Innehållsförteckning för Volume 12 Issue 3 från Artists Back to Basics

My first memories of art were from when I was about five years old and had a colouring-in book, and I distinctly remember my mother saying how good it was that I stayed within the lines. After leaving school I was involved in the display department at Myers, which taught me a lot about composition and colour. In 1966 I was conscripted and served a year overseas. In 1971 I went to England and continued window dressing and selling my art in London. I also painted murals in hairdressing salons and children’s nurseries. My wildlife art started in 1981 when I went to an exhibition by the Wildlife Artists’ Society of Australasia in East Melbourne. I was so taken by the art that I decided then to try to paint…

Genesis For a number of years Genesis Heat-Set Oil Paints have been regarded by many as the world’s most versatile quality fine artist paint ever made. This is because it suits artists who are used to using oils, acrylics or watercolours. It also provides today’s artists and students with a wonderfully safe medium to work with, without enduring harmful toxins or solvents found in many artists’ mediums. Not only are they non-toxic, they are also odour-free and contain NO heavy metals. Due to their very high pigment content, colours are strong and vibrant, even after drying. Unlike acrylics there is no colour shift from wet to dry state. Genesis instantly gives your paintings depth and allows far better coverage. A tiny amount goes a long way. Of the 87 colours…

My inspiration for this painting related to memories of Istanbul. I was overwhelmed by the city’s mystic, history and culture. Visiting the mosques; wandering through narrow, streets; being surrounded by the shoe polishers and attentive soft drink vendors; smelling the perfumes mixed with the unfortunate air pollution; inspecting exotic foods of the Orient and soaking up an atmosphere only the Turks could create. Sounds of donkey hoofs on cobbled pavements, calls to prayer, beeping horns of passing cars and people speaking in foreign tongues completed the mystery. I visited the bazaars, and one of the highlights was watching a display of delicately knotted and beautifully coloured Turkish carpets and rugs. Those were the colours I had in mind… at the same time I wanted to capture the atmosphere of the…

Janet Smith has enjoyed drawing and painting for as long as she can remember. In 1940, at the age of ten, she was able to attend children’s art classes at the Adelaide School of Art. It was a formative stage in her career. “The first year was with Gladys Good and we used large pieces of white paper on easels,” she relates. “We used black crayon, coloured chalks and sometimes powder paint. It was a wonderful experience as Miss Good attempted to teach us perspective and worked to help us achieve balance in our pictures.” During her second year of early tuition, Janet learned object drawing which was ‘very seriously taught’. The following year she was able to do design, just before the children’s lessons were closed down due to…

Every day you seem to read somewhere about exercising, swimming riding your bike, join a gym maybe walking the dog and generally being active if you want to stay in shape and keep yourself fit, this is all good advice. And if you do these things regularly you’ll be fairly comfortable and feel good afterwards, but lay off for any length of time and its hard work to get back into shape, puffing and muscle cramps your reward, ‘’maybe I will leave it today have another cup of coffee’’ anyway what’s all this go to do with my art? You may say. The pencil aerobics. Let your fingers do the walking and talking. Well just like your body your fingers, hands and art brain need regular exercise if you’re ever…

STEP ONE Using an Aquarelle pencil, sketch in the subjects, then use masking fluid to protect the areas being painted with a brush. STEP TWO Using Schminke airbrush solutions of Sepia, Olive Green, Neutral Grey and Ochre, create a background of farmhouses and bush. Then peel off the masking fluid and you will have a white area to start your detail work. STEP THREE Beginning with the bird on the right, start to build up tonal washes using the dry brush technique. Windsor and Newton colours used are Black Sepia, Pale Blue and Orange. STEP FOUR Using dark tones under the neck and the belly will give the kookaburra form and shape. Detail is used on the back and wing, so make sure you have the correct feathering as this…

I love bringing old houses back to life! I had a photograph that I had taken on a trip from the south coast of Victoria of this one. The house was fairly run down with long dry grass all around it and some sheep in the front yard. I could imagine it having been a homestead on a thriving farm many years ago and set about trying to capture a moment from it’s past! Step 1 I have chosen to work on a creative edged canvas 20”x24”. After roughly sketching my design I start off with an Acrylic underpainting in Violet and Ultramarine, I have taken care to keep the shapes of the key elements in the painting. Step 2 I purposely chose a loose style for this painting, as…

This picture of an old shearing shed is a very ‘Australian’ scene with dark shadows and a white roof against the sky. Summer thunderstorms are a feature in the area, and cloud patterns are often dramatic – with different levels of cloud travelling in different directions; cumulus underneath and frequently a series of feathery clouds above. This painting was an attempt to describe the atmosphere. A small photograph was used for reference. STEP ONE I sketched the scene in pencil, and then painted in a plain sky. I left small spaces for the trees and roughly painted the grass and the shed. The top of the sky was underpainted with thin Permanent Magenta and then overpainted with Ultramarine and white, blending down to Cobalt Blue and white and then Phthalo…

Perception is a funny thing, also by definition a very personal thing. I have learned a great deal over the years by slowly (and sometimes painfully) becoming aware of and analysing my own perceptions and every bit as importantly if not even more so, studying and trying to understand the ramifications of the other human’s perceptions, both of my art specifically and art (and life) in general. Your own artistic journey is by definition a very personal thing but will be made far easier, more enjoyable, and ultimately produce better results with the experience gained from contemplating how other people perceive artistic creation. It is (has to be) as unique as individual people are themselves. I have had (and learnt from) lots of lessons in my life about this concept…

Cees Sliedrecht was born in Holland. He started drawing at the age of three – copying little cartoons, and making pictures of his home, his pets, and imaginary figures from stories. His father was an amateur artist who endowed him with enthusiasm for drawing and painting. Often they would go outdoors, driving from one windmill to another, painting the Dutch scenery which inspired many of the Old Masters. This early stimulus drove him to become further interested in art. An art teacher at secondary school acknowledged him as a better art student and gave him great support. Cees followed courses at arts academies in The Hague and Rotterdam. Before to moving to Australia in the early ’70s, he completed studies as a College Teacher in Business Management. In Australia, he…

Contributed Tucked away in the leafy mountain village of Buderim is one of the Sunshine Coast’s best-kept secrets … and also one of Queensland’s most beautiful and memorable galleries. Here is where you can see some of Australia’s finest artists in an intimate and appealing gallery space. Tiffany Jones Fine Art Gallery is located on Buderim’s main street, and displays an impressive selection of art by some of Australia’s most prestigious painters. Tiffany Jones (BA Hons), her mother Sharon, and her brothers Roderick and Stefan work together to manage the gallery. The Jones family are an experienced team of art consultants with more than 15 years involvement in the fine art sector. Their profession as art dealers grew out of a personal passion for art, with art collecting being an…

in other words, your ability to look at the world, and distill and process the information that you need to make your painting While painting pandanus trees may seem like a specialised thing, the process of painting them over the years has helped me develop a whole range of skills, which I’m sure will be useful for you in your arts practise. While this article is about brush technique, brush technique is only useful when you have developed some other skills as well. Some of these I’ve touched on in other articles. In order to make a respectable painting, I believe the painting has to have it’s basis in three fundamental skills. These skills, in no particular order are: Your perception skills (in other words, your ability to look at…