Innholdsfortegnelse for June 2018 i Artists & Illustrators

A recent visit to the Picasso 1932 – Love, Fame, Tragedy exhibition at Tate Modern got me thinking about our creative journeys. The works on display suggested a painter who was almost unimaginably assured about his practice, from his bold palette to his confident brushwork. Whether or not that impression is a true account of the great painter’s experience is another matter. I imagine that Picasso, despite the heights he scaled, walked a similar path to the artists I interviewed for this issue. Both Willy Russell (page 32), writer of Blood Brothers and Shirley Valentine, and the painter Ann Blockley (page 54), shared stories of their bumpy journeys to creative fulfilment in paint. What unites them is that learning helped them to build the confidence to plough their own furrows.…

LONDON Aftermath: Art in the Wake of World War One 5 June to 23 September Explore how artists responded to the scars left across Europe. Tate Britain. www.tate.org.uk Edward Bawden 23 May to 9 September Bringing together 170 works that emphasise the versatility of this important artist. Dulwich Picture Gallery. www.dulwichpicturegallery.org.uk New English Art Club Annual Exhibition 15 to 23 June Figurative paintings, drawings and prints from aspiring and established artists. Mall Galleries.www.mallgalleries.org.uk Sir Richard Wallace: The Collector 20 June to 6 January 2019 The inaugural exhibition in a new space, marking 200 years since the birth of the founder and his fantastic art collection. The Wallace Collection.www.wallacecollection.org RECOMMENDED Summer Exhibition 2018 12 June to 19 August Grayson Perry RA coordinates the talent for the gallery’s 250th year in this…

We’ve teamed up with this historic company, which has been crafting artists’ colours and materials since 1899, to bring you the chance to win beautiful, top-quality products. www.royaltalens.com THE PRIZES FIRST – WORTH £500 Our winner will receive a Rembrandt Professional watercolour box (£250), a Rembrandt travel watercolour brush set (£24.95), a set of three Rembrandt watercolour brushes (£51.50), 100 per cent cotton watercolour paper block (£39.95) and a Talens Mississippi field easel (£133.75). SECOND – WORTH £300 This bundle includes a Rembrandt set of 36 watercolour pans (£169.95), a Rembrandt travel watercolour brush set (£24.95), a 100 per cent cotton watercolour paper block (£39.95), as well as a Talens Danube field easel (£85.50). THIRD – WORTH £200 Our final prizewinner will receive a Rembrandt set of 24 watercolour pans…

To my huge delight, I have been elected to the Royal Society of Painter-Printmakers. Apart from the thrill of adding letters to my name, it is a great honour to have been judged good enough by the finest printmakers in the UK to join their ranks. Not bad for a woman who, having taken an arts degree in the late-1980s, didn’t so much as lift a pencil to sketch for 18 years. I hope my story will encourage anyone who is coming late to art, whether it’s to forge a career or to enjoy being creative. It is, literally, never too late to start. For me, the chance came when friends offered me an old printing press. I refused for the best part of a year because I was scared…

Share your creativity with the world with the help of FOUNDRY FIFTY’s high-end products Whether art is your hobby or you’re actively exhibiting at shows, your creativity could be making you money. A limited collection of well-chosen products featuring your artwork, illustration or design, is a great way to put yourself out there and connect with people who love your work. And you could earn money, too. These days it’s easy to find online businesses that offer to transfer artwork onto mugs, pillows, book bags and more, but quality can vary. While these products make for great novelty gifts, Foundry Fifty knows artists are discerning when it comes to paper quality, finishing and, most importantly, reproduction. Foundry Fifty prides itself on excellent customer service, as well as the superior quality…

David Grossmann “The forest, the transitions of colours in the sky, the quiet watchfulness of deer and birds, the flow of time and seasons, this is where I look for refuge,” says the Colorado-based American painter. It’s an atmosphere that oozes from his oil painting September Forest with Yellow Leaves, creating a sense of the peace he feels when working en plein air among nature with its muted, delicate colours. Cool grey, mauve and blue tones contrast with warm yellow and scattered orange in the pattern of the leaves. It has an almost meditative stillness. “It is such a gift to be able to stand in one spot for a few hours and really observe my surroundings; to watch the changes in light and weather, and in my own emotions,”…

Willy Russell’s trajectory from ladies hairdresser to acclaimed dramatist seems to bear the hallmark of a polymath with profound creative gifts, who effortlessly excels at anything he tries. So it might not, at first, seem surprising that when the playwright, lyricist and composer behind stage and screen hits Blood Brothers and Shirley Valentine turned his hand to painting, two successful solo shows resulted. Last year Willy Russell: Another Aspect showed at the Kirkby Gallery, near Liverpool, and Seeing Better: Willy Russell Paintings 2008-2017 was on display at London’s Coningsby gallery. What might be more surprising is the prevalence of landscape in the work of someone widely regarded as a great son of Liverpool. But, as we meet Willy at his studio, it becomes clear such simple narratives belie complex beginnings…

1 HOW DO I KEEP THE MEDIUM WET? Keeping acrylic wet, especially in warm weather, is difficult. It can also be an expensive problem. The best solution is to use a small misting spray. Bottles are available in chemists. You can use the fine spray at different distances from the canvas to control the wetness. A regular little spray can keep the whole painting workable, even outside. 2 CAN I USE ACRYLICS IMPASTO? Consistency is another problem with the medium and it varies between brands. You can’t get an impasto effect without building layers or using a heavy body white – these are the solutions to impasto in acrylics. In the image above you can see a wide range of thin to thick (impasto), building the solidity of the pot.…

17 HOW CAN I GET THE EXACT COLOUR I NEED? Even if you have every soft pastel ever produced, it’s still unlikely you will have the exact colour you need for every element in your painting. You will have to simulate it by placing one colour over another, or perhaps next to it, to create the illusion of a single colour. Your painting will retain a livelier appearance if colours aren’t blended together too much, as this can deaden the fresh look you should be striving for. 18 HOW CAN I CREATE A SMOOTH SURFACE TO WORK ON? If you are using pastel paper, which is relatively thin, attach it to a smooth board using low-tack masking tape or drawing-board clips. Any undulation in the board’s surface will cause an…

The beauty of the natural world is omnipresent in the Cotswolds village in which painter Ann Blockley lives. Ancient trees, open skies and rambling countryside reveal themselves around every corner making her recent obsession with painting hawthorn trees and hedgerows seem a natural choice. But, for this artist, the route to painting the countryside around her home has been a long and winding road – itself a kind of homecoming. Ann’s childhood was dominated by the career of her father, iconic watercolourist John Blockley – who painted the countryside and wrote books pushing the contemporary boundaries of technique. But, until recently, it was an inheritance she fought against. “I didn’t spend time going around with my dad learning to paint,” says Ann. “I went the other way. The only thing…

The beautiful, winding drive to Shani Rhys James’ house in deepest mid-Wales tells you a lot about how she has chosen to live and work as an artist. Here’s a painter who has been hailed as one of the greatest talents of her generation – a Jerwood Prize winner who was made an MBE for services to art. She is admired in the UK and internationally – and she has achieved this from what might be considered a backwater. “I lived in London from the age of nine but I’m not part of that cool art scene, which is why I love creating my own language here,” she says. “It’s not that I don’t have a sense of humour, but I’m not prepared to do the irony and emotional disengagement…

7 MY PAINTING LOOKS WASHED OUT. HELP! A common problem, particularly with beginners, is using too much water and not enough pigment. The resulting paintings lack contrast and look far too light. Squeeze generous quantities of pigment onto your palette and use less water. I would also recommend using tube colours rather than pan colours. When mixing, be sure to make the mix stronger than you think you will need as watercolour always dries lighter. > 8 HOW CAN I STOP BLOOMS OR BACKRUNS? These happen when you add a more water-loaded colour to a colour that is drying. They can be frustrating, particularly if they occur in a sky, for instance. Get your second colour on the paper faster before it starts to dry or let the paper dry…

Can you explain your process for creating a woodcut and a linocut? First I draw the image on the paper from life, enabling me to capture the feel of the land. Once I have the drawing, I transfer it in reverse to the block. It needs to be in reverse because the block will print a mirror image. Once the block is cut, I ink it up to proof. Next I prepare Chine-collé papers for the sky and any other areas where I want paper. I cut these to size. Then I ink my block using a blend of light to dark blue in the sky, and brown to green for land. I roll the colours on the one block. I lay the Chine-collé papers in place with glue and…

The opportunities for varying the look and style of your interpretation increase if you change your medium or combine it with others. Different kinds of water-based paints and inks are all compatible. I particularly enjoy applying opaque gouache on top of watercolour, sometimes into a wet wash but often when the watercolour is dry to cover up and change direction. The big advantage of using an opaque medium in this way is that you can be incredibly free with your initial application of watercolour and the normal rules of largely working light to dark no longer apply. You can also use gouache to paint on top of dry ink. You could also try acrylic. You can just add details such as further pale flowers over dark washes or change a…

When I’m teaching life drawing, the most common question posed to me is ‘how do you draw the body in proportion?’ To deal with the problems of proportion, you need to understand why you are making the drawing in the first place. As well as being an exercise in representation, life drawing allows you to look hard at your subject in order to see the model in front of you exactly as they are. You will have to learn to be objective in your looking; so the process of drawing becomes a means of exercising your observational skills. Studying the proportion of the figure through rigorously observed drawings will train your eye to see with greater clarity and teach your hand to respond directly to your observations. Once you are…