Innholdsfortegnelse for May 2019 i Artists & Illustrators

We have something of a botanical art focus this month, with an exclusive interview with the Society of Botanical Artists president Billy Showell and a “Your Questions” special dedicated to it. You don’t need to be painting plants for spring to feel like a wonderfully creative time though. The improving weather makes plein air painting more appealing, the longer days mean better light in the studio, and a studio spring clean can give fresh impetus to your favourite hobby. It is a time to rediscover your creative purpose and Norfolk Painting School founder Martin Kinnear has written a really interesting article that ties into this theme. On page 64, he shows you how to make an honest assessment of your own artwork (as he still does with his own award-winning…

1 SPRING FLING Scotland’s premier open studios event (25-27 May) takes place across Dumfries and Galloway, with almost 100 artists of various disciplines inviting guests into their workspaces. Highlights of the trail include wildlife artist Lisa Hooper’s Port William print studio and Ailsa Black’s seaside workspace [pictured with sheep dog Jack], as well as the chance to meet Harry Potter illustrator Clare Melinsky. Sample the work of the artists taking part at a pop-up exhibition at The Bakers Oven in Dumfries (5-13 April) ahead of the main event. www.spring-fling.co.uk 2 BROWSE Wimbledon Art Fair Wimbledon Art Studios will host their twice-yearly fair (9-12 May) exhibiting talented artists and makers working in painting, printmaking, sculpture and more. Browse affordable artworks or find inspiration by chatting to the artists about their practice…

24 May to 15 September Jean Édouard Vuillard was a cohort of Pierre Bonnard [see issue 402], the pair being prominent members of Les Nabis, a group of like-minded French painters indebted to the work of Paul Gauguin. While Bonnard embraced the latter’s bold use of colour, Vuillard crafted more subtle interior scenes that had an awkward, poetic intimacy. The Burgundy-born painter was an unshowy figure, tracking his inner thoughts in a journal and living with his mother until the age of 60. This rare UK display of Vuillard’s paintings focuses upon his early successes in the 1890s, a period when his emerging talents saw him taken on by Picasso and Cézanne’s dealer Ambroise Vollard, and the novelist Julian Barnes has since described as “one of the most supreme and…

Can you tell us about the unusual building your studio is in? The studio was originally an old Quaker Meeting House, built in 1700. It was derelict for a long time and, when the area was redeveloped, they didn’t know what do with it, so they offered it to a local artist. I bought it from him about 15 years ago and, with the help of friends and the architect MJ Long, transformed it into a studio and living space. Was having a combined living and working space dictated by the nature of the building? I’ve always lived and worked in the same space. When I got my first teaching position at the art school in Bristol in 1966, I lived and painted and slept in one room. It was…

BRIXTON, LONDON A blue plaque today marks the house at 87 Hackford Road where Van Gogh lived with his landlord Ursula Loyer. The artist was deeply fond of her daughter Eugenie, though she did not return his affections. WESTMINSTER BRIDGE A keen walker, Van Gogh would cross this bridge every day en route to Goupil and Cie’s office in Covent Garden. While in Paris in 1875, after seeing a painting of the bridge by Giuseppe de Nittis, he wrote to Theo saying “When I saw this painting I felt how much I love London.” THE NATIONAL GALLERY, LONDON During his time in England, Van Gogh was a regular visitor to the many museums and was particularly inspired by John Constable’s The Cornfield, which was on display in 1873 and remains…

Landscapes in Oil by Ken Salaz California-born painter Ken Salaz moonlights as a magician at corporate functions. Thankfully while the magician’s code prevents him from revealing the secrets of his side career, he has no qualms about doing the same in the studio. Drawing on the sublime, autumnal landscapes of the Hudson River School, Salaz breaks down works by other masters with clarity (he’s particularly strong on palette schemes and light effects), before ending on three demonstrations pulling together everything learned. Monacelli Press, £30…

In this month’s drawing materials spotlight, we will be exploring the potential of inks applied with brushes and dip pens. Modern pens, with their self-contained ink reservoirs, have been our primary writing tool for more than a century and they are ideal for drawing when you are out and about. However, their precursors – steel-nibbed dip pens, reed pens and quill pens – are still valuable artist’s tools within the studio setting. Each can be used in conjunction with a wide variety of inks to produce unique and varied marks, and it is these tools that we are going to focus on over the next few pages. www.jakespicerart.co.uk MY SET-UP To make the drawings on page 77, I prepared three different dilutions of ink alongside my water pot, neat ink…

FILLED WITH WONDER The question which has been important to me all my life is “I wonder what would happen if...?” That question was what made me become a scientist, and it is what drives my art now. I nearly always have a list of things I want to try, so any indecision is only caused by not being able to make up my mind as to which I want to do first! Jessica Aidley, via email THINKING OUTSIDE THE BOX In my efforts to learn more from other artists, I have been looking into what kit they use. I have taken to following social media sites like Pinterest, YouTube and Facebook to look for ideas and inspiration. It has struck me how much more American artists seem to be…

LONDON Edvard Munch: Love & Angst 11 April to 21 July The Norwegian artist’s most famous prints – guaranteed to be a Scream. British Museum. www.britishmuseum.org Harald Sohlberg: Painting Norway Until 2 June Wintry landscapes with a masterful rendering of soft, modulating light. Dulwich Picture Gallery. www.dulwichpicturegallery.org.uk Posy Simmonds: A Retrospective 24 May to 15 September Look back at 50 years of art by the Tamara Drewe illustrator. House of Illustration. www.houseofillustration.org.uk Sean Scully: Sea Star 13 April to 11 August New series of Rothko-esque abstracts inspired by Turner. National Gallery. www.nationalgallery.org.uk Sorolla: Spanish Master of Light Until 7 July Sumptuous landscapes, gardens and figurative scenes by the Valencian master. National Gallery. www.nationalgallery.org.uk Anish Kapoor Until 18 August New mirror sculptures in Sir John Soane’s recently refurbished former home. Pitzhanger…

When did you become involved with the Royal Society of Portrait Painters (RP)? Approaching the society first crossed my mind in 1998 when I was 27 and I had just won a major prize during my first opportunity to exhibit. I became a member in 2002 and I’ve been on the council since 2004. We make decisions with regards to ensuring the charity and the traditions of the society are best represented in the work we do. Though we’re informed artists, we’re amateurs when it comes to running a charity. It involves lots of work, especially when selecting artists to feature in the annual show, but I get to meet lots of interesting people and it really feels like being a part of something of value. Have you always been…

1 CREATE YOUR ART We welcome artworks in all media and styles. 2 TAKE A GOOD QUALITY PHOTO You can use a camera, smartphone or tablet. 3 CREATE AN ACCOUNT Upload the photos and write about your art. 4 SHARE YOUR PERSONALISED PAGE Sell unlimited artworks, commission free. 5 RECEIVE A PAYMENT Arrange this direct and post your artwork. 6 CELEBRATE YOUR ACHIEVEMENT You are now officially a professional artist! Did you know Artists & Illustrators has an exciting online community of more than 18,800 readers who currently share their art? What’s more, for as little as the price of a coffee, you can join our Portfolio Plus scheme and sell your artwork commission-free to more than 100,000 monthly visitors to the site. “I was really pleased to make a…

THE COLOUR A deep, inky blue first developed in the early 18th century as an alternative to the more expensive Ultramarine. THE PROPERTIES Created in error by two German alchemists, Prussian Blue was one of the first modern synthetic paint pigments and varies from brand to brand as a result. Despite being one of the dark hues on a palette, it is a transparent pigment, albeit one with an incredibly high tinting strength. THE USES That tinting power and an almost bronzy sheen makes this an interesting colour for applying in glazes. Prussian Blue is favoured by landscape painters for night skies, appearing in Van Gogh’s Starry Night, while Alfred E Zapf’s Cyclopedia of Drawing recommends it mixed with Indian Red or Burnt Sienna for grass in shadow.…

Where do you find or source some of your more exotic specimens? I’m always keeping my eyes open for interesting and inspiring subjects. I visit gardens, I love Nymans and Wakehurst in West Sussex, and the Walled Gardens at Mells in Somerset. I also browse florists and grow some of my own plants and flowers. You mention on your website that a single painting can take up to 100 hours, yet plants are liable to wilt, bloom or change over time. Do you have any advice for ways around this? Plants changing over time is a constant difficulty for the botanical artist, hence I tend to use photographs to draw and paint from. I am a very slow painter, but some people seem to manage quite well. Keep plants and…

1 CHOOSE PIGMENTS OVER COLOURS While there are countless named colours across the many paint brands, it is worth remembering that most of them are made from around 30 common pigments. It is far easier to predict how single-pigment paints will react in a mix as there are less variables. 2 BE STRATEGIC Squeeze out colours at random all over your palette and you are in danger of it resembling an accidental Jackson Pollock. However, if your palette is organised, your painting will follow suit. Develop a strategy for laying out colours that suit you. Ideas to consider might be laying out pigments tonally or in “rainbow order”. Consider placing the white at the centre, as you will mix almost all other colours with it at some point. 3 IDENTIFYING…

1 DIP PENS Traditional steel-nibbed dip pens are made up of a holder and an interchangeable nib. Make sure you buy a drawing nib for maximum versatility and replace the nibs when they wear out. Dip pens with drawing nibs give a flowing line that varies with pressure and speed and should be cleaned of excess ink after each use. Fine mapping nibs which fit into correspondingly smaller holders are intended for delicate line work and are not always suitable for general drawing; similarly, italic calligraphy nibs can make interesting marks, but may limit your capacity to sketch. 2 QUILLS Quill pens can be made at home for as an alternative to the dip pen, giving a more varied and unpredictable line, depending on how they are cut. You can…

Ever had déjà vu, that feeling of having experienced something before? Well, that’s exactly how I felt after reading two articles in the last two issues: Kelly Grovier on Vermeer (A New Way of Seeing, issue 400) and Nick Cudworth’s Twilight Scenes (Your Questions, issue 401) showing scenes of Bath. In 1998, I attempted a little watercolour view of St John’s Gatehouse similar to one of Nick’s paintings. More recently, I gave myself an artistic kickstart by tackling something I both admired but knew would be challenging: a copy of Vermeer’s Girl with a Pearl Earring. After months struggling with techniques and brush disasters, I finally managed to produce something I was reasonably happy with. David Thew, via email…

Babies grin gummily, seemingly submerged deep inside inky pools of turquoise. Women lie back in washes of magenta or violet. Then the focus changes as if the lens of a camera has been switched and there’s a paisley headscarf in crisp detail, or the sepia back of a girl with long, dark plaits. Ali Cavanaugh’s paintings, which almost exclusively feature women and children, have a luminous quality, an otherworldly glow, and yet they are powerfully real. They embody an acute sensitivity and seem to offer a glimpse into a hyper-reality. More than 200 of the Missouri-based artist’s pieces are gathered into a new hardback book, Modern Fresco Paintings, showcasing her working life over the past 11 years. “It is a milestone and encompasses a big era in my life,” she…

• Watercolours Yellow Ochre, Pyrrol Orange, Pyrrol Red, Burnt Sienna Light, Neutral Tint, Titanium White, all Daniel Smith Extra Fine Watercolor; Lavender from Holbein Artists’ Water Color; Cobalt Blue from Sennelier L’Aquarelle • Paper Arches 300gsm rough paper, 56x38cm • Brushes A 2” flat wash brush; size 00, 2, 4 and 10 mop brushes; size 8 needle point brush; size 8, 10 and 12 synthetic rounds – see www.alvarocastagnet.net/e-store • Masking tape • Drawing board • 6B pencil…

Most of my work is of the real world but through the use of lighting effects and atmosphere I like to give it a more dream-like quality. I also paint places that only exist in my imagination, but still utilise the same lighting effects that I use in my paintings of the “real” world. Low Tide was originally conceived as a very simple painting of a dramatic cloud above the sea. However, I decided that I wanted something to break up the horizon line and chose to put in an island. When painting, I find it is always a good idea to break up a line somewhere along its length to create a better composition and make it more visually interesting. This then developed partly into an homage to Arnold…

SELECTION MOST INKS BELONG TO ONE OF THESE THREE CATEGORIES 1 MODERN INKS Acrylic or calligraphic inks are available in a wide range of colours and they are typically easy to clean out of brushes and dips pens. If you are using coloured inks and intend to exhibit or display the original work, make sure you check their lightfastness rating first to ensure they won’t fade too quickly. 2 CARBON INKS Black carbon inks are sold either as blocks to be ground, pastes to be diluted, or bottled liquids to be used neat. They encompass a variety of Chinese and Japanese inks, including Indian Ink – originally a Chinese-style ink made with materials from India. It is worth noting that Indian ink contains shellac which can clog your brushes and…