Australian How To Paint Issue 51

I grew up in Sydney. After leaving school, I won a scholarship and spent three years full-time at the National Art School. Leaving there, I went out into the world to earn a living. In the early 1950s you could count the number of artists actually earning a living from painting on your fingers. Even such masters as Eliot Gruner had worked in a Sydney department store. Others were teaching, which I was disinclined to do; or else they were involved in commercial art. I travelled, and worked on a Moree sheep station as a jackeroo. I loved the life. Riding, mustering and droving, and all that went with a country existence. However, if you were not likely to become a land owner (which I was not), there was little…

MATERIALS • Prepared canvas. • Art board and acrylic glue. • Flat acrylic undercoat. • Artists’ quality oil paints (Winsor & Newton, Art Spectrum): Titanium White; Naples Yellow; Cadmium Yellow Pale; Cadmium Yellow; Yellow Ochre; Raw Sienna; Burnt Sienna; Burnt Umber; Indian Red; Cadmium Red; Alizarin Crimson; Ultra Blue; Cobalt Blue; Cerulean Blue. • Hog hair and Sable brushes. • AS medium (Numbers 2 and 4). • Turps. My works start long before lifting a brush. To gain familiarity with my subjects, I have visited many properties in different parts of the country. I have attended shows and events. I have sketched and taken many photographs. To study the action and feel of horses I have ridden hundreds of miles – trail riding, mustering and droving with sheep and cattle.…

Ian Reardon first became interested in art through his grandfather who worked in pencil and watercolours and also painted window-front signs for shops in Grafton. Ian took art as a subject at the Southport school on Queensland’s Gold Coast when he was 12 years old. Art was always his favourite subject. During his school years, his grandfather entered two of Ian’s works in the Jacaranda Art Exhibition. He was delighted and encouraged to receive a first prize in the Under 14 section for a watercolour, and a ‘highly commended’ in the Open section for a pastel picture. “I left school at 16 years of age to work on the family farm,” Ian relates. “I am still there today; and now run the property with my son Dan. Those early years,…

MATERIALS • Sketch book. • Tinted Spectrum Sanded Paper. • Pastels. • Watercolours (optional). THE PROCESS Most of my subject matter comes from my immediate environment, memories and photographs. Firstly, I take a picture ‘in my head’ of the subject matter. Then I try to imagine it in my head as a finished work. I use my sketch book to try different compositions of the subject, to see which one strikes a chord. I next produce an A4 sketch – trying to get things as accurate as possible – sometimes doing a watercolour wash to attempt to get a feel for the subject and an insight into how it might look as a completed work. Most of the time (although not always), I will use the image from my sketch…

I believe every painter can only be taught the basics. After that, we are on our own. Nature has all the answers, and will provide them to painters who ask the right questions. In the early eighties, Gloria Ransom and Allan Fizzell were instrumental in my own vital art training. They were both generous with their teaching and encouragement. Since then, my continuing lessons are from Nature herself. I am passionate about painting sunlight. All subjects are paintable if the light on them is right. The most ordinary subject, in great light, can become an extraordinary painting subject. My subject matter can be anything! Animals, figures, boats, still life, landscapes, seascapes, flowers … If we are to call ourselves painters, we should be passionate and excited about any subject. I…

DEMONSTRATIONOils MATERIALS • Art Spectrum artists’ oil colours: Ultramarine Blue, Golden Yellow, Lemon Yellow, Light Red, Permanent Crimson, Titanium White. • Gum turps as a medium. • Tara 70 loose canvas. • Brushes: Sizes 2, 4, 6 and 8 long, flat bristle brushes. STEP ONE The initial block in. Just the most basic lines. This is only to position them on the canvas. No details. Drawing will be adjusted and corrected as I move through the painting. Light Red and Ultramarine Blue in a thin line for the outline. STEP TWO Here I block in the darkest darks of the horses in shadow; and the cast shadows on the ground. By getting these important tones in first, I immediately set the lighting direction. Light Red and Ultramarine for the horses; Ultramarine,…