ODIHAM ART GROUP
Demonstration Reviews
Jane Perkins
Saturday 3rd February
Saturday 18 January
Rodney Kingston: Oils
Rodney painted on oil paper, primed with Gesso and washed with burnt umber. He used a limited palette and worked with a range of brushes, favoring a stiff, hog hair brush.
Rodney took his time to carefully plot the objects ensuring heights and widths were correct. With a good base drawing he felt he could make any minor nudges as the painting progressed.
Satisfied with the under drawing Rodney blocked in the shapes playing attention to the tonal values. Working from large to small he swiftly built up his composition and added the detail together with some nice highlights that sharpened up the overall effect.
Stewart Beckett
Saturday 4 January 2025
Stewart demonstrated an oil painted seascape, based on a composition painted 'en plein air' and photographs taken at the time.
He began by painting in the main aspects of his composition using an old sharpened paintbrush. His style favours a loose, fluid interpretation, avoiding at all costs 'fiddling with details' which he feels 'loses the life of the painting'.
Stewart introduced figures to help break-up the landscape and show definition. He focused on achieving the correct tonal values and built up the scene with the use of stumpy sticks to draw in the thickly applied oil, his fingers and a variety brushes to achieve the marks he wanted.
Having taken a well earned break for tea, Stewart avoided looking at his painting until he resumed. He feels it is essential to walk away from your work and return with fresh eyes to establish areas that have worked and those areas that require further application.
With the composition completed Stewart stood well back from the painting to appraise the values and ensure it functioned as a painting. He remarked that paintings aren't designed to be under microscopic inspection but should 'project off the surface and work from a distance'.
Alison Board: Workshop
Saturday 18 January: Mixed Media
Alison had previously entertained the OAG with a lively and knowledgeable watercolour demonstration. Encouraged by her warmth and enthusiasm, the workshop was enjoyed by a full group of members who were eager to experience her mixed media programme.
Alison set the subject of a natural landscape featuring a Red Kite. Using water colour, collage, Gesso, pens and a variety of tools the group spent an informative day creating their spin on Alison's composition.
Alison was a delightful tutor - warm, friendly and exceptionally encouraging. I'm sure it wont be long before we are welcoming her back to North Warnborough.
Jake Winkle
Saturday 7 December 2024
Jake specialises in painting animals enjoying the freedom of vibrant colours and a loose natural style. However, for us he explored winter landscapes using a black and white photo and for his second demonstration a summer painting.
Jake suggested that working a winter scene from either a black and white source or a different season source was a good exercise to develop skills associated with light, shade and reflection. He drew attention to the fact that most landscapes are a form of abstraction as it is not possible to draw every detail. For this reason landscapes require an interpretation and design that will work across balance, tension and depth.
Jake paints very loosely building up the landscape with layers of colour, shadows and reflection to pick out details. He advised that warm colours come forward whilst cool colours retract behind them - grey in particular drifts back a long way which is a very useful tool for the landscape painter.
Jake used:
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Arches 140lb rough paper stretched, taped and stapled
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He worked with a clean palette using all primary and secondary colours plus raw sienna, light red and sepia
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Natural hair brushes for their ability to soak up water
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6mm deep MDF as a painting board
Clive Eastland
Saturday 2 November 2024
Clive Eastland entertained a large OAG audience with his gentle humour and accomplished technique as a pastel artist.
Providing a dramatic seascape he employed all the skills he has developed over the past 20 years as a professional artist. Self taught, Clive was happy to discuss the merits of pastels, paper and their application.
Clive worked the study from top to bottom. He set the sea against a gentle sky and gradually built the wave with multiple, thin layers of pastel. He advised against overworking pastel as this clogs the paper and prevents further application. Clive used the base of his hand and fingers to apply the pastel, only applying directly onto the paper to hightlight smaller details.
Clive used:
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Jackson's handmade soft pastels
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Recommended the use of muted colours - greys, lilacs etc
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Paper - Claire Fontaine Pastelmat
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Avoid fixative as dulls the finish
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Putty rubber
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Soft brushes and make-up sponge can be used to blend
Chris Sharp
Saturday 5 October 2024
Chris delighted members with a professional demonstration of an acrylic beachscape, looking across to Burgh Island.
True to her style, the finished painting was a balance of loose strokes, a restricted palette and thickly applied paint that reflected and celebrated the atmosphere.
Working almost exclusively with a palette knife, she ensured that the composition remain fluid and was not encumbered by excessive detail. Not to overwhelm the composition, Chris created quieter passages in both the sky and sea and like many artist's that favour a more abstract approach, allowed the painting to benefit from a few happy accidents. Read more about Chris
Chris Used:
Titanium White - Seawhite
Prussian Blue, Raw Sienna, Naples Yellow, Permanent Rose
Palette knife
DIY Studio palette - tin tray, puppy pad and greaseproof paper
Acrylic satin medium to set the paint
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Charles Evans: Workshop
Saturday 19 October: Watercolour
Charles is a regular demonstrator at OAG meetings but this was the first workshop he conducted for us.
True to form, Charles was as entertaining as he was informative. With a full group of 15 members present, Charles began with a demonstration of a Yorkshire landscape and then moved on to a taught session.
Charles is an advocate of stress fee painting and wanted us all to enjoy the journey. Working with just three brushes and 5 water colours (plus 'sand') we were able to construct a rural landscape featuring a farm house and buildings.
The workshop was enjoyed by both new and experienced artists many of whom have already signed up for the next session in January.
Brian Smith
Saturday 7 September 2024
Brian Smith gave a stimulating and 'fast-paced' watercolour demonstration to launch our new programme for 2024/25.
A lifetime professional painter, he held all members interest from the start, with a bold declaration that he would paint five paintings in two hours! He explained that he wasn’t aiming to produce finished paintings but use the opportunity to share many aspects and watercolour techniques.
In the event, he produced one full painting in the first half of the demonstration and a further four, clever painting exercises to encourage everyone to paint with confidence and undertake experimentation to develop their skills.
The demonstration was full of painting tips delivered by Brian with confidence, humour and a lifetime’s knowledge. He held everyone's attention and stimulated audience inter-action as the two hours passed by quickly.
A great start to our new demonstration programme.
Read more about Brian, see website
Wendy Jelbert
Saturday 6 July 2024
Wendy Jelbert, a well-established professional artist, provided a demonstration entitled “Tantalising Textures”.
Wendy started by illustrating a range of materials that could be used with watercolour or watered-down acrylic paints, demonstrating the affects on her old paintings. Adding grounds with a palette knife and PVA glues to stick sand, leaves, netting, paper shapes and tissue paper.
Wendy was keen to motivate her audience to try every combination possible through experimentation and practice, including masking fluid, pastel pencils, wax resists, salt, cling film and tissue to impact texture and design.
Following her enthusiastic talk she produced a seascape painting to illustrate her methods and favored painting techniques. Above all else, Wendy wanted artists to share in her passion for experimentation and gain confidence with a no-holds barred attitude.
Fatima Pantoja Hernandez
Saturday 2 March 2024
Fatima gave a light-hearted but very knowledgeable oil based portrait demonstration with sitter Peter McLeod, an OAG member, to over 50 members.
Using just blue, red, yellow and white oil paints together with different dilutants and a number of brushes, she produced a perfect image of the sitter in just 2 hours.
Delighting and interesting all members with her tips and technical skills as she went through the stages from the outline “drawing” in red paint, to adding facial features, neck and upper body (important for all portraits). Shadows and later facial details and blocks of colour where added as necessary.
The finishing touches covered the importance of setting the portrait into a background colour – including the importance of standing back regularly and assessing the painting and the sitter – to maximise the key facial features.
