set, 40 assorted colour pencils and 42 wax pastels in a metal box. RRP £199.99 Info@jakar.co.uk www.jakar.co.uk ROSA Rosa Gallery artists’ quality watercolours in 10ml tubes, 14 assorted colours in a wooden gift box. RRP £49.99 Info@jakar.co.uk www.jakar.co.uk SCHMINCKE HORADAM AQUARELL SUPER GRANULATING WATERCOLOURS Discover the beauty of Schmincke Horadam Aquarell Super Granulating watercolour paints. This unique blend combines at least two granulating pigments from their existing range, resulting in a captivating ‘super-granulating’ effect. Now available in 9 themed sets of 3 x…

Sending-in days Artist at Soane Details: To mark the 200th anniversary of the Drawing Office at Sir John Soane's Museum, London, the museum is launching its first residency programme. The residency will allow the museum to develop its work with contemporary practitioners, whilst complementing the broader work of the organisation. Two artists will be hosted annually for three months each (March to May and September to November). The opportunity is open to a wide range of artists, architects, designers and makers at all stages of their careers, with drawing central to all applicants’ practice. Entries will be accepted from individuals and collaborations. When: The deadline for entries is December 15. Contact: www.artopps.co.uk DSWF's Wildlife Artist of the Year 2024 Details: Founded by the David Shepherd Wildlife Foundation in 2008, DSWF's…

Sketching Outdoors Barry Herniman Books about painting outdoors are always a challenge, because the moment you put something on a printed page, it stops being outdoors and becomes an armchair read. Yes, you can offer practical advice – what to take, how to work quickly and efficiently in changing weather – but there's hardly a whole book in that. As well as the expected list of equipment, Barry goes into some detail of not just the whats but the whys, leading you to a very real understanding of the mental as well as practical considerations of working in the field. There is also the matter of demonstrations – how can you teach someone outdoor painting when they're sitting in the warm with a book in their lap? The answer is,…

Out for a walk one crisp frosty morning I spotted the light shining across the path near to my home. I waited until the figure ahead reached a spot just right for catching the light and took three photos in quick succession. I chose the best one to work from in respect of the position against the fencing.…

Sketchbooks I have really enjoyed the articles in The Artist September 2023 about sketchbooks. I always keep sketchbooks, not only painting the pictures but recording details of the trips and holidays made with my husband and sometimes with the family. I have records going back a decade which are a constant joy to return to. The illustrations and the stories within the various books take me back in time and are reminders of experiences that might be forgotten without them. I have my late mother's autograph book, which is also a sketchbook. She came from an artistic family and many of the entries are small paintings. These are delightful and a window into her world as a young woman. The pictures depict the fashion of the day, scenes from the…

ROYAL ACADEMY OF ARTS Burlington House Piccadilly London W1J 0BD 020 7300 8090 www.royalacademy.org.uk November 25 to March 10,2024…

The theme of women at their toilette was a recurring one for Degas and this composition is the second of two versions of combing hair, the first dating from around 1885. Here he explores a new technique in mark-making and the laying down of strokes of colour; the pastel has been applied in numerous layers, resulting in the underneath colours being burnished and the surface of the paper becoming looser and more textured as a result. The mark-making we see as the topmost layer shows numerous strokes of colour, with parallel marks open to allow colour to show through from the layers beneath. The strokes we see change direction; they follow the direction of the contour of the form and musculature, and are also placed across the contour, around the…

Mike Barr is a Fellow of the Royal South Australian Society of Arts. He has won over 80 awards, including 17 first prizes. You can find more of Mike's work at www.mikebarrfineart.com With more and more people taking up art, particularly in their later years, it has produced its own little economy. In many respects it's good for artists. Never before have art materials been so accessible and affordable. Learning painting is also not a problem, as the mysteries of the skill are taught and outlined in the myriad online tutorials, art classes and workshops. As far as selling art goes there has never been a better age to do it. The big art galleries are no longer the only gatekeepers of the art industry. The internet has seen to…

Sarah Edmonds is the marketing manager for Pegasus Art and gallery manager at Art Cotswold. She lives and breathes art by promoting artists, writing about art, consulting, selling and painting herself. Sarah studied a short course at the Slade School of Fine Art followed by a degree in marketing and has worked in the industry ever since; www.sarahedmonds-marketing.com What could be more special than commissioning a painting to mark a memorable occasion, person or place? It's a great privilege for any painter to be asked to capture not only a physical, but also emotional representation of a moment in time. In a digital age of image saturation, where everything is instant and selfies dominate, it's no wonder that traditional portraits are getting a new lease of life. Commissioning a painting…

To explain things as simply as I can, my artistic process is all about removing the traditional constraints that can bind our selfexpression. I want to paint in a free and an interpretive way. I think of the great efforts that landscape photographers need to undertake to capture that all-elusive shot: they rise before dawn, haul their heavy gear uphill through the darkness and cold so they can catch the first oblique rays of sun and the magical effects this light has to transform the scenery. And yet, naïvely, artists like myself when I began to paint are compelled to render the view exactly as we see it. Observing the world, breaking it down, abstracting, distorting, but bringing forth a piece of art that still relates was my goal, but…

The changing seasons offer infinite motivation to the landscape painter and just because it's cold outside, doesn't mean there's nothing to paint! Colin Joyce begins this series of articles with a look at painting patterns in a winter landscape from a photograph of an iconic Scottish landscape, while Ian Sidaway discusses autumn colour and how to create the intensity of watercolour mixes needed to capture the effects of this season's light and glow. Finally, John Owen encourages everyone to wrap up warm and step outdoors with your kit. Build confidence and understanding of your materials as you keep up the pace to produce fresh plein-air sketches.…

The Artist Purchase Prize www.painters-online.co.uk Winner David Thomas The Artist's Exhibition Awards Selected artists are invited to exhibit in a mixed exhibition at Patchings Art Centre www.patchingsartcentre.co.uk Winners Matthew Eastmond, Stephen Hawkins, Kelvin Holtum, Alice Hole, Helen Martell (above left), Janet Mayled, Tim O'Brien, David Thomas, Greta Vilidaite, Sue Williams The Artist Highly Commended Award A subscription to The Artist worth £100 www.painters-online.co.uk Winner Craig Lee Batsford Awards £150 worth of Batsford books www.batsfordbooks.com Winner Susanna McInnes, Sue Williams BritishContemporary.art Award One year's representation by BritishContemporary.art, the online gallery featuring the best of British artists www.britishcontemporary.art Winner Fiona Carver Clairefontaine Award £250 worth of Clairefontaine art products www.clairefontaine.com Winner Greta Vilidaite Daler-Rowney Award £200 worth of Daler-Rowney art materials www.daler-rowney.com Winner Janet Mayled Parker Harris Online Mentoring Award £500 worth of online mentoring sessions www.parkerharris.co.uk Winner Helen Tarr…

When Claude Monet painted his Rouen Cathedral series in the 1890s, he began to realise after a career of painting the effects of light, how the surrounding atmosphere of the scene could be recreated using specific colour choices. Not only did the colours represent the effects of light on the façade of the cathedral at different times of day, or in different weather conditions, they also contributed to the emotional connection the viewer has with the subject. In other words, the bright sun and façade of midday creates an uplifting sensation in contrast to the greys of fog which might conjure up a gloomier mood in the viewer. For an artist the choice of coloured pigment is enormous. Some watercolour manufacturers have more than 70 colours in one range. This…

Sable brushes are beautiful, soft, exquisitely made and are rather special. They are to be treasured and looked after. They are worth having in your stable of brushes. A stable of sable is an ambition of mine. But synthetic brushes are also in my stable and this article is an attempt to analyse the difference between the two. The brushes differ basically in their ability to hold water and to bend. Usually you would use a greater selection of brushes, but for the following demonstrations one of each type of brush was used separately for each painting – one sable and one synthetic. The Zen definition of a brushstroke is ‘put, push, pull, flick’ which applies to using synthetic brushes. But when using a sable brush, the stroke can be…

FIFE J & G Innes Ltd 107 South Street, St Andrews, Fife KY16 9QW Tel: 01334 472174 Open: Mon to Sat 9am-5.15pm Sun 12.30 - 4.30pm www.jg-innes.co.uk Stockists of: Winsor & Newton, Daler-Rowney, Hahnemühle, Staedtler, Parker, Waterman, books, magazines, cards, games and a gallery. Upstairs @ J & G Innes Ltd GLOUCESTERSHIRE Cotswold Art Supplies Church Street, Stow on the Wold, Gloucestershire GL54 1BB Tel: 01451 830522 Open: Mon to Sat 9.15am-5.15pm www.cotswoldartsupplies.com Stockists of: Winsor & Newton, Daler-Rowney, Pro Arte, Unison pastels, Sennelier, Conté, Paperblanks, Reeves. Picture framing on site. Pegasus Art Shop Griffin Mill, London Road, Stroud, Gloucestershire GL5 2AZ Open: Mon to Sat 9am-5pm www.pegasusart.co.uk Stockists of: Williamsburg, Rembrandt, Old Holland, Cranfield paints, Cobra, Winsor & Newton, Daler-Rowney, Derwent, Daniel Smith, Schmincke, Caligo, Da Vinci, Pro Arte,…

DIGITAL EXCLUSIVE • DIGITAL EXCLUSIVE • DIGITAL EXCLUSIVE Other people have said that my colour choices are quite idiosyncratic. I think it is possible to tell when a painting is mine just by the use of colour. You see, I am not a painter that uses a traditional palette set-up. I think that squeezing paint out on a board is too wasteful considering the speed at which acrylics dry, and I am not usually sure exactly which colours I will use – I'm rather spontaneous. What I do initially is to select the colours that are appropriate for the project and squeeze out the amount I estimate I will need – yes, I am a frugal painter. I reckon most of my paintings are produced using no more than eight…

How to find and paint the patterns of a winter landscape, by Colin Joyce In this article I am venturing out into the countryside to look for interesting patterns in the landscape. A covering of snow, whether it is just a light dusting or a thick blanket, transforms the landscape into wonderful patterns, which may not be evident in other seasons. A zoom lens on a camera is useful for spotting potential subjects and compressing distances and perspective thereby doing the cropping for you. If you paint outdoors, I suggest taking a little viewfi nder with you to help visualise your painting. These are available to buy in art stores or you can make your own from a piece of card; just cut out an aperture to suit the dimensions…