Innholdsfortegnelse for October 2022 i Artists & Illustrators

…rewarding, immersive, frustrating and highly satisfying, all at the same time. It can be all of these things (and more) but it’s always a highly personal ride, no matter where you’re at on your art journey. Take cover artist Jenny Aitken. “Art is more than a job,” she says. “It is the thing I think about most of my waking hours.” Landscape artist Lucy Marks (In the Studio, page 14) says that being creative is a gift, “and getting to use that gift every day is something I am very grateful for.” This month’s We Present Portfolio Plus member Gill Bustamante is never happier than when she’s up to her ears in art stuff. “I love oil paint. I love the vibrancy, texture and smell of it,” she explains, an…

24 SEPTEMBER Creators are opening their studio doors for Norfolk Open Studios. Artists will be sharing their work and offering workshops to visitors. Free to visit. norfolkstudios.org.uk 30 SEPTEMBER Visit the new annual visual arts festival in Falmouth, Cornwall and enjoy various exhibitions, talks and workshops to learn more about the visual arts. Free to visit. formfalmouth.com 5 OCTOBER Submit your works on ‘enriching lives through diversity’ for Embracing Our Differences 2023 to win up to $3,000. Free to enter. embracingourdifferences.org 10 OCTOBER Enter the Prisma International Art Prize 2022 for the chance to win €500 in cash and the opportunity to showcase at an exhibition in Rome. €25 for three artworks. prismaartprize.com…

At some point, many artists will feel like they’re stuck in a rut, lacking inspiration and motivation to create something worthwhile. Breaking out of your studio and diving into a unique experience can provide that much-needed refresh. We’ve teamed up with professional art tutor Marilyn Allis to offer you the chance to revitalise and advance your artistic ability by indulging in a painting holiday. With studio views of the Bournemouth coast, Marilyn and two other seasoned artists will offer their assistance and direction encompassing various techniques, subjects and demonstrations to pique your creative impulses over the length of the Trio Break. Five readers have the chance to each win £200 to put towards one of the three-day acrylic or watercolour-themed getaways consisting of a luxury seafront hotel stay, three-course meals…

GROWING UP IN NEW ZEALAND, Sarah Jane Moon didn’t come from an artistic background. But she loved drawing and colour from the moment she grasped a colouring-in book as a toddler and has happy memories of spending time at her mother’s hair salon in the back office, cheerfully immersed in colouring until mum finished work. An academic child, she started studying Japanese at university level when she was just 15. She completed her degree in Japanese and combined this with other majors in English Literature and Art History as she wanted to engage with the arts in some way. Eventually, she set upon the idea of becoming a curator and arts writer, which she pursued throughout her twenties after a few years of living and working in Japan. It wasn’t…

THIS MONTH I’LL BE USING the three-colour combination favoured by artists like Jean-Antione Watteau and Peter Paul Rubens. Colloquially known as trios crayon it requires a black, a white and a coloured pencil – typically a reddish-brown – and mid-tone paper. The black, white and mid-tone paper provide a tonal range for the drawing, while the comparatively saturated red-brown pencil draws the viewer’s attention to areas of interest. Watteau does this brilliantly in his fast and eloquent figure drawings, picking out hands and faces in red chalk amidst monochromatic drapery while Reubens uses it to guide the viewer’s attention around the features of the face. Originally applied to drawings made in a hard chalk or pastel, the colour palette predates the formulation of coloured pencils as we know them. To…

Alla Prima landscape painting is characterised by fresh, responsive brushwork, colour mixtures that capture the poetry, colour relationships in the scene and composition and depth that engages and stimulates the viewer’s eye. This could be said of most landscape paintings, but Alla Prima landscape painting stands out as responsive and creative while also being well organised. En plein air Alla Prima studies by the great English landscape painter John Constable have been a primary role model for this thriving tradition in painting. The choice of a scene, whether on-site or from a photo, should have good possibilities for composition. These would include strong shapes, good light and shade and potential for movements and rhythms within the picture. Depth and aerial perspective are important factors in choosing a scene. Even if…

I started to draw realistic faces in 2017 and then in 2020, I decided to try and make some of the old ones I’d done even better. I enhanced the contrast and found it to be an amazing moment, as if the subjects on the paper were coming to life. From then on, I’ve been spending a lot more time on my drawings. My goal with A Confident Stride (above) was to show the important step in emancipation. I worked from a photo by Armin Haab called Männerblicke (‘men’s glances’), but I decided to change the name to A Confident Stride to emphasise the woman’s role in the picture in a positive way. I wanted viewers to embrace the beauty of the folds in the clothes, the sleek hairstyles and…

JENNY AITKEN Award-winning marine painter Jenny Aitken lives on the edge of the Peak District in the UK, though family roots in the Channel Islands give her an enduring love for the sea and atmospheric coastal light. She is an associate member of the Royal Society of Marine Artists. MARTHA ALEXANDER Martha Alexander is a freelance features journalist specialising in visual arts, societal trends and lifestyle. She is particularly interested in exploring art history and profiling artists, making the Winslow Homer feature in this issue the perfect commission. LUCY MARKS Lucy Marks is a contemporary landscape painter working in watercolour and oil. Her dynamic compositions express the energy and movement within the landscape. She regularly exhibits across Britain and has memberships of several London-based Societies. INGRID SANCHEZ Ingrid Sanchez is…

Steer away from your regular practice and try something new by highlighting the canvas in your artwork. You can take inspiration from Spanish artist Secundino Hernández, whose methods involve erasing pigment, in a series of marks and gestures, to expose the canvas beneath. Hernández’s new works represent contrasting aspects of his practice, derived from the processes of adding and subtracting paint. Secundino Hernández: New Paintings is on show at Victoria Miro, London from 10 October 2022 to 12 November 2022. BE INSPIRED The last few years have seen a drastic spike in travel blogging. But before blogs, there were travel journals, which held vivid descriptions of people, places and cultures accompanied by expressive sketches. If you’re lacking inspiration and seeking mindfulness, a travel journaling weekend could be just what you…

THERE IS NOTHING MORE BEAUTIFUL and grounding than plants, and I have felt an attraction to them ever since I can remember. As a child, I spent endless hours playing in my family garden. I loved to plant, move earth and create magic formulas in my head to make my plants bigger and prettier. It is not a surprise that when I started painting, one of my first artworks was inspired by this garden. I called it Dad’s Garden, and it was the first of many paintings to be inspired by plants. Now that I have a garden of my own, I created an outside studio to teach workshops and share my love for watercolour and botanicals with my students. Sometimes we try an exercise that I call the Creative…

Things we love… A feminist icon of the 20th century, American visual artist Alice Neel was known for defying the patriarchal gaze throughout art history with her courageously intimate portraits. An upcoming exhibition will be the first to feature paired portraits of Neel’s sitters – canvases from the 1930-80s – including pairings of her family, lovers and acquaintances. It’s structured in two thematic parts: the class struggle and the struggle of the sexes. Visit the Victoria Miro Gallery between 11 October and 12 November to view her work. Explore… the legend of King Arthur within the Victorian imagination through a series of works. The Legend of King Arthur: A Pre-Raphaelite Love Story will illustrate each strand of the legend, beginning with Merlin as depicted through Arthur Hughes’ painting The Rift…

THE LINDISFARNE GOSPELS 17th September to 3rd December 2022 This exhibition will celebrate the most spectacular surviving manuscript from early medieval Britain. It will also feature new work by Turner-Prize-winning artist Jeremy Deller. This will be the first time the venerated book, on loan from the British Library, has been displayed in the city since 2000. The exhibition will be across three galleries featuring an immersive digital experience, a showcase of the Gospels themselves and a display of how art and spirituality have developed in the centuries since. Laing Art Gallery, New Bridge Street West, Newcastle upon Tyne, NE1 8AG laingartgallery.org.uk DENIS WIRTH-MILLER: LANDSCAPES AND BEASTS 1st October 2022 to 22nd January 2023 This exhibition is the largest retrospective of Denis Wirth-Miller’s work to date, with a display of over…

I CONSIDER MYSELF to be an eco-artist and knew I wanted my work to be as environmentally friendly as possible, so using recycled materials was the obvious answer. Wood seemed to be in abundance as a waste product. I have always loved wood and enjoyed the range of colours, markings and textures it has to offer, so I quickly decided this would be my medium of choice. Influenced by my love of nature and growing up in Cornwall, I began painting a range of flora and fauna. I took these to shops and galleries in my local area and, to my delight, every shop I entered accepted my work. Once my confidence started to gain momentum, I contacted shops and galleries further afield and promoted myself through Instagram and Facebook.…

FROM AN EARLY AGE, marine artists Jenny Aitken forged a strong association with the sea. Although she was born in Lincoln, she and her family moved around frequently whilst she was growing up, as her father was in the RAF. The place they always returned to was Alderney, in the Channel Islands, where Dad and his family were from. It felt more like home than anywhere else, and the coast of the English Channel ignited her fascination with marine life. Jenny’s grandfather, James Horne, was also a painter, and one of her earliest memories is of the smell of turps and oils in his studio. She remembers colouring in her mum’s drawings before she could read and doodled constantly throughout school. Whilst she studied art and art history at university,…

WHEN AN ARTIST CREATES an iconic image, it often reshapes both the history and future of their work: a masterstroke that solidifies their career and reputation. It represents an essential moment captured from which all subsequent art flows and to which the perception of their prior work is funnelled in a great confluence, seemingly of intention and inevitability. Such was certainly the case for my father, Mark Rothko, who in 1949 created what has come to be known as his “classic” style. Thus was ROTHKO born, fully formed in that instant (the art world imagines), the decades of exploration and development (and fine painting) rendered irrelevant or at best preparatory to the creation of his rectangular format. Nor was the influence of that icon limited to the perception of his…

MESSAGE OF THE MONTH Nataly Kenny In 2015, my mother was diagnosed with Alzheimer’s, which completely turned my life upside down. Her disease created a huge emptiness in my soul. I wanted to help her, but I felt extremely helpless, until, after a gap of 37 years, I felt a strong urge to paint again, as a form of meditation and healing. I started small and was very shy to share it, even with my closest people. When Covid hit, I used the lockdown periods as an opportunity to refine my painting skills, this time discovering more of a painterly and colourist style, by immersing myself in online art courses and YouTube tutorials. Along the way, I met wonderful artists to whom I am extremely grateful for helping me overcome…