Innholdsfortegnelse for September 2015 i Artists & Illustrators

From portrait demonstrations and landscape competitions to exclusive exhibition openings, it’s been a very busy yet enjoyable summer for the Artists & Illustrators team so far. We kicked things off in a celebratory mood at the Jonathan Cooper Park Walk Gallery. As part of her Artists & Illustrators Artist of the Year 2014 win, Camilla Dowse was given the opportunity to stage her own solo exhibition and responded by producing a beautiful portfolio of street scenes. Her private view was a great success: champagne flowed, red dots appeared and at least one rather prominent MP was in attendance, entourage and all! If you fancy following in Camilla’s footsteps, be sure to enter this year’s competition on page 24. I also joined New English Art Club president Richard Pikesley on the…

From the exhaustive A History of Britain to the highly emotive The Story of the Jews, Simon Schama has developed a reputation for putting a very personal spin on a seemingly vast topics and challenging conventional wisdom along the way. This month sees the 70-year-old historian make a three-pronged attack on the history of portraiture with The Face of Britain, a forthcoming book, BBC TV series and five-part display at London’s National Portrait Gallery. The project, says Schama, came out of his “intense but as yet unconsummated obsession with portraits”. He views a portrait as an exercise in looking, a complicated “transaction” between two or more people, and the new multimedia project is an attempt to make sense of the psychology of it all. The Face of Britain will be…

The Artists & Illustrators Artists of the Year competition is an annual search for fresh painting, drawing and printmaking talent, a chance for young, maturing or just underappreciated artists to win prizes and gain national exposure for their work. For our eighth instalment this year, we have more chances to win than ever before – with prizes ranging from cash and art materials to courses and gallery representation. The overall winner of this year’s competition will receive a £1,000 cash prize and gallery representation from London’s Panter & Hall with the chance to work towards his or her own solo exhibition. 50 shortlisted artworks will also be displayed at a special exhibition held at Mall Galleries, London SW1, from 22-27 February 2016. And don’t forget, if you are a member…

Our Minnesota Pipestsone has Radiant pink overtones that accentuate an underlying golden glow. It is semi-opaque and granulates beautifully in washes and is as permanent as the rock from which it is made. Lapis Lazuli this gem-quality pigment is an opulent blue that is vibrant and light reflective (due to the irregular and angular shape of the pigment particles). A touch of golden pyrite as an inclusion adds a delightful shimmer. The result is an elegant, almost three-dimensional effect that is completely different from the predictable blue of synthetic ultramarine pigments. Serpentine Genuine is our newest PrimaTek® and has no comparison in any known paint palette. A surprising semitransparent paint, it’s a deep green that granulates with specks of burnt scarlet. A great addition to your landscape and floral palette.…

• Small works require unity. Try using a limited palette of Yellow Ochre, Titanium White, Burnt Sienna and Payne’s Grey. Working on a warm toned ground will help unify the picture without having to apply paint to the whole surface. • Try attending a life class. It lends itself well to building a momentum and working in a very focused, structured and economical way. • Prepare a variety of surfaces to work on, in different shapes, sizes and colours. Keep them to hand so you can quickly grab the right shape of board and toned ground to meet your needs. • Keep the darks thin and the lights thicker. This will stop the darks from deadening. Think of Rembrandt’s work – making the highlights and the areas that are the…

For this demonstration, I wanted to show you how to paint very directly, using a method that was first taught formally by Carolus-Duran (to students including John Singer Sargent) around 1870 and was used by fin de siècle painters such as Joaquín Sorolla and Anders Zorn. However, before it was taught formally, painters like Frans Hals and Diego Velázquez used this approach some 200 years earlier. The approach involves blocking in the form in broad aggregated passages, gradually breaking down each larger shape into smaller sub-shapes to help refine them. While Carolus-Duran allowed his students to spend the first session finding the outline in charcoal or thin paint, I find that the sooner I start painting the better. More recently I have dispensed with even the most basic pre-drawing, something…

The British Museum’s forthcoming exhibition Drawing in Silver and Gold: Leonardo to Jasper Johns is the first to celebrate and explore the 600-year history of metalpoint. This is, as the name implies, a graphic technique that depends on a thin metal stick or stylus – most commonly of silver but any soft metal, like gold or copper will serve – that leaves a thin deposit when used on a slightly abrasive, prepared surface. Traditionally, this preparation involved mixing carbonised and ground-up animal bones into a gluey solution, which was brushed on and left to dry. It could be used on paper, parchment or even thin strips of wood. In Renaissance workshops, artists would mix up their own grounds, and in Italy they would often add pigments, but in the 19th…

A VIRTUAL HOLIDAY Re: Talking Techniques, Issue 354 I am constantly encouraged by the way your magazine prompts us to choose different materials, new techniques or another location to paint, as the Summer issue illustrated with its feature on light. I was halfway to Cornwall in my mind! Bob Price, via email FELLOW FLORA AND FAUNA FAN While having a good read of the July issue, I thoroughly enjoyed the article on painting the garden and Tessa Pearson’s really colourful prints. It reminded me of my own floral paintings, in the different styles or ways of seeing. It’s great to know there are lots more people out there who are also in awe of flora and fauna. Lynne Daniels, via email LOVE A GOOD PROJECT Re: 28 Summer Projects, Issue…

How did you begin your career in botanical art? My background and training are more scientific: my degree was in botany. We did draw things under the microscope but imagination was not to the fore – it was all about drawing what you see. After graduating, I worked at a nursery for a year to earn money and then I did two years at Middlesex Polytechnic, which was where I learnt watercolour technique. I was thrilled that I was able to paint – it was what I wanted to do, even if my father hadn’t been keen on me doing art at school. When did your association with Kew begin? That came in 1975. After my two years at Middlesex Poly, I prepared a portfolio and wrote to the Natural…

Imprimatura is a thin stain of colour applied to the ground before painting. Popular among Renaissance artists, it is often used to reduce the absorbency of the ground. For this portrait, I used Winsor & Newton’s Griffin Alkyd fast-drying Burnt Umber oil colour mixed with a little Retouching Varnish from C Roberson & Co., which reduces the absorbency of acrylic gesso-primer on the canvas. If you are working on a ready-primed canvas then using turpentine or Sansodor for the imprimatura medium will be fine.…

BLOCK PRINTING KIT If you’ve ever been put off the prospect of printmaking by the lengthy list of kit required, the time for procrastinating is over. Manchester art shop Fred Aldous has launched a superb little Block Printing Kit complete with a full set of tools, ink, lino, and even 20 cards and envelopes to send your handiwork to friends and family. Local print collective Mono has even written an informative handbook to guide you through the process. Artists & Illustrators readers can save 15% off the £39.97 RRP by quoting the promo code BLOCK15 at the checkout* at www.fredaldous.co.uk. SKETCHY BUSINESS The Jerwood Drawing Prize is the largest annual exhibition of its kind in the UK. The three-person panel has now selected 60 works for the exhibition (including Gary…

Royal Talens has been crafting quality artists’ oil paints since 1899. This month, we have teamed up with the historic Dutch colourmen to offer readers of Artists & Illustrators an exclusive opportunity to buy a set of Cobra Artist oil colours for half price – a saving of £6.75. Cobra is a new generation of artists’ quality water-mixable oil paint with an exceptionally high degree of pigmentation. Only the very best pigments and oils are used. During the grinding process the paint is ground on the triple roller mill until it reaches the fineness of an artists’ quality. For your chance to buy a set of five 20ml tubes of Cobra Artist Water Mixable Oil Colours for the offer price of £6.75 (RRP £13.50) plus free P&P, simply visit www.artistsandillustrators.com/…

Look for Caroline Pedler’s work online and you may conclude that there are two artists with the same name: one, a prolific and versatile illustrator of children’s books and the other, a bold painter of fine art in the spirit of Cy Twombly and Antoni Tàpies. These are, in fact, two sides of the same person. The Truro-born artist has created bright and colourful illustrations for some 50 children’s books, yet over the past four years she has also developed her own darker, more personal style of painting, too. And rather than dividing her time or one taking preference over the other, these two strands have instead enriched her practice and given her an outlet for all sides of her personality. Caroline’s remarkable double-edged career began with her studying illustration…

• PAPER Saunders Waterford rough 425gsm watercolour paper • WATERCOLOUR Cobalt Blue, Cerulean Blue, Green, Yellow Green, Perylene Green, Green Gold, Opera Pink, Transparent Pyrrole Orange, Translucent Yellow, Magenta and Burnt Sienna, various brands • BRUSHES Round Chinese weasel hair brushes, various sizes; Pro Arte Series 9A Prolene Sword Liners, sizes small, medium and large • DANIEL SMITH WATERCOLOUR STICKS, VARIOUS COLOURS • DERWENT INKTENSE CRAYONS, VARIOUS COLOURS • DROPPER BOTTLE • SPRAY BOTTLE…

There are many benefits to working on a small scale. It can be much less intimidating than a large blank canvas and more time effective. I often start with small paintings to get my eye in before progressing to a larger canvas or board. Small paintings tend to be considered as studies or miniatures but I think they have as much value as larger works. There is a distance created by working on a large scale, both physically and psychologically, whereas on a smaller scale you can create more intimacy. MATERIALS I’ve always switched between smaller and larger paintings. The smallest painting I ever made was just 8cm wide whereas the largest measured 1.2m2 . For the most part, I prefer work on boards that are around 25-30cm. I prefer…

MEDIEVAL ART IS BAD How many times have you heard the medieval period described as “The Dark Ages”? This term was coined in the 14th century by the Renaissance scholar, Petrarch, to suggest a widespread decline in civilisation after the fall of the Roman Empire. In art, this so-called decline is often characterised as a shift from the virtuoso naturalism of the Greco-Roman era, to the two-dimensional works we associate with Christian-Byzantine and Medieval art. But is it fair to dismiss medieval art as uncivilised? In fact, the myth that Medieval art is bad has historically stopped us asking why artists ignored established traditions. Perhaps flatness was seen as a more effective way to represent Christ and Christian iconography as celestial and timeless? THE RENAISSANCE TOOK PLACE IN ITALY When…

MY FAVOURITE COLOUR Liquitex’s Cadmium Red Light acrylic (1). It has the loveliest consistency of any paint I have used. Unfortunately, with the potential EU ban on cadmium, I might soon have to find an alternative! MY FAVOURITE ILLUSTRATED BOOK Cops and Robbers by Janet and Allan Ahlberg. Janet’s beautiful pictures are full of charm and perfectly complement Allan’s hilarious text. MY DREAM GALLERY DAY OUT A sunny afternoon at the Barbara Hepworth Museum and Sculpture Garden (2) in St Ives would be pretty hard to beat. MY ARTISTIC HERO The American comic book artist Jack Kirby (3). I’ve loved his work since I was a child. His incredible use of dramatic composition and dynamic figure drawing is still a huge inspiration to me. MY LIFE-CHANGING EXHIBITION William Eggleston at…