WILDLIFE ARTIST YEAR 2020

CALLING ALL AMATEUR

AND PROFESSIONAL
ARTISTS
THE
OF

ENTRIES NOW OPEN FOR

DAVID SHEPHERD WILDLIFE FOUNDATION’S
WILDLIFE ARTIST YEAR 2020 OF
THE

This international competition brings

together artists to celebrate the beauty
of the natural world and helps
to support wildlife

FIRST PRIZE: £10,000

Finalists will be exhibited at the Mall Galleries

in London from 27 May to 31 May 2020

Enter now and help us protect endangered

species at davidshepherd.org/way

UK registered charity 1106893 | Image credit: Julie Brunn ‘Eve’

Tel: 01483 272323 | Email: dswf@davidshepherd.org
David Shepherd Wildlife Foundation, Saba House, 7 Kings Road, Shalford,
Guildford, Surrey GU4 8JU
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TIPS • TECHNIQUES • IDEAS • inspir ation January 2020 £4.75

Dra ng
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and rainy streets

Printmaking How to...

special •Vary paint textures
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How to design striking images •Mix colour like Matisse
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ISSN NO. 1473-4729

After enjoying a lovely summer followed by the rich colours of

autumn, we decided to not sulk as winter approaches but rather
embrace the artistic possibilities of the colder weather. Our brilliant
deputy editor Rachael has taken the lead in this respect, donning
the thermals to properly explore the work of three painters who
have quite literally gone to the ends of the earth to create cool,
COVER IMAGE CHRIS WORMELL glacial landscapes that speak of the impending climate crisis.
Sticking with the wintry theme elsewhere in the issue, illustrator Chris
stay inspired Wormell shares the techniques behind his charity Christmas card designs,
by subscribing while Rob Dudley is intent on proving that the Andy Williams song is, in fact,
Artists & Illustrators true and this really is the most wonderful time of the year as he shows you how
Tel: +44 (0)1858 438789 to capture gorgeous colours in the snow in this month's masterclass.
Email: Less chilly perhaps, but we also have a very interesting article on drawing
artists@subscription.co.uk by artist Sarah Pickstone. It was arranged in part because we had several letters
Online: from readers requesting more articles encouraging new ways of seeing and
www.artistsand thinking about your work. I'd love to know what you think of this one,
illustrators.co.uk/subscribe so be sure to share your thoughts via the addresses below.
Post: Artists & Illustrators, Steve Pill, Editor
Subscriptions Department,
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House, Sovereign Park,
Lathkill Street, Market
Harborough, LE16 9EF
Renew: Have you been painting winter scenes? Or illustrating your own Christmas cards?
www.subscription.co.uk/ Share your festive artworks with us for a chance to win a £50 GreatArt voucher (see page 6)
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Artists & Illustrators 3


regulars
6 Letters
Your thoughts and stories
8 Exhibitions
Our five must-see gallery shows
11 Sketchbook
Tips, ideas and art products
16 Fresh Paint
New works, hot off the easel
27 The Working Artist
It's time to ask for what you want
says our columnist Laura Boswell
32 10 Minutes With...
Portrait painter Lorna May
Wadsworth's brush with the stars
35 Prize Draw
Win £1,000 of drawing kit
82 Art in Focus
A portrait by a little-known Spanish
artist called Pablo Picasso
Contents
36
42
featureS
20 Cover Feature
Meet three adventurous painters
whose work is literally poles apart
28 Art Histor y
Discover the masterful methods of
20th-century artist William Orpen
36 Talking Techniques
With architectural illustrator
turned fine artist Simon Jones
practical
42 Masterclass
Find a rainbow of colours in a
snowy landscape with Rob Dudley
46 Master Techniques
Norfolk Painting School's Martin
Kinnear on the use of optics
50
D is c o v er a p o et ic
n ew w a y o f
d ra w in g
I hope my drawings
can facilitate a deeper
understanding of
the climate crisis
Z ARIA FORMAN
– PAGE 2 0
C re a te a
50 In-Depth li v e ly p o rt ra it
Explore new ways of drawing in ju st o n e
with artist Sarah Pickstone si tt in g
56 Self-Portraits – pa ge 70
This month's challenge involves
impersonating another artist
60 Printmaking
Lessons in design and colour from
two leading relief printmakers
66 Book illustration
Enter Folio Society's competition
with tips from last year's winner
70 Demo
A step-by-step guide to painting a
portrait with the alla prima method
74 Colour Theor y
Al Gury concludes his series by
looking at Matisse's use of colour
Artists & Illustrators 5
 Letters
LET TER OF THE MONTH
STARRY NIGHT (SHOT ON IPHONE)
To the reader who griped about the
Write to us!
LOST FREEDOM use of smartphones or iPads by
Send your letter or email
to the addresses below:
I draw and paint graphically and very realistically, and, even though I some artists in order to paint a
enjoy it, I have a constant nagging urge to abandon the tight constraints portrait: no, I don’t find this in the POST:
of how I work and throw paint wildly at a huge canvas or something. slightest bit annoying. It can Your Letters,
It always amazes me at how precise and rigid I have become with my genuinely help in the process and Artists & Illustrators,
art and even now I think back to the days of my art foundation course, it’s not the same as working from The Chelsea Magazine
some 25 years ago now, with fondness. I remember a lot of the a photo at home. Company Ltd.,
exercises that we were asked to do took us out of our comfort zones, like These artists are simply using Jubilee House,
life drawing with lolly sticks and ink on a large full-height scale, which in the means that are available in 2 Jubilee Place,
itself was hard enough, but just as you felt that you had started to get order to achieve a result – and if London SW3 3TQ
somewhere, being asked to move to the drawing of the person to your that includes using technology,
right and carry on there. why not? I’ll bet that even Van Gogh EMAIL: info@artists
It was horrible but it taught us not to be so precious and it was very might have found our technology andillustrators.co.uk
freeing, something that I seemed to have lost. I would love to go back to be a fantastic aid to his work.
and do a course like that now, if only finances would permit, because Photos don’t replace the model, The writer of our ‘letter
I feel that I need someone to push me to try different things. and of course the artist has looked of the month’ will receive
I know that my art would benefit as a result as it feels like there are at the model. Using photos is just a £50 gift voucher from
ideas in my head clamouring to get out, but my style won’t let them. a different way of working. So, to GreatArt, which offers
I’ve finally found a book with art foundation projects in it (there are all those who gripe about the use the UK’s largest range of
hardly any out there) so I will see if it helps. Maybe you could do a of technology while painting, I say art materials with more
feature with some projects to help cast off artistic inhibitions? it’s nothing new. Artists have been than 50,000 art supplies
Nicky Rosser, via email using anything that’s been available and regular discounts
to them to produce art since and promotions.
We like the suggestion, Nicky. Let’s open this out to everyone: time began. www.greatart.co.uk
what sorts of articles would you like to see more of in Artists & Jo Clutton, Hampshire
Illustrators? Let us know the themes and subjects that interest
you and we’ll do our best to accommodate. A BIG HOO-HA
I’m writing to thank you for
our lovely weekend away
DREAM BABY DREAM In the world of dreams the as winner of the Luton Hoo
I have painted approximately 100 impossible becomes possible. Hotel prize draw [issue
paintings in the past three years. Reality is suspended. In this 408]. The weather was
Sometimes the subject for a picture particular dream I was in two very kind, and we had
comes easily to mind, but other places at once. Flying over the some great walks around
times it seems more difficult to trees and watching myself and the grounds, enjoying the
find inspiration. my family walking along a footpath autumn light and colours.
A short while ago I had a vivid and in a nearby arboretum. The hotel is indeed
colourful dream. It was so real that, I made a painting of this dream luxurious [see right]
as soon as I awoke, I noted down with oil paints [below left], making and the food delicious.
all the details I could remember. extensive use of a palette knife. I took loads of photos
Mostly dreams fade away quite all Your readers might like to try and will be using some as
too quickly. something similar and record references for paintings.
their dreams. I now keep a Juliet Magee, via email
sketchpad near my bed at night
Derek Stark, via email

KEEP A CLOSE SWATCH Share your thoughts and get a daily dose
I love the “Expand your palette” of Artists & Illustrators tips, advice and
feature each month. I’ve taken inspiration by following us on our social
to tearing them out and have media channels...
added them to my colour
swatch sketchbook. Please @AandImagazine ArtistsAndIllustrators
keep this series going, thanks!
Diane Galloway Solowan,
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via Facebook

6 Artists & Illustrators

 l

'We loved the course and were

amazed by Martins depth of
knowledge and understanding of the
technical details behind the Masters –
all of them! ' J. R July 2019

!
l
r

e
.
' Trying to teach myself how to paint has proven to be an expensive and convoluted exercise
and yet in 3 days at the School I achieved so much. ' P. S-W. July 2019.
Inspiring and instructing oil painters since 2007
NORFOLK PAINTING SCHOOL.
E: Jane@norfolkpaintingschool.com T: 01485 528588 W: norfolkpaintingschool.com
 Exhibitions
JANUARY’S FIVE BEST ART SHOWS
South by Southwest: Coastal
Landscapes by Jeremy Gardiner
24 January to 22 March 2020
Fascinated by the geology of England’s south
coast, Jeremy Gardiner set out to capture the
way the landscape is shaped by the forces of
nature. Iconic subjects including Durdle Door,
The Show Goes On
11 January to 23 February 2020
Subtitled “A Theatre of Portraits by the Royal
Society of Portrait Painters”, this fun
collection of famous faces includes the
comedian Ken Dodd, singer Sammy Davis Jnr.
and actor David Morrissey [below] all
captured on canvas.
Showing at Watts Gallery alongside an
exhibition of work by one of the Society’s past
presidents, Sir William Orpen [see page 28],
The Show Goes On also includes Melissa
Scott-Miller’s portrait of Orpen’s great
granddaughter, Suzannah Hamilton.
Watts Gallery, Surrey.
www.wattsgallery.org.uk
Seven Sisters and Port Isaac [Amber Light,
Port Isaac, pictured] are depicted in this
expressive body of work made during the
last five years. The exhibition will tour to
Falmouth Art Gallery.
St Barbe Museum and Art Gallery,
Hampshire. www.stbarbe-museum.org.uk
Glyn Uzzell 1930-2014
21 January to 7 March 2020
This retrospective explores the rich
career of the late Swindon-born
artist, who travelled extensively,
studying in New York and Paris, and
teaching in Geneva, before setting
up his studio and print workshop in
the Algarve 40 years ago.
His practice drew inspiration from
the light and colour of Portugal,
producing works which were, in the
artist’s words, “ostensibly abstract
but reveal a point of contact with the
visual world.”
Swindon Museum and Art Gallery,
JAMES HAGUE RP
Wiltshire. www.swindonmuseum
andartgallery.org.uk
 Vivian Suter
13 December to
15 March 2020
Vibrant colour and loose
brushwork feature heavily in
the oeuvre of Vivian Suter

NEW YORK AND BRUSSELS; HOUSE OF GAGA, MEXICO CITY; AND PROYECTOS ULTRAVIOLETA, GUATEMALA CITY
© COURTESY OF THE ARTIST AND KARMA INTERNATIONAL, ZURICH AND LOS ANGELES; GLADSTONE GALLERY,
[Nisyros (Vivian’s Bed), left].
Her exotic paintings are
inspired by the tropical
landscape of Panajachel in
Guatemala, where the artist
lives and works on a former
coffee plantation.
Following a tropical storm
in 2005, Suter embraced
nature further, leaving her
unstretched canvases
outdoors so that natural
substances such leaves
and twigs would become
embedded in the paint.
Tate Liverpool, Liverpool.
www.tate.org.uk

Turner in January
1 January to 31 January 2020
The Scottish National Gallery’s
annual exhibition of JMW Turner
returns, showcasing 38 of the
artist’s most spectacular
watercolours amassed by
Victorian collector Henry
Vaughan. Following his death in
1899,a bequest stipulated the
works be “exhibited to the public
all at one time, free of charge,
SCOTTISH NATIONAL GALLERY, HENRY VAUGHAN BEQUEST 1900

during the month of January”.

They include a dramatic lightning
strike [The Piazzetta, Venice
right] and a depiction of Bell
Rock Lighthouse commissioned
by its architect Robert Stevenson.
Scottish National
Gallery, Edinburgh.
www.nationalgalleries.org

Artists & Illustrators 9

 sketchbook

January TIPS • ADVICE • IDEAS

PAI N T L I K E DALER-ROWNEY

DERWENT
GRAPHIC PENCILS
Graphite can sometimes
be non-vegan, thanks to
the presence of tallow,
a smoothing agent made from
animal fats. The harder pencils,
from B to 9H, in this range are
all free from animal products.
www.pencils.co.uk
A V E GAN
SYSTEM 3 ACRYLICS
Certain black or grey paints
contain the pigment PBk9,
Check out our pick of the b est ar t
derived from animal bones.
materials free from animal produc t s
However, both System 3 blacks
One of the wonderful things about art is our ability to craft – Mars and Process – are free
new images using the same materials as the Old Masters. from this. In fact, aside from
However, when they are made from centuries-old recipes Raw Sienna, all colours in the
developed in less enlightened times, it can be problematic. range are vegan-friendly.
While animal hair brushes and rabbit-skin glue may be www.daler-rowney.com
obvious, other art materials with animal by-products can
include gouache (gelatine and oxgall), oil paints (beeswax),
paper (sized with gelatine), and watercolour (honey).
Luckily for vegans, or simply any conscientious artist, there
are plenty of traditional-style alternatives on the market

DA VINCI CASANEO BRUSHES

A Kazan squirrel hair shortage prompted
da Vinci to develop a synthetic alternative
with a similar elasticity. The Casaneo range
covers everything from 50mm mottlers to
handy travel brushes, ideal for urban sketching.
www.davinci-defet.com GAMBLIN PVA SIZE
US manufacturer Gamblin
has not only discontinued
FABER-CASTELL PITT ARTIST PENS its rabbit-skin glue but
These drawing pens use a plastic dispersion also produced this great
resin binder in place of shellac or gelatin, and alternative. Use it to seal
even the sepia ones are inorganic (sepia ink was canvas – the neutral pH
traditionally obtained from cuttlefish and squid). means it won’t yellow.
www.fabercastell.com www.gamblincolors.com

Artists & Illustrators 11

 PEGASUS ART
Finest Art Materials since 2005
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 sketchbook

FEARS ABOUT MAKING

BECAUSE THE PAINTING
F ITS OWN. I TRY TO LET IT
UGH” – JACKSON POLLOCK

MAST
PAUL CÉZANNE
Learn the painting
techniques of the
world’s best ar tists

Aside from a little line work,

there is very little detail in
Mount Sainte-Victoire [right].
Nevertheless, this is not
unfinished but merely typical
of a Cézanne landscape.
Tones were established
CLEVELAND MUSEUM OF ART, BEQUEST OF LEONARD C HANNA JR.

early, before lines were

restated in paint. The
remaining majority of the
colour was then laid down
using a loaded brush and a
patchwork-style approach.
Keep an eye out for unusual
or unexpected colour details
in your subject that stand
out – Cézanne liked to make
a feature of these

DATES FOR THE DIARY DAILY PAINTING TIPS

Portrait artists can submit to the Royal Society
of Portrait Painters’ annual exhibition before
noon on 17 January for the chance to win over
£20,000 of prizes. www.mallgalleries.org.uk
• Eastbourne’s Towner gallery is launching a
major new biennial exhibition next year, Towner
International. At least a third of all artists
selected will be local to the region. Enter by
midnight on 17 January for the chance to
feature. www.townereastbourne.org.uk
• London Art Fair returns on 22-26 January.
As well as a chance to see fresh contemporary
paintings, there is always an interesting
programme of talks by artists, gallerists and
curators. www.londonartfair.co.uk
Kate Cunningham on the imp or tance of var ying edges
Clouds can appear to have a mixture of
soft and hard edges and so it is important
to create a balance between the two. For
the hard edges, I use thick paint with very
little blending. For the soft edges, I use a
mixture of glazes and thin layers of paint
blended into the sky colour with a very
light touch using synthetic or sable-hair
brushes to minimise the visibility of the
brushstrokes. A combination of these two
approaches helps to form both the volume
of the clouds and their transparency.
Kate leads the Hidden Treasures art retreat
in Arbroath from 3-10 April 2020 with Wild At
Art Scotland. www.wildatartscotland.com

Artists & Illustrators 13

 sketchbook

EXPAND YOUR PALETTE
Manganese Blue
Discover a new colour ever y month
THE COLOUR
Patented in 1935 by German
company IG Farben, this cool
light blue was used to colour
cement in swimming pools.
THE PROPERTIES
Genuine Manganese Blue
(PB33) is made from barium
manganate and many
companies have stopped
producing it due to
environmental concerns.
Several manufacturers have
introduced Manganese Blue
Hue, a fairly lightfast colour
made with a variation of the
Phthalo Blue pigment PB15.
THE USES
The original colour was prized
for bright, summery skies.
Daniel Smith recommends
the hue as a substitute for
Cerulean Blue, as it can help
create mottled textures when
mixed with non-staining,
semi-opaque colours.
B
O
MO
Ways o
Drawing
Artists’
Perspectiv
and Practice
Theory and practice combine in the
Royal Drawing School’s inspiring new
book. Mirror of the World author
Julian Bell introduces three sections
devoted to Studio Space, Open
Space and Inner Space, each
containing illustrated essays by
tutors, writers and artists, including
former Observer art critic William
Feaver and several BP Portrait Award
winners. Every essay is followed by
a brief challenge by an RDS tutor
[see our extract on page 50],
designed to let you explore these
complex yet edifying ideas at home.
Thames & Hudson, £29.95.
www.thamesandhudson.com

GET A GRIP
Three simple tips that will
drastically improve your drawings

1 Clip your paper to a wall or easel. Standing

upright encourages more fluid arm movements
and a more expressive approach to mark making.

2 Choose a heavier drawing tool. Try a

Derwent XL graphite block or try your usual
charcoal or pencil in a holder like the Caran d’Ache
Fixpencil holder or the Nitram Stylus. The added
weight will allow you to apply less pressure and
make more graceful marks.

3 Avoid placing your palm on the paper.

Instead, use your little finger as a support
and use it to guide you as you work.
ISTOCK

14 Artists & Illustrators

 l o u i s e’ s
to p tiP
etallic
“ Try u s ing m initial
the
p ig ments in ad ding
re
layers , b e fo on top
z e s
tinte d g la
e c ts”
for nic e e ff

Louise Fairchild,
Quiet Place, oil on
canvas, 100x120cm

16 Artists & Illustrators

 Fresh
Paint
Inspiring new artworks, straight off the easel

Louise Fairchild
Many great artists tend to downplay the use of assistants,
feeling it somehow detracts from the finished work, yet
Louise Fairchild is far more generous. All is not quite as
it seems though. A photo on her website reveals that her
team of “artist’s assistants” consist of a taxidermy barn
owl and an 11-year-old Jack Russell called Stuff.
If it initially appears that the artist’s tongue was planted
firmly in her cheek, Stuff’s role should not be downplayed.
“She not only keeps me company during what is essentially
a fairly isolated day, but has also, on our daily walks, led
me to the wood and river scenes that inspire me so much.”
After graduating in fine art from Reading University,
Louise spent many years as a commercial illustrator,
working for clients including British Airways and Marks &
Spencer. When she turned her attentions back to fine art
a decade ago, she drew inspiration from a childhood spent
exploring the Peak District and rural Ireland, and attempted
to seek out similarly lush landscapes near her London
home. “I utterly fell in love with a stretch of the River
Thames where I walk my Jack Russell every morning and
evening,” she says. “I walk in all weathers and in all lights.”
“My passion is the constant attempt to capture the
mysterious, mercurial nature of light, especially the magical
hour of dusk or sunrise. It’s a daily frustration that that
delicious, elusive light still seems so hard to capture,
but I won’t stop trying.”
Despite the fresh, modern look of her landscape
paintings, Louise says she has drawn on centuries-old
techniques to try and imitate the shimmering effects that
she experiences on her walks: “I’ve always been obsessed
with the Old Masters’ use of glazing and have spent years
and years in a bid to attempt to capture the ethereal light
that they managed to paint.”
On some landscapes, Louise will create texture in the
initial layers of oils, loading pigment on the canvas in an
attempt, she says, to “reflect the sediment of the land”.
Thin glazes of tinted oils are then applied, each after
the previous one has dried. The artist has recently
experimented with using metallic pigments in the initial
layers to add a contemporary twist. When a painting
such as Quiet Place is then seen under changing light
conditions, these layers react together in different ways,
creating complex effects that dazzle and beguile.
www.louisefairchild.com

Artists & Illustrators 17

Fresh Paint
Catherine MacDiarmid
Having previously put in 12-hour days as a cleaner, teacher,
painter and parent, Catherine MacDiarmid was inspired
to embark on her Behind the Paint series by her time spent
as a children’s face painter. In the resulting paintings, the
artist has created hyper-realistic artworks of children
“behind a mask”.
Behind the Dog Paint was inspired by one of Catherine’s
face painting clients, a young girl who described the exact
kind of dog she wanted to be. With the parent’s permission,
the artist took a series of reference photos of her
ABOVE Catherine handiwork. “I love it when a child is very clear about what
MacDiarmid, they want to be,” she says. “I don’t always get a photo that
Behind the Dog inspires me though. I choose carefully whether the image
Paint, oil on communicates something to me other than the disguise.
canvas, 25x30cm This is usually something I see in the eyes.”
18 Artists & Illustrators
For a chance to feature in Fresh Paint,
sign up for your own personalised
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Back in her garage studio,
Catherine set to work with a loose
underpainting, drawing straight
onto the canvas in bright primary
oil colours diluted with turps and
rubbing back to the surface to
create lighter tones, form and
structure. After checking the
proportions, she then worked
wet-in-wet, using mixtures
of primary colours and white paint
to create vibrant tones. “I like to use Michael Harding and
Winsor and Newton Artists oils with genuine turpentine and
linseed oil in the later layers,” she explains. “I make sure
my ratio of solvent to oil is correct for the upper layers so
that I am working ‘fat over lean’. If I am lucky, I get a run of
days to complete a portrait painting so that the layers don’t
dry, but this is not always possible with my busy life, so a
quick wetting of the surface with my dilutants helps me
then work on a wet surface again.”
Surprisingly, Catherine reveals that one buyer of her
paintings described them as having a “Marmite effect”
on people. “I get really good feedback about my art,” she
explains. “Some people love it, but they admit they couldn’t
live with it, then there are some who fall in love with a
particular piece which they say they can’t live without.”
www.artistsandillustrators.co.uk/catherinemacdiarmid
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P O L A R PA I N T I N G

20 Artists & Illustrators

 P O L A R PA I N T I N G

THE
BIG
FRI E Z E RACHAEL FUNNELL looks at the
work of three artists who have
travelled to the ends of the earth
to document frozen landscapes and
raise awareness of the climate crisis

I
n the wake of growing concerns surrounding the very
real threats of climate change, it’s perhaps unsurprising
that there are artists making some of the globes most
remote, unhospitable and under-threat environments the
subject of their work. What is more surprising, perhaps,
is how these works can be used, with paintings proving
useful for scientific researchers keen to show the rapidly
changing faces of these frozen landscapes as both
temperatures and sea levels continue to rise.
This quest to capture these transitioning environments
connects three highly influential artists operating on
opposite sides of the Atlantic who have all worked in some
of the most remote and fragile places on earth. A new
exhibition at The McManus in Dundee, Among the Polar
Ice, brings together works by a number of artists including
Frances Walker and James Morrison, both of whom have
experienced life on the ice. Meanwhile, New York-based
pastel painter Zaria Forman has undertaken expeditions
with likes of National Geographic and NASA to capture the
dramatic and changing landscapes of the North Pole and
Greenland. But with average temperatures dropping to
minus 40 degrees, what challenges do these artists face
under such extreme conditions?
COURTESY OF THE ARTIST ZARIA FORMAN

Born in the quiet outskirts of Kirkcaldy in 1930, Frances

Zaria Forman, Walker graduated from Edinburgh College of Art and spent
Cierva Cove, several years on travelling scholarships, exploring the likes
Antarctica No.2, of Iceland, Yugoslavia and Greece, before taking up a
soft pastel on paper, teaching position in the Outer Hebrides. Electricity hadn’t
177.8x266.7cm arrived in this far-flung corner of Scotland and, with no
conventional means of transportation, Frances would

Artists & Illustrators 21

 LEFT Frances Walker, Late Summer,
Antarctica, oil on panel, 96.5x142cm
BELOW LEFT James Morrison, Berg, Otto
Fiord, 30xi, oil on board, 102x145cm

and the Falkland Islands, the artist

gathered information on the harsh,
deserted habitats of the polar region
before returning to her studio.
The Antarctic excursion brought
new technologies as well as new
horizons for Frances, who had to
adapt her usual method for collecting
reference materials in light of the
extreme conditions. “When I went to
Antarctica, I got my first wee digital
camera,” she explains. “I usually stop
and draw making ink and pencil
sketches working on Japanese paper,
but it was too cold and you’re often
moving fast so it was the easiest
way to gather reference materials.
“The whole trip took about three
weeks and we spent most of the time
on the ship. It was a modest boat and
I was travelling with a very international
group. We’d land from the boat among
the seals and it could be sleeting or
snowy, the conditions were very harsh.
I might take photos or make notes in
my diary but mostly I had to wait until
I was back on the boat.”
Frances hopes that her Antarctic
Suite will serve as important reference
materials for future research into this
changing landscape. “This exhibition
is very timely,” she says. “I came up
with the title, Among the Polar Ice,

spend her days travelling about on horses, tractors and
OPPOSITE PAGE, boats in search of unique and spectacular locations.
FROM TOP Whale It’s perhaps this early exposure to the magnificent
Bay, Antarctica No. landscapes of the Outer Hebrides, however, that gave
1, 152.4x228.6cm; Frances a taste for extreme environments. Since her time
Supraglacial Lake teaching there, much of her work has centred around
(between Hiawatha remote coastal stretches, with her 2018 solo exhibition at
and Humboldt Peacock Visual Arts, Frances Walker: So Far…, showcasing
Glaciers), a series of prints made over eight years studying the
Greenland, extreme ends of northern and southern Scotland.
79°6’59.05”N In recent years the artist has taken her practice quite
65°15’54.99”W, literally in a different direction, travelling south instead.
152.4x208cm. The Antarctic Suite in the McManus gallery’s exhibition is
Both Zaria Forman, the result of her voyage to the South Pole in 2007. Visiting
soft pastel on paper the Antarctic Peninsula, South Shetlands, South Georgia
PART OF THE ANTARCTIC SUITE PRESENTED BY THE ARTIST AS A LIVING BEQUEST. © FRANCES WALKER/COURTESY OF JAMES MORRISON
myself. There’s some very interesting
work and it’s important it be
preserved for the future.”
And her intentions for the Antarctic
series have not gone unnoticed.
“Something that’s very on trend at the
moment in glacier science is to use
archive photos, documents and even paintings to understand
how landscapes and climate have evolved,” said Simon
Cook, a geoscientist at the University of Dundee, of the
exhibition. “Often these are the only records we have of the
recent past – the last 100 years or so, before the dawn of
satellite imagery. This can represent essential context for
today’s climate situation. These spectacular paintings offer
a visual record of the world’s diminishing ice caps and
remind us all that we have a role to play in their survival.”
Also featuring in Among the Polar Ice is the 87-year-old
Glaswegian artist James Morrison, a co-founder of the
Glasgow Group, whose extensive portfolio includes rugged
landscapes based on studies of his home in Angus and
travels to Assynt in Sutherland. It wasn’t until 1992 that
the artist first visited the Arctic, specifically the glacial Otto

22 Artists & Illustrators

 P O L A R PA I N T I N G

I hope my drawings can facilitate a deeper

understanding of the climate crisis, helping us find
meaning and optimism in shifting landscapes
Fiord, Ellesmere Island, which lies within the Canadian
Arctic Archipelago. Despite the extreme conditions of the
glacial landscape, James worked en plein (freezing) air,
completing three canvases, each of which were completed
in a day – a change of pace for the leisurely painter.
Conditions were such that he was forced to work on a
smaller scale than he was accustomed to, and his fervent
practice was occasionally distracted by his companion
raising a rifle to ward off curious polar bears. Despite the
harsh and unforgiving environment, in which he was fully
immersed as he camped in tents in plain sight of caribou,
James described the High Arctic as a “paradise on earth.”
Across the Atlantic, Zaria Forman has been fixated on
icescapes ever since she was a child. As the daughter of
COURTESY OF THE ARTIST ZARIA FORMAN

the successful fine art photographer Rena Bass Forman,

who was famed for her sepia-tinged large format images
of remote landscapes, Zaria would regularly travel with her
family on expeditions for her mother’s work. These early
voyages resulted in such formative memories as mushing
on dog sleds in the North Pole, which cemented the young
artist’s love for frozen landscapes.

Artists & Illustrators 23

 LEFT Zaria
Forman, Svalbard
No. 33, soft
pastel on paper,
228.6x152.4cm

BELOW LEFT
Zaria Forman,
Jakobshavn
Glacier, Greenland,
69°4’51.58”N
49° 28’24.41”W,
soft pastel
on paper,
172.7x275.3cm

Years later, Zaria was planning her first expedition to

the North Pole when her mother, who was to accompany
her, fell ill with a brain tumour and sadly passed away six
months later. Inspired by her mother’s dedication, Zaria
continued her work documenting climate change through
pastel artworks which portray the immense power and
beauty these landscapes retain despite their obvious
fragility. “I hope my drawings can facilitate a deeper
understanding of the climate crisis, helping us find meaning
and optimism in shifting landscapes,” she says. “One of the
many gifts my mother gave me was the ability to focus on
the positive, rather than dwell in the negative.”
She has since taken part in NASA’s Operation IceBridge,
the largest ever airborne survey of the Earth’s polar ice,
which involved flights over the Arctic and Antarctic, as
well as serving as artist-in-residence aboard the National
Geographic Explorer in Antarctica in 2015.
The artist’s process begins with these visits to locations
at the forefront of climate change. She takes thousands of
digital photographs and meets with local people who she
will talk in depth with, often about how the landscape has
been rapidly changing, negatively affecting hunting and
fishing practices and driving communities to the edge.
Back in her New York studio, she creates large-scale pastel
paintings that are based upon both her memories and
reference photos. She draws with soft pastel, using her
fingers and palms to manipulate the pigment, focusing on
individual shapes and colours before considering the image
as a whole. Given they often measure more than two metres
wide, an average piece can take 200-250 hours to complete.
Zaria is deeply passionate about her role as an artist in
communicating climate change, regularly speaking at
events to raise awareness for the cause. “We are all
affected by the climate crisis now, whether it’s extreme
weather, crop failure, or your flood insurance costs rising.
COURTESY OF THE ARTIST ZARIA FORMAN

If we can all share our personal stories about this global

issue, it will help everyone connect and wrap their heads
around something that is difficult for all of us to comprehend,
and arguably the biggest challenge of our time.”
Among the Polar Ice runs until 8 March 2020 at The McManus:
Dundee’s Art Gallery & Museum. www.mcmanus.co.uk
View more of Zaria’s work at www.zariaforman.com
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26 Artists & Illustrators


It’s time to start asking for what you want,
says our columnist LAURA BOSWELL
H
ow good are you at asking for
what you want when it comes
to your art? Being the one
making the first approach can feel
daunting, whether that’s joining a
local art group or picking up the
phone to call your first gallery.
I’m the first to confess that I am
very bad at asking. It took me three
days of agonising before I emailed
the editor of this magazine to suggest
I write for him. In retrospect I needn’t
have worried, but I am glad I did:
it shows how much the idea mattered
to me. Start by seeing nerves as a
positive sign that you are invested
in whatever it is you are requesting.
Being invested is great, but it’s just
as important to think through your
request and consider if you want
the consequences that follow from
ABOVE Laura a positive reaction. I once found the
Boswell, Granite, courage to ask a local museum for
linocut, 40x60cm permission to use their printing press.
It seemed a good idea at the time
for both parties, but I was swept up
in the romance of the idea and failed
to think through the commute, the
lack of practical space and the fact
the press was very much on its last
legs. The project was dropped fairly
fast and I felt bad about wasting
everybody’s time.
The best bit of advice I ever
received with regards to asking
came from a gallery and I think it
is applicable to any situation where
there is a formal process involved,
from joining an art group to entering
a competition. The advice is simple:
Never let fear of refusal put you
off asking for something
get a pen and paper, call the person
in charge or read the website, write
down what you need to do and follow
the instructions to the letter. Knowing
you are doing things correctly can be
very calming and it is surprising how
many people fall at this first hurdle.
When you ask, you don’t always get.
It is important to see that rejection is
just part and parcel of putting yourself
forward. Try not to take it to heart, it
happens to us all and sometimes it’s
just a matter of getting the timing
right. My applications for both of my
Japanese residences were rejected
several times, but I got there in the
end. Never let fear of refusal put you
off asking for something; I promise
you that feeling bad for never taking
the chance is a far worse feeling.
Laura’s new book, Making Japanese
Woodblock Prints, is published
this month by Crowood Press.
www.lauraboswell.co.uk
Artists & Illustrators 27
 WILLIAM ORPEN

A R T H I S T O RY

William
Orpen
thing most artists want to know
about: his painting techniques.
Watts Gallery painting conservator
Sally Marriott recognised that there
was very little technical knowledge of
Orpen’s work so she has analysed his
works using x-rays, reflectography and
paint sampling. Her results, revealed
in the exhibition and accompanying
catalogue, were surprising. Although
there was nothing unusual found in
Orpen’s use of pigments, his
technique was different. He often
painted directly on to the canvas
without an underdrawing. On the
LEEDS ART GALLERY, LEEDS MUSEUMS AND GALLERIES/BRIDGEMAN IMAGES/TATE

rare occasions there was one, it was

usually created from palette
scrapings. In addition, some early
canvases were extended in length,
width or both, with strips of canvas
tacked on during the painting process.
This approach can be seen in
particular in works such as 1905’s
Anita, an experimental portrait of the
Dublin writer Anita Bartle that was
painted on cheaper, student-grade
canvas. It was informed by Flemish
artist Peter Paul Rubens, whose work
Orpen had seen in the Museo Nacional
del Prado, Madrid. Orpen wanted to
ROSALIND ORMISTON looks at the evolving try painting directly on to the canvas,
paint techniques of this early 20th-century using a Rubens-style palette of red,
British master of portraits and studio interiors black and white. His brushstrokes are
visible – he used both hogs’ hair and

A
century ago, William Orpen
ABOVE William was the highest-paid portrait
Orpen, The Studio, painter in Britain. Born into
1910, oil on a Protestant-Irish family in Stillorgan,
canvas, 96.5x80cm County Dublin in 1878, he had
studied art at Dublin’s Metropolitan
LEFT William Orpen, School of Art and the Slade School of
Anita, 1905, oil on Art, London. He was knighted for his
canvas, 76x55.7cm work as an official war artist during
the First World War and he duly
became President of the Royal
Society of Portrait Painters in 1924.
Since his death in 1931, Orpen’s
visibility in Britain has been low but a
new exhibition at the Watts Gallery in
Surrey is set to change that. William
Orpen: Method & Mastery focuses on
his early-to-late portraits and the one
sable brushes – with up to ten layers,
each left to dry. Later works were
painted wet-on-wet and blended in.
Technical examination by Sally
Marriott shows that at a later date,
possibly when Orpen gave Anita as a
wedding present to the sitter, he dug
into the canvas, deeply gouging out
paint from the underground with

Artists & Illustrators 29

WILLIAM ORPEN

BELOW William the end of his paintbrush, the small Orpen mastering spatial composition
Orpen, Le Chef de nuggets of white paint creating with the boldness to change its size
l’Hôtel Chatham, highlights on Bartle’s pearl necklace. during the painting process. The
Paris, 1921, Likewise, technical research of the portrait itself is near-dominated by a
oil on canvas, pigments used in Orpen’s 1920 painting within a painting, with French
127x102.5cm portrait of Sir William McCormick modernist Édouard Manet’s Eva
revealed tiny flecks of white added Gonzalès hung above the group of six
while the finished work was still wet to men: author George Moore, art dealer
create highlights around the sitter’s Sir Hugh Lane, plus the artists Philip
collar. Similar flecks are visible in Wilson Steer, Walter Sickert, Dugald
Dame Madge Kendal, his richly Sutherland MacColl and Henry Tonks.
coloured portrayal of the English Orpen painted his work in a similar
actress, with dots of white drawing modernist manner, its realism
attention to her eyes and pearls. capturing a moment in time. Was he
Orpen painted vigorously, usually focusing our attention on Manet’s
finishing a single portrait in just four work? Or was he subtly linking the
hour-long sittings. “While still young modernity of Manet’s depiction of
he had, by diligent work, accumulated Gonzalès to the similarly forward-
such a mass of experience, and thinking aims of the men?
so much judgement and manual Marriott sees the work as much
dexterity, that he could paint as more about the group of people
fast as he thought” said his studio gathered in Orpen’s studio, than it is
assistant Sean Keating in 1937. about Manet. Perhaps Orpen thought
The substantial 1909 painting so too, widening and lengthening the
Homage to Manet with its canvas canvas to focus more on the people
enlarged, by extension, on the left than the artwork. The men’s relaxed
side and the bottom edge, reveals informality acknowledges Orpen’s
figurative dexterity. He was a superb
Orpen was a superb draughtsman with a sound knowledge
of the human figure.
draughtsman with a Orpen used commercially prepared

sound knowledge of
canvases with two layers of ground.
In her analysis, Marriott found lower

the human figure layers of chalk with Zinc White

pigment, used to improve brightness
and opacity. Upper layers were
PHOTO: © ROYAL ACADEMY OF ARTS, LONDON/JOHN HAMMOND

thinner, the pure Lead White pigment

achieving a luminous brightness.
Orpen adapted his canvas primers
to suit the portrait he was painting,
lowering or heightening tones
accordingly – 1910’s The Studio
is a good example of this. Cicely
Robinson, curator of Method &
Mastery, describes how Orpen built
layers of opaque white tones in this
painting, creating a spacious effect
from the darker tones underneath
coming through to create shadows.
The effect is sunlight dappled on the
walls of the studio, the semi-naked
figure, and the painter (not Orpen).
Orpen was inspired by the
theatrical realism of paintings by
Velázquez, Goya and Manet – the
latter a follower of the two earlier
Spanish masters. This is expressed
in vivid portraits with solid rich-black
backgrounds, punctuated with a
strong spotlight on the subject.
A stunning example is the large 1921
 WILLIAM ORPEN

LEFT William Orpen,

Homage to Manet,
1909, oil on canvas,
162.9x120cm

foreshortening and low perspective

but inclusion of a bottle of stout in
the left corner, and depiction of
a restaurant worker in the grand
manner. Other possible references
are the still-life paintings of Jean-
Baptiste Chardin, so admired by
Orpen that he painted Self-portrait as
Chardin in 1908 – celebrated too in
the rich, pearly fat of the raw meat
chops lying in front of the chef.
The stance of Grossrieter’s body
reflects Orpen’s close study of the
human figure, and its inner muscles.
Robinson states that Orpen’s
knowledge of the human body, which
underpins this work, goes back to the
life drawing classes given by Henry
Tonks, a doctor and tutor at the Slade.
Life drawing was not a feature of
the teaching at Orpen’s first school,
the Metropolitan School of Art in
Dublin, which he thought was a great
omission. He later returned to the
Metropolitan to introduce life classes,
for which he created large chalk-on-
paper anatomical works to pin on the
wall as a teaching aid. The muscular
MANCHESTER ART GALLERY/BRIDGEMAN IMAGES

Anatomical Study, Male Torso,

now part of the Tate collection and
featured in Method & Mastery,
is one. According to Robinson, Orpen
imported models from London to
pose nude for the life-drawing classes
at the Metropolitan, as Irish models
were not allowed to pose naked.
portrait Le Chef de l’Hôtel Chatham, London-based Orpen’s last studio
Paris, smoothly painted with barely was on South Bolton Gardens, South
visible brushstrokes. The heat of the Kensington. Its high ceilings and wide
grill room is connoted in the grill-chef windows flooded the vast interior
Eugène Grossrieter’s perspiring face space with light. A ceiling fitting –
and reddened cheeks, complemented a large ball of clear glass known as
by the stiff toque blanche on his a “Witch’s Ball” – created reflections
head. The arms-akimbo stance draws of all sides of the room, which Orpen
attention to his starched jacket and could utilise. It was illustrated in the
neckerchief, all executed in rich 20 September 1930 edition of
shades of white, revealing Orpen’s Country Life magazine in a six-page
superb mastery of tonal painting. feature on his studio published a year
Reviewers of the work likened his before he died. Within this vast
deft handling of paint pigments to the first-floor room, Orpen had created an
chef’s skilled use of fine ingredients. elegant setting for his rich clients to
Orpen’s signature small fleck of white relax while being painted, but more so
catches the chef’s left eye, animating for himself, as a perfect space to paint.
his face. In the work there are echoes William Orpen: Method & Mastery runs
of Manet’s A Bar at the Folies-Bergère, until 23 February 2020 at Watts Gallery,
not only in the style of painting, using Surrey. www.wattsgallery.org.uk

Artists & Illustrators 31

 10 MINUTES WITH...
Lorna May
Wadsworth
As the Sheffield portrait painter readies for a major hometown
retrospective, she tells us stories about approaching Margaret Thatcher
and reworking the Last Supper . Interview: RACHAEL FUNNELL
When did you receive your first portrait commission?
When I was 14 or 15, I’d had commissions to paint people’s
children. I remember one time a man in a shop got me to
paint his wife from photos. He loved the painting, but when
he showed it to her she hated it, so he refused to pay me.
It was a really important learning curve: don’t do surprises,
meet the person, work from your own photos if you can’t
paint from life and, crucially, always get a deposit up front.
How do you interact with your sitters?
I guess it’s just about putting people at ease and making
them feel comfortable, engaging with them on a human
level like you would anybody, being interested in them
and putting all of that into the work.
How have you secured so many high-profile sitters?
It was a mixture of me being ready to grab any opportunity
that came at me and people’s generosity. I only painted
David Blunkett because I wrote him a letter saying, “You’re
not in the National Portrait Gallery and I think you should be.”
They weren’t all commissions in the early days which was
the crucial thing. I’d read an article with Stuart Pearson
Wright who described how he’d gone up to John Hurt in
Soho and asked for him to sit for him. And so, when I had
graduated, I was living at home and I was stood at my bus
stop outside the Crucible Theatre and I just remember
looking up and thinking “Oh my God, that’s Derek Jacobi
with his dog!” So, I thought I should ask him to sit for me,
like Stuart would have done. And Sir Derek said “Well, if
you write me a letter to this stage door, I’ll be in touch.”
Your new retrospective, GAZE, features your 2007 portrait
of Baroness Thatcher. How did that come about?
I was at the opera, doing charcoal sketches. I looked
around and saw this very grand looking lady wearing
purple surrounded by protection officers. Realising it was
Margaret Thatcher, I wrote a note, wiped the charcoal
off my hands and handed it to the protection officer.
He couldn’t pass on the note, so I went back to my seat.
I happened to meet my friend [the ITN journalist] Frank
Miles for lunch the next day and he said, “how dare they
so slight you!” He sent a letter on my behalf and called in
a favour. Three days later they agreed to the sitting.
32 Artists & Illustrators
What was she like in person?
Not what I expected at all. I’m still not sympathetic to her
politics, but I was very surprised by how much I liked her
as a person. When she saw the finished piece she said,
“It’s very fierce.” And I replied, “Yes, Lady Thatcher, but
sometimes we ladies do have to be a little fierce to get
our own way.” She paused and said, “Very true.”
When did you start working with the author Neil Gaiman?
I sketched him for a charity auction and I asked if he’d ever
had his portrait painted. He had a beard when I first started
painting him but then shaved it off. I thought my first
painting hadn’t quite captured Neil so I asked if he would
grow the beard again. Very obligingly he did.
How did you then become artist-in-residence on the
set of the TV adaptation of Gaiman’s Good Omens?
I’ve been artist-in-residence on lots of film sets. During my
very brief “career” as a jogger, I stumbled across a Woody
Allen film set. I ended up talking to the cinematographer
and being invited to come and sketch on set.
With Good Omens, I volunteered my services and was
invited along. I managed to finagle sittings with Michael
Sheen and David Tennant. When you’re artist-in-residence,
you’re scrabbling around for whatever you can get.
Nothing’s ever fallen in my lap, I’ve always seen something
and gone for it. There no Plan B so I’ve got to make this work.
How does it feel to have a major retrospective already?
PHOTO BY JENNY LEWIS FOR HACKNEY STUDIOS, PUBLISHED BY HOXTON MINI PRESS
It’s a great honour but it’s a weirdly existential experience
because it entails going through all my old archives. I’m
going to find it incredibly strange when the paintings are
all on the wall, as you don’t usually see them all together.
Is there a piece you’re most excited to exhibit?
It’s going to be amazing to have my Last Supper altarpiece
in the show and to see it again – I’ve only seen it once or
twice since it was installed at St George’s Church in
Nailsworth in the Cotswolds. I won’t be satisfied until
there’s a little brown road sign directing people towards it.
GAZE: A Retrospective of Portraits by Lorna May Wadsworth
runs until 15 February 2020 at the Graves Gallery, Sheffield.
www.lornamaywadsworth.com
 Nothing’s ever fallen in
my lap, I’ve always seen
something and gone for it
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Artists & Illustrators 35
 TA L K I N G T E C H N I Q U E S
Simon
Jones
JENNY WHITE chats to the Welsh artist about
balancing his love for expressive landscape paintings
with his career as a meticulous architectural illustrator
S
imon Jones’ career has two
distinct halves. On the one
hand he and his wife Caroline
run an architectural visualisation
business, producing watercolour
representations of proposed
architectural projects. The other side
of his work is fine art: his free-flowing,
atmospheric paintings of places in his
native Wales are markedly different
from his architectural works: here,
there is room for experimentation,
spontaneity and happy accidents.
The free flow of water expresses
architectural forms and the effects
of light, with layered washes helping
to define areas of light and shadow.
36 Artists & Illustrators
His studio, in his home in Llandeilo,
Carmarthenshire, reflects this
two-pronged career: one orderly side
is given over to the architectural work,
while the other side – a riot of paint
tubes, brushes and half-finished
paintings, is dedicated to the fine art.
Interestingly, this is a relatively recent
development: he abandoned fine art
for many years after feeling he had
lost his way.
“I felt my work had become
formulaic. I was bored and
disappointed with myself,” he recalls.
The career that had funded his
training as an architect was laid aside
for 20 years while he focused on the
architectural work. His return to fine
art over the past four years marks a
revitalised focus on experimentation
and exploration.
“The paintings have become darker
and more poetic,” he says. “I’m not
just painting the scene in front of me,
I’m trying to paint an archetypal,
timeless version of it.”
In part he has been inspired
by Uruguayan watercolourist and
Artists & Illustrators contributor
Alvaro Castagnet, whose work
exhibits a similarly intense awareness
of light and dark. “He raised the bar
for watercolour painting and his work
is just glorious,” he says. “He uses

watercolour in a fluid, watery,
flowing way, and he uses drybrush
like nobody has ever used that
technique before.”
In contrast to the experimentation
of his fine art, his commercial work
follows a set process, beginning with
a detailed line drawing which is either
drawn by hand or from a 3D computer
model made by Caroline. He then lays
down the first wash for the sky,
typically followed by a wash of Raw
Sienna over almost everything else,
leaving a few white highlights.
While this is still wet, he blocks in
all the main colours (these are
generally premixed beforehand) and
TOP Parrog Sunset,
watercolour on
paper, 30x22cm
RIGHT Limping
Invisibly, Llandeilo,
watercolour on
paper, 18x26cm
then, once these areas are dry, he
adds a few layers of detail, carving
hard edges into the soft washes with
a fine brush. Next comes a wash to
create the shadow areas and give
everything a 3D form and sense of
light. Finally, he adds highlights:
small flecks of Opaque White mixed
with Cadmium Yellow.
“With the commercial work, it’s got
to be produced to very tight deadlines
and it’s got to work every time,”
he says. “With the fine art, there are
no deadlines and it doesn’t matter if
I mess a painting up, so I tend to push
the fine art much further and mess
up 70 percent of what I do.”
TA L K I N G T E C H N I Q U E S
His fine art process is best
illustrated by looking closely at his
paintings. Limping Invisibly, Llandeilo
began with a loose sketch to get the
basic composition and tonal values.
He then divided this into four to make
it easier to transfer to watercolour
paper, and to ensure the composition
was asymmetrical. “I make sure
there is nothing bang in the middle,
because symmetry is such a loaded
thing – you need to avoid it,” he says.
Once the sketch was transferred to
the watercolour paper, he began the
painting with a top-down wash for the
sky, starting with Cadmium Red mixed
with a touch of Yellow Ochre and
Artists & Illustrators 37
TA L K I N G T E C H N I Q U E S
adding more of the latter colour as
he moved down towards the horizon.
Next, he applied some Burnt Sienna
on the right and the left of the paper.
When this was dry, he added
buildings over it with a wash of
Cadmium Red, Cobalt Blue and Raw
Sienna, mixed with a Chinese White
to thicken it. He kept the top of the
buildings very pale, bringing the wash
down the paper and leaving the
38 Artists & Illustrators
windows blank to expose the lighter
wash underneath. As he brought the
wash down the right-hand side of the
paper, he mixed in some Burnt Sienna
to add warmth.
Next, he used a water spritzer to
soften everything up. In order to
preserve the integrity of the brush
strokes when he does this, he tends
to mix in white paint to create a
porridge-like consistency that does
not disperse too quickly when
sprayed. “I load a lot of water at the
top of a painting then it runs down
and forms really dynamic effects,”
he says. “If you guide it around the
windows, it’s analogous to structural
architecture – and when the colour
bleeds, it suggests light bleeding.
I enjoy the synthesis you get between
the scene and the characteristics of
the watercolour. If, by running, the
 TA L K I N G T E C H N I Q U E S

watercolour can express the

architectural characteristics of
a building, that’s a joyous thing.”
Having achieved all the soft edges,
Simon then added the hard edges
with a dry brush. “The figure goes
on, the yellow lines, the details in the
architecture – so there’s a contrast
between soft flowing forms and
sharp edges,” he says.
Simon’s other paintings take shape
through a similar process. Sometimes
he will “attack” his initial wash with
one of his favourite tools: an old
decorator’s brush. “I use it in a really
cack-handed, un-thought-through way
I load a lot of water at the top
of a painting so it runs down
and forms dynamic effects
– it produces lots of accidents that
are sometimes disastrous and
sometimes magical,” he explains.
“It has jagged edges, producing
an unpredictable effect.”
The decorator’s brush will also be
used to drench windows with water to
give the feeling of light flooding out of
them. Calligraphic strokes using a mix
of Neutral Tine and Cobalt Blue can
then be applied over them to suggest
the gothic stylings of church windows
and other architectural details.
Simon used to favour Winsor &
Newton Professional Water Colours,
but he now uses a mixture of brands
after he began to find some colours
were too thick to use straight from

ABOVE Porthgain
Evening,
watercolour on
paper, 30x22cm

RIGHT Tenby
Church, Morning
Sun, watercolour
on paper, 30x40cm

Artists & Illustrators 39

TA L K I N G T E C H N I Q U E S
TOP Snowdog Sunset, Cardiff, watercolour on paper, 40x30cm
ABOVE Hallowe’en, Llandeilo, watercolour on paper, 18x26cm
40 Artists & Illustrators
the tube with a dry brush. He sticks
with Winsor & Newton’s Cadmium
Red, Raw Sienna and Burnt Sienna,
but also selects colours from Holbein
Artists’ Watercolours (he loves the
Lavender for opaque highlights) and
Daniel Smith Extra Fine Watercolor
ranges – the latter is a brand he says
is worth the extra outlay due to the
intensity of its colours. Brushes-wise,
Simon used to favour sables but now
prefers the longevity and lower cost of
Escoda’s various synthetic brushes.
He generally works on Saunders
Waterford 140lb rough paper.
If all this sounds like Simon has a
consistent system, he begs to differ.
His fine art is still evolving, and each
painting offers potential for new
experiments and discoveries. These
days it’s common for his fine art
paintings to be made on the rear side
of his architectural paintings, making
all the experimentation less costly
and giving his unwitting customers
two paintings for the price of one.
Perhaps remembering the early
frustrations of his fine art career,
when he fell into churning out London
views he knew would sell, he is
committed to ensuring every painting
really has something to say. “You’ve
got to make that bit of paper better
in some way,” he says. “You’ve got to
make a painting valid: it has to stand
up in the world and have a reason
to be, that is the challenge.”
www.simonjonespainter.com
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Artists & Illustrators 41

MASTERCL ASS

shes
to
ure a range of interesting hues
 MASTERCL ASS

Rob’s materials

•Paper
Two Rivers 140lb NOT
watercolour paper
•Brushes
Fine pointed sables,
sizes 8 and 10
•Paints

Burnt Sienna, Green Gold and
Permanent Rose, all
Daler-Rowney Artists’
Watercolour; Winsor Blue
(Green Shade) and
Quinacridone Gold, Winsor &
Newton Professional Water
Colour; French Ultramarine,
Daniel Smith Extra Fine
Watercolor; Transparent Oxide
Brown, Rembrandt Artists’
Water Colour; King’s Blue
Light, Old Holland Classic
Watercolour; Permanent
White, Winsor & Newton
Designers Gouache
•Watercolour Pencils
Orange Chrome and May
Green, Derwent Watercolour
pencils
•Palette
•Kitchen roll
•2B pencil
W
inter might not have a reputation
as being the most colourful of
seasons. It lacks the showiness
of autumn, the vibrancy of spring and the
sheer variety of summer greens.
Nevertheless, I believe winter offers as
spectacular a range of colours as any of
the other season – if you know when and
where to look.
A landscape blanketed under snow
brings its own palette and, when the
eventual thaw arrives, this also throws up
some interesting colour combinations for
the painter to consider, as the receding time of day. As the orange
snow often reveals isolated patches of winter sun begins to drop, it casts longer
unexpected colours. shadows and seems to boost the intensity of
This was just the case when I went out for the hues. The complimentary pairing of that
a winter walk late one afternoon. Walking orange hedge and the blue shadows was
around a bend in the lane, I was immediately an opportunity too good to miss. So, after
struck by the brightly-coloured hedge, making a quick sketch and taking a couple
a dazzling orange set against the blue of photos on my phone, it was back to the
shadows of the snow. Some of winter’s warmth of my studio.
most intense colours can be found at this www.moortoseaarts.co.uk

1. Start at the back 2. Drybrush the shadows

After I had worked out my design in a series of thumbnail sketches, I lightly drew out the main With the previous stage dry, I again used the
shapes on stretched watercolour paper using a 2B pencil, concentrating on scale and the drybrush technique to indicate shadows in
arrangement of key shapes rather than any small details. Using the larger size 10 brush on dry the distant fields with mixes of French
paper, I washed in the sky using King’s Blue Light. When this was dry, I used varying mixes of Ultramarine and Winsor Blue (Green Shade),
King’s Blue Light, Green Gold and Quinacridone Gold to indicate the distant, snow-covered strengthening the mix with extra pigment as
fields with a series of drybrush strokes. I painted elements in the scene that were
closer to me. If the previous strokes were still
wet, the additional passes would fill in the
unpainted gaps and the effect would be lost.

Artists & Illustrators 43

3. Hedge your bets

Using washes of pure Quinacridone Gold

and Green Gold, I loosely brushed in the
sunlit parts of the hedge on the left of the
lane, concentrating the Quinacridone Gold
towards the top of the hedge and the Green
Gold lower down. I used the direction of the
brush marks to indicate the direction of 4. Draw in textures
growth within the hedge.
As these washes dried, I added slightly When the previous stage was dry, I turned my attention to the snow. With a mix of
stronger touches of the same mix along the French Ultramarine, Winsor Blue (Green Shade) and a touch of Permanent Rose
hedge to add texture and interest, being I began to loosely wash in the shadowed areas of snow. This would be the first of a
careful not to overdo this stage. Adding number of washes on the snow area, each one designed to add texture and shadow.
too many touches might result in this part With mixes of French Ultramarine, Green Gold and Quinacridone Gold, I added the
of the painting becoming too busy or field boundaries and trees to the distant hills. This stage of the painting is more akin
overworked. to ‘drawing’ with the brush than true wash work.

5. Grow the trees 6. Tease out textures 7. Be dynamic

With a mix of Quinacridone Gold and a little
Burnt Sienna I painted in the sunlit trees in
the midground. As these were drying, I added
some Green Gold and a little French
Ultramarine to the mix and touched this into
the shadow side of the trees.
This had to be done when the previous
wash was just at the correct stage of
dampness. If it was too dry, it would result
in a hard, unwanted edge; too wet and the
colours would flow together and the effect
I was trying to create would have been lost.
With this same dark mix, I continued to
develop the field boundaries and trees.
After checking that the previous stage was
dry, I painted the small wood at the end of
the lane using a mix of French Ultramarine
and Quinacridone Gold. I knew that Daniel
Smith’s French Ultramarine was a wonderful
granulating colour, which I was hoping would
create some interesting textures when
combined with NOT surface of the
Two Rivers Paper.
With my board at an angle of about 20
degrees, I applied the wash quite loosely,
letting the colours gather and pool at various
points. I kept the board at the same angle
as I allowed it to dry.
As the previous stage was still drying, I took
a mix of French Ultramarine, Winsor Blue
(Green Shade) and a little Permanent Rose
and painted in some additional textural
details along the snowy road and up into
the hedge bank, endeavouring to keep the
marks loose and dynamic as I went.
The angle of the board would encourage
small pools of wash to collect and, when dry,
would contribute a further layer of textural
interest to the thawing snow.
 9. Create puddles 10. Deepen the tones

8. Wash the trees
In order to prevent the trees at the end of
the lane from appearing to form one large
tree I carefully painted them individually.
With the board at an angle still, I mixed
French Ultramarine and Quinacridone Gold
to wash in the shapes of each tree in turn,
allowing the wash to gather at the bottom.
With that wash still damp I touched in
some extra French Ultramarine pigment
on the shadow side and allowed the wash to
dry completely. Once it was, I repeated the
process for the middle tree.
I prepared a pale wash of Burnt Sienna and
used it to paint the top part of the right-hand
hedge, before allowing it to dry completely.
Then I mixed up two puddles of colour on
my palette. Both were mixes of French
Ultramarine and Transparent Oxide Brown,
but one had a brown bias to the mix and
the other leant more towards blue.
I used these to paint the branches and
twigs, varying which puddle I took the colour
from as I went. That variation helps produce
a far more interesting effect within the
painting than if a single colour had been
used throughout. Any unpainted areas
serve to depict small patches of snow
caught within the branches of the hedge.
It was time to add the shadows to the hedge
on the left and also to firm up the painting
of the road. With a mix of Green Gold and
French Ultramarine, I carefully washed in
the shadow on the hedge bank just above
the snow and used touches of the same
mix to indicate patches of shadow within
the hedge itself.
For the road, I turned to my favourite mix:
French Ultramarine and Burnt Sienna. I chose
a strong, dark mix for the distance, which
would act as a dynamic contrast to the white
of the snow. In the foreground, I went for a
paler, more dilute mix. This would allow the
colours to separate out, suggesting
reflections on a puddle of melt water.

11. Add random details 12. Finishing touches

I flicked in some bright oranges and greens I finished things off by painting the telegraph pole. I did this by adding Green Gold
to the hedges and some of trees. I did this by and French Ultramarine to the Permanent White gouache. With this last detail in
using watercolour pencils, the tips of which place, it was time to stop. This is always the stage in a painting when overworking
had been dipped into water in order to give is a real possibility, so it is far better to put the brush down, step away from the
the marks a real kick of intense colour. board and review your work before it is on to planning the next painting.
Turning back to the size 8 brush, I touched
in a few shadows on the lying snow with
French Ultramarine and Permanent Rose.
I also added a few patches of snow to the
top of the hedge using the Permanent
White gouache.
 MASTER TECHNIQUES

2. Optics and
Luminosity
Continuing his series of lessons we can learn from the Old Masters, Norfolk Painting
School’s MARTIN KINNEAR looks at varying the surface texture of your paintings

46 Artists & Illustrators


I
understand why many
contemporary artists who attend
courses at the Norfolk Painting
School initially shun the idea of
working traditionally. The trouble with
old-fashioned painting is, well, it looks
so old fashioned.
In this second part of my series,
I’d like you to pause for thought,
however, or at least question your
assumptions for a moment. While Old
Master paintings are the stuff of art
history, the ideas and techniques
used in them can be as relevant today
as they always were. With this in
mind, I’d like to focus upon the one
concept that you’ll find in almost any
LEFT Martin Kinnear,
Buttermere, oil on
canvas, 122x91cm
A wide range of optical
finishes created rich,
ambiguous effects.
BELOW This detail
shows how fat impasto
marks and thin glazes
gives the effect of
gathering light
Old Master painting: optics. When it
comes to painting, optics refers to the
ways in which they interact with light.
It is the reason that we can all
recognise Old Master works for their
inherent depth and subtlety, as
opposed to the flat and often bold
aesthetic of contemporary painting.
So how do we combine these two
approaches?
In his essay on the work of Pierre
Bonnard, the late great painter Sargy
Mann noted that lesser artists paint
extraordinary things in an ordinary
way, but that the mark of a great
artist is to paint the most ordinary
and commonplace of subjects in an
MASTER TECHNIQUES
extraordinary way. Looking at a simple
still life by a 20th-century painter
such as Sir William Nicholson, which
simply glows with cool light, or one of
John Piper’s luminous pictures of very
ordinary buildings, it becomes clear
that these masters are doing far more
than simply laying down tube oils.
Rather than dreaming up ever more
extraordinary things to paint, why not
try to develop the range of your
techniques instead? Even if you want
to paint very creatively, it pays to have
skills. As Mann observed, it’s no good
having artistic vision if you can’t put it
on a canvas; in other words, skills
facilitate creativity.
Artists & Illustrators 47

Think of optics as the art of
managing your paint film
Very good painters aren’t just
creative visionaries but technical
masters too. In my opinion, there’s
nothing technically ordinary about a
good oil painting by Peter Doig, Hurvin
Anderson, Francis Bacon, Frank
Bowling or Anselm Kiefer. Ordinary
things depicted in an extraordinary
way – that’s the goal.
In Gerhard Richter’s 2011
retrospective at London’s Tate
48 Artists & Illustrators
Modern, Panorama, the German
artist allocated a couple of rooms to
display his technical exploration of
the working methods of the 16th-
century Venetian painter Titian.
That a contemporary painter should
choose to immerse himself in
traditional technique should come
as no surprise; an obsession of good
technical artists such as Richter is
the handling of optics. In that respect
LEFT Martin Kinnear,
Study after Seago,
oil on canvas,
30.5x40.5cm
Two versions of
the same painting
shown before and
after any optical
glazing was added.
there is no better guide than Titian
who devoted much of his life to
examining how best to depict things.
Good painters have always painted
– and will always paint – with an eye
to how their work will interact with
light, and Titian never painted a thing
which didn’t show his preoccupation
with light and his paint film. So, if
you’re going to take one thing from
this series, my choice would be the
assertion that one should always
consider optics.
OPTICS AT WORK
Optics can mean many things.
At its simplest level, it’s just about
managing how your paint interacts
with light. This sounds simple, and
it is, but add nuance to this and we’re
soon into the dark arts of glazing,
scumbling and combining paints
with mediums.
I touched on all of those techniques
in my recent articles on essential
studio craft [see issues 404-406 –
back issues are available via
www.chelseamagazines.com/shop].
Yet while optics might appear a
complex subject, at its foundation
it is simply an appreciation that
different surface textures and finishes
will respond to the light in different
ways and enrich your painting.
Think of optics as the art of
managing your paint film. As a simple
example, take out one of your old dry,
“direct” paintings that perhaps didn’t
work as well as you hoped. Apply a
high-gloss glaze medium or a varnish
to part of the painting only. Once dry,
observe how the varnished and
non-varnished surfaces interact
differently with light, giving a varied
and interesting effect. Where the
glaze medium or varnish sits, colours
will look richer and deeper; where it
does not cover the paint, you will
retain an effect which is more matt,
direct and raw. The varnished area

ABOVE In a detail
from the painting
opposite, note how
the orange impasto
contrasts with the
thin, dark glaze
RIGHT More
contrasts can be
seen between the
impasto clouds
and glazed sky
will look rather like an Old Master
painting and the unvarnished part
rather more contemporary.
This is not simply because
Old Master paintings are generally
varnished whereas contemporary
works are not. It is also because most
traditional works were made with
layers of coloured varnish-like glazes
which made them deep, subtle and
luminous. Most modern paintings,
certainly those created since the first
Impressionist exhibition in 1874,
appear flatter and less glossy.
This is not to say either of these
things is better, just that one ought
to be able to choose the best look
for one’s own creative intent.
Now take the partially varnished
painting and put some blobs of
impasto all over of it using a palette
knife or fat brush. You’ll see that
compared to the optically deep
varnished areas, the impasto appears
to advance a little further than it does
over the unvarnished passages.
This is because the varnished areas
have a greater optical dissonance to
direct impasto than the unvarnished
directly painted ones. By extending
the optical range in your test work you
have increased its visual interest, and
for painters looking to improve the
visual means at their disposal, that
will be of interest.
CREATING LUMINOSITY
The Old Masters used optics to create
an illusion of luminosity. The key here
is to appreciate that paintings reflect
MASTER TECHNIQUES
light, but don’t emit it. The source of
any apparent luminosity in a painting
comes from its base layer – the white
gesso, typically. Cover that up with fat,
opaque impasto and the reflected
light will be restricted, along with its
optical depth. Layer that base with
thin, modulating layers of colour,
however, and you can add real interest.
To give your painting that glow,
you must learn to think optically.
Pay attention to how artists such
as David Hockney use the opaque
paints sparingly to ensure their thin,
coloured passages glow with a
saturated intensity.
Creating optical complexity on
your work is a creative choice,
but it is important to make an
informed decision, rather than
allowing your materials to restrict
your creative options. Look at the fat
impasto marks of Frank Auerbach
or the thin soak stains of Helen
Frankenthaler – those methods suited
their creative vision and artistic
intent. For my own part, I like having
the flexibility to paint either boldly and
strongly or subtly and atmospherically
as it suits my subject, but whatever
I paint I always remember that colour
is simply an interaction between
a surface and reflected light.
It follows then that if a paint
surface is an even, unmodulated
plane of equal opacity, it will be less
interesting than a paint surface that
allows light into it here, bounces light
off it there, and scatters refracted
light in different directions. Simple,
direct painting will generally create
a flat, bold and unmodulated picture
with a visual punch. By contrast,
indirect painting will give a much
more subtle, varied surface that has
greater depth and complexity. This is
not a polarised choice, however, and
one can lay down glazes or heap on
fat impasto marks in a single painting.
If we take the principles of indirect
painting and apply them cleverly,
we can have the best of both worlds.
Martin is course director of
the Norfolk Painting School.
www.norfolkpaintingschool.com
Artists & Illustrators 49
D R AW I N G

50 Artists & Illustrators


IN-DEPTH
Walk
the
Line
Royal Drawing
School tutor SARAH
PICKSTONE leads
an exploration of
drawing’s capacity to
move – across time,
personal experience
and artistic modes
I
n her 1927 story Street Haunting,
Virginia Woolf takes the narrator
for a walk through the wintry
streets of London at dusk to shop
for a pencil. The protagonist walks
and looks and lets herself be drawn
into what she sees. Her imaginative
self meets memory and history and
makes an arc of time, set against
contemporary Oxford Street and the
River Thames, “rougher and grayer
than remembered.”
I love the sense in this story of
watching through time, and I imagine
myself drawing a line with the pencil
that Woolf has tucked behind her ear
on her return from the stationers.
Perhaps drawing can be similar to
Woolf’s idea of “street haunting” –
a saunter of discovery, inhabiting the
Draw things that affect you...
Don’t pretend to be interested
in things that you are not
lives of others. When we leave our
day-to-day activity behind to walk, to
draw, “the shell-like covering which
our souls have excreted to house
themselves, to make for themselves a
shape distinct from others, is broken,
and there is left of all these wrinkles
and roughnesses a central oyster of
perceptiveness, an enormous eye.”
Drawing itself is a kind of
empathetic storytelling. What kind of
human narrative are we observing?
What attention is paid to line and
mark, atmosphere and light, to
setting? Perhaps this is not the sort
of story that has a linear trajectory
– a beginning, middle and end.
The beauty of drawing is that you
can play with the space of a page
and disrupt its sense of time.
D R AW I N G
Like many artists of the early ABOVE Sarah
20th century, Woolf understood that Pickstone, Disegno
breaking the rules of narrative often after Angelica
comes out of an expressive necessity. Kauffman,
Similarly, it can be surprising to watercolour on
explore how we perceive time through paper, 153x116cm
drawing. A line in itself reveals a
narrative – the lines of Louise
Bourgeois and Van Gogh tell of
different ways of seeing. Nature,
too, has an underlying pattern –
a narrative of the laws of science.
Many of the things we see are the
repeated forms of nature – the hair
at the crown of a head, which looks
like a rose, which looks like a celestial
constellation. We can draw stories
across subjects; everything is
connected.
Imagine the weather and the tone
of a drawing; the shadows from the
lights of the city, slanted and visceral;
the mood and the time. The shape of
OPPOSITE PAGE
Sara Anstis, Sitting
the gaze; the fact that the eye meets
bricks and looks through glass.
Eating Crying, soft
pastel on paper,
Imagine the character of your 76x63cm
Artists & Illustrators 51
 POETRY DRAWINGS SARAH PICKSTONE
PRESENTS A POETIC DRAWING CHALLENGE
WHERE: Outdoors
WITH: A poem of your choice
•PICK A POEM – DON’T
OVERTHINK IT
Trust the process. Perhaps think
about the art you like and pick a
poem from the same place and
time. The 20th century is rich in
poetry that reflects the visual arts
– perhaps Cubism in Paris or
Abstract Expressionism in the
US would be good places to start.
Interested in Modernism? William
Carlos Williams wrote a great
poem, in response to a painting
by Juan Gris, called The Rose
is Obsolete.
•PICK A TREE –
DON’T OVERTHINK IT
Keep trusting the process.
•THINK OF A FIGURE,
A PERSON, YOURSELF
Sit down in front of your tree –
preferably a public tree; it is more
risky drawing in public. Just draw
it any old way. Think about the
character of the tree: the root
system beneath, the structure
52 Artists & Illustrators
of the branches, the back of the
tree, what the ground might look
like to that bird up there.
•NOW ADD THE PERSON
It could be the narrator of the
poem; it could be you. Imagine
them standing with or in the tree.
Draw a passer-by. It doesn’t need
to be a whole figure. It could be just
a head, a hand, a hat – but a body
part is good. Think about the
attitude of the poet or the figure.
Are they in a good mood? You can
share the responsibility with your
poet; collaborate with them...
•RE-READ YOUR POEM
Does an image come to mind?
An animal? Weather? Colour?
Mood? Try and draw your
embarrassment, your shame,
your humour. Good drawing has
less to do with accuracy than
with emotional honesty. Has your
drawing caught a sense of place?
•MAKE SEVERAL OF THESE
DRAWINGS, WORKING QUICKLY.
Don’t judge your work just yet.
Trust in the process.
subject: the sexual, psychological ABOVE Dorry
and emotional atmosphere of your Spikes, Santería,
drawing. The eye sees from vantage Santa Marta –
points of experience and history both Cuba, coloured
communal and personal. Whose pencil and acrylic
history are you drawing from? wash on paper,
Perception faces psychological 101.6x137.2cm
challenges and our own prejudices
without even being aware. What you
can see is only ever half the story.
In 1937, a decade after Woolf
published A Street Haunting, Picasso
was drawing images of the horrors
of Guernica – he knew all about the
backs of things and the sideways
glance; that a head could be drawn
in profile with two eyes one atop the
other. He could draw a scream and
violence in the line of a large,
comedic cartoon head; I find these
drawings of the horrors of war
very affecting.
Draw things that affect you. It is
usually best to do what you like – to
draw things that appeal and not worry
about being cool. It is also best not
to pretend to be interested in things
you are not, or to worry about the
conventions of acceptability.
SHORT COURSES
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+ Masterclasses
+ Easter School

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painting, drawing, sculpture, printmaking
and more.
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shortcourses@artacademy.org.uk
020 7701 2880

A unique offer visit Barbara’s website, ignore the listed prices and make an offer
Barbara Newcombe is one of the leading illustrators/print makers in the country. Her work can be seen in permanent collections,
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the Arnolfini Museum, Vienna, and the Library of Congress, Washington. American by birth, English by adoption, Barbara established
herself in the elite echelons of the artworld after first studying at the Central St Martins and completing an apprenticeship with the
renowned printmaker, Bill Hayter, at his Atelier 17 studio in Paris. Now in her eighties, Barbara is bringing her professional life to a close
and has decided to release the remainder of her limited edition etchings from her private archives. If you love her work why not take
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Artists & Illustrators 53

Drawing is also about desire –
a desire to understand, to record,
to consume bodily; to love and hate,
and to show others how much we love
and hate the things in our world; to
see and be seen. This is no pathology
or twisted craving, but a human need
to meet one another. It is also about
being able to be the “other” and
understand the “other”.
To draw is an incredibly freeing
process; to become more than one
thing. As Woolf’s narrator observes,
“what greater delight and wonder can
there be than to leave the straight
lines of personality... to feel that one
is not tethered to a single mind but
can put on briefly for a few minutes
the bodies and minds of others.”
Drawing can be everything – there
are rules to be broken. Technique is a
useful tool, but never an end in itself;
it is all about the attitude that you
provide for yourself, the questions
you ask with your drawing and then
the practical question of how to
begin. It just requires that pencil.
I try not to force things and try
(very hard) not to struggle. It requires
a lightness of touch, but is an exact
pursuit; you need precision and to
give your whole attention to the
moment. The best drawings have a
specificity to them, where the subject responsibility. When you reach Drawing can play an active, political ABOVE Sarah’s
has been well-seen in a particular a degree of confidence, your role as well as a personal one. I love studio wall with
way. I like to draw from something in unconscious mind can provide the way that drawing passes right her studies for An
front of me, but there is no hierarchy rich, interesting and sometimes through dialectical boundaries and Allegory of Painting
of style or subject matter here. miraculous drawings. But it is remains a common language, a primal
Observational drawing is no more practical to set up a framework, form of communication. You can be
“true” than an abstracted response which is why students often work light on your feet and open to humour
to the visible world. Photography and with a model or an arrangement of while drawing about heartbreak. For
Einstein challenged the idea of a objects. Exploring with different me, drawing is more synthesis than
classical ideal in Newtonian space media can also be fruitful. analysis; more felt than understood.
and time. Agnes Martin’s beautiful Often, things happen – mistakes, Open the door, take a walk with that
drawings of light and landscape both coincidences – and it is helpful to pencil from behind your ear, and begin.
internal and external are drawn pay attention, and instead of thinking This is an extract
equivalents for this reality as things are wrong or bad, to see your from Ways of
much as Turner’s. page as an interesting experiment. Drawing: Artists’
An open, imaginative approach Sometimes, a drawing only seems Perspectives and OPPOSITE PAGE
is key. Keep your mind’s eye open any good with hindsight, especially Practices edited Joana Galego,
for connections to other seemingly awkward drawings. You cannot judge by Julian Bell, About Not
random images and trust yourself. it as you go along, and you can’t be Julia Balchin and Breathing, mixed
There is no correct way – it is perfect; all you can do is take the Claudia Tobin, and media and
important to develop your own sense action to draw. Nurture the drawings published by Thames & Hudson, £29.95. collage on paper,
of what you want in a drawing; to take you make. www.thamesandhudson.com 152x113cm

Artists & Illustrators 55

Roxana Halls, Gold
Teeth, oil on linen,
75x75cm

SELF PORTRAITS

2. Identity
Theft
Art Academy’s ROXANA HALLS continues
her three-part series on self-portraiture
with a gallery exercise designed to help
you focus on really looking
56 Artists & Illustrators
F
or this piece I’m going to
advocate that readers
undertake a form of identity
theft, but this isn't the nefarious
enterprise it might seem. Picture
instead a Stars in Their Eyes-style
opportunity to become, in a painting
at least, someone quite different from
yourself. This may at first seem like
a frivolous exercise, however, when
we begin to explore self-portraiture
through purposeful role playing, we
can gain much greater insight about
our true selves.
There is, of course, some truth
in the notion that we paint well that
which we know, be this the familiar
face in the mirror or our lived
experience. It could also be said,
however, that we may not feel able
to become – and by extension, cannot
conceive of depicting – that which
we cannot see.
When attempting to look beyond
the raw materials of our own
physiognomy, a degree of inhibition
and uncertainty can limit our
exploration. In this workshop, we’re
going to circumvent such constraints
and adopt a whole new persona,
taking it directly from the walls of
the gallery and gifting it to ourselves.
TECHNIQUES
When wandering the halls of an
old gallery, we inevitably encounter
much-admired figureheads of the arts,
science, politics and industry. We may
fantasise how it might feel to stand so
firmly in their shoes that, in a painting
at least, we become them.
But what if we encounter a
predominance of likenesses whose
ethnicity, age, sexuality, gender and
class rarely resemble our own, despite
the continuing drive towards more
inclusive representations within our
public art collections?
Artists have been responding to
this absence by redressing the
balance, placing themselves and their
kin squarely within the pre-filled
frame of figurative art.
Since the mid-1980s, Japanese
conceptual photographer Yasumasa
Morimura has been transforming
himself into famous celebrities and
revolutionaries, directly impersonating
the subjects of our most iconic artists
through complex staging, make-up
and costume. He has described his
practice of elaborate recreation and
image appropriation as “wearing
Western art history”, and through
it explores the broader themes of
self and cultural identity.
In 2018 Barack Obama unveiled
his official portrait, created for the
Smithsonian collection by New
York-based artist Kehinde Wiley.
He was then best known for creating
works that subvert the entire genre
of classical portraiture. His black
subjects, taken from inner cities and
townships and still clad in their own
attire, are transformed through pose
and courtly accessory into duchesses
and dukes, monarchs and emperors.
Executed in a highly realised, classical
style and often on an imposing scale,
Wiley has framed his insertion of
blackness into traditionally European
artwork as a challenge to the way
BAME people can feel excluded within
the museum context and limited by TOP Roxana Halls,
their stereotypical portrayal. A show Dollface, oil on
of his work takes place at London’s canvas, 20x20cm
William Morris Gallery in 2020.
While I’ve never placed myself ABOVE Roxana
within another artist’s existing Halls, Dusty, oil on
work and always devise my own canvas, 20x20cm
compositions, I’ve often donned
costume and disguise in an attempt RIGHT Roxana
to imply the identities of others. On Halls, Elvis, oil on
occasion these people might be real: canvas, 20x20cm
individuals whose work, personalities
or perceived strength I admire, such
as my self-portraits Gold Teeth, Dusty,
Dollface and Elvis. Sometimes they
might be film characters whose
narrative arcs or attributes resonated
with me at a particular time in my life.
Artists & Illustrators 57
SELF-PORTR AITS
EXERCISE 1
AIM
To make a self-portrait in the style
of another artist, impersonating
the subject of their painting as
convincingly as possible.
DURATION
1-2 hours on location in a gallery,
followed by approximately 3 hours
back in the studio, preferably on
the same day.
MATERIALS
For the gallery, you will need a
sketchbook and pencil. Back at home
or in your studio space, you will need
one small and one medium brush –
approx. sizes 8 and 4 – and a palette
loaded and ready with colour. I would
recommend using a range of colours
that you are familiar with because this
exercise can prove challenging. You
may find that you will want to add
extra colours as appropriate to the
painting you are attempting to “copy”.
We are increasingly over-reliant on cameras
but there is no substitute for really looking
58 Artists & Illustrators
You will also need a mirror and one
small to medium painting surface. I’d
suggest using one around 30x40cm
to make it possible for you to include
more in your painting than just your
head and shoulders. It may be wise to
have more than one prepared surface
ready and waiting for you back in the
studio because it’s hard to predict
what might inspire you at the gallery.
WHAT YOU WILL LEARN
This is a two-part exercise, ultimately
designed to expand your potential
repertoire of guises without the
pressure of having to concoct a
character for yourself from scratch.
You’ll also hone your ability to observe
and record information without the
use of technology.
PROCESS
When I ask my students to undertake
this task, we visit the National Portrait
Gallery in London, but you can do this
exercise in any gallery. We begin with ABOVE One of
a short tour where I introduce some Roxana’s students,
of my highlights from the collection Minnie Scott,
and discuss images with a particular imagined herself
connection to my self-portrait class as the 2nd Duke of
and our creative aims. Grafton, inspired
To execute your “Identity Theft” by Sir Godfrey
self-portrait, your first step is to Kneller’s portrait
choose from among the portraits in the National
before you. With the wealth of options Portrait Gallery
on display in any city museum, let
alone the National Portrait Gallery,
it can be quite daunting choosing who
to be; I suggest that you go with your
instinct and choose someone with
whom you have the most immediate
sense of kinship but ideally are
physically quite different from. Indeed,
I always notice my students becoming
drawn to specific works as we move
through the collection.
If you still can’t choose, it might
be useful to consider the following
questions: who is the person most
unlike and removed from you?

Is there something about their
profession or their achievements
which have meaning to you? Did you
once want to follow their career path?
Are they someone who you have
always admired or, perhaps more
interestingly, someone who you
have never felt very warmly towards?
Do they belong to an era in which
you’d wish to travel back in time?
Once your choice is made,
you are going to record it not with
a photograph but by drawing it and
taking extensive notes. I find it helpful
to set a time limit on this, because
the possibilities are endless – try one
hour. Draw the composition, pose
and position of the head and figure,
but also make notes on the palette,
texture, brushwork and mood of
the painting.
Pay close attention to the portrait
and record as much detail as possible
while you have it before you; your
aim here is to lay out a series of
instructions for yourself to enable you
to reproduce those elements of the
portrait that are most useful to you.
This exercise is not only a
stimulating step away from our
familiar selves, it is also very effective
in retraining your brain to not simply
defer to a camera. We are increasingly
over-reliant on technology, assuming
that a lens will select for us everything
that we may later need, but there
is no substitute for really looking.
Back in the studio, use only these
notes and sketches to remake your
chosen work with a twist – rather than
painting the original subject you are
going to insert a self-portrait into the
picture. Have your mirror ready and
waiting for you, as you’re going to want
to work on this while the image of your
chosen painting and the information
gathered are still fresh in your mind.
It’s incredible just how much focused
instruction you can give yourself when
you know that you don’t have the
option of using a camera. Continue
working until the portrait is complete.
Although referring to photography
during the painting process is strictly
banned, I always take a photo of the
gallery paintings that my students
choose so that we may compare their
RAITS
renderings to the originals at the end LEFT A painting by
of the day and it can be instructive Paul Starns, one of
for you to do the same. Roxana’s students,
Often the results of this workshop was inspired by
are startling and not simply because LS Lowry’s 1938
students tend to realise how much self-portrait
information they can absorb when
they want to. Seeing ourselves looking
back at us in the guise of another can
be unexpectedly exciting, and
sometimes even disquieting. It can BELOW Nicholas
take us through a door into another Hilliard’s 1575
time and place and, should our new portrait of Queen
identities resonate, into ourselves. Elizabeth I inspired
Next month: learn how to paint a whole Kate Linden’s
new persona. www.roxanahalls.com self-portrait
 PRINTMAKING

Elements
of DesignOur columnist LAURA BOSWELL explains how she composes
her stunning Japanese woodblock prints with some handy hints
that could be used by all artists
60 Artists & Illustrators
T
he art of Japanese woodblock
printing is growing in
popularity among Western
printmakers and rightly so; it is a
flexible and non-toxic printing method
that requires little space and no
printing press. Materials and tools are
becoming increasingly available and
the medium is adaptable, allowing
Western materials and tools to be
substituted where Japanese versions
are hard to find.
Japanese woodblock has a unique
system of registration, cutting and
printing. It often goes by the name
mokuhanga (wood print). Woodblocks
are carved with their registration cut
into the wood alongside each block,
while printing relies on brushes and
water-based paints combined with
rice paste, rather than inks and a
roller. The built-in registration and
brush printing make for a thrifty
approach, allowing the printmaker
to fit multiple blocks on one sheet of
wood. The multi-block process means
the woodblocks are available to print
as many times, and in as many ways,
as the printmaker wishes.
It seems strange to advise on the
correct mindset for a print process,
but I cannot emphasise enough how
much more smoothly your work will
progress if you adopt a calm, patient
and organised approach. Japanese
woodblock is a method with no hard
rules; rather it requires you to gain a
feel for the balance of your materials
and the movement of your tools,
developing your skill and fluency
through practice over time.
If you can learn to relish working
in a tidy, logical way with calm and
focused attention, you will find the
learning process itself rewarding,
almost meditative, and you will avoid
the simple mistakes that happen
through rushing or working in
a muddle.
Printmaking is very different from
drawing and painting. It is process-
led, meaning you must design, cut
blocks and print to arrive at your
desired image, rather than make an
immediate impact with a brush or
pencil. This means your Japanese
woodblock prints will require a
different and more graphic visual
language, especially in the early days.
While there are certainly plenty of
traditional prints that could pass for
watercolour paintings, it is worth
remembering that they are the
products of expert specialists with 4. SIMPLIFY ABOVE Always be on
many years of experience. Better Catching every detail of your subject the lookout for
to be bold and simple in your ideas would make for an admirably skilled inspiration and
when learning your craft. print, but not necessarily a successful keep a visual record
Here are a few suggestions taken one. Part of the beauty of Japanese of your findings,
from the Japanese woodblock woodblock printmaking is learning jotting down ideas
tradition for ways of making a simple how to simplify objects and shapes as they occur
design interesting. to catch their essence.
When you’re simplifying, look at the
1. SCALE overall shape of the subject and the
Do not be afraid to make your main negative space around it, rather than
subject rather larger in a print than the details of the subject itself. If you BELOW Dandelion
you might in a painting. This boldness get these two basics right, very little Moon, Japanese
will give your print strength, and, on a detail is needed for your audience to woodblock print,
practical note, your blocks will be read and appreciate your print. 15x20cm
easier to cut accurately and well. This This is an extract from Laura’s new OPPOSITE PAGE The
may mean cropping your subject at book, Making Japanese Woodblock Day Bed, Japanese
the edges of the print, but this is often Prints, published by Crowood Press woodblock print,
a positive step and makes for a much (RRP £9.99). www.lauraboswell.co.uk 15x20cm
more visually exciting print.
2. COMPOSITION
Experiment with unexpected
compositions. Try moving your
horizon until it is very high or very low.
Play with moving your main subject
to the far edges of your print or try
obscuring part of it with something
large in the foreground.
These unexpected proportions and
juxtapositions challenge the viewer
and turn a simple print into something
more sophisticated.
3. EMPTY SPACE
Never be afraid to embrace areas of
empty space in your print. This could
be a simple block of colour, or even
areas using the unprinted paper
surface as part of the design.
By having areas of detail balanced
against areas of quiet space, your
print will be visually interesting.
Designing a print that carries the
same level of visual detail and
information from edge to edge with
success is a tricky challenge.
L i n o c u t pri nts
PRINTMAKING

The popular children’s book illustrator and printmaker CHRIS WORMELL reveals
how he created his latest festive linocuts for the Book Aid International charity

62 Artists & Illustrators

Keep tools as sharp
as possible... It makes
a huge difference

RIGHT AND BELOW DEVELOPING THE IDEA

RIGHT Chris’s These two designs were made for a
original sketches range of Christmas cards for Book
for the two linocuts Aid International, the UK’s leading
international book donation and
library development charity. Every
year, the charity aims to ship around
one million brand new books to
thousands of communities where
people have very few opportunities to
access books and read. The exclusive
cards are available to purchase online
and each pack sold enables the
charity to send a new book to people
around the world that really need them.
I’m probably happiest drawing
animals so it seemed a natural choice
for these cards – animals with books,
of course! Polar bears are suitably
wintery, and robins are an iconic
Christmas image. I scribbled rough
ideas in a sketchbook then did more
finished (though still quite rough)
pencil sketches. I also collected some
reference material. Once the sketches
were approved, I went straight to work
on the finished images.

TOOLS AND MATERIALS

There are special tools for lino cutting
which basically fall into two types:
those with a ‘V’-shaped gouge type
blade and those with a ‘U’-shaped
one. These come in multiple different
sizes and the ‘U’-shaped blade can be
more or less shallow. All have different
uses, whether for making broad or fine
lines or clearing areas of the block.
I use several different tools for all
the blocks I make.
One of my favourite papers for
making linocut prints is a silkscreen
paper, Arches 88. I also like Fabriano
printing papers. When I am making a
print by rubbing the back of the paper
LEFT Chris Wormell, with a large spoon (as I do with blocks
Robins’ Reading, too big to fit into my press), I find that
linocut, 23x23cm Japanese papers are preferable.
The one drawback is that they are
usually quite thin and as the inking
on my lino prints can often be quite
heavy, this can be a problem.
Japanese paper can’t take that much
ink, let alone four separate rubbings
as each block is applied to the print.
I used to be able to get some quite
heavyweight Japanese papers but
none of those seem to be available
any more and the ones I now use are
only just about up to the job.
MAKING THE CUT
Old linoleum tends to be harder, so
newer lino is generally better, although
as long as you have very sharp tools,
harder lino is often better for finer
work. Learn how to sharpen your tools
and keep them as sharp as possible
– it makes a huge difference.
I prepare lino by mounting it on
board – it’s much easier to cut and
print like this. Also, my press is set
to print “type-high” blocks as I also

Artists & Illustrators 63

LINOCUT
RIGHT Chris
Wormell, Polar
Bear Reading,
linocut, 23x23cm
make wood engravings, so lino blocks
need to be a greater depth. I make
up the extra depth by laying another
block of wood on top of the block I’m
printing. The only other thing I do to
prepare the block for cutting is to
paint a thin wash of black ink on top
of my drawing. This allows me to see
both the drawing and the cut marks
I make with the lino tool more clearly.
I usually cut the insides of things
before the outside profile so that I
can work up to the edges. Remember,
the cutting is not the same as the
drawing: the tools make different
marks to those of a pencil.
The impulse is just to cut out what
you’ve drawn and cut around the main
shapes, the outlines, first. I wouldn’t
approach it like this. The pencil
drawing should only be a guide and,
when cutting the block, think of it as
if you are re-making the image.
64 Artists & Illustrators
COLOUR
I’m not aware of choosing a particular
palette. The colours seem to be there
in my head as I’m drawing the first
sketch. They generally need a bit of
adjustment though to get them right.
I print with oil-based relief printing
inks from Lawrence Art Supplies, but
the various printed layers of these
designs were put together digitally in
Photoshop and colours were adjusted
on the computer.
Getting colour just right is always a
matter of trial and error when making
a linocut print. When using multiple
colours, it may take days to get the
image just as you want it. When
producing an edition of prints, it is
obviously worth doing this, but if I’m
making a one-off illustration for an
client it usually isn’t – especially as
they ultimately only need a digital file
anyway. So, I scan in the various
printed layers and put the image
together digitally, adjusting colour and
transparency without having to reprint.
I almost always limit myself to a
maximum of four blocks when making
a linocut print. One of these will be the
black outline block. Colours are then
distributed between the other three,
some with more than one colour.
The coloured blocks are printed first,
usually the opaque colours go down
first before the more transparent ones,
then the print is left to dry before the
black-inked block is printed.
The key to a great print is surely an
impossible question; if I knew what
the keys were, everything I did would
be successful! I do know that, in the
case of my own prints, a strong black
outline masks any number of flaws.
Chris’s linocut Christmas cards for
Book Aid International are available to
purchase at www.bookaid.org/christmas
 Give a subscription this Christmas
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 Ill u st ra t i ng
TECHNIQUE

books
As applications roll in for House of Illustration’s Book Illustration Competition 2020,
RACHAEL FUNNELL asks last year’s winner what it takes to bring stories to life

ILLUSTRATION © MARIE-ALICE HAREL 2019 FROM THE FOLIO SOCIETY AND HOUSE OF ILLUSTRATION COMPETITION FOR DIANA WYNNE JONES’S HOWL’S MOVING CASTLE

I
OPPOSITE PAGE llustrating a book may seem a far-fetched ambition
One of Marie- for most of us, yet opportunities such as The House
Alice’s illustrations of Illustration’s Book Illustration Competition mean
for Howl’s Moving anything is possible. Each year, the open competition
Castle challenges artists across the globe to imagine, invent
and create characters and scenes from a particular
work of fiction. For its ninth year, entrants are invited
to illustrate Love Poems, selected and edited by Imtiaz
Dharker, and compete for a £5,000 cash prize and the
opportunity to illustrate a new edition of the book to
BELOW If parts of be published by The Folio Society.
a drawing need Illustrating fiction is a fantastic way to exercise your
reworking, Marie- artistic practice, by challenging you to capture a scene
Alice often lays bits dictated by someone else, rather than one borne of your
of paper over the own mind’s eye. Previous winners of the competition have
areas required worked on new editions of classic books including Aldous
B O O K I L L U S T R AT I O N
Huxley’s Brave New World and Jane Austen’s Mansfield
Park, while Michael Morpurgo was a judge for the 2016
competition when the prize was a chance to illustrate the
author’s own classic novel, War Horse.
Last year saw French artist Marie-Alice Harel crowned
the winner and her prize included a commission to
illustrate the 1986 novel Howl’s Moving Castle by Diana
Wynne Jones. To celebrate the launch of this year’s
competition, Marie-Alice shares her five top tips for
reimagining tales from the past.
1. READ
It might sound obvious, but for Marie-Alice the most vital
first step when illustrating a book is reading. Having
undertaken a five-year course in Fluid Mechanics and
Hydraulics, research is an inbuilt skill for the engineer-
turned-artist, who first began to
draw creatively during her studies.
“I had a few months of
unemployment between my PhD and
post-doc, during which time I went
to life drawing classes as often as
I could,” she says. “This taught me a
lot and deepened my interest in art
and illustration. Since then I’ve been
avidly learning from books, museums
and blogs, as well as from the work
of other artists.”
The key, according to the
Edinburgh-based artist, is to become
Pick out key words
or phrases that stand
out or speak to you
an active reader. “I remember reading
The Sword in the Stone by
TH White as I was taking an evening
illustration class in 2013.
“I loved the character of Merlin
in the book and started to draw him
and moments from the story. I had
so much fun doing those sketches
and illustrations.”
When reading a work of fiction that
you want to illustrate, try to pick out
key words or phrases that stand out
or speak to you. Either underline
them, write them down separately in
your sketchbook, or highlight them
with Post-it notes. These will act as
valuable points of reference when
you finally put pencil to paper.
Artists & Illustrators 67
B O O K I L L U S T R AT I O N

2. COLLECT
Once Marie-Alice has fully absorbed
herself in reading, she starts searching
ILLUSTRATION © MARIE-ALICE HAREL 2019 FROM THE FOLIO SOCIETY EDITION OF HOWL’S MOVING CASTLE

for visual reference materials to

accompany her key words.
“While I’m working on a specific
project, everything I see or experience
in my life becomes potential material
or inspiration for that project,” she says.
“For instance, I was waiting at the Post
Office one day at the beginning of my
collaboration with the Folio Society on
Howl’s Moving Castle.
I noticed the lady waiting in line in front
of me and thought she would make
a perfect Sophie [one of the main
characters in the book]. Her facial
expression, hairstyle and posture
felt just right. Sometimes I find the
characters that way, from direct
references or ideas. It’s always a
process though: playing with sketches, adding
a bit of this, removing a bit of that.” When illustrating Howl’s Moving Castle, Marie-Alice
To inspire your illustrations, spend a day out and about sought inspiration from the black-and-white designs of
with your text in mind. Be on the lookout for opportunities Harry Clarke, the early 20th-century Irish Arts & Crafts
to gather reference materials. It might be a photograph illustrator, whose use of texture and strong silhouettes she ABOVE One of
or a sketch of a person or location, inspiring images from felt would lend itself nicely to her subject. The key here is Marie-Alice’s
a magazine, even colour swatches or cuts of fabric – not to copy elements wholesale, but rather absorb these illustrations for
anything that feels of a piece with your take on the text. key influences. Marie-Alice included Clarke’s works in her Howl’s Moving
reference materials, playing around with similar styles Castle
3. RESEARCH until inspiration struck and her own designs developed.
Marie-Alice describes the characters she designed for her Don’t be afraid to draw upon the styles and techniques INSET, TOP LEFT
first illustration project, The Sword and the Stone, as being of other artists if you find yourself at a creative standstill. The original
“so full of life and mischief that they almost want to jump If you have a style in mind for your illustration, look up sketch shows how
on the page on their own”. Despite her obvious affinity for artists who work in a similar way. These could be working masking fluid was
the medium, however, she isn’t above looking to others for artists or Old Masters. Research their techniques and see used to reserve
ideas – and neither should you be. if certain elements can be incorporated into your designs. the highlights

68 Artists & Illustrators

 B O O K I L L U S T R AT I O N

4. EXPAND
One of the difficulties when illustrating a book is the
balance and interaction between the text and the
images. “The illustration should not just represent
what the words describe,” says Marie-Alice.
“It should go further than that, but not too far as
to become irrelevant. Ideally, they complete each
other, and take you even further into the story.”
It is important to avoid the trap of being too
literal with your interpretations of the text from
the start, without stemming so far into abstraction
as to make them nonsensical. Unusual reference
materials such as fabrics and magazine cuttings
can go some way to helping you achieve this, by
considering the leading themes of the text out of
BELOW The cover their original context.
design for Howl’s If the story is well known or has already been
Moving Castle portrayed in film or books, finding a fresh and
personal angle can be all the more challenging, but
RIGHT Marie-Alice’s don’t be put off. “All these can be challenging, but
illustrations on the that’s what makes the work interesting as well,”
edition’s hardback Marie-Alice explains. “And they help you to keep
and slipcase on learning and improving with every new project.”

5. REPEAT
Unlike other forms of art, consistency is
important across a book illustration project.
“A few things are especially tricky,” says Marie-Alice
“Drawing the same character, a number of times, from
different angles, and with various expressions, all while
keeping its likeness is one.”
Overcome this challenge by testing your ideas and
characters in a series of thumbnails. These small
illustrations in pencil allow you to try lots of different ideas
quickly, repeating scenes while varying the composition
with each sketch by changing the lighting or point of view.
For Marie-Alice, if she reaches a brick wall, she will look
back to her annotations and references, which can be
anything from random images collected for the project,
to compositions saved from films, art and illustrations.
“Sometimes the first idea is the best,” she tells me.
“Other times it takes a lot of iterations to get the
composition right.”
After finalising her thumbnail designs for Howl’s Moving
Castle, Marie-Alice did a colour study to plan the final
illustration before transferring the drawing onto
watercolour paper using a lightbox, stretching it on a
drawing board and leaving it to dry overnight. She began
painting the next day, starting with watercolour first before
finishing with coloured pencils for details.
When piecing together your final illustrations, play
around with your character design using quick thumbnail
drawings and adjusting the composition. Keep reimagining
until you find something and combine with elements from
your favourite drawings to craft your final image.
The deadline for entering the Book Illustration Competition
2020 is 17 January 2020. www.houseofillustration.org.uk

Artists & Illustrators 69

 Portraits
DEMO

with life
Courtyard Art Studio’s PETER KEEGAN shows you how to create a lively
likeness of a person by holding back on details and focusing on tone
 DEMO

Peter’s materials

A
lla Prima is Italian for “at the first” and
in painting terms means completing
a painting at once, in a single sitting
or session. The overall aim is to capture an
immediate impression of the subject in an
uncomplicated and direct way. This direct way of
painting is one of the great historic approaches
to painting as observed in the work of everyone
from Diego Velázquez and Frans Hals to Anders
Zorn and John Singer Sargent.
Working in the alla prima method allows me
to focus on what really matters – the shapes,
tones and colours – while forgetting about the
fussy details and the temptation of overworking.
I love how this economical and exciting way of
painting can really give life to a portrait, as if
the sitter may turn and wink at you or even •Paints
start a conversation at any moment. Titanium White, Yellow Ochre,
This painting demonstration begins with a Genuine Chinese Vermilion,
drawing using just the brush and builds using Alizarin Crimson, Sap Green,
the two main traditional techniques when Ultramarine Blue and Raw
working with oils: painting dark to light and Umber, all Michael Harding
painting thin to thick. Although I have used Artists Oil Colours
oils for this portrait, these same traditional •Brushes
principles could also apply to acrylics. Rosemary & Co hog filberts,
However, if you are working with acrylics, sizes 2, 4, 8 and 12
don’t thin the paint with water as I thinned the •Canvas
oils with solvent. Instead, try and use the Winsor & Newton cotton
acrylics as thickly as possible – in fact, heavy canvas, 50x40cm
body acrylics work best for this. •Low odour solvent

1 DRAW ROUGHLY
Begin by killing the white of the
canvas with a wash of a mix of Yellow
Ochre and Titanium White diluted with
solvents. Once covered, wipe away the
moisture with a rag so only the stain
of the colour remains. Roughly draw
the outline shape of the face using a
thinned down mixture of the Titanium
White and Raw Umber.
Shade in the mass of hair and plot
where the main facial features will go.
Do this by squinting to focus on the
shaded areas in your subject. Don’t 1
try to make it all look perfect at this

Top tip
stage, aim for more of a rough version
of the head. the paint at this stage – using pigment
neat from the tube instead.

2
PLOT THE FEATURES
Use the same mix as before,
darkened with a little more Raw
Umber, to plot the facial features more
accurately. Again, you’re not looking
for a highly detailed painting here:
these brown brushstrokes should
simply suggest where the layers of
flesh-coloured paint will go, rather
than dictate exactly like a colouring-in
book. Accuracy-wise, aim for
approximately 80%, leaving room
for further improvement later on.
Draw out your initial
Work towards the next darkest 2 composition with a
tones, the dark browns and oranges,
brush, not a pencil –
by introducing a little Genuine it keeps things fluid
Chinese Vermilion or Yellow Ochre 3 and painterly
to the umber mixture.
4 BLOCK IN THE
MID-TONES
Mix Genuine Chinese Vermilion, Yellow
Ochre and Titanium White to create a
good mid-tone skin colour. Add small
amounts of Genuine Chinese
Vermilion or Alizarin Crimson to this
mix for the warmer parts of the face,

3 PAINT THE
DARKEST TONES
Identify where the darkest darks occur
on the subject and mix a suitable dark
brown using Ultramarine Blue and
Raw Umber. Apply this with the size 4
or 8 brushes in confident, complete
strokes. Don’t use any solvent to thin
such as the nose and cheeks.
Balance these warmer areas with
a cooler mixture of Alizarin Crimson,
Ultramarine Blue and Titanium White
which will give you lovely purples that
work very well around the eyes,
jawline and where the top of the
head meets the hair.
 Start to introduce the tones of the
clothing, using a bigger brush so as
not to take away attention from the
more refined face. The blue clothing
adds a welcomed cool colour to what
is otherwise a very warm painting.
7 MAKE SUBTLE TWEAKS
Add cooler and paler colours to
the skin tones. Greens and pale blues
observed in the hair to give a welcome
contrast to the warm skin tones.
Apply them very subtly, allowing them
to merge slightly into the already wet

6 MODEL THE FEATURES

Start to model the facial features,
working from dark to light. I use the
word “model” deliberately as you
should focus on the correct placement
4 of the features and not obsess over
the tiny details. Keep stepping back
from the canvas, assessing how your
5 painting looks from a few paces away.
When painting a facial feature,
don’t simply paint the eyeball, for
example, but instead focus on the
whole eye region, including the
eyebrow, cheekbone and bridge
of the nose.
oil paint. Be careful not to overwork
them though, otherwise they can
end up as a brown, muddy mess.
Restate the darks and lights
needed for the facial features.
In this particular painting, this
involved darkening the upper eyelids
and highlighting the forehead, which
I tried to paint in one single stroke.
To finish things up, make subtle
adjustments to the hair. Be sure to
paint it softly, as if it were smoke, so
as not to draw attention away from
the facial features.
www.peterkeegan.com

Avoid overworking things or 7

blending the strokes together. Keep
the strokes looking blocky for now,
almost like a patchwork quilt, and
focus instead on achieving the right
tonal values.

5 ADD HIGHLIGHTS
The highlights will really start to
bring the whole illusion of form and
shape together. When painting the
highlights, avoid pure white as it can
sometimes flatten the whole effect.
Instead, slightly tint your Titanium
White with a little Yellow Ochre or
some premixed flesh colour from
elsewhere on your palette.

72 Artists & Illustrators

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Artists & Illustrators 73

 C O L O U R T H E O RY

4. Expression
In the last part of his series, Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts tutor AL GURY looks
at the colourful lessons we can learn from Henri Matisse and the Fauvist painters

Al Gury, River Landscape, oil

on panel, 121.9x137.2cm
My focus here was a
Fauvist-style interpretation
of the colours in nature.
The trees had a cool quality,
so I interpreted them as
blue, while the warm tones
of the earth became reds.
 C O L O U R T H E O RY

H
enri Matisse once said that
“colour was not given to us in
order that we should imitate
nature” but rather it “was given to us
so that we can express our emotions”.
The French painter was a prime
proponent of a movement known as
Fauvism, which brought a complete
freedom of expression and visual
interpretation to the world of painting
and colour. “What characterised
Fauvism was that we rejected
imitative colours, and that with
pure colours we obtained stronger
reactions – more striking reactions,”
he said. Through this style of painting,
Matisse was attempting to return
to the innocence of his childhood,
yet he credited his ultimate freedom
to his academic training.
Matisse and his fellow painter
André Derain were dubbed Les
Fauves (or “the wild beasts”) by
an irate art critic in 1905 for their
seemingly primitive approach to paint.
Along with the likes of Raoul Dufy
and Kees van Dongen, the pair had
arrived at this new world of freedom
in colour and expression from
a number of directions.
The artist Gustave Moreau, one Unknown artist,
of Matisse’s teachers, was a strong Portrait of Silver,
influence on young painters in 1890s oil on panel,
Paris. Moreau advocated freedom of 35.6x27.9cm
experimentation and creativity in his True to Fauvism,
young students. Van Gogh, Gauguin the model’s facial
and Cézanne contributed a sense of colours have
pure colour, expressive brushwork been related to
and strong two-dimensional design their closest pure
to the atmosphere being breathed by prismatic color,
the young painters of the 1890s. John rather than mixing
Russell, the Australian Impressionist complex, subtle
painter who painted with Claude tints and shades.
Monet, imparted Impressionist
method and colour theory to the concerns or strategies can be were part of the academic training of
young Henri Matisse. This cocktail identified as a guide for anyone most of the Fauvist and early modern
of influences briefly coalesced to interested in adopting the Fauvist painters in their ateliers. These
become the Fauves for a brief time approach today. traditional painting subjects remained
in France during the first decade The first is the subject. In the realm the mainstay of French Fauvist
of the 20th century. of Fauvism and early Expressionist painting. In a sense though, the
paintings, the subjects were drawn subject mattered much less than the
THREE WAYS TO WORK from observed nature. Still life, approach to the use of colour and
For contemporary painters, employing landscapes, portraiture, interiors expression. Almost anything could be
the Fauvist ideas of the pure colour and nudes were ready made subjects the topic of exploration for the Fauvist
interpretation of nature can be for the interpretation of colour, painters: a building, a scene, a flower,
extremely liberating. Three areas, brushwork and design. Such subjects and so on. For the contemporary

Artists & Illustrators 75

RIGHT Abraham
Peter Hankins,
Picnic in the
Country, oil
on canvas,
33.3x45.7cm
Hankins uses
mainly prismatic
colours in a manner
reminiscent of Van
Gogh and Gauguin.
Curvilinear motions
of the brush loaded
with paint of varying
densities evokes a
child-like image.

THE FAUVIST PALETTE

To get to grips with a Fauvist-style colour palette,
look at a variety of works painted by them between
1904 and 1908. Practice by painting small still life
or landscape compositions using pure, bright colours
with little mixing. Try to cultivate a freedom of
expression in your choice of colours, rather than just
matching what you see. The following pigments
would be a good selection to get started.

painter interested in exploring the compositions was adopted by these

Cadmium Lemon Cadmium Yellow Fauvist approach, choosing subjects
that they enjoy, appreciate or are
familiar with is a good strategy.
Cadmium Orange Cadmium Red Matisse, Derain and their fellow
artists loved the scenes, locations,
people and objects they painted.
Alizarin Crimson Dioxazine Purple These were all taken from their
everyday lives and activities, their
emotional connection to the subjects
French Ultramarine Cadmium Green strengthening the final paintings.
The second concern is the
approach to the drawing. It is
Viridian Green Yellow Ochre important to remember that the
Fauvist painters were, for the most
part, highly skilled draughtspersons
Burnt Sienna Ivory Black in the academic tradition. An almost
childlike simplification of shapes and
painters an an emblem of their
freedom of expression and a
departure from that academic
training. Matisse’s emphasis on
simplification caused a limiting of
detail, attention to shapes and a
purely subjective description of
pictorial space and design. If an apple
was approximately round, he simply
made it a circle.
A key aim, then, was to capture
what was essential about the shape
of an object and how that shape
fit into the composition as a whole.
If an angle of a table did not suit the
overall picture, Matisse changed it
without regard to mathematical –

76 Artists & Illustrators


or actual – perspective. In the work of
many of the Fauvist painters, objects
and even people were drawn with
simple brush outlines of a colour
suitable to the image and its shape.
Black was often used. Some Fauvist
paintings even reveal strong shapes
without the use of outlines. The
colour of the shape presents the
object’s simplicity and clarity. The
result of these approaches to drawing
and shapes often produced a
flattened image with little pictorial
depth (though depth might be
implied). Because so much in these
paintings depended on the strength
of the shapes, patterns and flat
colours, it meant that the
arrangement of objects within the
pictorial frame was as important
as ever. In Fauvist painting, a good
composition moved the eye around
and through the pictorial arrangement
on the canvas’s surface. It was during
this time period that the concept of
the “picture plane” came into
common usage. The picture plane is a
surface for the description of shapes,
patterns, lines and colours that are
essentially flat. One facet of Fauvist
painting is expressive brushwork.
Alongside flat patterns and shapes
is a vigorous use of the loaded paint
brush. For a contemporary painter
exploring the Fauvist approach, rich
brushwork can be considered part of
the overall drawing and expression of
the work. There is no timidity in the
brush calligraphy of the early Fauves.
A final focus for Fauvist-style
painting is the use and interpretation
of colours. This includes both the
tube colours placed on their palettes,
as well as the visual interpretation
and mixing of colours they saw in
nature. Most Fauvist palettes
included both the earth colours, such
as Burnt Sienna and Yellow Ochre,
as well as bright, highly chromatic
colours, like the various Cadmium
colours. Some paintings, like those
of Matisse, regularly included earth
colours along with the bright colours.
Others, like some of Derain’s
compositions, were frequently made
Humbert L
Howard, The Yellow
Cup, 1949-’50,
oil on canvas,
61x81.6cm
Howard was very
interested in the
Matisse-like use of
flat, almost collage-
like colour shapes.
C O L O U R T H E O RY
from just the highly chromatic
colours. White was included
throughout as needed.
Fauvist painters often reduced
what they saw in nature or a studio
arrangement to the simplest, most
direct colours possible. If something
had a yellowish quality, they made
it simply bright yellow. No careful
modulation of neutrals or complex
mixing of colours occurred, it was
just a matter of selecting which
pure yellow to use.
The same was true of all the other
colour choices. Pure colours right out
of the tube, maybe with white mixed
in, were used for each object, tree,
face, and so on. If a tree has a pinkish
tinge in the colour of the bark, a
Fauvist painter might simply make
it pink. Freedom of interpretation
is a maxim of Fauvist painting. It’s not
what the object should be, but rather
what the painter sees it to be in their
imagination. The overall harmony of
colour in a Fauvist work is also very
important.
In summary, any artist wishing to
emulate the Fauvist approach should
settle upon a simple, everyday
subject that they enjoy painting, draw
it in a way that captures the simplest
qualities of shape and design, and
colour it in a way that encourages
a subjective vision of the subject.
Al’s book, Color for Painters, is published
by Watson-Guptill. www.algury.com
Artists & Illustrators 77
THE CLASSIFIED DIRECTORY

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ART EXHIBITION Bettina Schroeder, Jonathan Shearer,
David Tress and Eleanor White
Artist Robert Norrington
PAINT WITH FREEDOM
at La Liberté in
the real south of France
Booking Now
2020 Tutored Holidays
M a y, J u l y, O c t .
also bespoke
Pic’n’Mix
Painting Stays
for details linda@broadskiesgallery.co.uk
Telephone 01306 884538 www.paintncanvasholidays.co.uk
To advertise here please call 020 7349 3702
THE CLASSIFIED DIRECTORY

HOLIDAYS
UK & BEYOND

Creative travel is so much more than just

a holiday
big sky art
Small group art holidays & so much more than an Art Break
retreats / Tailor-made art
experiences in Scotland
Painting Photography Printmaking
Stonecarving Pottery Singing & more bigskyartcourses.com
+44 (0) 7785 439727

Residential tutored Art Holidays on the stunning

North Norfolk coast

www.shorlandoldfarm.co.uk
Gro
r up holiday
ays in beautiful Ex
E moor

C17t
7 h farmhouse mmodat a ion
Ideal ve
v nue fo
f r artr holiday
a s & co
c urs
r es
f r 8 - 12 people
fo
Wonderfrul locat
a ion, friendly at
a mosphere,
good fo f od
Spacious, well-equipped st s udio
Exmoor & Nortrh Dev evon on the ep
Tel. Sandy on 01598 763505 or email enquiries@shorlandoldfarm.co.uk

ANNE BARNHAM FRAMING

PAINTING HOLIDAYS
2020
Friendly, Informative and Inspiring. Ashcraft Framing
Frames for Artists
Willersley Castle, Cromford,
Derbys. DE4 5JH
7th - 12th June 2020
Wonderful canals and villages to paint.
Dedham Hall, Colchester, Essex
CO7 6AD St Ives/Nicholson Frames
3rd October - 6th October 2020 Plain wood or painted any colour
Constable Country, location and studio based.
For more information please contact Anne:
Inlay frame specialist
Tel: 01526 320626 Large, standard and bespoke sizes
e-mail: annebarnham@hotmail.co.uk Complete or self assembly
www.annebarnhamsart.com

www.artistsandillustrators.co.uk
VIKKI JONES INVITES YOU TO HER PAINTING COURSES IN PICKERING,
NORTH YORKSHIRE. Personal, sensitive tuition for beginners or the PRINTING
more advanced. Non-painting Partners welcome. Relaxed atmosphere.
Excellent accommodation and cuisine. For free brochure telephone www.eyeswidedigital.com
Vikki on 01751 470156. www.artbreak.co.uk
• Giclée Fine Art Printing
• Greeting Cards
Making Art Work
 Fine Art Giclée Printing Service
• Canvas Prints  Hahnemühle Papers & Canvas
• High Quality Reproductions  Photography and Scanning Service
Produced From Original  Greeting Cards and Postcards
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01306 875 150 Call us on 01656 652447
info@eyeswidedigital.com www.geminidigitalcolour.co.uk

To advertise here please call 020 7349 3702

 THE CLASSIFIED DIRECTORY

PRINTING

... Salt of the Earth Giclée Print Service ...

“Exceptional
quality prints!
I would not use
any other printing
service”
Sharon Virgo
www.sotegallery.biz/sharon-virgo.html
Fantail

For more information call John on: 01747 852 221

or visit our website:
www.salt-of-the-earth.biz

TUITION WANTED ARTISTS

Sue Ford
Mixed Media Painting holidays
Scarborough - Cober Hill, Red Lea Hotel
Cumbria - Higham Hall and Grasmere
Essenac France & Algarve
www.sueford.co.uk
Email sue_ford@email.com
Tel 01287 622612
JONATHAN NEWEY
Pearmans Glade, Shinfield Road
Reading RG2 9BE
Tel: 0118 931 4155
Email: jnewey210@gmail.com
Web: www.jonathannewey.com
Distance: 75 Miles Media:
Watercolour, Acrylic, Pencils
Special subjects: Landscapes,
Architecture, Wildlife
RANDOLPH KELLMAN CONTEMPORARY ARTIST
Visit my online galleries www.rakeart.co.uk www.artists.de
Telephone 020 8889 4714 Mobile 07979842456
To advertise in Artists & Illustrators
Classified Directory please call 020 7349 3702
or see our website
www.artistsandillustrators.co.uk

THE ART SHOP DIRECTORY

DEVON LONDON LONDON SUFFOLK / NORFOLK
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Old Fore Street – UK’s largest and one of 19th century shop near 55 Earsham Street
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Tel: 01395 514717 Unit 1 - Main Shop Pigments,Gilding & Etching supplies, Tel: 01986 897939
info@southwestartmaterials.co.uk Unit 6 - Office & Warehouse tubed colour, brushes, paper, TheArtTradingCo@btinternet.com
Unit 7 - Paper Department www.thearttradingcompany.co.uk
www.southwestartmaterials.co.uk pastels.
Bayford Street Industrial Centre
Quality fine art materials, gallery and 105 Gt. Russell Street,
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picture framing. Tel: 020 7377 8855 London WC1B 3RY
www.atlantisart.co.uk Tel: +44 (0) 20 7636 1045 THE ARTIST’S PALETTE
HAMPSHIRE Car parking, open 7 days. www.cornelissen.com 1 Millgate, Thirsk,
North Yorkshire YO7 1AA
PERRY’S ART SUPPLIERS LTD CASS ART
109 East Street
RUSSELL & CHAPPLE Tel: 01845 574457
66-67 Colebrooke Row The Canvas Specialists artistspalette@thirsktown.co.uk
Southampton SO14 3HD London N1 8AB We stock fine quality artist’s
30/31 Store Street
Tel: 023 8033 9444 Tel: 020 7354 2999 materials, crafts, models and kits
London WC1E 7QE
perrysart@btinternet.com www.cassart.co.uk
Tel: 020 7836 7521 WEST MIDLANDS
www.perrysart.co.uk Cass Art - the UK’s leading art
supplies retailer - the world’s best art Fax: 020 7636 8733
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PEGASUS ART – suppliers of the INTAGLIO PRINTMAKER stretcher bars. Unit 12 Minerva Works
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Griffin Mill, London Road of Fine Art Printmaking Products STUART R. STEVENSON Birmingham B5 5RT
Thrupp, Stroud 9 Playhouse Court, 62 Southwark Artists & Gilding Materials Tel: 0121 633 3687
Glos GL5 2AZ Bridge Road, London SE1 0AT 68 Clerkenwell Road sales@harrismoorecanvases.co.uk
Tel: 01453 886560 Tel: 020 7928 2633 London EC1M 5QA www.harrismoore.co.uk
info@pegasusart.co.uk Fax: 020 7928 2711 Specialists in Artists Canvases and
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www.pegasusart.co.uk www.intaglioprintmaker.com info@stuartstevenson.co.uk
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admin@artshopandchapel.co.uk mail@londonartshop.com Tel: 01787 371932 www.cassart.co.uk
www.artshopandchapel.co.uk www.londonart-shop.co.uk A family run business specialising in Cass Art - the UK’s leading art
Fine art supplies shop in market We sell a wide range of Art & Craft Bespoke Picture Framing and Artist supplies retailer - the world’s best art
town. Friendly art-trained staff. materials. Materials brands at the most affordable prices.

To advertise here please call 020 7349 3702

 A R T I N FO C U S

PABLO PICASSO, SEATED

WOMAN (DORA), 1938
STEVE PILL reveals the
story behind the Spanish
master’s semi-abstract
portrait of his mistress

WHO WAS THE

SEATED WOMAN?
This is a portrait of Henriette Theodora
Markovitch, known as Dora Maar. She
first met Picasso in 1935 and the pair
soon began a nine-year affair. A former
assistant of Man Ray and celebrated
photographer in her own right, Maar is the
subject of a Tate Modern retrospective
that runs until 15 March 2020.

FONDATION BEYELER, RIEHEN/BASEL, BEYELER COLLECTION. PHOTO: PETER SCHIBLI. © SUCCESSION PICASSO/DACS 2019
WHEN WAS IT DRAWN?
Seated Woman (Dora) was drawn on 27
April 1938. Picasso routinely completed
large artworks in one day. The previous
day, he completed another portrait of
Dora, Buste de femme, that was one of
his personal favourites and still hung in
his home when he died 35 years later.

WHY DID HE DEPICT

MAAR IN THIS WAY?
Maar documented the creation of
Picasso’s most political work, 1937’s
Guernica. Her likeness appeared in the
anti-war mural as a woman holding a
dead child and he later made several
additional portraits of her in this guise.
“For me, she’s the weeping woman,” he
later said of Maar. “For years I’ve painted
her in tortured forms, not through sadism,
and not with pleasure, either; just HOW WAS PICASSO’S ABOVE Pablo Picasso, Seated Woman
obeying a vision that forced itself on me.” STYLE CHANGING? (Dora), 1938, ink, gouache and
By 1938, the fluid forms of his earlier coloured chalk on paper, 76.5x56cm
HOW DOES IT COMPARE TO pieces were transitioning into more
PICASSO’S OTHER PORTRAITS? intricate works. The twisting webs of highlights or shadows; colour appears
The Spaniard’s portraits of his wives and lines point to the artist’s new interest in only in uniform blocks. Instead,
lovers were integral to the different the skeletal human form and he said the seemingly decorative patterns actually
phases of his career, from the rose- rhythmic repetitions were an attempt to cleverly indicate the shape of elements
tinted Rose period paintings of Fernande capture Maar’s agitated demeanour. such as the back of the chair or the
Olivier to the Neoclassical forms used on sweep of her hair.
first wife Olga Khokhlova. Picasso had a WHAT CAN I LEARN FROM IT? Seated Woman (Dora) features in Picasso
tendency to approach his portraiture Look particularly at the varied ways in and Paper, which runs from 25 January to
with the eye of a caricaturist too, cruelly which Picasso uses line, rather than 13 April 2020 at the Royal Academy of Arts,
exaggerating unflattering features. tone, to depict form. There are no London W1. www.royalacademy.org.uk

82 Artists & Illustrators