newsletter

WELCOME

Newsletter number 3! Any ideas, suggestions or questions, contact me via the contact page.

I hope you have all enjoyed your summer and have been able to include some painting in between all the other jobs.

The summer workshop programme is now finished. The summer weather could have been better but we had to retreat into the studio only on a couple of days. Provence was the exception. A full week of sun and temperatures approaching 30° is not what we are used to in Ireland! The 2010 programme of workshops should be posted on the site by the middle of October. I was able to take part in the annual Art in the Open plein air painting festival in Wexford at the beginning of August - a great weekend and I can heartily recommend it to you all.

The gallery page has been updated with recent works.

BEGINNERS’ CLASS

I will be tutoring a structured beginners class on the first Saturday of each Month from Oct - Mar in the Battletown Gallery Studio. Contact Battletown Gallery for more information

DVD

Middle of October??? (Hopefully!!!!)

QUESTION OF THE MONTH

Q: My washes always seem to come out “stripey”. What am I doing wrong?

A: There are two likely reasons for this. The main culprit is not having enough paint mix in your brush. When applying a wash, the paint should flow off the brush and leave a distinct bead of paint on the bottom edge (make sure your paper is tilted towards you)  Replenish you brush as soon as you find yourself having to lean harder.

Thanks to all of you from all over the world who have signed up for the newsletter. I just want to assure you that your email addresses will not be used for any other purpose and will certainly not be made available to any other businesses or individuals for any reason whatsoever. If you no longer wish to receive emails from me, simply enter your name below and click UNSUBSCRIBE

 

If you still have a problem - are you using too small a brush? Your brush should allow you to make at least one full stroke across your paper without re-dipping the brush

Still having problems? Make sure you do not use multiple strokes over the same area of paper. If you still have a problem, it could be your paper. The smoother the paper, the harder it is to paint an even wash. With hot pressed paper, it is very difficult indeed.

TIP OF THE MONTH

If you find that your brushes no longer point as well as they used to, or if the hair has a tendency to separate, try shampoo and conditioner. Obviously you must make sure you rinse the brush well afterwards, but a spotlessly clean brush is less likely to cause this type of problem. Your tip could of course simply be worn away - a good reason to allow the paint to flow from your brush rather than to scrub it on to your paper.

TRY IT AT HOME

Find a few white objects and place them on a white background. Make sure some of the objects overlap. Light them from one side only. Paint the scene using only one colour - sepia, black, indigo, anything dark - but try to paint the tones you see rather than the objects. In other words if the edge of an object merges with the background or with another object, don’t show the edge. Try to reduce the tones to 3 or 4  - the white of the paper, light grey, dark grey and black. One big problem with painting is showing what you know to be there rather than painting what you see. You must learn to see subjects as areas of tone rather than objects with definite boundaries. Your paintings will be more interesting and appear more lifelike as a result.

SEPTEMBER 2009

 

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