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"My artwork is based on subconscious patterns and shapes that help me convey and make sense of the
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Artists & Illustrators, The Chelsea
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Art Editor Lauren Debono-Elliot
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Booth, Laura Boswell, Al Gury, Rita Isaac,

SARGY MANN. PHOTO: ANDY KEATE, COURTESY CADOGAN CONTEMPORARY

Matt Jeanes, Norman Long, David
Shevlino, Laura Smith and Jake Spicer

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IT IS TIME FOR A LITTLE

ISSN NO. 1473-4729

STUDIO SPRING CLEAN

As well as spring cleaning our studios, we decided to have a good
old tidy up of the magazine this month too. We’ve been working on
some little design tweaks to make each issue of Artists & Illustrators
even better and we really hope that they add to your experience of
COVER ARTWORK DOMINIC AVANT the magazine (a huge shout out to our art editor Lauren here).
Our Sketchbook pages will be packed with even more quick tips
each month and we’re giving across more space to a few of your
STAY INSPIRED favourite features, like the masterclass and the big interviews, so that you can
BY SUBSCRIBING really get closer to the artworks and the people who made them.
Artists & Illustrators And in that serendipitous way that often happens when you pull a magazine
Tel: +44 (0)1858 438789 together, lovely little connections have emerged during the making of this issue
too. Jake Spicer set three exercises that involve a more tactile response to
Email:
artists@subscription.co.uk portrait painting, which coincided with us revisiting the miraculous career of
Sargy Mann, an artist who resorted to touching his canvases when he lost his
Online:
www.artistsand sight completely. Sargy in turn had a lifelong obsession with Pierre Bonnard,
illustrators.co.uk/subscribe which just happens to be the subject of Laura Smith’s final Drawing the
Post: Artists & Illustrators, Masters article. Once you've read the latter and absorbed the French master's
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Artists & Illustrators 3

 Contents 66
L e sl e y De arn 's
l u sh W e l sh
l an dscap e s

20

Sometimes a drawing
that you feel wasn't
successful gives you
more than you realise

74
– L AUR A S MITH , PAGE 6 2
REGULARS
5 Letters
Share your art and stories
6 Exhibitions
The best shows opening in May 26 Art Histor y 54 Paint Mediums
9 Sketchbook A look at the career of Sargy Mann, Learn about 12 products that
Bitesize tips, ideas and inspiration the best blind painter in Peckham will create eye-catching effects
14 Fresh Paint 30 In The Studio 58 Demo
New works, fresh off the easel Spring into the new season with Watercolour flowers in eight steps
19 The Working Artist beautiful botanical paintings 62 Drawing Masters
With our columnist Laura Boswell Pierre Bonnard is the subject
43 Prize Draw TECHNIQUES of this month's challenge
Win two oil paint gift packages 38 Masterclass 66 How I Paint
82 Meet the Artist US painter David Shevlino leads Lesley Dearn shares the methods
Mary Weisenburger, abstract our keynote demonstration behind her Turner-esque works
ous
painter and Gamblin colour expert 44 Colour Theor y 70 Project Gorge l ar t
ica
Neutral greens and bolder hues Three exercises that will bring a
b otan home
INSPIRATION at
m a de itch en
are explained in our final article new dimension to your portraits
20 The Big Inter view 48 In-Depth 74 Paint Surfaces k
in th e 30
– page
American master Dominic Avant Three classical approaches to A new series begins with a look
shares lessons from Walt Disney glazing are explained in detail at mark making techniques

4 Artists & Illustrators

 Letters
LET TER OF THE MONTH watercolour, after I had failed and
given up 20 years ago? At the same
Write to us!
time, I ordered Artists & Illustrators Send your letter or email
KEEPING CONNECTED magazine for a year as my birthday to the addresses below:
I have been a subscriber to Artists & Illustrators for several years now present. (It's been two years now.)
and January [Issue 425] was particularly welcome. I belong to an art Wow, what a big surprise! I fell in POST:
group of 26 members and, in line with most other art groups, our love with watercolour and I always Your Letters,
meetings had to cease at the start of the first lockdown. Because find something fresh to read and Artists & Illustrators,
several of our members are classed as “vulnerable” we have not learn from your magazines. When The Chelsea Magazine
seen each other since March 2020. As some of our members would the first lockdown started, I got all Company Ltd.,
struggle to use Zoom meetings to stay in touch, I decided to create a the last year's magazines out and Jubilee House,
monthly email newsletter in the hope of keeping our group together. read them again. I also tried to 2 Jubilee Place,
It was a difficult year and motivation levels have really plummeted. learn how to do art lessons with London SW3 3TQ
However, I have been encouraged by the response from members my two children at home.
who have not only provided me with photos of their paintings and When I was reading about JMW EMAIL: info@artists
drawings, but also other craft works. In the newsletter I have included Turner in the November 2020 [Issue andillustrators.co.uk
suggestions about interesting books to read, films to see on TV, and 423], the question “What can we,
also made mention of Grayson’s Art Club and Portrait Artist of the Year. as artists, learn from JMW Turner's The writer of our ‘letter
From their responses, I know the members are grateful that we methods?” really gave me a lot of of the month’ will receive
are staying in touch as a group. I was therefore very grateful for the ideas and thoughts about mixing a £50 gift voucher from

WE RESERVE THE RIGHT TO EDIT LETTERS FOR PUBLICATION

January edition which I shall certainly encourage our members to buy. different media together. GreatArt, which offers
The 21 challenges may be just what is needed to kickstart their I'd like to share two of my the UK’s largest range of
creativity in 2021, and the books reviews and artist profiles will watercolour daily studies [below]. art materials with more
make interesting and inspiring reading too. Thank you. Whilst painting with my little girl, than 50,000 art supplies
Julie Bosley, Ross on Wye, Herefordshire I tried her crayons in my sketch. and regular discounts
I found it's a great way to use white and promotions.
crayon instead of using masking www.greatart.co.uk
60 SECOND CHALLENGES at the changes in the lives of so fluid. Like your columnist Laura
Today I hosted my “Art with a Heart” many others. I am in a new kind Boswell wrote, “Learn to accept
Zoom class which has been running of “alone” where previously I had every single artwork or thumbnail
during the lockdown as a means of relied on galleries, libraries and sketch, and believe there's more
reaching patients who we support museums for sustenance and space to grow and be happy with
at East Lancs hospice. They general resources. all the outcomes.”
thoroughly enjoyed the challenge The frontier of personal life these Now we’re in the third lockdown,
I set, whereby they had to draw 20 days is ambiguous. There seems to I'd like to share this in the hope
sketches based on uplifting stories be no particular centre to the studio more people can explore some
from 2020 in just 20 minutes – other than my bed and easel: the new hobby and enjoy every single
one minute per sketch! motifs of this life indoors. Life and day at home.
It was great fun and something art are one, more than ever. Weina Penhaligan, via email
I’d highly recommend trying. I often take myself on a walk
Liz Swan, Ribchester, Lancashire towards the town centre, where
I am able to immerse myself in the Share your stories
What a great idea, Liz. If other hustle of things coming and going, and get a daily
readers have been setting similar where I am no longer in danger of dose of Artists &
artistic challenges for each other singling myself out as “an artist”. Illustrators tips,
during the lockdown, we'd love you The shared experience of advice and inspiration
to share them with us. community life fits perfectly since by following us on
having been positioned at my easel our social media
A NEW SOLITUDE I had become quite changed. channels...
As an artist working independently Victoria Haviland, via email
and in solitude, I am a person
@AandImagazine
knotted in expectation and CHANGE OF MEDIUM ArtistsAndIllustrators
apprehension for my own moves When I joined a local art group
AandImagazine
amongst those of others. I have three years ago, I found most artists
always worked alone and from were using watercolour. I'm an AandImagazine
home and have hardly had to adapt acrylic lover, but one day I said to
to lockdown but the mind boggles myself why not have a go at using

Artists & Illustrators 5

 Exhibitions
MAY'S BEST ART SHOWS
EILEEN AGAR: ANGEL OF ANARCHY
19 May to 29 August
Eileen Agar is said to have expressed surprise
after she was included in the landmark
International Surrealist Exhibition at London’s
New Burlington Galleries in 1936 alongside
the likes of Salvador Dalí and Yves Tanguy.
Even though she was drawn to surrealism’s
6 Artists & Illustrators
ALLISON KATZ: ARTERY
21 May to 31 October
Allison Katz is a Montreal-born, London-based
artist whose work is filled with puns, language
games and formal slippages. Adding to the
conversation are the angled walls, apertures
and peepholes among which her paintings
are often installed and this show promises
to be no different.
Expect to see many of her unusual
recurring motifs, such as noses, roosters
and cabbages, included in works created
in the midst of the pandemic that ask
questions about communication
and connectedness.
Nottingham Contemporary, Nottingham.
anarchic tendencies, she was equally www.nottinghamcontemporary.org
© ESTATE OF EILEEN AGAR/BRIDGEMAN IMAGES
interested in other aspects of art, seen in
paintings such as the Cubist-style Quadriga
and the fantastical Lewis Carroll and Alice
[above]. Both paintings can be seen here
alongside collages, photos and assemblages.
Whitechapel Gallery, London.
www.whitechapelgallery.org
NINA HAMNETT
19 May to 30 August
Nina Hamnett was the muse who
inspired many renowned modernist
artists, including Walter Sickert and
Roger Fry. Yet the “Queen of Bohemia”
was also an accomplished painter.
PRIVATE COLLECTION. PHOTO © BRIDGEMAN IMAGES
Thanks to her own experiences as
a model, she depicted subjects with
agency and power, and examples of
her sombre still life and expressive
portraiture will be on show at the
COURTESY THE ARTIST
Bloomsbury Group's farmhouse.
Charleston, Firle, East Sussex.
www.charleston.org.uk
 Dates may
change during
the Covid-19
restrictions
Always check
gallery websites
beforehand

JOHN NASH: THE LANDSCAPE

OF LOVE AND SOLACE
18 May to 26 September
From war paintings and beautiful
depictions of the British landscape
to some of the greatest botanical
illustrations of the 20th century,
John Nash could expertly turn his
hand to almost any subject.
It’s a wonder how the British artist
© TATE. PRESENTED BY THE TRUSTEES OF THE CHANTREY BEQUEST 1963

has remained in the shadow of his

older brother, the surrealist painter
Paul Nash, for so long. But with his
iconic oil paintings such as Over the
Top and Mill Building, Boxted [right]
showing alongside his lithographs,
drawings and watercolours, the
self-taught artist is set to finally
get the kudos he deserves.
Towner, Eastbourne.
www.townereastbourne.org.uk

ISLANDER:
THE PAINTINGS OF
DONALD SMITH
29 May to 26 September
Scottish artist Donald Smith
had a remarkable ability to
balance the local with the
far-flung. With an outward-
looking perspective he leant
on post-war movements from
Europe and America to paint
large-scale, lyrical images of
the fishermen and women near
his studio on the Scottish Isle
of Lewis. His powerful yet
understated images, such as
Iasgar Mor [left], can be seen
© THE ARTIST'S FAMILY

in this landmark display.

City Art Centre, Edinburgh.
www.edinburghmuseums.org.uk

Artists & Illustrators 7


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8 Artists & Illustrators
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 SKETCHBOOK

1
May TIPS • ADVI CE • ID E A S

2
NEW KIT
Freshen up your practice
with our pick of the
new materials for ar tist s

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Oil sketching just got easier with these
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3 Faber-Castell
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4 www.faber-castell.co.uk
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4 Derwent Line and

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A mix of bold and muted watercolour pans
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5 Jackson’s Alcohol Inks

Add punchy, saturated colour to graphic
artworks on a variety of surfaces.
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6 Schmincke Liquid Charcoal

Try underpainting with three vegan-friendly
shades made from charred fruit seeds.
www.schmincke.de/en

5
7 Lyra Graduate Mark All
Illustrators can add a little applied colour
via these water-based ink markers.
www.fila.it/uk
7
6

Artists & Illustrators 9

Save over £20 a year
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“EVERY CANVAS IS A
JOURNEY ALL ITS OWN”
— Helen Frankenthaler
MASTER TIP
Much is made of the Renaissance
technique of chiaroscuro – bold
light-dark contrasts to create dramatic
impact. What is less regularly explored
is the opposite effect: a narrowing of
TEA-BREAK
CHALLENGE
6 . GE S TURE DR AWING
Choose a simple subject – a person’s head,
NATIONAL GALLERY OF ART, WASHINGTON/ISTOCK/BETT NORRIS
say – and make a rough, gestural drawing.
Forget about outlines and details; instead
focus on the mass of the subject. Use layers
of quick, looping lines to indicate underlying
forms and wider, scratchy marks to suggest
heavier masses. Your first attempts will be
rough but persevere – this helps develop a
habit of thinking and making marks quickly.
SKETCHBOOK
Watch a workshop
Artists & Illustrators and Royal Talens have
teamed up to host an online workshop at
4.30pm on 2 April. Artist Kim Whitby will
show you how to create a painting using ink
washes. Join this Facebook Live event at
www.facebook.com/ArtistsandIllustrators
the tonal contrasts to create a softer,
atmospheric finish. Yet note how the
lack of dark shadows or bright
highlights in Claude Monet’s Waterloo
Bridge, London, At Sunset helps suggest
a cool hazy evening by the river.
Click here!
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Artists & Illustrators 11
 SKETCHBOOK

NEW HUES
SAP GREEN
Discover a new colour
ever y month
Dating back to medieval times, this fugitive BOOK OF
yellow-green pigment was made from unripe THE MONTH
buckthorn berries. Modern synthetic Sap
Greens are permanent and lightfast, yet prone Basics of Drawing
to losing saturation as they dry. Try them on
WHY NOT TRY… Leonardo Pereznieto
landscapes; they mix well with blues and HOLDING UP A COLOUR bills his new book as
violets for wintry forests or add spring ON YOUR BRUSH FIRST SO “the ultimate guide
freshness when used neat. for beginners” and
YOU CAN JUDGE THE MIX
while some of the
BEFORE IT IS APPLIED?
information is simple,
there are enough
universal truths for

The diary
30 APRIL 1 MAY
You have until noon to Deadline to submit to
enter the next series of Hampstead Art Society’s
Sky Arts Landscape Artist open exhibition at
of the Year. London’s Fitzrovia Gallery.
www.skyartsartistof www.hampstead
theyear.tv/landscape artsociety.co.uk
25 MAY
Wells Art Contemporary
Awards culminates in a
show at Wells Cathedral in
August. Don’t miss the last
chance to submit.
wac.artopps.co.uk
all artists to enjoy.
Sections on gestural
drawing, counter-
balance, and blocking
out a subject’s outline
will help cultivate a
more disciplined
understanding to
drawing from life.
Sixth & Spring,
£17.99. www.sixthand
springbooks.com

Fee ling blue?

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Howard and Linda Karshan. complex, synthetic YInMn
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12 Artists & Illustrators

 Vi
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on w
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29 line nd
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Kurt Jackson, Taxonomy of a Cornish foreshore 2018, mixed media on linen 200 x 198cm (detail)
Kurt Jackson’s

May – 30 June 2021 Book your tickets online

www.victoriagal.org.uk
Victoria Art Gallery, Bath 01225 477785

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 Fresh
Paint
HUGO’S
TOP TIP
“Use a range of brushes,
from long rounds to
short flats, to avoid
always making the
same marks”

Inspiring new artworks, straight off the easel

Hugo Grenville
Despite being a self-proclaimed “Romantic painter”, Hugo
Grenville believes that his vision hasn’t been compromised
by the current pandemic. For this he credits a visit to an
exhibition of mid-century French painting at the Grand
Palais in Paris some years ago. Among depictions of prison
camps and battlefields was a room containing a Bonnard
garden and a Matisse figure. “I was profoundly moved by
these paintings because they turned away from the horrors
of war to concentrate on our relationship with what is life
affirming, perennial and spiritual: the joy of colour, the love
of light, the celebration of nature, the transcending power
of beauty,” he recalls. “This terrible pandemic that we find
ourselves in now also causes grief and anxiety, and I find
the only way to deal with that is to paint what moves me,
what gives me joy and hope, certitude and peace.”
Born in London in 1958, the son of environmental
activist Gerard Morgan-Grenville, Hugo found hope in art at
an early age. He exhibited at the Chelsea Art Society while
still a 15-year-old Eton student and taught himself to paint
by reading Robert Emmon’s The Life and Opinions of Walter
Richard Sickert with its exhortations to make every stroke
count. Time spent on the hippy trail in India and serving in
the Coldstream Guards followed, before he took to full-time
painting aged 29. Today the 62-year-old paints and teaches
in his studio in Bridport, Dorset.
All Things Come to Pass IV is one of several depictions of
languid women that perfectly capture the elasticity of time
during lockdown. In October, Hugo will teach a five-day
workshop titled Odalisque: Painting the Female Figure in
an Interior and he sees these works in that tradition of
Velázquez and Manet. Nevertheless, the odalisque remains
an anachronistic genre, with connotations of courtesans
and unequal power dynamics. Ask what place it has in
today’s art world and he acknowledges the underlying
issues by rephrasing the question. “Does this subject have
a place in the 21st century, especially in the light of the
current mores about the male gaze and the #MeToo
movement? The women in my odalisque paintings tend RIGHT Hugo
to be a symbol of the qualities that are the absolute Grenville, All
opposite of those we associate with the Alpha male: Things Come
sensibility, vulnerability, gentleness; they are engaged in to Pass IV, oil
contemplation and reflection, daydreaming and memories.” on canvas,
For details of Hugo’s workshops, visit www.hugogrenville.com 106x106cm

14 Artists & Illustrators

Fresh Paint
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16 Artists & Illustrators


Helen Davison Bradley
We have the American figurative painter and Artists &
Illustrators contributor Felicia Forte to thank for inspiring
Helen Davison Bradley’s new still life, Pairs. The Cotswolds
painter had attended one of Felicia’s rare UK workshops
just prior to the beginning of the first lockdown last year.
Keen to stay motivated, she then took part in Felicia’s
weekly one-word subject challenges on Instagram. Pairs
was prompted by the challenge word “egg”, yet it is far
more than just a literal depiction of the produce.
“It is a painting about relationships,” explains Helen.
“Given that we were all isolated and unable to see family
and friends, I was thinking about still life objects and
how they connect to each other through light and space;
separate but fundamentally connected. The Moomin
mug provided a more literal illustration of some of the
things I was contemplating through the hugging characters
in the design.”
That said, eggs are a deceptively difficult subject to
paint, something the former graphic designer relishes.
Fresh Paint
HELEN’S
TOP TIP
“To keep the airiness
of the thinner
early layers, only
“Oranges are another,” she notes. “There is thicken paint in
nowhere to hide, and you really have to think the foreground”
about modelling the form with subtlety.”
To achieve that roundness of form, she suggests
regularly stepping back to assess your progress and also
looking at the painting in a mirror to spot mistakes. “It’s
also useful to use edges to draw focus away from the
contour as a whole by softening it as it recedes and using
accents sparingly.”
That economy of paint stretches to her use of thinned
initial layers which results in those lovely textured
passages seen around the edges in Pairs. “I like to begin
with a loose block-in using very thin paint with a lot of
mineral spirit or turps and a small amount of linseed oil.
I want this to be as near to touch dry as possible by the
time I start a second pass, refining shapes using thicker
paint with less, but richer, medium.” ABOVE Helen
Pairs features in the Royal Society of British Artists Annual Davison, Pairs, oil
Exhibition, which runs 15-24 April at Mall Galleries, London. on mounted paper,
www.brownhound.co.uk 20x20cm
Artists & Illustrators 17
Fresh Paint

Every month, one of our Fresh Paint

artists is chosen from Portfolio Plus,
our online, art-for-sale portal. For your
chance to feature in a forthcoming
issue, sign up for your own personalised
Portfolio Plus page today. You can also:
• Showcase, share and sell unlimited
artworks commission free
• Get your work seen across Artists & Mark Riley
Illustrators’ social media channels While Claude Monet fell for the
• Submit art to our online exhibitions Normandy coastline, Pablo
• Enjoy exclusive discounts and more Picasso preferred the French
Sign up in minutes at www.artistsand Riviera and Joaquín Sorolla
illustrators.co.uk/register sought out the sunny beaches
of Valencia. The world’s best
artists have long found places
that will satisfy their aesthetic interests and Portfolio Plus
member Mark Riley is no different. For this Birmingham-
based artist, it is the Pembrokeshire coast in Wales that
has served as a constant source of inspiration. “I’ve been
going to Manorbier since the mid-1990s and it’s one of
my favourite places,” he explains. “I started to notice when
ABOVE Mark Riley, the best times of day were to capture the light and where
Manorbier Coast to go to find the most interesting subjects.”
Path, pastel on Around the headland, away from the main beach, one
board, 42x31cm such place presented Mark with the perfect panorama
that can be seen in Manorbier Coast Path. With the strong
diagonal of the headland, the fiery hues in the foreground
and the gentle slope of clouds meeting the curving path,
the composition came fully formed by Mother Nature.
This freed Mark to focus on recreating the atmospheric
glow of the sunset. The trick to capturing that required
level of realism is, he says, noticing that the sky isn’t just
blue: “Look for colours that you don’t expect to see.”
The artist always begins his landscape paintings by
blocking in that sky and the rest of the background with
hard pastels. He then moves gradually forwards, working
from the top to the bottom of the page, switching to softer
Unison Colour pastels as he goes, finishing in this case
with those vivid foreground oranges – something that
satisfied his love of rich, autumnal colours. “Pastels allow
me to indulge in these really gorgeous colours I love,”
he says. “It all fits in with my way of working.”
www.artistsandillustrators.co.uk/MarkRiley-CreativeStates

18 Artists & Illustrators


Artist
The Working
Open art competitions are tricky prospects.
Taking part only counts if you give yourself a fair
chance, says our columnist LAURA BOSWELL
E
ntering an open art competition
can be an exciting way to boost
your confidence and challenge
yourself. Should you win, it could even
be a career changing event. Give
yourself the
best chance of success by following
a few simple steps.
Firstly, choose a competition to
suit you, not the other way around.
With so many open competitions
available, it pays to be picky. Think
about your work and your ambitions
and only invest time in relevant
competitions. If you want to dip your
toe in the water, plenty of art
suppliers offer free competitions.
Some encourage socialising
BELOW Laura
with an online group for regular
competition opportunities, chat and
Boswell, Long feedback. If you want local publicity,
Grasses up by a regional competition resulting in
Westerdale, a show could be ideal. Perhaps you
woodblock print, want to showcase your specialist
47.5x19cm skill? A competition offering
recognition and prestige in your field
is the way to go. Choose your
competition wisely but be brave.
There’s a big difference between
rejecting a competition because it
doesn’t suit you and rejecting it
because you fear taking the plunge.
Next, do your research and check
the time frame and deadlines. Always
check for costs and read the terms
and conditions carefully. Make sure
you understand the rules and that you
When selecting
your competition
entry, get a
second opinion
– preferably more
COLUMNIST
are happy with any fee and can fulfil
all the relevant conditions. There’s
no point entering a show if you can’t
meet deadlines or the schedule for
delivering work is impossible. Check
the prize too: does that involve travel
or commit you to a show or event?
It would be crushing for you and unfair
to other competitors, if you win and
can’t take full advantage of the prize.
When selecting your competition
entry, get a second opinion –
preferably more. Choose advisers
with insight and objectivity to help you
put your best work forward and ask
for honesty over affection.
Once you have your selected work,
good photography is key; it really can
make or break your entry. Even if you
are never selected for a single prize,
learning how to take good
photographs of your work along the
way feels like a win. Always check
format, resolution and size – and
supply exactly what the competition
rules request.
If you win, don’t be shy. Publicising
your win isn’t boasting, it is an
important part of the prize. Make sure
it is on your CV or website and take
full advantage of the opportunity
to raise your profile, whether that’s
in your local art group or the
national press.
Laura co-hosts a podcast, Ask an Artist.
Listen to new episodes at www.artists
andillustrators.co.uk/askanartist
Artists & Illustrators 19
 ABOVE Repose,
oil on canvas,
51x61cm

20 Artists & Illustrators

 THE B I G INTE RVIE W

Dominic
THE BIG INTERVIEW

Avant
After becoming the latest recipient of an Artists & Illustrators
award, the American painter tells STEVE PILL about drawing
for Disney, the Sargent comparisons, and his French epiphany

D
ominic Avant had an
epiphany in Paris.
A pre-lockdown trip to
the grand galleries of the
French capital had left the American
painter fired up. “There were a lot of
European artists who were painting
these luscious, beautiful African
subjects,” he recalls. “I felt that, as an
African American, that was something
I need to delve into.”
It was a timely trip, as America was
enduring a period of protests and civil
unrest, largely sparked by random
and horrific acts of racially-motivated
violence. Rather than speaking out
with words, Dominic did what he has
always done and channelled his
feelings into his painting.
“I thought one thing I could do was,
through my art, I could show a person
of colour in a very serene, tranquil,
beautiful moment and that to me was
my way of letting the world know that
I wanted people to see things through
a modern lens and without so much
of the negative energy that is going
on in the world. And I was inspired by
those European artists because I
thought they were doing it very well
and I need to take a little bit of that
back to my homeland.”
When Dominic returned home
to Florida buzzing with inspiration,
an artist friend called to invite him
to an open portrait painting session.
He arrived to find a life model who fit
the images in his head perfectly.
“She transitioned in and out of poses
like it was music,” he said, still awed
by the memory. “I said just stop right
there, we’ve got something.”
Once some natural light was
introduced and Dominic scaled up to
paint on larger boards, it all started to
come together. “That’s when I knew
right away, everything I was
envisioning was just manifesting,
happening right in front of me.”
The resulting studio painting,
Repose, won the inaugural Artists &
Illustrators award at the 15th
International ARC Salon, the world’s
largest open realist art competition,
which is run by the New Jersey
non-profit foundation, Art Renewal
Center. Dominic beat 4,941 entries
from 83 countries, scooping three
other awards and a commendation
in the process.
Repose is a masterful portrait
for a number of reasons. There’s the
tightly-plotted, brown-green-white

A lot of European artists were painting these

lu sciou s, beautiful African subjects… I felt as an
African-American, I needed to delve into that

Artists & Illustrators 21

THE B I G INTE RVIE W
BELOW Last Light
on Cortez, oil on
canvas, 63x46cm
A s a child, I could close the
bedroom door and go wherever
my imagination took me
colour scheme, the economy of
brushwork, and the calming soft light
that reveals a vast range of hues
within the soft fabrics and flesh
tones. Even the setting is sketched in
confidently, as Dominic experimented
with a wider bristle brush.
“What it allowed me was to simplify
a lot of the background elements
because I was forced to just put in
these big, blocky shapes. I felt like so
long as the values of these colours
were on point, people would
recognise that she’s out in the woods
somewhere. I could be suggestive
and that was strong enough.”
22 Artists & Illustrators
Despite the rustic setting, the
obvious stylistic comparisons are the
elegant society portraits of John
Singer Sargent – there’s definitely
something of Lady Agnew of Lochnaw
to the sweeping dress and reclining
pose. “It’s funny because people look
at Repose and the first thing that
comes out of their mouths is
‘Sargent’. I can’t tell you how many
times on social media people have
said it. It’s flattering, don’t get me
wrong, but that honestly wasn’t
what I was channelling here.”
If Dominic was in fact referencing
those portraits that had so inspired
him in Paris, it is still clear that the
spirit of the Old Masters courses
instinctively through his veins.
It wasn’t always the case, however.
While growing up in suburban
New England, his main artistic
inspirations came from his large
Catholic family. His sisters, in
particular, were supportive about
everything aside from his attempts
to draw in crayons on the walls aged
four, while his father’s fondness for
making angelic, spiritual drawings
also proved a formative influence
he has only realised later in life.
Dominic settled into drawing “pretty
cool depictions of hot-wheeled cars”
and fanciful realms for superheroes,
revelling in the creative comfort that
his bedroom provided. “Sometimes
I would come home from school and
lock myself in my room for what would
seem like days,” he recalls. “I loved
the fact that I could close the door
THE B I G INTE RVIE W

ABOVE Solace,
oil on canvas,
76x102cm

Artists & Illustrators 23

THE B I G INTE RVIE W

People think Disney is ju st cartoons, but you

really have to look at them the same way you
look at high level, sophisticated painting

24 Artists & Illustrators


RIGHT Street Songs, oil
on canvas, 56x76cm
BELOW Backyard
Honey-Bells, oil on
canvas, 30x41cm
and, wherever my imagination took
me, I was going.”
His godmother, a painter and
sculptor, dropped off books to further
encourage him and his sister Claudia
helped him enrol on an after-school
programme at the nearby Rhode
Island School of Design. “That lit me
up because it had its own museum
so, for the first time, I saw real art,”
he recalls. “I know that sounds silly
but for a young American kid, not very
cultured, that resonated in my soul.”
A community college tutor helped
him secure a scholarship for a degree
in illustration at Rhode Island and
several years as a jobbing commercial
artist followed before he was
accepted on an internship at Walt
Disney Animation Studios in 1996.
Dominic contributed to six feature-
length animations including Mulan,
Tarzan, Lilo & Stitch and the
unfinished and unreleased My
Peoples. “We worked on that one for
a year and a half or so and it was one
of those weird moments where all of
a sudden they stopped production
and executives came in and said we’ll
give you guys nine months to redirect
your careers where you want to go.”
Weekly art workshops held
at Disney as a means to keep
employees engaged had already
introduced Dominic to the joys of
plein air painting in oils and he felt he
was starting to find his voice in the
medium. His seven years with the
animation department provided him
with a rigorous education so lacking
at his high school, as he was asked
constantly to consider the position of
the focal point on screen and how to
control the viewer’s eye. “People think
Disney is just cartoons, but you really
have to look at them the same way
you look at high level, sophisticated
painting,” he says. “A lot of those
design elements have to be applied.”
A strong emotional connection
was also key, something Dominic
discovered in his own practice when
he painted his young family relaxing
on a blanket under a shady tree in A
Mother’s Kiss. The artist had modest
ambitions for a very personal painting
– “I just wanted to capture a beautiful
innocent moment between mother
and child, and I also wanted to take
the viewer to a slightly different angle,
almost like a spiritual level looking
down at this moment,” he says –
THE B I G INTE RVIE W
yet in doing so, he touched a chord.
When the painting won “Best of
Show” at the Eastern Regional
Exhibition of Oil Painters of America
in 2007, he was inundated with
requests to replicate the intimate
atmosphere with other people’s
families. “That was what opened the
door for commissions,” he says.
Since that time, Dominic has
further refined his painting skills,
mixing the academic skill of realism
with the painterly imagination of
Impressionism, while serving as a
faculty member at the Ringling
College of Art and Design in Sarasota,
Florida. He’s relishing getting back
into the classroom after months of
virtual workshops. “It just made me
feel like I was teaching with one hand
behind my back,” he says. “Art needs
to be very tangible and tactile.”
As for his personal ambitions,
he is itching to get back out into the
70-degree Florida winter sunshine to
paint, while chasing those simple light
effects or little personal revelations
that tug at his soul. “As life presents
these moments to me, I just want to
try to capitalise on them,” he says.
www.dominicavant.com
Artists & Illustrators 25

Sargy
Mann
Six years on from his death, the life and legacy of the blind
artist is revisited in a new exhibition. STEVE PILL celebrates
his visionary paintings and remarkable will to create
T
he opening minutes of
Peter Mann’s wonderful
2006 film about his late
father, the artist Sargy
Mann, are something of an emotional
rollercoaster. Opening on a black
screen, we hear a recording of Sargy’s
gentle, otherworldly voice confirm that
it is 30 May 2005 and today marks
“the end of vision”. His eyesight had
been deteriorating for more than 30
years, following cataracts and retinal
detachments, and he had awoken
to experience total blindness for the
very first time. “I presume I won’t be
painting any more pictures,” he says,
seemingly in a state of shock.
Before one can even begin to
contemplate the sheer injustice of
an artist being robbed of his most
valuable sense, his voice begins
again. Nine days have passed and
Sargy describes “the most perfect,
soft summer morning” as he settles
down to paint. He had one last primed
Although I am totally blind now,
I ju st see the canvas changing colour
when I put the pigment down on it
26 Artists & Illustrators
ART HIS TO RY
canvas on his easel that he decided
to complete as a form of closure.
Fast forward a little and his voice
is brighter again as he reveals “it’s
12pm and I’ve just had, I don’t know
what, the most remarkable hour and
a half’s painting of my life I should
think.” A painted memory of a hotel
bar in the Spanish town of Cadaqués,
the evening light bouncing off the
Mediterranean, came together more
easily than he could ever have hoped.
“Although I am totally blind now, I just
see the canvas changing colour when
I put the pigment down on it,” he
says. “I wonder, maybe I can paint?
I quite enjoyed doing it, I must say.”
Sargy’s whole life was full of these
modest yet revelatory moments. He
treated his diminishing sight not as a
disability but rather a prompt to look
harder and feel more; the inability to
draw direct from life became a license
to imagine and invent. In doing so,
he found new ways of seeing.
All of that was to come. Sargy’s life
and career began with promise.
He was born Martin Mann on 29 May
1937 in Hythe, Kent, and sent away
to boarding school in Devon aged 6.
Accomplished in maths, science,
music and even sports, Sargy only
turned to art during A-Levels after
a friend saw his drawings and
suggested he apply to Camberwell
School of Arts and Crafts. “In that
instant, I realised that was what
I wanted, more than anything else
in the world, I’d just never admitted
it to myself,” he later recalled.
He spent the early 1960s studying
under the likes of Frank Auerbach
and Euan Uglow, sharing a love of
bold colour with the former and an
appreciation of moments of everyday
beauty with the latter. Even more
influential was the Pierre Bonnard
exhibition at the Royal Academy of
Arts in 1966; Sargy visited the show
PHOTO: ANDY KEATE, COURTESY CADOGAN CONTEMPORARY
24 times, cementing a life-long
obsession with the French painter.
After a postgraduate degree
and with the idea of finding gallery
representation “laughable”, Sargy
settled into teaching at both
Camberwell and the Camden Arts
Centre. The affable artist was helped
along by the many friendships that he
struck up with ease. He had played
 A R T H I S T O RY

ABOVE Lemmons,
Bathroom Window,
c.1971, oil on
canvas, 66x76cm

Artists & Illustrators 27

A R T H I S T O RY
ABOVE Garden drums in a jazz trio that included
Wall in Sun, 1968, Dudley Moore on piano, hung out in
oil on canvas, the same London circles as filmmaker
41x51cm Mike Leigh and Pink Floyd’s Syd
Barrett, and befriended the author
Elizabeth Jane Howard, the second
wife of fellow author Kingsley Amis.
Sargy lived with the couple for eight
years, moving into their Georgian villa,
Lemmons, on the outskirts of north
OPPOSITE PAGE, London. Guests during that time
FROM TOP Sargy included poet John Betjeman, novelist
adapted his Iris Murdoch and a young Daniel
methods in his Day-Lewis – all three would later
Suffolk studio; purchase the artist’s work. When
Figures by a Howard organised the inaugural
River, 2015, Salisbury Festival of the Arts in 1973,
oil on canvas, she saw to it that Sargy would have
198x183cm his first solo exhibition at the Wiltshire
28 Artists & Illustrators
town’s Old College of Art. Works
included several paintings of the
bathroom at Lemmons that owed a
debt to Bonnard. In his introduction
to the exhibition catalogue, Betjeman
noted that Sargy’s paintings “are
nearly always started from a
particular play of light which will lead
to the main composition… The more
dramatic the light, the more quickly
he must record his impressions.”
The light was fading though.
In that same year, Sargy underwent
a cataract operation and, after
marrying Frances Carey in 1976, his
work briefly became darker and more
abstracted. Two retinal detachments
in two years left him with only partial
vision in one eye from 1980 onwards.
Sargy’s self-confessed “big break”
came when he was introduced to
Christopher Burness, founder of
Cadogan Contemporary. He hadn’t
had a solo exhibition for a decade
when Burness visited his Peckham
studio, but the dealer offered him one
on the spot. “I found the work utterly
compelling and central to the aesthetic
PHOTO: ANDY KEATE, COURTESY CADOGAN CONTEMPORARY
I hoped to establish for Cadogan,” he
told us. “We struck it off immediately.”
A successful Cadogan debut in
1987 led to a further 17 solo shows
at the gallery to date. Sargy became
officially registered blind the following
year and quit teaching to move with
his family to Suffolk. Though the artist
still had very limited vision in one eye,
Burness admired his openness and
 A R T H I S T O RY

Blindness has given me the courage

to risk degrees of inventiveness
I would not have dared take before

honesty about what lay ahead: the French painter’s claim that he was
“He was always aware he would go “weak in front of nature” and quoted
totally blind at some point.” him as saying: “The presence of the
Sargy was grateful for the chance object, the motif, is very cramping for
to focus on painting and his stoic the painter at the moment of painting.”
pursuit of his craft was matched by Sargy himself had no choice but to
the gentle sense of humour that heed these words. Freed from such
endeared him to so many. He used strictures, he was finally able to map
tape recorders as an aide memoire out his own little worlds from the
and gave his autobiography-of-sorts comfort of his garden studio.
the knowing subtitle, Probably the Sargy Mann: Light and Space runs from
Best Blind Painter in Peckham. 10-29 May at Cadogan Contemporary,
Olivia Laing’s essay for a posthumous London and 1-25 June at Cadogan
2019 exhibition catalogue tells of his Contemporary, Hampshire.
determination to continue enjoying art www.cadogancontemporary.com
while suffering severe water retention
in his cornea: “He took a hairdryer to
the National Gallery, plugged it in and
calmly dried his soggy, waterlogged
eye in order to see the paintings”.
When Sargy eventually lost the last
shred of sight after the Cadaqués trip,
the works that followed communicate
both a warm nostalgia for family
holidays past and also the very
present thrill at being able to paint
despite the odds. They are, as Laing
put it, “testimonials to the abundant
pleasures of light and space, the idle
hour between swim and beer when
everyone drifts into the same small
room to pass the time together”.
Yet the artist could only rely on
visual memories for so long. Figures
became a mainstay in his works as
he used their fixed proportions to help
map out three-dimensional space in
paint. He marked out the proportions
PHOTO: ANDY KEATE/SARGY MANN ARCHIVE, COURTESY CADOGAN CONTEMPORARY

of his wife Frances on a stick as a

guide and used that to help plot out
key points on the canvas in Blu Tack
before painting between them.
The final decade of his life became
perhaps the most creative period
of his career. “I think blindness has
given me the freedom and courage to
risk degrees of inventiveness I would
not have dared take before,” he told
Artists & Illustrators in 2006.
Bonnard’s example led him once
more through the darkness. In an
early sketchbook, Sargy had repeated

Artists & Illustrators 29

 IN THE STUDIO

ary a
DTratsiakovich 1

The botanical artist talks openly to REBECCA BRADBURY about

her love of imperfections, the therapeutic power of painting,
and working the graveyard shift at her kitchen table

F
rom dopamine fasts and
teatoxes to goat yoga and cow
cuddling, the latest wellness
trends appear downright
ridiculous to the non-initiated. But not
even the biggest self-care critic could
knock the remarkable healing power
of art, especially if they had ever had
the pleasure of speaking to Darya
Tratsiakovich about her immersion in
the welcoming world of botanical art.
The Minsk-born, Stockholm-based
painter had suffered with unexplained
joint pain for years, but when she
became pregnant around five years
ago it became excruciating.
After giving birth, the agony
continued, flummoxing many medical
professionals. Then, while watching
an episode of TV medical drama
Grey’s Anatomy, she saw a character
with similar symptoms and, taking
this insight to her next doctor’s
appointment, she was finally
diagnosed with Ehler-Danlos
syndrome, a rare connective
tissue disorder causing joint pain,
hypermobility and dislocations.
Being astonishingly flexible may
make for some impressive party
tricks but the condition, exacerbated
by the hormonal changes of
pregnancy, had become debilitating.
“It was terrible, I couldn’t even hold
my daughter,” Darya recalls. “Many
doctors told me it was in my head…
I tried to tell family and friends too,
but they would just suggest I try
supplements or meditation.”
The diagnosis understandably
came as a relief to Darya and the next
step was to regain some control over

30 Artists & Illustrators

 IN THE STUDIO

Nature is always willing to

reveal its secrets to those who
are willing to see them

1 Darya at her
kitchen table
studio at home
in Stockholm

2 Darya’s
watercolour
painting,
2 Falling in Love

Artists & Illustrators 31

IN THE STUDIO

Botanical art is art

with restrictions… Ver y
often such restrictions
encourage creativity

The quality of Darya’s output belies

the relatively short amount of time
she has dedicated to her craft.
The closest she came to a formal
art education were the calligraphy
classes she took while living in China
as part of a masters degree in East
Asian studies – an attempt to forge
a “serious” career in line with the
expectations of her parents, who, as
university professors, held academic
aspirations for their daughter.
Emphasising her love of detail,
calligraphy was a logical starting
point. “Chinese calligraphy and
botanical art are pretty much the
same,” she explains. “It is art, but it is
art with restrictions. You cannot use
3 your artistic license, for example, with
the colour of the petal or the shape of
the leaves, so you need to work within
3 Billy Showell 4 Sketchbook her life. Things she had previously boundaries. The funny thing is that
brushes were notes help loved, such as playing the guitar and very often such restrictions are more
used to paint familiarisation riding her bike, were off limits due to likely to encourage creativity.”
Memory Lane with a subject the pain, so she decided to buy some Darya has faced other challenges
cheap art materials and give painting too. Working from her kitchen table
a go. “Every night I would sit in my in the small flat she shares with her
5 Tree Peony 6 Darya cuts kitchen and just paint and paint and husband and daughter, space is at a
was inspired out swatches paint,” she says. “Instead of being premium, yet she is proof that a big
by Bergianska for each brand tired, I felt full of energy and I’ve fancy studio is not a prerequisite to
botanical garden she uses never wanted to stop painting since.” becoming a professional artist.

32 Artists & Illustrators


Granted, botanical artworks are
often created on a smaller scale than
most yet there are still frustrations.
Number one for Darya is having to
pack away her art materials and clean
up after each painting session.
At least her kitchen studio has a big
window with views over the Görvälns
Nature Reserve. Her favourite things
– such as pot plants, a neat stack of
art books, cut flowers and her own
artworks – are also dotted about as a
ploy to keep her happy and motivated.
Darya can be found painting here
for a few hours in the morning while
her daughter is at kindergarten.
However, revelling in the peace and
quiet it provides, her preferred stint
6 runs late into the night. “I tend to lose
IN THE STUDIO
track of time and sometimes I may sit
[for] five or six hours until I notice that
it’s getting lighter outside,” she says.
“I stop when I feel extremely tired or
hungry or my back starts hurting.”
Although she relishes this time
alone, Darya still opts for some
background noise, listening to music
or podcasts on psychology, art history
or feminism. An Eglo daylight lamp
compensates for the lack of natural
light during the Scandinavian winters.
In Sweden, from November to
March, it can still be dark at 10am,
with just a few hours before the sun
begins to set again. For Darya, this
creates a problem when it comes to
photographing her specimens. “I’m
not working from life, so I need to
take a decent photo of the object,”
she says. “Sometimes I will buy
flowers and wait for days until I can
catch the light, so it’s really difficult.
Artists & Illustrators 33
IN THE STUDIO

Electric light alters the

shades of green... It’s the
most diff icult colour for
our eyes to distinguish

This lamp helps a lot, but still nothing

is better than the daylight, as any
electric light alters the shades of
green, and green is the most difficult
colour for our eyes to distinguish.”
Like any botanical artist, the
passing of time also impacts Darya’s
choice of specimen. For example,
peonies are only in season during
May and June, so she’ll get as many
photographic references as possible
during this time, preferring the
useability of her iPad’s lens over her
husband’s more complicated camera.
When we speak at the end of
February, there are just a few weeks
left before her favourite flowers –
anemones – will reach the end of
their short season. Surprisingly, it’s 7

not the velvety petals or delicate

stamen that draw Darya to the flower,
but the helix-like stem, a part that
often goes unnoticed. Similarly, when
it comes to picking a specimen to
paint, she often looks for the detail
others would dismiss. “Nature is
always willing to reveal its secrets to
those who are willing to see them and
I really enjoy painting imperfections,”
she says. “Imperfections are what
make us unique.”
“When choosing a flower at my
local florist I try to choose one with
some distinguishing features,” 9
she adds. “For example, interesting
patterns, interesting shapes of the
leaf, or a crooked shape to the stem.
I’m not interested in the classical
beauty of a red rose.”
Proving this is October Sun, an
artwork based on a wilted yellow rose
that Darya spotted in a neighbour’s
garden. “It’s just like a human life, all
stages are beautiful,” she says of the
8 flower, and this anthropomorphism
extends across her whole body of

34 Artists & Illustrators

 IN THE STUDIO

work: “When painting I treat my

flowers like individuals, sometimes
they seem happy or in love or lonely.”
The idea of each flower having a
“face” developed a few years ago,
when Darya was training as a florist.
Time spent learning the rules of
flower arranging and how to care
for the specimens, not only fed her
passion for the subject, but also
boosted her botanical art practice.
Once Darya has her photographic
reference and composition sorted
(sometimes she combines elements
of different photos digitally, always
adding in a plain white background),
she makes a light pencil sketch.
Next, she washes the paper
with glazes that are “practically
transparent” before dropping in the
colour and beginning the layering
process. Some artworks require up to
50 layers, which explains why Darya
never scrimps on paper quality –
the smooth surface of hot-pressed
Saunders Waterford paper is her
preferred choice.
Another handy tip from the artist
is to make your own colour swatches.
“I have a lot of paint and it makes the
process of choosing the colour much
easier when I have them painted out
on strips. When I’m not sure whether
I should take this or that colour, I just
take my strips and I see whether they
match [the reference] or not.”
Darya is full of praise for the
botanical artists from which she has
10 gained insights from afar, including
Rory McEwen, Lizzie Sanders, Fiona
Strickland and Billy Showell. She has
learned much from the latter’s online
tutorials, as well as using her branded
set of synthetic brushes.
“It’s not only botanical art itself
that made me a happier person,” she
7 October 8 Annotated says. “It’s the community of botanical
Sun depicts swatches help artists all over the world, which is so
her neighbour’s to plan colours welcoming. It feels like I have a new
yellow rose for a painting family, and I’m just happy to share my
paintings with them and hear them
commenting on my art and giving me
9 Green mixes 10 Darya also tips.” With all Darya has achieved,
dominate this uses coloured she is sure to be a similar inspiration
cheese plant pencils for her for many others now.
leaf painting botanical art www.daryaartworks.com

Artists & Illustrators 35

BRUSH WITH
A DV E R T O R I A L

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36 Artists & Illustrators

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Artists & Illustrators 37

MASTERCLASS

38 Artists & Illustrators

 MASTERCL ASS

Let loose
T
Painting in an abstract hough my present work tends to
and expressive way doesn’t be loose and sometimes abstract,
have to mean a lack of I had a traditional and classical
training at art school. I spent a lot of
control. American master
time honing my drawing skills while studying
DAVID SHEVLINO shares his at the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts.
thoughtful methods in our In much of my current work I use large
easy-to-follow 12-step guide brushes to mass in tones and colours,
simplifying by economising the amount of
visual information and number of brush
strokes. For this masterclass, I painted a
quick, wet-into-wet still life as an example of
how I interpret the information in a subject.
A common misconception, which
I sometimes encounter among my students,
David's materials is that a loose, economical application of
the paint is somehow easy. I find that it’s not
at all easier than a more literal, traditional
•Paints •Brushes
painting approach. In fact, it can be more
Titanium White, Cadmium Flat brushes, sizes 8, 10 and
challenging in some ways. The reason is
Orange, Burnt Sienna, Alizarin 12; filbert brushes, sizes 8,
that simplifying and economising your brush
Crimson, Brilliant Pink, Yellow 10 and 12, all Rosemary & Co.
work require lots of decisions to be made.
Ochre, Cadmium Yellow, Ivory range
Look hard and think about what information
Ultramarine Blue, Dioxazine •Support
needs to be there – and what does not.
Purple, Olive Green, Viridian Gesso-primed canvas board,
David’s next UK workshops run 15-18 November
Green, Permanent Green Light 30x30cm
at Raw Umber Studios, Stroud, and
and Raw Umber, all Michael •Odourless White Spirit
29 November to 4 December at London Fine
Harding oil colours •Galkyd paint medium
Art Studios. www.davidshevlino.com

Artists & Illustrators 39

MASTERCLASS

2 Sket ch yo ur s et up
I applied a blue-grey base colour to my
canvas board. Any given tone may appear
differently on a neutral canvas than it would
on a stark white one, so a tinted ground
makes it easier for me to judge accurate
values and colour temperatures.

1 A rran g e yo ur p alet te
I start by laying out my colours, grouping them into “families”. I keep the warmer colours
in the upper left corner, the blues and purples in the upper right, and the greens in the lower
I kept my still life setup relatively simple
with a strong light coming from one direction.
This created a contrast between the lights and
right. Olive Green is a warm hue used in landscape painting, but I also find it useful for darker shadows. I loosely sketched the composition
flesh tones. By contrast, Viridian is a cooler, bluish green and a nice foil to the Olive Green. with Burnt Sienna thinned with white spirit.

3 B lo ck in light t o n e s
Blocking in my lightest tones first is a habit I developed many
years ago as a plein air painter. With a small palette, it was easier
to keep the colours clean if I began with the lightest ones first,
before my palette and white spirit became dirty.
This approach is especially helpful when painting wet into wet
because what we’re essentially doing is putting wet paint over
already existing wet paint, which can get very messy. So, it’s best
to do whatever is necessary to keep the colours clean.
4 E s t ab lish contex t
I started blocking in the copper cup and the dark purple of the
background. Establishing the contrasting dark of the background
helps to better judge the value range of darkest to lightest. It’s also
helpful for adding context to the painting so that I can better relate
one colour to another. This is important because the tones don’t exist
in a vacuum; they are all related to one another. Any given colour will
appear as dark or light, warm or cool based on what is surrounding
it – another reason why painting on the toned ground is so helpful.

40 Artists & Illustrators

 MASTERCLASS

5 M at ch t h e valu e s
I started to work on the copper cup. When I mix colour, my
primary concern is value – is it light or dark enough? The secondary
6 Paint an d s crap e
concern is colour temperature – is it warm or cool enough? If your
values are correct, you’ll have some latitude with the colour. Here
I used Cadmium Orange, Alizarin Crimson, Brilliant Pink and some
Ultramarine Blue, all lightened with Titanium White. The addition of
blue helped make the colour a bit more neutral, since those other
pigments together would be too warm and saturated without it.
I packed some thick paint onto the cup and simplified the tones in
the reflection. There was more detail in the actual cup, but I was more
interested in creating some abstract shapes. Notice how the strokes of
paint around the cup are bleeding into the background – I like to keep
the edges loose. If I need to, I can come back and redefine them later.
Also note that there are areas of mid-tones in the white cloth, which
I achieved by scraping at the paint in order to allow some of the ground
tone to show through.

Top tip
I like to mix my colours
on my palette with a
paintbrush. If you do the
same, it is important to
clean your brush in white
spirit first and wipe away
any excess paint on a rag
before you try picking
up fresh paint to mix
another colour.

7 Thicken t h e highlight s
I developed and built the paint on the
cup, keeping it loose. I used a plastic scraper
to apply the thick daub of paint of the
highlight. When laying wet paint over existing
wet paint, it’s important to load up the brush
so that you can simply lay the paint on and
8 Ad d ch oice s t r oke s
I developed the purple background, using wide strokes
of a size 12 flat brush to help to break it up. I also worked into
not sweep it away. Paint consistency is also the cast shadow on the surface to the right of the cup. Adding
important. I favour a buttery consistency, ripples in the white cloth was an effective way to add interest.
so I use a Titanium White made with either One of the challenges of simplifying your subject is limiting
safflower or walnut oil as these oils have a the number of brushstrokes. If there are fewer strokes, each
thinner viscosity than linseed oil. one becomes more important and must be carefully placed.

Artists & Illustrators 41

MASTERCLASS

Top tip
Although I almost never
use it by itself, Raw
Umber is a great pigment
for darkening other
colour mixes. However,
similar to Ivory Black, it
can muddy colours very
quickly so always
use it cautiously.

9 S of t en t h e e dg e s
Once I’d established the subject matter, I was free to start making some creative decisions about
how to treat edges. I do a lot of painting and repainting until I get the effect I’m looking for – for instance,
I like to blur edges as a way of abstracting parts of the painting.
In the flower at the lower left, I made a couple of changes to the edge where it meets the purple
background. It’s not a major difference to the previous stage, but it’s an example of my painting
process and willingness to experiment with what I’m doing in order to achieve the effect I want.

10 Kn ow w h at yo u s e e
Painting a flower is not simply a case
of replicating what you see in front of you.
A working knowledge of the basic principles
of how light and shadow create the illusion
of volume and depth can help you better
interpret any given form. In the case of the
peony, I saw a cup shape lit from the upper
left, with corresponding shadows in the lower
right. Given that information and what I know
about painting, I was free to create a simple,
abstracted interpretation.
11 In cr e a s e t emp erat ur e
I have a tendency to over paint, so
I like to start as sparsely as I can and stop
myself from adding too many details. This
takes a lot of restraint. If I go too far with a
particular part of a painting, I may scrape it
away and start again. The flower’s colour was
slightly on the pink side, so I mixed Titanium
White with a small bit of Alizarin Crimson and
Cadmium Orange. The warm temperature of
this hue was a nice contrast to the cooler
white of the cloth and the other flower.
12 Fini shin g t o u ch e s
I placed a few darker strokes to
indicate shadows on the right of the peony.
These were a good example of neutralising
a tone. I used Burnt Sienna with Dioxazine
Purple, Olive Green and Titanium White.
Mixing the warm earth colour with a cool
purple gave me the neutral I was looking for.
Varying the colour temperatures makes
for a more interesting composition.
The contrasting warms and cools are as
important as the lights and darks.

42 Artists & Illustrators

 P R I Z E D R AW
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Artists & Illustrators 43
Mixing GREEN
CO LO U R THEO RY

44 Artists & Illustrators

 C O L O U R T H E O RY

I
n this final instalment of the secondary series, I will
GRAHAME BOOTH has looked at artistic be looking at how best to mix greens. As we’ve seen in
ways to recreate the three secondary the previous articles, the twin-primary system of colour
colours. In this final instalment, he revisits mixing uses two versions of each of the three primary
a childhood love of mixing greens colours – red, blue and yellow. The two hues in each
pair are biased in colour towards one of the two adjacent
secondaries. This allows for a simple and logical method
of mixing a vast range of both bright and dull secondaries,
both of which are needed in most paintings.
Less experienced painters may feel the need to create
very bright colour mixes, perhaps thinking that mixing dull
colours will lead to a dull painting. However, in the same
way that we need the darkest tones to fully appreciate the
light ones (and vice versa), we also need dull colours to
allow the brighter hues to really glow.

HANDLE WITH CARE

I’ve never fully got over the excitement when, as a small
boy, I first mixed blue and yellow to produce a completely
different colour. Mixed oranges and purples both hint at
their origins, but greens seem so much more removed
from the blue and yellow that create them. I wonder if that
may be why greens can be such a problem in a painting?
Yes, we can mix a vast array of green hues but, unlike
orange and purple equivalents, there are a lot of them
that can look very unnatural in the average landscape.

Cyprus Avenue, watercolour on Saunders

425gsm NOT paper, 51x38cm
If you are a Van Morrison fan, you may know this Belfast street.
I used a lot of different green mixes here. French Ultramarine
and Winsor Yellow for the hedges on the far side of the road
with Phthalo Blue (Green Shade) added for the brightest green
and a little Cadmium Yellow used in the warmer areas.

Red

Yellow Blue
biased biased
towards towards
DULL
red red
Yellow Blue

Yellow biased Blue biased

towards blue BRIGHT towards yellow

COLOUR WHEEL
You can see how our twin primaries fit into our
colour wheel. Once again, the precise colours are
not really that important as long as they have the
colour bias indicated. To mix a bright green, mix
the primaries closest to green and for a dull green,
use the primaries furthest away.

Artists & Illustrators 45

C O L O U R T H E O RY
BRIGHT AND DULL GREENS
Look at the brightness and vibrancy of this top row of greens. They are
suitable for tropical seas and forests but perhaps rather too intense for
a typical British landscape. The greens below are so dull as to be quite
greyish, certainly towards the blue end of the mix, but they are still very
valuable in creating variety.
Phthalo Blue Winsor Yellow
French Ultramarine Cadmium Yellow
Many years ago, I mixed greens from Viridian on the
basis that it was otherwise such an unnatural colour.
Likewise, I was always warned against “safer” greens such
as Sap or Olive as they easily overpower a painting. Green
can be so pervasive in a painting that great care is needed
to create a suitable and interesting variety.
As with the previous articles, I am using the same six
colours. My blues are French Ultramarine, which is biased
46 Artists & Illustrators
Cotignac, watercolour on Saunders 425gsm
NOT paper, 51x38cm
Note the intense effect of the Phthalo Blue (Green Shade) in the
foreground greens above, together with Cadmium Red for those
rich darks. Phthalo Blue (Green Shade) with Cadmium Yellow
made the cooler greens in the middle, while French Ultramarine
with Cadmium Yellow helped with recession.
towards purple, and Phthalo Blue (Green Shade), which
is, as the name suggests, biased towards green. My two
yellows are Winsor Yellow, which is biased towards green,
and Cadmium Yellow, which is biased towards orange.
I hope now it will become very clear that the two colours
biased towards green will produce the brightest and most
vibrant mixes, whereas the ones biased away from green
will combine to form the dullest (yet often more usable)
hues. You will also see how even those duller hues can
often be too bright to suggest a natural green and how
mixing them with one of the primary reds will help to better
suggest the infinite range of greens that we see in nature.
MIX IT YOURSELF
Modern chemistry has given us a range of colours that
were not available to painters in even recent times.
The copper phthalocyanine dye used for Phthalo Blue
(Green Shade) was only first presented in 1935 and it was
several decades more before the paint really became a
 C O L O U R T H E O RY

5th Green, Royal Portrush, watercolour on Saunders 425gsm

MIXING INTERMEDIATES NOT paper, 51x38cm
Phthalo Blue (Green Shade) with Cadmium Yellow produced mixes that These greens were mixed with French Ultramarine and variations
were nicely balanced between the bright and dull greens – still quite on the yellows. A golf course has a consistent green hue, but it is
intense but certainly more natural in appearance. French Ultramarine important artistically to create variety. In the foreground rough,
with Winsor Yellow was a step down in intensity but definitely a very a little Cadmium Red warmed and dulled the greens.
useful collection of hues. I find this mix very suitable for grass, as
Winsor Yellow prevents the green from becoming insipid.
popular choice for artists. Such modern chemical dyes
Phthalo Blue Cadmium Yellow have allowed us to produce much brighter, cleaner colours
but that does present a problem in mixing what we might
call “natural” colours. An over-enthusiastic dip into Phthalo
Blue can swamp your palette (and painting) so care and
thought is needed with this type of colour. It is a fairly
straightforward process to paint a believable brick wall
French Ultramarine Winsor Yellow with Burnt Sienna, but the downside to such pigments
is that they may not be as versatile when mixing.
I hope you have enjoyed this little delve into the
twin-primary system. It isn’t the easiest thing in the world
to explain but I hope you have got the gist of it enough to
experiment at home. Do try making the swatches yourself.
I firmly believe that creating colour
charts is the best way to properly
NEUTRALS FROM GREEN understand how different pigments
Mixing the intermediate green with Cadmium Red dulled it quickly to the point where mix. The best method is to create a
the green was lost almost completely. Mixing with Quinacridone Magenta wasn’t pool of each of the two colours you
significantly different, although it retained more of a hint of the green. are mixing and then to add a little of
one pool to the other. This way you
can create more subtle variations
Quinacridone Magenta Phthalo Blue (GS) Cadmium Red
than you would if dipping into the
+ Winsor Yellow
pure undiluted paint. Try different
strengths of mixes too – this can
make a big difference to the colour
and you can further experiment by
using both blues in the same mix.
www.grahamebooth.com

Artists & Illustrators 47

Glazing
IN-DEPTH
Often viewed as an ancient technique shrouded
in myths, the art of applying glazes is actually
a very useful addition to your artist’s toolbox
if you use them wisely, says AL GURY
G
lazing is often treated as
the holy grail of painting
methods. At its core,
glazing is a very simple
process – a thin layer of transparent
paint is added to an already-dry, more
opaque paint layer. With oil paints,
that transparency is achieved by
mixing the paint with linseed oil or a
similarly oily medium; with acrylics,
water can be used alone or mixed
with a glazing medium.
Nevertheless, the art of glazing
has become shrouded in centuries
of myth, mystery and romance.
Without having modern X-ray
technology to give a definitive answer,
RIGHT Jusepe artists in the 19th century would
de Ribera, The endlessly speculate about what it
Holy Family with was that gave Old Master paintings
Saints Anne and such subtlety and richness. Was it the
Catherine of application of many, many thin glazes
Alexandria, 1648, that created a greater sense of depth,
oil on canvas, especially in shadows? Was it the use
210x154cm of different coloured glazes that
48 Artists & Illustrators
achieved the desired effects? In fact,
most glazes were few in number and
colours were often limited too.
One popular myth was that
there was a “typical” approach to
underpainting that most masters
used as a base for their layers of
glazes, when the truth is methods
varied according to the aesthetics
and processes of each artist or
school of painters.
Others contended that these Old
Master paintings were deliberately
lacking in colour and there was much
talk about “the golden glow of the
antique”, yet we now know that the
brownish appearance of many of the
paintings was the result of darkened
METROPOLITAN MUSEUM OF ART, NEW YORK
varnish covering once-rich colours.
Yet even though there are
countless styles of glazing, which vary
according to artist and era, there are
several core methods that are simple,
stable and understandable. These
most common processes are far
 IN-DEPTH

removed from the myths about their

complexity or mystery and have been
illuminated by modern conservation
and scientific methods. For example,
from a purely physical standpoint, the
more glazes that are layered over each
other, the darker the area will get.
As a result, applying too many glazes
will actually limit depth and subtlety.
Mixing too many layers with glazing
mediums might also cause long term
problems in the paint surface, such
as uneven drying, cracking or
darkening, so always follow the
practical rule of “less is more”.
As a rule, glaze mixtures should be
thin, not runny, and contain a balance
of oil or resins and thinner to allow
the glaze to be applied smoothly and
to dry evenly. There are a number of
glazing mediums on the market that
work well, as long as they are used
sparingly. Discussed over the next
four pages are three core approaches
to using glazes.

Artists & Illustrators 49

IN-DEPTH

Top tip
Be dramatic in your
use of white to make
the finishing glazes
sing with colour

ABOVE El Greco, Saint

Jerome as Scholar,
c.1610, oil on canvas,
108x89cm

50 Artists & Illustrators


1. Final glazes
The most common type of glaze
involves placing a thin, transparent,
final layer of colour on top of an
underpainting as a final step in the
painting process. An underpainting
might be anything from a black-and-
white grisaille to a tonally developed
structure using an earth palette.
In both cases, the finishing glaze can
be applied over an entire dry painting,
or just local areas of it.
Two good examples of this are the
painters El Greco and Frans Hals.
When stripped of the top glaze
colours, El Greco’s underpaintings
would look like strong, tonal black-
and-white images, with brown
showing through from the canvas as a
structural part of the image. Drawing
details of the figures, their faces, their
robes and so on, would be mostly
METROPOLITAN MUSEUM OF ART, NEW YORK
FINAL GLAZES Al Gury, Grisaille Landscape Demo, oil and acrylic on gesso panel, 20x25cm
Using an acrylic underpainting helped speed the drying times of this panel. Each area was tinted with a
single oil colour glaze, giving the completed landscape a glow of light and warmth.
IN-DEPTH
completed at this stage in a bold,
alla prima manner. The light areas,
especially the highlights, would be
very light in value, even pure white,
for the purpose of showing strongly
through the top glaze colour.
Glazes over a greyscale painting
will usually merely darken it, but a
true grisaille – one that only contains
black and white pigment – is designed
to be part of the glazing process.
The light areas and highlights are
artificially enhanced in value. The
whole underpainting was designed to
receive a final top transparent colour
glaze over each discrete dry area.
Seen through transparent colour,
the highlights and general masses
of the figures assume the proper
tonal value in the whole ensemble
as planned by the painter. In some
areas, the wet glaze could still be
wiped away a bit to reveal a stronger
highlight or a detail. In others, the
underpainting is left showing to
provide a sense of depth and
atmosphere. The final effect would
be one of brilliant colour and intense
depth of form and value contrasts.
Frans Hals, who generally relied
on direct paint and a range of opaque
palette colours, utilised local glazes
to finish areas of his paintings. For
example, the sash of a cavalier might
be underpainted in Yellow Ochre,
black and white with the intention of
that same area receiving a final yellow
glaze. The underpainting's highlights
would be especially light so they
would show through the top glaze and
complete the sense of form. These
local glazes enhanced the colour as
a whole and were part of a tonal and
colour composition that was largely
painted directly. The earth palette
mainly provided structure and colour,
achieving a lovely balance between
high and low chroma colours and a
strength of form and atmosphere.
With both artists’ work, the whole
process was pre-planned as part of
the composition and the final effect.
Artists & Illustrators 51
IN-DEPTH

2 . Mixed glazes
Another core process involved
underpaintings that were designed
to receive a combination of both
transparent glazes (as outlined
above) and milky, translucent glazes
known as “velaturas”.
Common to painters from the late
Medieval period through to the 16th
century, this layered process created
form, light and colour in a pre-planned
set of steps. The use of velaturas
allowed a painter to create form via a
grisaille or brunaille (brown and white
underpainting), particularly for the
skin of the faces and bodies of holy
or classical figures. The light areas
would be exceptionally light with pure
white in the highlights. Initially these
underpaintings might have been done
in tempera over a line drawing. Later,
full oil paint was used for both.
A mixture of white tinted with colour
and thinned by the painter’s medium,
usually a light drying oil, would be
spread thinly and evenly over the
underpainted face or nude figure. MIXED GLAZES Al Gury, Copy of section from Master of the Saint Ursula Legend’s

Perfect colours Virgin and Child, oil and acrylic on gesso panel, 25x20cm
The skin areas in the underpainting were high contrast so that the velatura would
Pigments rated as “transparent” create optical grey shadows and tinted light. Other areas of the underpainting were
are the best for creating glazes. given transparent glazes, using oil paint thinned with linseed oil and paint thinner.
These typically include:
Permanent Rose
Alizarin Crimson The grisaille or brunaille highlights In the copy above of a segment of
Transparent Yellow would glow through the thin veil of Virgin and Child by the Flemish artist
Sap Green translucent top velatura layer and known as Master of the Saint Ursula
Viridian create illusions of optical cool or Legend, the underpainting is set up to
Ultramarine Blue neutral halftones and form receive these two types of layered or
Dioxazine Purple development. The heavily whitened glazed effects. The whole process
Burnt Sienna areas of the light on the face or body and the final look of the painting was
Ivory Black would also show by strengthening the efficiently planned. The portrait had
overall form and values. details delineated on top to reaffirm

52 Artists & Illustrators

 IN-DEPTH

the drawing. Additional transparent

local glazes can be added to the skin
to enhance the colour of individual
features such as lips or cheeks.
Other areas of the painting might
be finished with a transparent glaze
over underpainted areas where a
velatura was not needed, such as
Ultramarine Blue over a sky, or a rich
rose colour over a garment. The whole
anticipated and planned effect of
the painting would be one of subtlety
and depth created by the two types
of glazes over a pre-prepared
underpainting. Many great painters
of the 16th century such as the Italian
master Titian also used mixed, layered
effects involving local velaturas and
glazes over prepared earth palette
or grisaille underpaintings.

3. Local glazes
A third common use of transparent
glazes – and sometimes translucent
velaturas – was as a way to make
local adjustments, corrections and
enhancements. For example, a
portrait painter might plan to directly
paint their sitter in an alla prima
manner with the idea of finishing the

Top tip
dry painting with a local transparent
glaze to darken and unify the
shadows, or to enhance the colour
or details of the features or clothing.
In this case, the artist would have Experiment with
glazes and velaturas
anticipated adding these touches.
on a discarded
In another case, the painter might
painting to see their
have realised that they had missed potential
the mark on the values of shadows
or a background or another directly
painted colour mixture, yet they liked
the brushwork or sense of form in the
painting as it was. In this instance, a
transparent, or even thin translucent
velatura could be used to correct the
area in question. For example, a
background or shadow mass of the
face could be darkened with a glaze,
or an area that was muddy or too
bright could be modified by a
transparent glaze or a milky velatura.
Some painters even like to spread
a thin glaze or velatura over a whole
painting to unify it or create other
visual and atmospheric effects.
Whether these additions are planned
or used as a correction, the practical LOCAL GLAZES Al Gury, Portrait of a Woman, oil and panel, 30x22cm
application of a glaze or velatura The shadows weren't dark enough in this alla prima portrait and reworking would be
could be very helpful as part of a mistake. Instead, I added a glaze of transparent Burnt Sienna and Ivory Black to
your artist’s toolbox. the shadows. A thin Ultramarine Blue and Sap Green glaze darkened the background.
www.algury.com

Artists & Illustrators 53

 PA I N T M E D I U M S

WAYS TO CREATE
eye-catching effects
RITA ISAAC shares a dozen different textured finishes –
and the paint mediums you need to achieve them

GRAINY AND GRITT Y IMPASTO PEAKS

The ground pumice stone in Amsterdam With a blend of beeswax, linseed oil
Pumice Middle Medium will add a grainy and Gum Damar, Zest-it Cold Wax
texture to your acrylic paintings. A gritty Painting Medium may appear to
paste consistency makes the product have a hard wax consistency, but it’s
very easy to work over any sturdy surface, actually very easy to fold into your oils
or even canvas if lighter applications and produce brilliant impasto effects.
are used. Apply it to any surface primed for
You can either apply it neat directly oils and it’s great for holding crisp,
from the tub or mix it with acrylic paint sharp peaks, retaining the range of
first. It’s perfect for painting sandy textures you create. It also dries to a
beaches and creating concrete textures matt, waxy finish and will speed up
in urban landscapes. your paint’s drying time.

3D EFFECTS
With a smooth, mousse-like texture,
the lightweight Winsor & Newton
Modelling Paste is easily worked
with a palette knife to add body and
wave-like effects to your acrylic art.
Use it neat or tinted with paint, and
as it is white and fully opaque, your
colours will lighten. To create large
areas of texture, apply the product
neat and paint over it once dry.

54 Artists & Illustrators

 PA I N T M E D I U M S

TEXTURE AND TOOTH

Zest-It Marble Dust, Slate Dust and Limestone Dust are extracted in the UK and ground into
a fine grain to make the perfect addition to the Zest-It Cold Wax (see 2). Blended easily with
a palette knife, the mediums create a gritty consistency capable of holding impasto marks.
For a softer look, opt for the limestone version while the slate gives a slight grey colouration.
Not only can the dusts be mixed with oil paints, but they can also be used in a base for
acrylic washes, as a water-resistance texture and to produce increasing depth in artworks.

SATIN SHEEN
Straight out of the bottle, Gamblin Neo
Megilp has a jelly-like consistency, but it
mixes readily with oil paint, transforming
into a silky gel with a viscous texture.
It’s very easy to drag and manipulate with
brushes or even a palette knife, and also
extends the oil paint and improves its flow
without diluting or inducing bleeding.
Plus, the paint’s transparency is also
increased without compromising its
colour vibrancy. Producing a satin finish,
it dries at a medium pace when applied
in thin layers.

BEFORE AFTER

TRADITIONAL GLOSS
To recreate that gloss finish typically associated
with traditional oil painting opt for the high-oil
C Roberson & Co Medium 1810. It can be mixed
in various ratios to improve the flow of your oil
paints with no fear of losing the vibrancy of
your pigments.
Despite its thickness, it’s also a brilliant
blending aid, enabling seamless colour transitions
and soft edges. Simply use with brushes or a
palette knife on any surface primed for oil paints.

Artists & Illustrators 55

PA I N T M E D I U M S
CRAQUELURE
To replicate the delicate effect of old,
cracked varnish, you can’t go wrong with
this two-step Applicraft Craquelure
medium. Start by applying the base coat
over a dry surface of acrylic or oil paint,
making sure not to overwork it. Once dry,
add the top coat and wait eight hours.
Depending on the environment,
temperature and humidity, the cracks
might start to appear. But if not, apply a
small bit of dark oil colour to a cloth and
use it to go over the surface in a buffering
motion to make the cracks more evident.
56 Artists & Illustrators
DETAILED GLAZES
When mixed directly with oil paint,
C Roberson & Co’s Glaze and Matt
Glaze Mediums create translucent
glazes that add depth and flatten out
brush marks. They’re especially suited
to high-precision paintings and, as
their names suggest, the standard
glaze medium (below right) dries to
a gloss finish while the matt version
(below left) imparts a satin look.
A thin layer over a painting can also
highlight or mute shimmer, but avoid
using them as a varnish.
PSYCHEDELIC PATTERNS
Designed to be mixed and poured,
these Liquitex Iridescent and Matte
Pouring Mediums create craze-free,
smooth surfaces, with unpredictable
yet mesmerising effects, making it
ideal for fluid art.
You should use about 5% acrylic
paint to 95% pouring medium to
avoid any cracking while drying.
When mixing them together, do so
slowly to prevent creating air bubbles.
It can be used on any surface
suitable for acrylic paint and, when
applied onto non-porous surfaces,
it can be peeled once dry, like an
acrylic skin.
The iridescent pouring medium
adds a pearlescent effect to the
colours while the matt version dries
to a pleasant wax-like finish.

MULTI-PURPOSE MARVEL
If you’re looking for a solvent-free
alternative to paint mediums that
will extend your oil paints without
losing the saturation and vibrancy of
the colours, Gamblin Solvent-free
Gel is the medium for you. Mix three
parts paint to no more than one part
gel (any more than this can cause
wrinkling), and the resultant mixture
will go a very long way.
Expect great flow and excellent
coverage, and despite its soft
consistency and gliding ability,
the paint manages to retain a light
texture, small peaks and brush marks.
Such credentials enables the gel to
support a broad range of techniques.
It dries at a moderate rate and to a
gloss finish.
PA I N T M E D I U M S
SMOOTH AND BUTTERY
Both low odour and non-flammable,
C Roberson & Co Safe Beeswax is an
oil medium that will extend and add
body to your paint. With a rich, butter-
like consistency, it can be mixed into
paint with a palette knife and applied
using a brush with sturdy bristles.
As it is a wax, impasto textures
and brush marks are retained and it
dries to a soft, matt finish. The drying
time is also reduced and it’s great for
creating smooth sea waves.
HIGH-SHINE SPANGLE
The unusual Amsterdam Pearl
Medium contains tiny round glass
beads to add a unique texture and
look to paintings. Although white when
wet, the medium dries completely
clear, so when applied directly in its
pure form, a translucent pearl-like
appearance is created.
However, when mixed with
transparent acrylic inks or with small
amounts of acrylic paint, the glass
beads in the medium still shine
through, creating mesmerising effects
of light and colour.
Apply pearl medium onto canvas,
board and other surfaces suitable for
acrylic paint with either a palette knife
or a brush with thick, springy bristles.
Waterproof when dry, it works best
mixed with transparent colours.
Artists & Illustrators 57
Spring FLOWERS
DEMO

Light wildflower petals against a dark green background provided

MATT JEANES with an interesting challenge. His only solution was
to work backwards, as his simple-to-follow demonstration reveals
58 Artists & Illustrators

Matt 's materials
•Paints
Winsor Lemon, New Gamboge,
Permanent Rose,
Quinacridone Magenta, Winsor
Violet (Dioxazine), French
Ultramarine, Antwerp Blue,
Cobalt Blue, Cerulean Blue
(Red Shade), Cerulean Blue,
Manganese Blue Hue, Winsor
Green (Blue Shade), Viridian,
Hooker’s Green, Green Gold,
Naples Yellow, Naples Yellow
Deep, Gold Ochre,
Quinacridone Gold, Burnt
Umber, Indian Red, Perylene
Maroon, Indigo, Payne’s Gray
and Neutral Tint, all Winsor &
Newton Professional Water
Colour pans; Permanent
White, Winsor & Newton
Designers Gouache
•Paper
Fabriano Artistico Traditional
White 300gsm watercolour
paper, 45x61cm
•Brushes
ProArte Prolene Series 007
round brushes, sizes 1, 3, 10
and 20; ProArte Prolene
Series 008 flat brushes,
size 1”; an old toothbrush
•Colourless
masking fluid
•HB pencil
•A selection of
coloured pencils
1 2
3 4
1 D r aw the s hap e s
I usually make a detailed initial
drawing on a separate piece of
paper to preserve the surface of my
watercolour paper. However, this
time I drew rough shapes directly
onto the paper for guidance, which
allowed me to keep things looser.
2 B e gin to ma s k
I masked out white highlights
with masking fluid, starting with
the flowers. I then mixed up some
yellows to paint the pistils, adding
Manganese and Cobalt blues to the
flowers and petal shadows, as well
as pale scarlets and Permanent
Rose. I added masking fluid over
these colours later, so the shapes
didn’t need to be painted precisely
here – the darker backgrounds
helped to hide rough edges later.
XXXXX
3 B lot aw ay colour
I masked the pistils, stems
and petals. When dry, I flooded the
background with a mixed wash of
various greens, yellows and blues in
different places. To give the sense
that some flowers were further away
and out of focus, I used a tissue to
blot away some of the colour around
them while this greenish wash was
still wet. When the masking fluid
was removed, these flowers would
appear to have a soft glow to them.
4 Flick ma s k ing f luid
To mimic floating seeds or
pollen, try dipping an old toothbrush
into the masking fluid and pulling
your thumb back on the bristles
to spatter it across your painting.
When rubbed off later, white dots
will have been reserved randomly.
Artists & Illustrators 59
 XXXXX
T t
o p ip
5
d pencils R emove the ma sk
Use coloure
ouache to
o r o p aque g This painting was a bit like
takes or
correct mis doing a jigsaw puzzle, piecing
s
rough edge everything together: look closely at
your reference, add some colour, let
it dry, add some more masking fluid,
let it dry, and repeat the process.
As each layer of paint was darker
and darker, you are, in effect,
painting from light to dark.
When this stage is completely dry,
carefully remove all of the masking
fluid. Your painting may look a bit
rough and ragged, but don’t give up
– there is plenty of time to correct.
6 Enrich the colour s
With the masking fluid removed,
it will need to be re-applied to
60 Artists & Illustrators
5 6
7 8
protect some white areas, such
as petals and extreme highlights.
However, you can also start to add
washes over the previously saved
areas to blend them into your
background.
I used a mix of Gold Ochre, Green
Gold, Winsor Green and Viridian to
very loosely add tints to the stems
and leaves. I then added more
masking fluid to create further
depth in the foliage and leaves.
7 B uild the s hadow s
When that masking fluid is dry,
I started to add some shadows with
Antwerp Blue, Indigo and Perylene
Maroon. Remember, not all shadows
are one colour. Surrounding colours
bounce off of each other and
little bits of light sneak through.
Look hard at your reference
and avoid resorting to black.
8 Sharp en thing s up
When I felt I had gone as
far as I could with the painting,
I carefully removed the masking
fluid. A few of the finer details
needed to be added or fixed, which
I did with paint and coloured pencil.
Concentrate on sharpening up
areas of interest and creating that
all-important sharp focus in the
foreground. Finally, a touch of white
gouache gave the sunlight on the
petals that extra sparkle.
www.matthewjeanes.co.uk
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62 Artists & Illustrators

3 BONNARD The French master inspires three drawing challenges set by
Heatherley School of Fine Art tutor and artist LAURA SMITH
in the final part of her series
W
hen I draw from another
artist’s painting, what
I am trying to do is to
search for the underlying architecture
of the picture. I want to lose myself in
it and have the artist gradually reveal
why the shape making, tones and
colours are the way they are in the
picture. I always come away with a
deeper appreciation for a painting
from which I have drawn. When it is
a great painting, such as the ones in
this series, the process helps me to
see how complex and surprising and
wonderful it truly is.
Making drawings from Pierre
Bonnard’s The Bowl of Milk, on
display at Tate Modern, has given me
an even stronger admiration for all of
its qualities, especially the last
drawing which I found difficult and
wasn’t very happy with. For this, I used
Sometimes a
drawing that you
feel wasn’t
successful has
given you more
than you realise
© TATE
D R AW I N G O L D M A S T E R S
the drawings I had made of Bonnard’s
studies for The Bowl of Milk – also in
the Tate collection – to try to invent an
alternative composition from the final
painting. Sometimes a drawing that
you feel wasn’t successful has given
you more than you realise through the
process of being made and because
of what it has taught you.
I love it when I see others draw
from paintings in a different way from
me; it is exciting to see someone
trying to make a drawing their own
imaginative interpretation. I am in
awe of the approach of using a
painting as a sort of springboard
to dive into your own world.
Whenever I’m drawing from a
painting, I can’t seem to have that
aim. I am not trying to interpret in that
kind of free way, but I’m not aiming
to imitate either. I want to be taken on
a journey with the artist themselves.
I am trying to come as close as I can
to representing my own experience of
the picture and boil that down to its
essential components.
The idea of making a slavish copy
is something Bonnard himself was
trying to avoid. He found himself so
influenced by nature that his initial
gut reaction to the subject became
diluted if he had too much contact
with it. Instead, the artist made his
paintings away from the subject,
relying instead upon small impromptu
drawings and his visual memory.
In artist Timothy Hyman’s
monograph, Bonnard, he quotes the
French painter: “It is the seduction
which determines the choice of
motif… If this seduction, this initial
conception vanishes, all that remains
is the motif, the object, which invades
and dominates the painter… I am
very weak, and it is difficult for me
to keep control in the presence of
the object.”
It is thought that Bonnard painted
The Bowl of Milk in 1919, five years
after he had had an artistic crisis.
As the First World War broke out in
1914, Bonnard was in his mid-forties
and he was dissatisfied with an
aspect of his recent paintings.
He felt his preoccupation with
colour had diminished his depictions
of form and space: “I have sent
myself back to school… I was
obsessed with colour. Almost without
knowing it, I was sacrificing form.
But it is absolutely true that form
exists, and that it is not possible
arbitrarily to reduce or transpose it.
So I shall have to study drawing…
I draw all the time.”
Over the next few years, and for
the rest of his life, drawing to record
his transient “seductions” became his
habit. In his tiny, fast, monochrome
pencil drawings, he was able to
respond immediately to fleeting
sensations, without succumbing to
unwanted naturalism.
Artists & Illustrators 63
D R AW I N G O L D M A S T E R S

EXERCISE
AIM
This exercise is designed to help you
get into the mind of the artist Pierre
Bonnard as he was constructing the
painting, The Bowl of Milk. The Tate’s
nine preparatory drawings for this
painting – available to view online at
www.tate.org.uk/collection – go a
long way to illuminating this for us.
You could equally apply the ideas to
another painting of your choice.

DURATION
Aim to spend an hour on the first
drawing, 30 minutes on the second
drawing, and as long as you wish on
the final drawing.

MATERIALS
•Three A4 sheets of paper
•Coloured pencils or pastels
•A pencil
•An eraser

SUBJECT
The Bowl of Milk was borne out of
the rigorous reshuffling of Bonnard’s
priorities outlined above. To me, all of
the artist’s paintings are about colour
but this painting is to a large degree
about light and tone and form.
The figure, possibly based on
Marthe, his lifelong partner, feels
almost regal, classical and archetypal.
In fact, Bonnard had based figures in
paintings on real statues and this
might be the case here.

The light that streams in between

STUDY the balustrades is intense and
DRAWING dramatically connects with the
objects on the table. Due to Marthe’s
poor health, the couple spent at least
a month each year staying in various
third-rate hotels in spa towns along
the Côte d’Azur in the south of France.
Bonnard would strap rolls of canvases
and unfinished paintings to the roof of
his car and work on them in different
locations and this painting was begun
in a hotel in Antibes.

WHAT YOU WILL LEARN

This exercise can help you to better
appreciate the many qualities of
a master painting and in turn be
more aware of what they are when
you come to create your own
original artworks.

64 Artists & Illustrators


COLOUR
DRAWING
PROCESS
Begin by using the coloured drawing
material of your choice to make a
drawing of Bonnard’s finished
painting, The Bowl of Milk. I chose
coloured pencil for this as it allows
you to scribble colour in layers and
so I could mimic the way the French
artist built up swathes of interlaced
dabs of paint. His method of layering
small additions allows you to see the
paint underneath coming through and
reminds me of the way his friend, the
Impressionist painter Claude Monet,
built up a kind of open weave mesh
of brush marks that create a sort of
history of the painting process.
For this first drawing, I wanted to
restrict myself to as few colours as
would convey something of the overall
colour of the painting. As I drew,
NEW
COMPOSITION
I discovered more and more nuances
of colours and they are not separate
blocks of colour but drifts of colour
that dissolve and gradate into one
another and overlay each other.
One of the things to notice as you
draw is the complicated nature of
Bonnard’s composition. It doesn’t feel
overly busy, but this is because the
tones were so carefully orchestrated.
You have clear, light areas picked out
and dark areas within which there are
some very subtle shifts in colour that
don’t interrupt the overall pattern. For
instance, the tiny vase of blue flowers
to the right of Marthe’s head and the
cat that is almost exactly the same
tone as the floor it walks across.
Next, spend half an hour making
pencil drawings based upon
Bonnard’s nine studies for The Bowl
of Milk, which can be seen on the
Tate website. Here you want to focus
on how the figures are different from
that in the finished painting. As I drew
from them, I began to notice how
much information was contained in
D R AW I N G O L D M A S T E R S
each one and how relatively casual
the poses and positions seemed
when compared to the tightly woven
construction of the finished painting.
For the final drawing, attempt to
create a new composition using the
studies to inspire you. Select between
three and seven colours for this. This
part of the challenge is designed to
help you more fully appreciate how
‘right’ the composition of the finished
painting really is. To move the cat or
the figure, for example, would change
all the emotion and balance. In some
paintings, you could move an element
happily without the whole picture
completely falling apart, but this is
not the case in Bonnard’s painting
as the composition is so precisely
weighted and woven together.
Your final drawing may, like mine,
lack anything of the tension or power
of the original composition. Rather
than seeing this as a failure, however,
I hope it also makes you love
Bonnard’s painting more.
www.laura-smith.com
Artists & Illustrators 65
H OW I PA I N T

H O W I PA I N T

Lesley
Dearn
Immersion in the West Wales coast and an exploration
of various mark making tools has resulted in a new
series of textured and thrilling landscape paintings

ABOVE Secrets
and Skies, mixed
media on board,
23x23cm

66 Artists & Illustrators


L
esley Dearn graduated with a BA in fine art
from Sheffield Hallam University in 1989.
She worked as a set designer for the likes of
BBC Wales and S4C before a brief career as a civil
servant. In 2011, she turned to art on a full-time
basis, teaching life drawing and art workshops
alongside her own painting. Her work is available
via Cardiff’s Albany Gallery and the Queen Street
Gallery, Neath. www.lesleydearn.co.uk
LANDSCAPE EXPERIENCE
The Welsh landscape is an important
part of these works. I spend much of
my time on the West Wales coast at
Newport, Angle, and Freshwater East
or West, but I also walk the Preseli
Mountains and the glorious Brecon
Beacons. All of these places lift and
invigorate me, and I feel a landscape
as much as see it. When I’m in the
landscape, painting is usually done as
part of a long walk. Travelling on foot
gives me a sense of scale and a vivid
experience of all the elements: the
wind on my face, a warming burst
of sunlight... It all stimulates my
thoughts and fires up the ideas I want
to work with. The shapes and colours
are wonderful, but it’s the atmosphere
that really inspires me, and it’s that
atmosphere that I try to capture. Welsh
weather is reliably unpredictable and
can change in the space of an hour.
Nothing gives a clearer idea of
distance, atmospheric perspective
and scale than watching a distant
landscape or coastline change as you
walk through it. Along the way I take
photos and make quick sketches –
sometimes almost without stopping
Putting a light effect down is like
trying to capture a gasp… When it
works, I get a physical thrill
H O W I PA I N T
– but, when I find a place I want to
stop, I like to paint. I’ll usually do three
or four 20-minute paintings in acrylic,
looking at different views and
concentrating on different aspects
and experimenting with ways to
reproduce them in the moment.
To capture the very specific light
effect in paintings like Spirit, you have
to first experience the moment, which
is why being outside is so important
to me. Putting a light effect down is
a bit like trying to capture a gasp.
I know when it’s working because
I get a physical thrill. It’s often more
about the feeling than it is about
planning. It doesn’t always work but
I spend a lot of time looking at what a
painting needs – sometimes that’s a
case of looking and thinking carefully
and slowly, then acting very quickly.
My paintings are mixed media.
I mainly use acrylic paint, sometimes
with watercolour or ink underneath,
and a wide range of drawing materials:
various pencils, including watersoluble
ones, and lots of charcoal.
I don’t have a specific, fixed palette,
but I do keep it to a fairly limited
number of colours in any particular
painting. At the moment I’m using lots
of Yellow Ochre, Lemon Yellow, Burnt
Sienna, Phthalo Blue, Indigo, black,
white and umber, but I will use any
colour if I feel the painting needs it.
KEEPING COLOUR FRESH
I like to have an idea of what I want
to achieve in a painting before I start
and what I want it to feel like, and
then I think about the overall
composition. Nothing is set too early,
Artists & Illustrators 67
H O W I PA I N T
BELOW Sky Rise,
mixed media on
board, 36x36cm
but I like to know the general direction
I want to go in. I usually start with
some drawing in charcoal and ink to
put the structure in and then build the
painting with layers of acrylic paint.
I tend to work all over the piece
rather than section by section, I think
paintings evolve better when I don’t
get too focussed on any one area.
There’s a mix of smooth passages,
scratchy marks and even occasional
drips of paint in paintings like Secret
and Skies. That painting was built up
gradually with lots of layering and
working back into areas. I use a
palette knife and various brushes.
I like to use flat nylon ones, either
1/2” and 1”, as you can make so
many types of mark with them, but
I also use small decorator’s brushes,
riggers and stiff, hog-hair brushes.
All the tools give slightly different
marks and I like to combine them to
create variety on the painting surface.
I play with the consistency of the
paint, usually just adding water.
The key to keeping colours fresh
is letting the layers dry, using some
68 Artists & Illustrators
opaque layers and some transparent,
and being aware of what’s happening
when you put the paint down. If it’s
starting to look muddy, I stop.
I do keep a fairly orderly palette
with plenty of space for mixing, and
I frequently clean the colours off and
put out new ones to keep them fresh.
THE BIGGER PICTURE
Like many landscape painters, I admire
JMW Turner’s work for its power
and atmosphere, and for his role in
creating the tradition of artists going
into the landscape not to copy but to
experience. Artists such as David
Tress, Joan Eardley, Donald Teskey,
Len Tabner and Maggi Hambling, their
work is full of energy, robustness and
absolute commitment.
Have the principles I learned and
developed during my time as a set
designer proved useful in my painting
career? I think so yes. I was designing
in the 1990s in Wales, just before
everyone got mobile phones and
computers, and I was lucky enough
to work on some fairly low-budget
RIGHT Spirit, mixed
media on board,
45x45cm
productions that required a lot
of creativity. This taught me to be
very resourceful. One of the main
principles that applies to both set
design and painting is to keep an
eye on the whole picture, so that
everything works together: no paper
coffee cups in a period drama!
Most of the compositional
elements required on screen can be
related to painting: you get to decide
what’s important, direct where you
want the viewer to look, and create
mood and atmosphere. And, of
course, working to a deadline is
important – I find short timelines
can work better for me.
Honestly, I don’t always know
when to put the brush down. Often
paintings tip over into what I consider
to be overworked. It’s a very personal
threshold: one person’s “energetic
painting” is another’s “unfinished
mess”. I consider a painting finished
when I look at it and I like enough
about it, it captures something of
what I originally felt, and it still has
some of the early energy visible.
One principle that applies
to both set design and
to painting is to keep an
eye on the whole picture

Artists & Illustrators 69


PROJECT
Touching
Portraits
Feeling detached from human contact?
JAKE SPICER presents three exercises that
encourage a more tactile approach to drawing
A
drawn portrait is a
collaboration between hand
and eye – our eyes dart
across the surface of our sitter’s face,
taking in edges and shadow shapes,
which our hand records in visible
marks on the page. The relationship
between hand and eye is reciprocal
70 Artists & Illustrators
and sight is not the only sense which
informs a drawing. As our eye roves
over a subject, our own skin prickles
with the empathetic projection of
contact, informed by the memory of
our tactile relationship with the world
as much as by the observation of
shapes and colours.
As our lives become increasingly
screen-based we can use drawing
as a tool for reconnecting with the
physical world, while simultaneously
broadening the vocabulary of marks
that we use to describe our
perceptions. To bring a greater
awareness of contact, form and
texture into your portrait drawing start
with your most available subject –
yourself. This article will look at some
exercises that you can employ to
connect with the tactile aspects of
portrait drawing, experimenting with
new ways of working and using what
you learn to enrich your existing
drawing approaches.
These exercises are intended to
build on another: they are easy to
do at home and could also be applied
to still-life objects that you can hold
in your hand. The first exercises are
process-led, creating unexpected
outcomes and helping you to develop
a vocabulary of marks and a
sensitivity to touch that will contribute
towards the later exercises.
Developing a better understanding
of marks that describe the experience
of touch will help you to decode other
artists’ drawings and the physical
awareness of form that is implicitly
present in pre-photographic drawing.
Since photography has become
ubiquitous, our collective approach to
observational drawing has tended to
focus on tonal shapes and the effects
of light. In turn, the tactile aspects of
drawing have become increasingly
side-lined. In this digital age, it is
important to remind ourselves that
the portraits we draw are informed
by warm, textured, human faces.
 with the mark made by your pen tip
on the paper.
Set aside 15 minutes to draw.
Secure a large piece of paper on a
drawing board and sit or stand in
front of it. Take your pen in one hand
and place the nib in the centre of the
paper. Now, close your eyes and place
the fingertip of your other hand along
the bridge of your nose. Spend a
moment focusing on what you feel
beneath your fingertip – the texture of
your skin and the resistance of bone
beneath it. Connect that feeling to the
contact that your pen has with the
page and slowly start to move your to the orbs of your eyeballs, the hard
fingertip over the bridge of your nose protrusion of a cheek bone, the soft
to the curve of your eyebrow. padding of lips over teeth. Feel

Exercise 1 Move your pen over the page,

Blind touch drawing
This exercise will familiarise you with
the idea of touch drawing. Approach
it playfully but follow the rules to get
the most from it. The exercise works
well in most media, although pen is
the least messy. The aim is to
connect the sensory experience of
your fingertip as it explores your face
making a continuous mark in
response to what the fingertip of your
other hand feels as it explores the
textures and surfaces of your face.
Do not open your eyes. As your finger
moves over your face and your pen
moves over your paper, aim to record
everything you feel, both the texture
of the surface and the feel of the
anatomy beneath it. Feel and respond
around the back and side of your
head. The drawing you are making
should not be a record of a single view.
Let the exploration come to an end
naturally and look at your drawing –
this should be the first time you have
seen it. Trace your eyes back over
those earlier marks and notice what
kinds of marks you made in response
to which surfaces or forms beneath
the skin. Save the drawing for later.

Exercise 2 recalling the feeling of bone beneath

the skin, the texture of the skin itself.
Blind surface drawing
Start to slowly look over the surface
This exercise is a continuation of the of your face and, as you do so,
last. It is intended to help you channel your eyes' journey into your
connect the physical experience hand’s movement by trying to respond
of touch to the visual experience to the textures and undulations of
of the surface of the face and is surface that you see in front of you.
best made immediately after Focus on feeling the surface and let
the blind touch drawing, while your pen respond in continuous,
the memory of physical flowing marks. Do not look back at
contact is still fresh. the drawing until your time is up.
This time, set yourself up
to draw in front of a mirror.
Keep your eyes open
and look solely at your
own reflection, without
glancing back to the
paper until you have
come to the end of the
drawing. Place your pen nib
in the centre of the paper again
and look at yourself in the mirror.
Now bring your attention to a single
point of focus at the bridge of your
nose. Imagine that your eye’s point
of focus is a fingertip and that it is
in physical contact with your nose.
Channel that feeling to your hand,

Artists & Illustrators 71

PROJECT

COMPLETE
THE PICTURE
Now let's look at how to apply the
lessons you've learned in those three
exercises to your observational drawing

CONTOUR
The edges of the body are
horizon lines beyond which
more of the head might be felt,
but not seen. As you look in the
mirror, run your finger over the
outer edge of your ear and
translate those lumps and

Exercise 3 bumps into lines.

Continuous surface drawing

This third exercise is a bridge into a more
conventional observational process and should
follow on from the previous two.
Now that you have started to channel the sense INCORPORATE TOUCH
of touch into your marks – as something directly As you draw any portrait,
perceived, or as something gleaned through touch your own face at
looking – you can use that experience to inform a the same time to remind
continuous line drawing, one that is made without yourself of the
taking your pen off the paper [above]. sensations of contact
For this exercise you can look back and forth and the resistance of
between model and drawing. anatomical masses.

TEXTURE
Borrow interesting
textural marks from your
earlier blind touch
drawing to use in your
observed drawings.

72 Artists & Illustrators

 PROJECT

WORK OUTWARDS
Experiment with new
ways of starting a portrait
– sacrifice structural
accuracy for a greater
sense of touch and start
from the ridge of the
nose, working outwards.

SURFACE DIRECTION
Use the directions of the marks you
made in the earlier surface drawings
to inform the direction of hatching
and cross contours.

Artists & Illustrators 73

PA I N T S U R FAC E S

BELOW Paul
Cézanne, Still Life
with Milk Jug and
Fruit, c.1900, oil on
canvas, 46x55cm

74 Artists & Illustrators

1. Mark
PA I N T S U R F A C E S
Making
Our former Artists of the Year winner
Norman Long presents a new series
focused on creating interesting surface textures –
beginning with a look at how to vary your marks
E
very artist has a distinctive
way of applying paint. As
Henri Matisse once said,
“Every painter with real talent
has his own matière, a way of laying
on the paint with relish, with a certain
voluptuous feel”. Think of the thick
striations of Van Gogh versus the
NATIONAL GALLERY OF ART, WASHINGTON
thin stains of Mark Rothko.
This series of articles is based
upon my online course, The Painted
Surface. I want to show you that you
can develop your own range of marks
by examining and emulating the
surfaces of the paintings you admire.
Some artists settle on fairly uniform
marks, such as Paul Cézanne’s short
diagonal brushstrokes, while others,
such as his friend Camille Pissarro,
use a great variety of applications.
Artists may vary their application
of paint from one painting to another
or even across the surface of a single
painting. The possibilities are
endless, from thick impasto to
transparent glazes, soft blending
to rough textures. Manipulating the
paint in a variety of ways adds
another level of interest for the
viewer. At times, it can also reinforce
the qualities of the subject. Pissarro,
for example, employed scumbles,
short dabs and long, curving strokes
to articulate the different properties
of foliage, water and atmosphere.
Like all elements of painting,
the surface needs to be balanced.
Literally mimicking the texture of
each object would lead to a disjointed
effect, whereas working with the
simple intention to vary your strokes
can instinctively lead to a more
sensitive response to the subject.
Varying the speed of your strokes
can also enliven your surface. Works
by Rembrandt or Degas often include
slow, quiet passages punctuated by
quick gestural marks. Slashes of
paint convey the speed and intensity
of the artist’s movements, giving a
sense of urgent emotion. Quoting
such marks directly in your own work
may feel unfamiliar and awkward to
you at first, but before long they will
be part of your own vocabulary.
When preoccupied with all the
other challenges of painting, it’s easy
to revert to simple, habitual marks.
If you find this happening, a change
of tools or technique can keep things
fresh. Try painting with a palette knife
or wide household brushes, extending
your brushes using bamboo canes,
or even taping three small brushes
together to create less predictable
marks. If you wear them, painting
without your glasses is a great way
to simplify the subject into colour
shapes. I also find that if I can’t see
my brushstrokes too clearly, I can’t
judge them, so I make marks that are
freer and less inhibited. If you really
find yourself fiddling, switch to your
non-dominant hand for a while.
Artists & Illustrators 75
PA I N T S U R FAC E S

DEMO
Varying the paint surface

Winter Warmer was painted on

hardboard primed with two coats of
acrylic gesso. A little acrylic paint was
mixed with the gesso to a light grey
base and the brushstrokes were
applied in random directions.
Often my impetus for a painting is
to understand another artist’s work.
Here I started out trying Cézanne’s
technique of using patches of colour
– rather than light and shade – to
create a sense of form. Even the
foreground cloth, which is quite flat,
was broken into colour variations.
Using hog-hair brushes, I covered
my board with a thick layer of paint
from the start (1), making an exciting
surface into which I could work.
I often hear students say, “I have to
stop now because the surface is too 1
wet”, when actually some of the most

surface. You might find that the

second time you paint something, you
do so with less patience and more
understanding of what is essential,
resulting in more direct brushstrokes.
It’s helpful to keep a mixture of stiff
and soft brushes on hand to achieve

T t
different effects. The scratchy texture

o p ip
t brushes (such as synthetics or
k areas tha
Scrape bac n sables) are best for depositing paint
– you'll ofte
don't work
directly
paint more
e ou t
second tim
2 that you want to recede in space, as
exciting effects can be achieved by
working into a wet surface.
I rarely get anything right first time
and soon found myself making lots
of changes. Next, I moved the shadow
of the cup numerous times and
simplified the foreground (2). The
base of the pumpkin was adjusted
to a smile shape (to echo the other
curves in the painting) and the mince
pie completely scraped out and
repainted at a smaller size. This might
3 sound like a lot of wasted work, but it
actually made for a more interesting
of hog hair was useful to suggest the
pages of the book, whereas softer
on a wet surface. Try to load your
brush well and drag it lightly over
the surface, as I have in the impasto
on the mug (3).
Removing paint is an equally
interesting option. Trying using a
palette knife to scrape back areas
I did with the edges of the pumpkin
and the back edge of the plate.
In doing so, the multi-directional
marks of the gesso priming were
revealed. Another effective way of
removing paint without smudging the
image is “tonking” – a method of
blotting paint that was pioneered by
Slade tutor Henry Tonks. Simply press
paper onto the surface and remove it.
You can add to the texture of this
technique by hatching across the
paper with the wrong end of a brush
before you remove it.
A mixture of hard and soft edges
gives a painting variety and

76 Artists & Illustrators

 PA I N T S U R FAC E S

movement, yet it can be difficult to

decide which edges to soften. One
way around this is to soften them all,
then go back and define those which
seem most important. Here I used
torn kitchen towel to gently drag the
paint all over the surface (4). By fluke,
the streaks coming from the mug look
like steam, so I preserved the happy
accident as evidence of my genius!
Some of the orange colour from the
pumpkin also bled into the shadow in
the mug, creating a nicer connection
than I could have planned.
Coloured outlines using a thin
brush are a fun way to enliven what
could be rather dull objects. I use lots
of these around the repainted mince
pie (5). Notice too that the thick juicy
paint is at the front of the pie, to
4 make it stand forward, while the
receding part is scraped thinner.

Artists & Illustrators 77

PA I N T S U R FAC E S
EXERCISE
Learn from the Masters
Aim
To make a copy of a master painting,
paying particular attention to the
surface quality.
Materials
•Your chosen paints
•A selection of new and old brushes
•A support that matches the
dimensions of the original painting
Subject
The ideal experience – sticking
your nose up against an original
masterpiece – is not possible at the
moment, but the Google Arts and
Culture website is great for exploring
brushwork in high definition.
What you will learn
This exercise will focus your attention
on the surface quality of a picture
and how another artist handles the
application of paint. Through close
observation, you will get a better
understanding of how certain marks
were made – and why – as well as
fast tracking your own mark-making
development.
78 Artists & Illustrators
Dragging a clean brush
through thick paint can
create subtle transitions
broad range of edges he achieved, TOP LEFT Edgar
from delicate touches defining the Degas, A Study
underside of the nose to the lost of a Girl's Head,
edge at the back of the head. The late 1870s, oil on
background, scraped on with a knife, canvas, 57x45cm
contrasts to the rich hatched impasto
in the flesh areas. The transition from ABOVE AND BELOW
NATIONAL GALLERIES SCOTLAND. PHOTO: ANTONIA REEVE
background to forehead is achieved Norman's study of
by dragging a clean brush through the Degas original
the paint.
Traditional portraiture requires
well-kept brushes, but these effects
demanded some improvisation.
Taking some old brushes and thinning
out the bristles with a craft knife
provided the solution. It turns out that
striving to echo another artist’s marks
Process can literally provide you with new
Before you start your copy, check the tools. Once the painting was finished
dimensions of your chosen painting. [below], it was also nice to have a
This will help to dictate the scale of “Degas” on my wall!
your marks. I chose Edgar Degas’ Norman’s book, Oils: Techniques and
Study of a Girl’s Head from the Tutorials for the Complete Beginner,
National Galleries Scotland collection is published by GMC Publications.
[pictured above], which measures www.normanlongartist.com
57x45cm so I found the closest
canvas I could: 61x51cm.
Next, try to identify the ground
colour and palette the artist may
Next
month:
have used. The ground may be
visible between marks, often in the
corners; for the palette, try online
How to create
research or take your best guess.
textures with
My attempt to recreate Degas’s more paint
dynamic range of marks revealed the
Irregular marks can be made by
cutting back bristles of an old brush
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• Monthly special offers
The Finest Quality Handmade Artists’ Brushes • Friendly advice and support
Sidewinder, Yapton Road, Barnham,
West Sussex, PO22 0BA
email: sidewinderstudio@btinternet.com
01243 552186 10-3 Monday – Friday
www.artistsandillustrators.co.uk
ART FOR SALE
Jacqueline Midgen
Studio 126, Wimbledon Art Studios or
Couture Collective, 659 Fulham Road
COURSES
THREE DAY
PORTRAIT
WORKSHOPS
ARTISTS WANTED Drawing/painting a live model,
RANDOLPH KELLMAN CONTEMPORARY ARTIST anatomy, colour theory/mixing.
Visit my online galleries www.rakeart.co.uk www.artists.de All abilities welcome.
Telephone 020 8889 4714 Mobile 07979842456 LINDY ALLFREY ART
STOW-ON-THE-WOLD
www.artistsandillustrators.co.uk www.lindyallfrey.co.uk
To advertise here please call 020 7349 3702
ART TUITION
JONATHAN NEWEY
Pearmans Glade, Shinfield Road,
Reading RG2 9BE
T: 0118 931 4155
E: jnewey210@gmail.com
W: www.jonathannewey.com
Distance: 75 Miles
Media: Watercolour, Acrylic, Pencils
Online live workshops and demos
running on Zoom
FOR SALE
Major George A2
etching press
Est. 15 years
£899 (no Vat)
peter@majorgeorge.co.uk
www.majorgeorge.co.uk
Artist
Commissions and products
jackiemidgen@hotmail.co.uk
07854 734 290
www.jacquelinemidgen.
wordpress.com
Visits by appointment only at
Watershed Studio
Celebrating our 20th year!
• We are looking forward to resuming our
ƉƌŽŐƌĂŵŵĞŽĨĂƌƚĂŶĚĐƌĂŌǁŽƌŬƐŚŽƉƐƐŽŽŶ
• Our spacious rural studio, extensive
grounds, pantry and covered outdoor area
are perfect for social distancing
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great food!
ͻWĂŝŶƟŶŐĂŶĚĐƌĞĂƟŶŐŝƐLJŽƵƌĞƐĐĂƉĞ
• Please stay safe and keep well
Call Allison for details:
01255 820466
Email: allison@watershedstudio.co.uk
www.watershedstudio.co.uk
St Clere’s Hall Lane, St Osyth,
Clacton on Sea, Essex, CO16 8RX
THE CLASSIFIED DIRECTORY
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PRINTING
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l Fine Art Giclée Printing Service
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l
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To advertise here please call 020 7349 3702
fabulous food
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www.eyeswidedigital.com
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info@eyeswidedigital.com
THE ART SHOP DIRECTORY
DEVON LONDON
SOUTH WEST ART RUSSELL & CHAPPLE
Old Fore Street The Canvas Specialists
Sidmouth EX10 8LP 30/31 Store Street, London WC1E 7QE
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Quality fine art materials, gallery and Custom canvases, linens, cottons and
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picture framing.
GLOUCESTERSHIRE L. CORNELISSEN & SON
19th century shop near
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Thrupp, Stroud, Glos GL5 2AZ pastels.
Tel: 01453 886560 105 Gt. Russell Street,
info@pegasusart.co.uk London WC1B 3RY
www.pegasusart.co.uk Tel: +44 (0) 20 7636 1045
info@cornelissen.com
GWENT www.cornelissen.com
THE ART SHOP & CHAPEL
8 Cross Street
LONDON GRAPHIC CENTRE
16-18 Shelton Street
Abergavenny NP7 5EH Covent Garden WC2H 9JL
Tel: 01873852690 Tel: 020 7759 4500
admin@artshopandchapel.co.uk www.londongraphics.co.uk
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LONDON SOMERSET/ DORSET
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Dedicated to sourcing and providing EASY PARKING.
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50 Station Road, Sudbury,
ATLANTIS ART MATERIALS Suffolk C010 2SP
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Unit 1 - Main Shop Bespoke Picture Framing and Artist
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Unit 6 - Office & Warehouse
Unit 7 - Paper Department NORTH YORKSHIRE
Bayford Street Industrial Centre
Bayford Street, London E8 3SE THE ARTIST’S PALETTE
1 Millgate, Thirsk,
Tel: 020 7377 8855
North Yorkshire YO7 1AA
www.atlantisart.co.uk Tel: (01845) 574457
Car parking, open 7 days. Independent artist-managed stockists
of quality materials by
INTAGLIO PRINTMAKER Winsor & Newton, Sennelier etc;
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9 Playhouse Court, WEST MIDLANDS
62 Southwark Bridge Road, HARRIS MOORE
London SE1 0AT Fine Art Supplies
Tel: 020 7928 2633 Unit 12 Minerva Works
Fax: 020 7928 2711 158 Fazeley Street
info@intaglioprintmaker.com Birmingham B5 5RT
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Wide range of tools available to try in
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sales@harrismoorecanvases.co.uk
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68 Clerkenwell Road CASS ART
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 Learning how each
pigment behaves is key to
setting up your palette

My role at Gamblin involves offering technical advice

to artists all over the world. I hope to give them the
confidence and reassurance to use oil colour to
achieve their vision. This is done via email or live chat
on our website, but we also offer one-to-one phone
consultations and hope to implement video calls soon.

One of the best aspects of my job is handling the

product. Collaborating with painters and printmakers
also gives me a lot of unique experiences. It’s amazing
to see the different things people do with the materials.

Mary
To help artists select the right products, I ask
MEET THE ARTIST questions. I try to find out about their subject matter,
studio setup, experience and stylistic approach, such
as whether or not they use multiple layers. Their pace
is also a very important consideration, as we have
products that shorten or extend the dry time.

I consider myself to be an abstract artist. I make oil

paintings and monotype relief prints, which mainly
focus on colour, rather than representational subjects.

WEISENBURGER My palette has three go-to colours. They are Phthalo

Gamblin’s product expert on helping artists
to pick the perfect colour palette.
Interview: REBECCA BRADBURY
Blue, Hansa Yellow and Quinacridone Red. I like them
because they always make the cleanest secondary and
tertiary colour mixes and have a lot of intensity to them.
I can’t paint without my tube ringer. It’s a metal
contraption that helps get every single drop of paint
out of the tube. It’s really satisfying, and I’ve got a lot
of use out of mine. You can use it for toothpaste, too.

I really admire Bridget Riley. She’s one of the best.

It’s the way she incorporated colour to make optical
illusions that influence your perception.

Victoria Finlay’s Colour: Travels Through the

Paintbox is a great book. I’d recommend it to anyone
who wants to learn about the history of pigments.
Having a deeper understanding of where they came
from can really help inform your decision making.

My favourite Gamblin product is the Neo Megilp

medium. It gives paint this really silky quality and can
make transparent glazes. I use it a lot in my artwork
to help my layers get that atmospheric feel.

Learning how each pigment behaves is key to

setting up your palette. Understanding differences
between modern and mineral pigments is crucial, too.
ISTOCK

www.gamblincolours.com

82 Artists & Illustrators

Atlantis Art, Unit 1, Bayford Street Industrial Centre, Bayford Street, London E8 3SE
Tel: 0207 377 8855 | www.atlantisart.co.uk | office@atlantisart.co.uk