Innholdsfortegnelse for June 2020 i Artists & Illustrators

These are strange times indeed. I want to start by saying that I hope you and your loved ones are safe and well. This issue of Artists & Illustrators has been brought to you not from our usual office but from kitchen tables and bedroom studies around London. We took the decision to present a special “Paint at Home” issue, one that gave you realistic advice and challenges that were achievable during the lockdown. I want to thank all of our wonderful team, particularly assistant editor Rebecca and art editor Lauren, for their hard work, creativity and adaptability in pulling this edition together in unprecedented circumstances. Dark days call for a little colour and art is particularly important at times like these. Nevertheless, as Laura Boswell sagely advises in her…

You can almost sense the ominous, grey clouds rolling in, casting a moody shadow over the desert-like terrain. It’s a skyscape JMW Turner would be proud of, as a splash of resplendent blue still lingers above candyfloss clouds in the distance despite the threat of a downpour edging ever closer. And privy to it all is a steady stream of water carving its way through the dusty scrub below, playing back the show of shifting light and kaleidoscopic hues with its own metallic glint. There’s an untameable, rugged beauty as well as a striking luminosity to Margaret Larlham’s painting Solitude III, something that can be said of all the award-winning artist’s pastel landscapes. Another familiar feature is the subject itself: epic desert scenes in which life thrives against all odds…

This month we’ve teamed up with the leading online retailer Jackson’s Art Supplies to offer 10 lucky readers the chance to win £100 vouchers to spend on products from the company’s own range of art materials. Jackson’s is passionate about fine art materials, so it follows that its vast collection of own brand products is second to none in terms of quality and diversity. Whether you’re a watercolour, acrylic or oil painter, or if your medium of choice is pastel, Jackson’s has your unique needs covered. The staff can even fulfil your framing requirements, and stocks a wide range of easels catering to every painting situation. The company’s ethos is to find the best products, offer them at the best prices, and deliver an exceptional quality of service. Jackson’s now…

1 MAKE SURE YOU’RE COMFORTABLE You don’t need a huge space to create a functional art studio. There might be more space in your loft or garage, but if it is draughty and damp you won’t feel as creative. Keep the room well ventilated, particularly if you’re using solvents. Get a chair that you will be comfortable sitting in for long periods of time. 2 GIVE YOURSELF SPACE Again, this isn’t about the size of the room, but rather allowing yourself a space to call your own and one in which you can leave things out. Nothing kills creativity like packing everything away at the end of the evening. Likewise, cover surfaces if necessary, so that you can be expressive with paint and not worry if you accidentally splash everywhere.…

The Lake District is undoubtedly one of England’s most popular regions and I jumped at the chance to tutor a workshop there with Alpha Painting Holidays. The last time I had visited the area was during my honeymoon many years ago when we had five unbroken days of dawn to dusk sunshine in March. Pure luck, I was told. On my return, we also had five days of solid spring sunshine with the added bonus of warm temperatures. I began to think it must never rain in the Lake District. The potential subject matter is plentiful and picturesque with mountains, rivers and extremely paintable villages in addition to the lakes. Being based in a hotel on the shore of Lake Windermere gave me plenty of opportunity to study and paint…

Painters marry together shapes, tones, lines, marks, textures and, above all, colours, to create arrangements we then describe as compositions – just as composers of music do when arranging musical notes. The English Romantic painter JMW Turner was a virtuoso, particularly in colour, with all its glowing richness. At the heart of his system was the studied placement of warm and cool colours next to and within each other. No painting better illustrates his use of colour than Venice: Looking across the Lagoon at Sunset. The sky is a warm panel of colour above a cool panel of water below. The glowing warmth of an evening sky is strengthened with a deeper warm at the lower left, while the cool blue of the sea is strengthened with a deeper cool…

1 GERHARD RICHTER: PAINTING AFTER ALL Sheena Wagstaff and Benjamin Buchloh (ed.) With New York’s Met Breuer closed until further notice, so too is the museum’s landmark display of one of the world’s greatest living painters. While the exhibition has collected together some 100 works, the 270-page catalogue expands upon that, placing the German painter’s art into the context of the Second World War’s aftermath and also his embrace of different media. Individual essays tackle in turn Richter’s interests in photography, landscape, memory, chance and more. Yale UP, £35. www.yalebooks.co.uk 2 PIRANESI DRAWINGS: VISIONS OF ANTIQUITY Sarah Vowles October marks the 300th anniversary of Giovanni Battista Piranesi, a fantastical Italian artist famed for his grand drawings of Rome and Pompeii. With the British Museum closed for now, access to a…

Ian Rawling You’ll be forgiven for drooling a little when you look at the work of Sheffield-based artist Ian Rawling. His portfolio is a menu filled with ice cream cones, fondant fancies, cheese on toast and – in the case of Sunny Side Up – a fried egg that positively sizzles. As well as being good enough to eat, there is also something quite nostalgic about his choice of subject matter. “I like to paint familiar subjects that people may have a connection with, and which evoke certain memories,” he agrees. “A melting ice cream may remind someone of a sunny, summer holiday or a messy tomato ketchup bottle of boisterous family dinners as a child.” Ian’s treatment of these much-loved subjects is also key to his success. What seems…

Just when we thought our enforced stay at home would mean we had plenty of time to make our art, we discover how difficult it is to be motivated. A lack of motivation is familiar to many of us, especially when worrying thoughts fill our mind and we need to get over the task avoidance. A way forward I found helpful was to establish a 15 minute-a-day routine of drawing, setting myself a particular time to do this every day. Regular drawing practice improves our coordination and observation skills, and 15 minutes is an achievable amount of time to set aside. Start with a fresh new sketchbook. So many different drawing tools are available, but I recommend reacquainting yourself with a pencil. There is something very calming about pencil drawing,…

1 Begin by applying a wash of diluted Yellow Ochre to the paper using a large flat hog brush to take away the intensity of the white surface. Don’t paint all the way to the edges as it keeps the marks visible at the end. 2 Use a diluted mix of Cadmium Red and Ivory Black with a size 2 filbert brush to map out the major shapes. Avoid looking for detail here and focus on just the main, structural frame of the head. Drawing only with straight lines can help this. It is easier to paint a face in warm light. Use a warm bulb to provide an excellent range of highlights, mid-tones and shadows across the face. 3 Start blocking in the main skin tones. Use a mixture…

1 Start by drawing a frame. Fill the whole page or create a format of your choice. It need not match your window. Don’t neglect this stage, it really helps scale different objects. 2 Ask yourself how far you are going to pull back. Do you want to solely look at the view outside? Or do you want to include the window? If you include the window, do that first. Then start laying in the shapes of the largest objects in the scene. 3 Start drawing the scene, working your way from nearby subjects to more distant ones. This usually involves working up from the bottom, and from the edges of your drawing into the middle. Adjust the size and shape of elements in the centre to suit your drawing.…

REALISTIC WATER 1 A simple lake should begin as a graduated wash. Usually the water will appear darker the closer that it is to you and the colour will vary to reflect the sky and surrounding landscape. I used a mix of Winsor Blue (Green Shade) and French Ultramarine for this. 2 While the original lake wash was wet, I dropped in short strokes of stronger, darker colour to suggest the swell. 3 After allowing the wash to dry, I lifted out a few light reflections using the edge of a damp brush, cleaning the brush after each stroke. 4 To finish, I added a few flow lines both with a strong, dark blue watercolour mix and also Permanent White gouache.…

A single stroke with the side of the brush is sufficient to simply indicate a tree. Discrete light, medium and dark marks help to suggest the rocks without overstating them. Broader, softer dark help to suggest the swell of the water. The effect of aerial perspective is clearly visible in the background. A simple way to achieve this is with a Cobalt Blue wash over the completed background to cool it down and push it back. A warm wash over the gazebo and wall enhances the effect. I hinted at the flowers with Permanent White gouache, both on its own and mixed with a little Cadmium Red watercolour. Using masking fluid or painting around them would make them too prominent. Save the strong darks for the foreground areas to help…

In these difficult times I find art to be a very consoling interest. I look forward to reading your magazine and often pick up useful tips as I did from the article on Impressionism (Issue 416). As we have to stay indoors until Covid-19 is overcome, I use relevant photographs from our old albums for inspiration as to what to paint next. Some of your other readers may like to try this. In trying to recreate an impression of the photographs with paints, this becomes a pleasant and absorbing way of passing these days of confinement. My latest Impressionist-style painting, finished yesterday, is called Tintern [below]. It depicts Tintern Abbey, a beautiful 900-year-old national icon located on the banks of the River Wye, about half an hour from where I…

ASK AN ARTIST What is it: Artists & Illustrators columnist Laura Boswell joins fellow contributor Peter Keegan to offer candid advice on everything from finding your style to dealing with criticism. Why listen: This is an invaluable resource. The rapport between the two hosts ensures it’s like listening in on a conversation between friends, with a wealth of useful advice thrown in. Where to start: Creative Block. SCULPTING LIVES What is it: In each 45-minute episode, curator Jo Baring and researcher Sarah Turner explore the life and work of a different female sculptor. Why listen: Female artists have struggled throughout history to make their voices heard, so this is a much-needed corrective. Where to start: Episode #1 – Barbara Hepworth. ROYAL ACADEMY OF ARTS What is it: The RA has…

While the lockdown that has been enforced during the Covid-19 outbreak has provided a time for many to re-engage with creative pursuits, for others it has severely curtailed grand artistic plans. Manchester-born painter Chris Rivers was all set to stage his first London solo exhibition at the Pontone Gallery in May, but at the time of writing those plans were currently on hold. “We’re taking it day by day at the minute because everything is changing so quickly anyway,” he says. “I’ll be astonished if it happens, by the sounds of things nothing is going to be open for a long time really.” His plan is to launch the collection online for now. “It’s a shame that the actual physical show is going to be postponed until things get back…

For this masterclass, I decided to paint a violin workshop. I was intrigued by its colour, light, activity and clutter. When my students are working from life, I am often aware that they are checking and comparing what is in front of them. By making a painting of a painting, I avoided this. In the studio, one is not constrained by time and accuracy – it is as if I were able to work en plein air without restrictions. It also gives a sense of freedom. With the studio painting, I decided to change proportion, position, colour, tone and even perspective to make a better picture. I decided to block in the composition quickly with acrylics to give myself a tonal and colour base. I then laid down a coat…

Perspective can help to ensure your water remains flat. Waves will tend be parallel to the shore and although the shore may not be perfectly straight, simplify it in your mind so that one or more vanishing points will come into play. The far shore of a large lake can be considered as the horizon and location of the vanishing points (although technically the horizon will actually be marginally higher). These perspective lines should not be slavishly followed but instead use them to guide the placement of your waves and ripples.…

1 ESTABLISH AN ETHOS When making abstract art, the most important thing to remember is that you can’t go “wrong”. My students are often concerned that when they are drawing from the figure, the whole history of formal life drawing is weighing upon them and the right or wrong way to do this can haunt them. They will often have a fixed idea about what makes a good or bad drawing and arrived at a point where they feel their work has become too rigid. If this sounds like you and you also wish to loosen up, it’s important to establish the right mindset, one that takes the pressure off having to produce a perfect, exhibition-ready piece. In order to do this, I like to give myself some tenets to…

Each Wednesday night for the last 11 years, I have run drop-in life drawing classes in my studio. A few weeks ago, I stood at my easel in the back corner of a busy class and listened to a retired pilot in a deep discussion with an A-level student about the merits of coloured sugar paper and half-sticks of soft pastel. For all their opposing life experiences, in those two hours of drawing they were entirely united by a shared purpose. They enjoyed the comradery of a shared struggle: an attempt to commit to paper a fleeting impression of a human figure. Life drawing is described as a historical practice by those who might exalt it as an idealised lost art and simultaneously by anybody keen to denigrate it as…