PAINT MAJESTIC WINTER PINE TREES IN OIL

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 THE L AST NOTES

“Mozart Expirant” by Thomas Graveleau, Nitram Charcoal on Arches paper.

WITH NITRAM CHARCOAL

“This complex subject was inspired by a sculpture by Rinaldo Carnielo (1853-1910).
It represents the last moments of Mozart. The sculptural lighting and tight atmosphere
called for a vast palette of nuances and values. The excellence of Nitram Charcoal does
justice to the quality of the original work. The variations in hardness allow a great
flexibility of use, from the subtle background to the modelling of the face. Thus, the glow
spreads from the face and gently radiates to the rest of the subject. It should be noted
that the drawing is executed entirely in charcoal, without the addition of white chalk.
Only the highest standards in lithography should be utilized to reproduce a piece of
work such as this. I went to Bargue Encore, because they use the same equipment and
standards to produce prints like the ones that have been used to train fine artists for more
than 100 years.”
~ Thomas Graveleau

To watch Thomas Graveleau create “Mozart Expirant” using Nitram Charcoal

and see Bargue Encore create the reproductions, please visit:
https://nitramcharcoal.com/the-last-notes/ or scan the QR code

Born in Paris, Thomas Graveleau spent his childhood travelling abroad.
His parents eventually returned to France where he studied finance before
working in a Parisian bank. At the age of 33 he discovered drawing
through evening classes at the Ecole des Beaux-Arts of Valence and
decided to make art his life. There followed 3 years of studies in illustration,
after which he joined the Florence Academy of Art. Now an academic
painter, you can follow his evolution on @thomasgraveleaupainting.
Bargue Encore was created by Genta Plasari & Pierre Alloueteau, two
artists, publishers and collectors of Bargue's original lithographs. In order
to promote academic drawing they produced exceptionally high quality
prints of Charles Bargue's drawing course using the same type of press
that was used to create the originals. To learn more about Bargue Encore
visit https://charlesbargueprints.com

NITRAM
TM
MC

www.nitramcharcoal.com FINE ART CHARCOAL

 A R T I S T S & I L L U S T R AT O R S • F E B RUA R Y 2 0 2 3

Regulars
5 SKETCHBOOK Quick tips,
ideas and inspiration. Plus, this
month’s exhibitions
12 PRIZE DR AW Sell your art
with subscriptions worth £1,000
14 WE PRESENT... Portfolio Plus
member Peter Bashford
2 2 HOW I MAKE IT WORK
With portrait artist Simona
Constantin
79 YOU TELL US Write in and
win a £50 Atlantis art voucher
82 PICTURE THIS Ocean artist
Rosie Rowell on what her

30
painting means to her

Inspiration
16 IN THE STUDIO Still life
artist Ollie Tuck talks finding
beauty in everyday items
24 HOW I PAINT Animal painter
Dede Gold on her new book The
CREATIVE, Covered
30 THE BIG INTERVIEW
Ballpoint artist Habib Hajallie on
how his Lebanese and Sierra
Leonean roots influence his art
36 THE LONDON ART FAIR
We look at the 35th show and
show you its top curated sections
40 EXHIBITION Two new displays
on Turner’s middle period show
how his works focus on the light
46 THE BRITISH ART PRIZE
A sneak peak of the Private View

54 60
evening’s events
48 RESTOR ATION The £10
million redesign of Thomas
Gainsborough’s house

Techniques
54 STEP BY STEP Susan Clare
paints an underwater scene
in acrylic
60 HOW TO Lancelot Richardson
shows you how to he uses mixed
media for an animal ink tutorial
66 FOCAL POINT Al Gury
investigates the fascinating
story of colour
72 TECHNIQUE Paint serene pine
trees with Anne-Marie Butlin
ED I TO R 'S L E T T ER

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by subscribing! It’s cold
ARTISTS & ILLUSTRATORS
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Email:
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EDITORIAL
Editor
Niki Browes
Art Editor
Stuart Selner
Assistant Editor
artists@subscription.co.uk joy of colour through the ages, working with Ramsha Vistro
Online: different hues in these bleak winter months Contributors
Anne-Marie Butlin, Susan Clare, Al
subscription.co.uk/chelsea/ can be a real pick-me-up. I urge you to keep on
Gury, Amanda Hodges, Adrian
solo creating – getting in the artistic zone will take Mourby, Lancelot Richardson

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Susan Clare paints a colourful coral reef from where she lives in & PUBLISHING
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Elsewhere, we go behind the scenes at Thomas Gainsborough’s
COVER ARTWORK James Dobson
house, which has undergone an extensive £10 million restoration Publisher
By Gary Blythe
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Artists & Illustrators,
The Chelsea Magazine Company Ltd,
Jubilee House,
2 Jubilee Place, London SW3 3TQ
Phone: (020) 7349 3700
artistsandillustrators.co.uk

ANNE - MARIE BUTLIN
Anne-Marie’s paintings are
a celebration of flowers and
natural forms; the strong
structures, distinct character
and often the sheer
joyfulness of their
appearance. In recent work,
she has widened her gaze to
include more of the
landscape, drawing
inspiration from the south.  RSMA and ROI.
OLLIE TUCK
Ollie is a still life painter.
Light is integral to her
work, whilst her paintings
achieve a balance of colour
and light using everyday
objects, overlaid with a
highly decorative style with
rich textures and
a keen eye for pattern. Ollie
has exhibited with the
L ANCELOT
RICHARDSON
Lancelot is a painter and
printmaker. Drawing from
observation and
imagination are central
foundations to his practice
and his most recent work
ties these interests together
in a series of drypoint prints,
depicting urban spaces and
night scenes.  and New York.   @AandImagazine
DEDE GOLD
Dede is a painter of animals,
especially dogs. It’s the
attitude of her subjects that
interest her, not just the
outer beauty itself.
Swapping careers from law
to art, she developed her
style by combining classical
training in London and
subsequent travels to Italy
Write to us!
Send us your latest paintings,
tips or artistic discoveries and you
could win a £50 voucher:
info@artistsandillustrators.co.uk
@AandImagazine
/ArtistsAndIllustrators
@AandImagazine

4 ARTISTS & ILLUSTRATORS

T I PS • A DV ICE • EX H IBI TIONS • NEWS • R EV I EWS E D ITE D BY R AM S HA V I STRO

Assembly of Nine,
1964, oil on
hardboard,
90.5x57.4cm

Things
we love...
A large-scale exhibition
that explores the work of the
celebrated Scottish artist
Wilhelmina Barns-Graham,
from her early works inspired by
the Cornish landscape (she
moved to St Ives in 1940)
through to the abstract works
she made during the ‘60s and
early ‘70s. It is the most
significant exhibition of her
work in recent years and a
chance to engage with pieces
including those rarely seen
before in a solo museum
presentation for over 30 years.
From 11 February to 20 May 2023.
hattongallery.org.uk ▫

ARTISTS & ILLUSTRATORS 5

 Sketchbook

C R E AT I V E E S C A P E S
If you want to escape everyday life,
try something creative by painting

© NALINI MALANI PHOTO: LUKE WALKER

while surrounded by stunning
South Downs scenery. Engaging
in art has been proven to boost
mental well-being and reduce
stress. Benefits include improved
mindfulness and increased
self-awareness, not to mention the
satisfaction of going home with a

Don’t miss...
new skill or creation. Learn
something new and meet like-
minded students, returning home
feeling refreshed and ready to take The first National Gallery contemporary fellow, artist Nalini Malani will present new ways of
on the week ahead. On every day seeing well-known works of art. She has created striking new video animations, hand-drawn
© WEST DEAN COLLEGE

from 10am-6pm at West Dean using an iPad, to reveal and conceal different aspects of paintings. These include works by
College, Chichester until 12 March Caravaggio and Bronzino, and by Jan van der Venne and Johann Zoffany among many others.
2023. westdean.org.uk Rediscover them from an alternative and critical point of view. On until 8 January 2023.
nationalgallery.org.uk

BO O K OF T HE MO N TH
Join us online! Are you enjoying the rich
PIC ASSO: THE SELF - PORTR AITS
By Pascal Bonafoux
content in this magazine? Much has been said and written about Picasso’s
If so, fi nd lots more on the life and art but until now, his self-portraits have
fabulous Artists & never been studied and presented in a single book
Illustrators website. One of – many of which held in private collections. At
the biggest and best digital the suggestion of Picasso’s widow Jacqueline, the
resources for artists of all abilities, the distinguished art historian Pascal Bonafoux began
refreshing new redesign makes our How To researching Picasso’s self-portraits more than 40
guides, competitions and interviews even more years ago. This meticulously researched book
insightful to read. artistsandillustrators.co.uk presents the fruits of his decades-long project. 
Thames & Hudson, £30.00

T HE
6 JANUARY 6 JANUARY  10 JANUARY 2 2 JANUARY
Enter your drawings to The Royal Institute of The G. & A. Mamidakis The 27th Young
the Society of Graphic Painters in Watercolours Foundation Art Prize Cartoonist of the Year

D I ARY
Fine Art which has an is looking for artworks in wants visual artists for competition is now open.
emphasis on excellence watercolour or water- works in Crete. Three Winners will receive
in drawing. It costs £20 soluble mediums. Six artists will each receive prize money and a
Open calls, per work and the prize winners will win prizes €14,000. Free to enter. certificate, presented at
prizes and artist fund totals over £2,000. worth £6,500. Fee: £14-20. gnamamidakis The Cartoon Museum.
opportunities sgfa.oess1.uk mallgalleries.org.uk foundation.org cartoonmuseum.org 

6 ARTISTS & ILLUSTRATORS

 DAVID SHEPHERD WILDLIFE FOUNDATION

WILDLIFE ARTIST OF
YEAR 2023
THE

ARE YOU THE NEXT DSWF WILDLIFE

ARTIST OF THE YEAR?
CALL FOR ENTRIES

DSWF’s internationally renowned

wildlife art competition welcomes
entries by amateur and professional
artists in aid of endangered wildlife.

Entry period open between

5 th January to 29 th March 2023

Exhibition to launch in
September 2023

OVERALL WINNER:
£10,000 prize package*

RUNNER UP:
£2,000 prize package*

To find out more,

please visit our website

* made up of a personal cash prize

and a conservation donation to a
DSWF project of the winner’s choice

Music to their ears
Five leading artists talk to Ramsha Vistro about their favourite
things to listen to while they paint
Ice Cream
Sundae,
2022, oil on
canvas,
50x70cm
SAR AH GR AHAM
I adore Go or Go Ahead
by Rufus Wainwright.
I’ve loved Rufus ever
since I discovered him
almost 20 years ago.
His unique theatrical
pop and velvety voice
has been the soundtrack to my entire career.
This song is just so beautiful, the way it starts
softly and builds into a huge, layered sound; I
get completely lost in it. Recently I have been
obsessed with the singer-songwriter Self
Esteem (Rebecca Lucy Taylor). Her music is
quite simply brilliant. I find her music really
empowering. It lifts me up, which is so
important for me when painting.
sarahgraham.info
HASHIM AKIB
The soundtracks to my paintings are
generally cheesy 80's tracks. I can
listen or paint along to the group
Khruangbin all day and night. I’m
also a huge fan of audiobooks,
anything educational or historical.
Some can spread over weeks as 16
hours of listening can be quite a
marathon in one go. I feel I can learn passively
while painting. A recent great listen was a
fantastic audiobook by Will Gompertz called
What are you Looking at? 150 Years of Modern Art
in the Blink of an Eye. hashimakib.co.uk
Sketchbook
You Got a Fast
Car, oil on
canvas,
61x91.5cm
GARY ARMER
Beach Dance,
I listen to quite an eclectic
oil on canvas, range of music in the studio
76x50cm with anthemic Indie and
Britpop bands such as The
Verve and James as real
favourites. Music also plays a
key role in helping me name my paintings
as I often use song titles, lyrics and band
names such as Fast Car and The Farm. I
regularly listen to podcasts too and am a
big fan of the John Dalton Gently Does It
podcast, which is a must listen for any
representational artist. Electronic dance
music is the genre I listen to most though.
Having either chilled or upbeat progressive
music playing really helps me concentrate
and get into a flow state when painting.
garyarmer.co.uk
Waiting to
JENN Y AITKEN
Welcome You
Generally, I need Home, oil
backdrop music: on canvas,
atmospheric sounds 60x80cm
where my awareness
can happily dip in
and out. Classical
tends to distract me too much unless it is
Vaughan Williams. My current favourite –
it might sound predictable, but it’s only
been for this last year – is Radiohead and
Thom Yorke. A perfect orchestral blanket
of sound with plenty of abstract moments
for full painting concentration. Hypnotic,
ambient soundscapes – but not too dull, GREG MASON
because that’s a distraction in itself. I’m I remember working on a
always looking for the next amazing thing. large canvas based on the
jennyaitken.co.uk interior of an earthquake-
damaged building in Italy,
listening over and over to a
piece of modern classical music of chimed
church bells echoing over a haunting strings
melody. It gave me that feeling I needed to be
transported back to the place; it was like a
requiem and helped me paint in the mood of
the original moment. In contrast, when I
need to harness energy and endurance, a
dose of Bowie on shuffle always does the
trick. Apart from being a consummate
musical artist, his thoughts on the creative
process are inspirational for those of us who
Majestic, acrylic
find taking risks something of a challenge.
on stretched As he once said, ’Don’t fake it baby, lay the
canvas, 60x50cm real thing on me.’ gregorymason.com
ARTISTS & ILLUSTRATORS 9
 Sketchbook

T H E B E S T A R T S H OW S T O V I S I T F R O M JA N UA R Y O N WA R D S

© NIGEL COOKE, COURTESY PACE GALLERY, PHOTO: ROBERT GLOWACKI

PANTERA, 2022, OIL AND ACRYLIC ON LINEN, 225CM×164CM
NIGEL COOKE: ATL AS WITH BUT TERFLY
Until 7 January 2023
THE GREAT PASSION: RESURRECTION OF CHRIST, 1510, TRIMMED PLATE APPROXIMATELY 40X28.7CM, WOODCUT ON PAPER

This solo exhibition marks Nigel Cooke’s first display

with PACE gallery in six years. This new body of work
signals a significant moment for Cooke as he brings his
expansive abstract paintings to London for the first
time since his practice shifted in 2019. Cooke
reimagines the Ancient Greek icon with a delicate,
diaphanous creature, reflecting his own interrogation
of the immense systems that govern the natural world.
5 Hanover Square, London W1S 1HQ. pacegallery.com

MATTHEW BURROWS IN AND THROUGH

ILLUSTR ATING THE WORLD: biblical images are normally Until 8 January 2023
TOPOLOGY I, 2022, ACRYLIC ON BURLAP, 200X200CM

WOODCUTS IN THE AGE OF
DÜRER
24 January to 23 April 2023
The New Year will see visitors to Bath’s
Holburne Museum which offers a rare
opportunity to see a complete set of
twelve woodcut prints by the most
celebrated artist of the German
Renaissance, Albrecht Dürer (1471-
1528). Known as the Great Passion, the
inaccessible in their entirety, as they
are most frequently bound into an
album or incomplete. Especially for
Illustrating the World: Woodcuts in the
Age of Dürer, these beautiful images
detailing moments in Christ’s Passion
have been framed, allowing the viewer
to appreciate the full cycle.
Great Pulteney St, Bath BA2 4DB
holburne.org
This is Burrows’ first solo exhibition since his
conception and launch of the Artist Support
Pledge. You will see new, larger works; the fruition
of his In and Through series which he developed
during the pandemic. These paintings reflect
Burrows’ interest in connection, ‘to ourselves, one
another, and our environment.’
Wellington Arch Museum, London W1J 7JZ
english-heritage.org.uk

10 ARTISTS & ILLUSTRATORS

 STANLE Y SPENC ER
MOST LOVED
WORKS
Until 26 March 2023
The Stanley Spencer
Gallery is delighted to
present Most Loved
Works, an exhibition
that will reveal the
Gallery volunteers’ most
loved works and why

THE ANGEL, COOKHAM CHURCHYARD (C.1936-37), OIL ON CANVAS, 79.7CMX69.5CM, © STANLEY SPENCER GALLERY
they mean so much to
the community.
Highlights include The
Last Supper, set in the
Cookham malthouses BIG WOMEN: CUR ATED BY
and painted just across SAR AH LUC AS

SHE FORGOT, 1984, GOUACHE ON BOARD, 118X83.5CM, © SONIA COODE-ADAMS MBE

the river at Bourne End; 11 February to 18 June 2023
visitor-favourite Sarah Lucas, one of Britain’s most
Neighbours; and celebrated artists, will curate a
paintings from major exhibition at Firstsite in
Spencer’s Wedding at 2023. Under the headline BIG
Cana series, which WOMEN, the Colchester gallery
weave Biblical stories will showcase work by leading
into scenes from village female artists and promises a
life. The exhibition will wealth of diverse artworks to
be a rare opportunity to view and enjoy – plus a few
see the best-loved works surprises too.
on display at once. Lewis Gardens, High Street,
High Street, Cookham, Colchester CO1 1JH
Berkshire SL6 9SJ firstsite.uk
stanleyspencer.org.uk

SMALL WONDERS
Until 7 January 2023
A unique exhibition that
focuses on biodiversity,
wildlife and landscape
has been developed at St
Barbe Museum and Art
Gallery. It celebrates
plants, animals and
habitats which are
sometimes overlooked but
remarkable and most
likely under threat from
climate change, sea level
rise, pollution or intensive
farming methods. Based
on the work of
contemporary artists, the
ANGIE LEWIN, MACHAIR, SCREENPRINT, 33.5X46CM

exhibition reminds us of
the richness of British
wildlife while
highlighting the
precarious situation many
species are now found in.
St Barbe, New Street,
Lymington SO41 9BH
stbarbe-museum.org.uk

ARTISTS & ILLUSTRATORS 11


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Enter our prize draw and sell your artworks effortlessly
with MAKEROOM BY ROOMFIFT Y
elling prints of your work online may
S sound simple but it can prove to be a
lot of work, not to mention costly.
Due to this, many artists are put off and
aren’t able to make the income they are
capable of. That’s why Artists & Illustrators
has teamed up with MakeRoom this month
to give five lucky winners the chance to win
an annual pro subscription to a service that
allows artists to sell prints directly from
their own website.
MakeRoom by RoomFifty is backed with
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all the hassle of selling art and provides
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each receive an annual Makeroom Pro
Enter by noon on 28 February 2023, either
income streams. Not only will they print
your art for you, but they will also ship it to
your customers which will, in turn, reduce
charges and your carbon footprint.
So, how does it work? A MakeRoom store
only takes a few minutes to set up, after
which you can link and sell directly from
your own site. You only pay for the prints
you sell, which means: no dead stock.
MakeRoom was developed by designer
Chris Clarke and illustrator Leon Edler,
who wanted to use everything they had
built to allow all creators – from hobbyists
to fine artists – to sell their pieces online by
adding a shop to their existing site to
produce an additional income without all
the work and hassle that comes with it. To
find out more, visit mymakeroom.com
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THE HEATHERLEY
SCHOOL OF FINE ART
Chelsea. Established 1845.

Post Diploma in
Figurative Painting www.heatherleys.org

SARA MELLY
 This
m o n t h ’s
spotlight on a
Portfolio Plus
member

PETER BASHFORD
An acrylic abstract artist who aims
to create the feel of a place and the
emotion it arouses

P
eter Bashford discovered his
love for art at the age of 13, when he
painted a boat drawn up on the beach
with his first set of oil paints. “I was
entranced. As a dyslexic mid-teen – at a time
when dyslexia had not been discovered – I used
painting and drawing as a means of expression.” 
His biggest influences were Graham
Sutherland, Cezanne and Ansell Adams’
photographs of Yosemite. “I was a poor reader
but loved visiting the local library where I would
look at books on artists, maps and photographs.” 
When it comes to his subject of choice,
Peter paints what excites him. This could be
“a landscape, a dry-stone wall or people in the
street, but it’s the cliffs and the sea that I love
the most. I love to experiment and often find
that, in approaching a landscape, I end up
concentrating on the small things around me.”
While Peter is happy to do a painting for
others, commissions make him uncomfortable.
“If the subject is dictated, I feel stifled and
struggle to start. When it is completed, I often
feel it lacks the movement and emotion I want.”
Peter’s work is about abstracting the
landscape, but the happenings of the world
often affect his mood and thought patterns. He
approaches his paintings with rough sketches
and value studies out in the environment and
then works in the studio using them as source
material to create a finished work. 
“I love the Nina Simone quote, ‘Artists
should reflect their times.’ It is impossible to
avoid influences, but the main thing is to not
consciously use those influences in the way you
paint. We all strive for individuality through our
approach, but modern times saturate the artist
with multiple images on a daily basis. At any
stage in the day, most clouds look pretty much
Being There,
the same, but they are all different.”
acrylic, 33x40cm
portfolio.artistsandillustrators.co.uk/peter-
bashford ▫

14 ARTISTS & ILLUSTRATORS

Blowing a Hooley,
acrylic, 42x60cm

At the Dark End of

the Street 1, acrylic,
40x40cm

ARTISTS & ILLUSTRATORS 1 5

 Herrings on
willow spode, oil,
20x25cm

16 ARTISTS & ILLUSTRATORS

 H OW I WO RK I N TH E STU DIO

This still life artist finds the beauty in everyday

items, painting in oil from her quaint cottage
studio in Surrey, discovers Ramsha Vistro ▸

ARTISTS & ILLUSTRATORS 17

 reativity is one of the
defining features of
Ollie Tuck’s family. Her
brother is a talented sculptor
and model-maker in the film
and TV industry, while
her mother can turn her hand to many
creative mediums from cooking to
upholstery; she even made Ollie’s wedding
dress earlier this year.
Being surrounded by creativity certainly
made it easier for Ollie to pursue her
passion for art. “I can’t think of an exact
moment when my love of art began, which
means it was always there. I always had the
compulsion to create and as I progressed
through school, I also became fascinated
with art history. Warhol and his studio
captured my curiosity, and my exploration
of other artists began from there. I was
fascinated with trying to understand how
it was possible to make a career out of
painting because, from an early age, we
are consistently told that it is not a
realistic career choice,” she says.
 Ollie began her art journey by painting
portraits of friends and family, mainly
because those were subjects that she had
easy access to. Around the age of 17, she
started visiting exhibitions and remembers
“being inspired by the BP Portrait Award. I
began to discover artists like Benjamin
Sullivan, Henrietta Graham and of course,
Lucian Freud. I loved studying their
brushstrokes and trying to understand
how each artist applied paint. We didn’t
have any formal training for painting at
school, so it became a personal process of
learning through practice and observation.
I quickly realised that colour was a defining
feature of my work, and it is this – as well as
the enjoyment of paint application – that
still excites me; even though the subjects
have changed.”
 She now paints still life, particularly food
items, the love for which stemmed from
daily visits to her local farm shop and
Sunflowers, oil
fishmonger during lockdown. “I think we all
on board,
had to start seeing the beauty in everyday 40x40cm
things at that time and I found it mostly in
seafood. I love the colours and the light that
you can find in these subjects, which aren’t “certain energy that only exists for me in the easier to move onto new subjects quicker. I
often celebrated.” She frequently pairs the early stages of a piece. If I spend too long on tend to become infatuated with a particular
purchase of her painting subjects with the a painting, it becomes overworked.” She subject or idea and end up painting it
ingredients for her evening meals, and the loves working in oils and feels that she still multiple times until I feel I have represented
fabrics and crockery are all items that she has so much to achieve with this medium it satisfyingly or until the idea has been so
collects and uses in her home. “I always say and its endless applications. Thus, she has overworked that it is no longer fun to paint.”
that I’m not trying to change the world, I’m no desire to use anything else – at least for  By contrast, Ollie is rather disciplined in
trying to decorate it.” now. While she doesn’t lack inspiration, her approach to her working day, out of
 Ollie tends to work quite quickly when Ollie does have a difficult time moving on both nature and necessity. In the early
painting, partly due to the fleeting nature of from certain subjects. “I always have the hours of the morning, she walks her Bichon
her subjects and partly because there’s a desire to paint but would prefer to find it Frise, Monty, so they can settle in for the

18 ARTISTS & ILLUSTRATORS

 HO W I WO RK I N TH E ST U DI O

Three whole red

mullets, oil,
25x30cm

I always say that I’m not trying to change the

world, I’m trying to decorate it

rest of the workday. She keeps a

comprehensive spreadsheet of exhibitions,
commissions and painting ideas that she
looks at for focus before she starts each day,
and sticks to conventional office hours to
combat the separation she sometimes feels
from the rest of the world.
Fresh From The
“The hardest part of the job for me is Fishmongers,
working alone. I envy people who have high RSMA, oil on
levels of interaction with colleagues in the board, 25x30cm
workplace. But the benefits far outweigh ▸
 Cornish Crab, oil,
20x25cm

Asparagus, oil,
20x40cm
 H O W I WO RK IN THE STUD IO

the downsides, and I can’t focus much in

Scottish
a busy studio anyway. I find that if I am Langoustines,
structured and diligent with my approach oil, 15x22cm
to the business side of work, I am somehow
able to create more free space in both my
schedule and my mind for the fun part:
the painting.”
Ollie paints from the cosy front room of
her 16th-century cottage in Surrey, with
passers-by peeking in through the large bay
window to see what she’s working on. Her
morning cup of tea is paired with the task of
responding to emails on her laptop, while
she’s squeezed onto Monty’s favourite
armchair – where he is usually fast asleep –
by the fireplace at the other end of the room.
She often takes inspiration from behind this
chair, where you’ll find a gallery wall of
small paintings by artists including Amanda
Coleman, Tim Scott Bolton and Andrew
Farmer. “We bought a lot of these pieces Lobster on a
during lockdown, when artists were selling platter, oil,
15x22cm
smaller paintings for affordable prices. I love
this little collection and frequently look at
these pieces for inspiration.”
 She believes that most artists’ works are
an amalgamation of all other artists – living
and historical – that have inspired them;
with the main difference being how these
inspirations are processed. “I know that I
tend to use bright colours which people
seem to be drawn to. However, this is not
a conscious decision, it is simply how I see
things. Colour is something I have a
natural affinity for.”
Ollie hopes to create paintings that people
will get their noses right up against, to
study the brushwork of, before stepping
back and seeing it as a whole. She enjoys the
constant learning process and development
of skills that come through art. “There can
be many days and weeks of painting where
I feel like I’m not achieving much in my
practice. But there will also be days when
something clicks and I feel like I have a
breakthrough in the way I have approached
a subject, and the work feels like it is
moving forward. Those days at the easel are
pure magic and there is no greater feeling.”
She’s looking forward to moving to
Sussex soon, where she and her husband
have bought their first home together; a
Georgian townhouse. “One of the main
attractions was the space on the top floor
where I will set up my studio. After all this
time living in a place surrounded by my
work, it will be an amazing feeling to be
able to close the door on all of the mess at
the end of the week. I couldn’t be more
excited to get into the space and see how the Fresh Prawns,
oil on board,
new environment will influence my work.”
15x22cm
 ollietuckart.com ▫

ARTISTS & ILLUSTRATORS 21

G U ES T C OL U M NIS T

H OW I M A K E I T WO R K

Simona
Constantin
A portrait artist who paints women to depict the purest form
of emotion and uses social media in her favour

I
worked as an orthodontist for
many years, creating art in SIMONA’S TIPS
another form. I was ON HOW TO
programmed into old beliefs
MAKE IT AS A
regarding the financial stability
a doctor’s job can offer, but when FULL-TIME ARTIST

1
you feel like you’re pedalling but
not moving forward, that may be
a sign you’re not in the right
place. That’s the moment when
you should have your eyes and
heart wide open and shift your Be brave and take the
focus to go after what fulfils your first step into the
soul and lightens up your energy. unknown. 
That is exactly what I did and I’m It won’t always be easy,
so happy it led me here. but you’ll learn more
 My canvases have become a from the hard times than
spiritual playground and my the easy ones. The trick is
current goal is to focus on to not give up and keep on
investigating the deepest inner following your dream.

levels of our beings and
channelling them through
women, objects and entities;
creating immersive stories for
the observer to challenge them.
 I was lucky enough to grow
a remarkable following on
Instagram in a very short time
which allowed me to, not only
share my inspiration and works
with a vast community of artists
2
Practice, practice,
practice. 
Find a mentor and follow
Cinderella, acrylic,
in their footsteps, but use
pastel, charcoal and
ink, 120x160cm your unique voice
throughout your journey.

3
globally, but also reach
prominent collectors. I get
professional help with my social
media presence and this is
crucial as it allows me to focus on
my work, but also participate in Start with the ending in
the content creation process. mind but don’t forget to
 Every artist should know how enjoy the journey.
to leverage social media in their Use all marketing
favour; using all the right streams you can think of,
platforms to market their let people know about
artworks as well as getting in your gift and share it with
Year 2051, them; invite them to your
contact with galleries, art shops
acrylic and
and interior designers, which journey and celebrate it.
pastel,
also play a big role in our careers. 100x120cm The rewards will follow.
simonaconstantinart.com ▫

2 2 ARTISTS & ILLUSTRATORS

Henry, oil,
100x70cm
 HO W I WO RK HOW I P AINT

An Irish artist living in London, animal painter

DEDE GOLD meticulously planned her career in art.
Now, she’s written a book about what she’s learned
along the way, which will be an invaluable tome for
those also wishing to take the leap, says Niki Browes

D
ede Gold was brought up on the
south coast of Ireland and oscillated
between a strict convent education
and a more free-range quaker
school, depending on how her grades were
going; anything less than a B and she was
hiked back down the hill to the nuns. The
Quaker school was brilliantly attentive to the
importance of the arts, sports and individual
self-expression: it was as much about creativity
as curriculums. She can still hear her art
teacher’s words calling after her and her
friends as they headed into town to ‘look up;’
he was encouraging them to remember to
look beyond the tips of their noses and their
immediate orbit, and let the imagination
wander to see what it stirs within; ultimately
a great lesson for life and art.
Still, a career in law followed and, after the
end of her marriage, she attended classes at
Lavender Hill Studios (now London Fine Art
Studios) as a form of therapy. It lifted her heart
in unexpected ways, igniting her passion. 
She took the route to become a professional
in two stages, and would recommend it. For
three years, she worked part-time in a gallery
and trained intensely in her art for another two
days a week. She built towards her first
exhibition, hiring a space in Mayfair for a short
and to-the-point show. “I needed to see if there
might be anything in my art that would appeal
to an audience beyond my mother and my best
friend,” she laughs. She subsequently sold a
convincing number of paintings, which gave
her the confidence to throw her hat into the
full-time ring. That was 12 years ago and she’s
just published a book, The CREATIVE, Covered,
predominantly as a companion to help other
creatives short circuit their learning curves. ▸

ARTISTS & ILLUSTRATORS 2 5

H O W I W O R K H O W I PA INT

The book is my
retrospectively
compiled roadmap
for others on this path

There’s Always
One, oil,
56x61cm

Regrets - I’ve Had

a Few, oil,
76x94cm

The creative life can be hugely

fulfilling and rewarding, but it
brings its challenges too: emotional,
physical and practical. 
It is rarely a straightforward path and the
going can get a bit bumpy at times. I wrote
the book following years of professional ups
and downs, wipe-outs and wonder
moments, and all the lessons these brought.
It is for anyone who takes their creativity
Chillibean, oil, seriously, not solely those pursuing a
60cm diameter creative career. Having said that, I very

26 ARTISTS & ILLUSTRATORS

much include the business and legal nuts
and bolts for those that take the leap. So, it
is my retrospectively compiled roadmap for
others on this path for it to be as productive,
enjoyable and successful as possible. If the
learnings in my rear-view mirror can help
replace others’ breakdowns with
breakthroughs, then I’ll consider them
well-shared.
I trained in grown-up portraiture but
found I had no oomph in my brush
strokes and just couldn’t find that There is an unguardedness about animals,
connection to my subject.  whether a soulful canine or cocky cockerel
Ultimately, I think I found painting people or naughty Shetland pony. It’s an honesty;
intimidating. Walking home every day took they are expressive of love or suspicion or
me through Battersea Park and it was there majesty or mischief. 
I met these fabulous animals that basically
told me I needed to paint them instead. I I always take photographs as I couldn’t
had a moment of complete clarity when nail the anatomy of each unique animal
I saw a bounding chestnut dalmatian and without solid reference points. 
I thought, ‘I want to capture that.’ It wasn’t I will spend a few hours with my subject –
an aesthetic, it was a feeling and it all without the owner, with treats! – and take
followed from there.  up to two thousand photographs on burst ▸
ARTISTS & ILLUSTRATORS 27
H OW I W ORK H OW I P A I N T
Sympatico, oil,
79x110cm

My Favourite
Jumper, oil,
60cm diameter

Pretty in Pink,
oil, 40x50cm
 shutter speed. This is usually at eye level,
often on my tummy; my pride takes a hike
to get the shots I need. It takes time for the
animals to relax into me, to settle down and
to open up. I think it’s important to use
photography as a solid point of reference
but not to be wedded to one image for the
purposes of direct representation. Robert
Henri was interesting on this; you want to
use photographs to remind you how you felt
in the presence of your subject to stimulate
you from there on.  to get. The trajectory to success will
Like many, I follow the light for the
sake of an accurate palette so like to be
painting by 8.30 am.  are doing something very right. On a
The primetime productive slot for me is the
9.30-11.30 am window when the high-
octane action happens to good music on a
caffeine high before over-analysis creeps in.
Every day I set up with three or four
works on the go like musical canvases.   A great piece of advice from the book?
I find if I’m working on a few at the same
time, advancement in one can inform the
other. It’s as if they pull each other along. I
rotate throughout the week to determine
which one gets the primetime productive first
slot; however if I then find that one is really
working, I’ll stay with it for longer. For me
working on more than one thing at a time
keeps me in the positive place I need to be.  beginning of a wonderful path for me.
At least one will be working, maybe two,
possibly three. I try to ignore my telephone
and the pull of the fridge until I’ve got in
Thelma, oil, some solid progress under my belt. When the
25x18cm
good light has gone, I’ll head out for a walk or
maybe do a bit of yoga, if I’m feeling
wholesome. Admin happens later, then a
cheeky vodka and a read by the fire.  Then make your plan – and aim high!
The National Portrait Gallery has
been my touchstone for inspiration
since I began.  be? Pitch out into the future and work
On iffy painting days, I down tools and go
and breathe those masterpieces in. Hero-
wise, historically it’s John Singer Sargent,
of course, and then the contemporary work
of Jonathon Yeo, which I adore. There is a
particular painting, The Royal Court Theatre
Directors by Justin Mortimer that really hit
me early on; something in me changed
when I saw it. I was compelled by its
composition in a way that I wanted to
physically get into that painting to be part
of it and find out what was going on. It was
beyond aesthetically pleasing; it asked
something of me and I wanted to be
involved. To be honest, it kick-started
something deep within that’s been buzzing
ever since. Isn’t it amazing how some pieces
just get to you? 
I think we often only ever feel as
good as our last piece of work so for
longevity’s sake we have to find a
more constant barometer to refer to
for our sense of success. 
It will be subjective and vary but for me, it
was being able to rely on my art for my
income and hitting the milestones I put in
place in my vision for my art when I started
out. These were gallery representation,
selling out shows and commissions I hoped
always be a zig-zag but as long as we are
creating art that is true to ourselves with
forward momentum for artistic growth, we
more romantic wavelength, if we wake up
each day looking forward to our work,
this suggests a flow and alignment with
our own sense of purpose and self; the
icing on the cake. 
 
Do your due diligence at the outset to
understand your outgoings and overheads
so that you have a clear picture of how this
needs to work as a business for you. Unless
finances aren’t an issue, it’s never a ‘Let’s
see how it goes, lads’ scenario. I would
recommend having a show like I did. I kept
costs low and hopes high and it was the
Consider sharing the exhibition with one or
two contemporaries. It can lessen the
pressure and costs and widen the reach: a
win-win. You need to get your work out
there to take the temperature of how it all
might work for you. 
What galleries would you love to represent
you? Do you want to work on commissions?
If so, what would that dream commission
backwards, setting up a timeline of
achievable short-term actions to reach
your long-term worthy goals. I did this at
the very beginning and I’m now proud to
say that I painted a special commission
for HRH The Princess of Wales. Be
tenacious, persevere and believe in your
craft. When you’ve put in the groundwork:
go for it. And don’t forget to enjoy it along
the way. ▫
The CREATIVE,
Covered is out now.
For stockists,
visit: dedegold.com
ARTISTS & ILLUSTRATORS 29
T H E B I G I NT ER V IEW
Ballpoint pen artist HABIB HAJALLIE’s
practice is informed by his Sierra Leonean
and Lebanese heritage in the representation
of figures that have been left out of British
portraiture. Niki Browes finds out more
3 0 ARTISTS & ILLUSTRATORS
S
ince he was a child, Habib Hajallie has been drawing
with ballpoint pens and remembers being constantly
reprimanded – “Habib!” – for drawing all over his textbooks
when he was at school. Inexpensive, unassuming and
readily available, the humble biro pen is unlike other fine
art instruments and, with the medium, he wants to break down
barriers of entry for people that may not usually be interested in art.
After all, drawing with a pen is something that everyone has access to;
his aim is simply to try to elevate the scope of what one may think is
possible with a simple pen. 
Having been born in Bermondsey, southeast London, Habib moved
to Kent with his family when he was six years old. The first generation
of his family to be born in England – his older siblings and parents are
from Freetown, Sierra Leone – he’s aware of how fortunate he is to
have been born in the UK, which has allowed him the opportunities
that previous generations of his family did not have access to.
Habib’s work is heavily influenced by his Lebanese and Sierra
Leonean heritage in particular and, within his portraiture, he looks
to celebrate people from ethnic minority backgrounds. Using a
monochrome medium – such as the black ballpoint pen to champion
black and brown figures – allows him to show that there is more to an
individual than just the colour of their skin. Due to a historical lack of
representation, he feels a responsibility to depict such individuals who
have not always been given the visibility that they deserve. ▸
Mammy Yoko,
ballpoint pen and
coloured felt pens,
30x42cm
Building rich layers of tone with each
precise stroke of the ballpoint pen allows
for an almost three-dimensional, realistic
depth that has kept me fascinated with
using the medium.
This process of mark-marking is influenced by
sketches from the high renaissance. As a society,
we’re constantly drifting away from analogue
ways of working in every sense. Through an
almost contradictory process of using this
relatively modern art medium with a classical
approach to mark-making; I look to celebrate
authentic drawing within the digital age. 

I’ve used every brand of pen over the

years although, for the past few, I’ve
been using Staedtler as I find the ink
flows best and blots less. 
I have a spare piece of paper next to any drawing
that I am working on. I use it to scrape off excess
ink that builds up when gently building up the
layers of tone. Before the pen ever touches
paper on an artwork, I must test the line on the
spare piece of paper. If you don’t do it, then
mistakes are more likely to happen.

Placing myself or family members as the

subjects of my portraits evokes a sense of
immediacy, apropos to navigating the
intersection of my western upbringing
and familial west African culture.
I call upon anecdotal references to portray
scenes that are occasionally quasi-surrealist
representations; the drawings look to confront
lingering ethnocentrisms that are still
embedded within modern western society. I’m
conscious of representing figures that have
historically been conspicuously omitted from
traditional British portraiture. Growing up, I
cannot recall seeing too many black or brown
people in the portraits hung on gallery walls.
This is something that is changing and an
issue that I feel is important for future
generations. I want people from similar
backgrounds as myself to feel as though they
have a voice and to see that their voice is
equally as important as anyone else’s.

I was approached in September 2020, in

the middle of lockdown, to submit a
proposal for Facebook’s new London
headquarters.
I wanted to create a series of portraits that
posthumously celebrates the legacies of
people from various ethnic minorities that
have been underappreciated within the
context of modern British society.
The Pioneers series (2021) includes Dame
Jocelyn Barrow, Fou Ts’ong, Dadabhai Naoroji
and Leonora Carrington. I drew the portraits
on antique ephemera that relate to each figure,
then had them professionally scanned and

32 ARTISTS & ILLUSTRATORS

 THE BI G INT ER V IE W

XXXXXX

L E F T Unprecedented Facial Hair, ballpoint and coloured felt pens, 42x59cm T O P Say Your Prayers, Eat Your
Vitamins and Don’t Be Racist, ballpoint and coloured felt pen, 59x42cm A B OV E L E F T The British Dream,
ballpoint pen and textiles, 21x30cm A B OV E R I G H T Flowers For Bee, ballpoint and coloured felt pens, 15x21cm

enlarged onto wallpaper. I look to pay homage deeply focus, almost in a meditative state. I do
to such figures that rose above adversity and enjoy sharing a space when I have residencies,
created significant change still emanating the energy of being in a studio with other
within modern British society.  engaged artists is something truly special.

I use the spare box room of my house as One of the perks of ballpoint is that it’s a
my art studio.  very tidy medium that requires no cleanup.
I live in Kent and I am quite isolated in terms of Over the last decade, I’ve created only one
artistic networks, so it works for me. I prefer to painting and one pencil drawing; everything
work either completely alone or in a space with else has been pen drawings. That’s not to say
other ambitious artists. I’m a pretty organised I’m not interested in exploring other mediums,
person and I work with a certain pragmatism. but I still have many plans for pushing the
The solitary nature of being alone with music boundaries of what can be achieved with the
on or a good podcast or audiobook allows me to everyday ballpoint pen. ▸

ARTISTS & ILLUSTRATORS 3 3

I was a keen rugby player and went to
Loughborough University as I wanted to
pursue rugby and art simultaneously.  National Lottery Project Grants and their
I tore my anterior cruciate ligament in my left
knee within the first few weeks and never
played rugby again. This was truly a blessing
in disguise and allowed me to fully focus on
my art practice. As cliche or cringeworthy as
it sounds, I would always affirm to myself that
“I am not an art student, I am an artist.” This
distinction made me focus more on my
professionalism in the emerging art scene, as
opposed to focusing all my efforts on ticking
boxes within the constraints of the university
milieu. It sounds simple and perhaps
conceited but this mantra kept me centred
and I was always able to see the bigger picture
of what I aspired to achieve.   have also signed up to various online galleries
Being an artist living in the UK means
that there are many resources available
3 4 ARTISTS & ILLUSTRATORS
that artists should be more aware of. 
Discovering the Arts Council England
Developing Your Creative Practice Grants
were an absolute game changer for me. I first
applied for funding in 2019 which allowed me
for the first time in my life to solely focus on
making new work without the pressures of
having to make money from working
part-time. You can apply for grants that
literally afford you time to make a new body
of work. This changed everything for me and
then I started applying to their National
Lottery Project Grant which funds projects
that allow you to use your art as a means of
bringing art to people who may experience
barriers to entry based on many factors. I
over the years. I kept updating my online
stores even though I would have very
inconsistent sales early on. However, I
Allow the inevitable
setbacks to motivate
you and galvanise
your ambition
eventually gained momentum and started to
build a base of collectors through this and
through consistently exhibiting my work and
winning a few awards. I always maintained a
level of self-belief that as long as I tried my
best, that was enough.
How else do I earn an income? 
I occasionally do private commissions which
helped to keep me afloat financially in the
early days. I also have my own online store,

where I get most of my sales from. My
biggest sales, however, have all come
from physical exhibitions. I sold my first
original for £150 in 2016 and I still get
that same feeling of being overjoyed and
humbled that people would spend their
hard-earned money on something that
I created, even today when most of my
work sells for four figures.
I’ve always said you define your
own success.  crucial; so regularly check out opportunities,
That may mean getting your work into one
exhibition, winning an award, selling work
or becoming a full-time artist. I worked
part-time for a couple of years after
graduating, to make enough money to
survive whilst balancing having an art
practice. I know many content and fulfilled
artists that have day jobs alongside their work
as artists; you make your own rules for what
L E F T Newham General, ballpoint pen on
London tube map, 15x21cm A B OV E Facebook
Air Installation B E L OW Big Mo, ballpoint pen
and coloured felt pens, 15x21cm
you want to achieve. Be organised; divide
your time up between uninterrupted studio
time, be that for an hour at a time around
your day job or family commitments or
several hours on days off. Put time aside to
work on your online presence too. Allow the
inevitable setbacks to motivate you and
galvanise your ambitions. Make work that
you enjoy and that is true to yourself.
By staying in the game and not quitting you
are giving yourself a chance. Consistency is
take the time to apply thoughtfully to open
calls, maintain your online presence and
enjoy the process of making new work.
Perhaps most importantly, look after your
mental health. Being an artist can be
stressful with the pressures of modern life;
sometimes the most productive thing you
can do is to look after yourself.
habibhajallie.com ▫
ARTISTS & ILLUSTRATORS 3 5
EX HIB IT I O N

We are proud to be the media partner of the

London Art Fair. To celebrate, we look at the
top curated sections of January’s 35th show

T
he London Art Fair aims to provide a
space to showcase exceptional modern
and contemporary art to discover and
buy. Launching with just 36 UK galleries
in 1989 by London’s Business Design
Centre – where the fair still takes place today – it
has grown steadily over the years with well over 100
galleries now regularly exhibiting.
The fair provides a home for modern British art
COURTESY OF TANYA BAXTER CONTEMPORARY

while also embracing an increasingly international

and contemporary outlook, with new galleries from
around the world expanding their offer and reach.
COURTESY OF OSBORNE SAMUEL

Providing a platform for nurturing talent, the

London Art Fair has played host to acclaimed artists
early in their careers as well as established names.
The extensive gallery lineup showcases a diverse
cross-section of art from exciting emerging talent
to established art world favourites, alongside an
inspiring programme of curated talks, panel
A B OV E L E F T Lucian
discussions and artists’ insights. Freud, Self Portrait –
This year will see the participation of over 100 Reflection, 1996, etching
galleries from around the world and will feature on Somerset textured
COURTESY OF TANYA BAXTER CONTEMPORARY

work by some of the world’s most renowned artists, paper, 39.5x43cm

A B OV E R I G H T
including works by Lucian Freud, Tracey Emin,
Bridget Riley, Three
Bridget Riley, Pablo Picasso, Salvador Dali, Keith Colours (Blue Yellow
Haring, Jean-Michel Basquiat and Francis Bacon.
COURTESY OF RAW EDITIONS

and Turquoise)
The London Art Fair reflects the contemporary Precipitating Magenta,
practice and collecting trends within the art world, 1982, gouache on paper
L E F T Tracey Emin,
through its critically acclaimed sections curated in
I Loved My Innocence,
collaboration with leading experts. For all art 2019, lithograph print
aficionados, it’s one not be missed. ▸ 76x60cm

36 ARTISTS & ILLUSTRATORS

Francis Bacon,
Seated Figure, 1977,
aquatint, 163×119cm
 L E F T Frank Auerbach Mornington Crescent,
Summer Morning II, 2004, oil on board, 51x51cm
B O T T O M L E F T Adaeze Ihebom, The Artist’s
Room, 2022
B O T T O M R I G H T Golnaz Afraz, Garden, 2022,
acrylic and oil on canvas, 120x100cm
B E L OW Catherine Anholt, Love Life Loss, 2022,
oil on linen, 50x38cm
© THE ARTIST, COURTESY GEOFFREY PARTON

COURTESY OF TIN MAN ART

MUSEUM PARTNERSHIP – BEN URI
London Art Fair has partnered with the Ben Uri Gallery and Museum for its annual Museum
Partnership, which provides a prominent London platform and a significant opportunity for
patrons, collectors and general fair visitors to engage with an exhibition of exceptional
museum quality works – bringing regional private collections into the public domain.
The works on display will focus on the immigrant experience, speaking to the rich ENCOUNTERS
contribution to British art made by Jewish, immigrant and refugee artists. The collection Encounters is a new section curated by
includes Frank Auerbach’s Mornington Crescent, Summer Morning II, David Bomberg’s journalist, curator and member of the
Racehorses and British-Iranian visual artist Zory Shahrokhi’s art commissioned by Ben Uri. Encounters Selection Committee, Pryle
Behrman. Formerly Art Projects,
Encounters is a showcase of the freshest
contemporary art from across the globe
featuring young, up-and-coming galleries
eager to present their emerging artists on a
major platform alongside established names
who are creating new and exciting work,
taking their practice in a different direction.
Highlights include a display by Shame
Gallery whose pieces by Nathan French
reference the multiplicity of tempers,
PHOTO50 moods and thoughts that occur inside
This is the fair’s critical forum for examining PL ATFORM every one of us; Catherine Anholt’s
distinctive elements in contemporary For the 5th edition of Platform, art historian paintings at TIN MAN ART see the artist
photography. For 2023, Photo50 is curated and author Ruth Millington presents a exploring a range of emotions and
by Pelumi Odubanjo and Katy Barron. They collection of galleries whose artists experiences spanning the natural world,
present the work of a group of multi- collaborate with inspiring individuals, birth and death. At April Contemporary,
generational women and non-binary reframing the muse as an empowered and an installation by Luqmaan Godfrey – the
photographers whose practice engages with active agent in the story of art. This year’s artist alter ego of muralist Damilola
their Black and diasporic heritage. It will edition, titled Reframing the Muse, invites Odusote – combines mixed media
explore domestic life and the idea of ‘home’. viewers to consider the instrumental role drawings, poems, texts, collages and
 The exhibition echoes Saidiya Hartmann’s played by diverse, real-life individuals, past murals to present ‘reality’ as a continually
Wayward Lives, Beautiful Experiments: and present, beyond the frame. changing map that is both malleable and
Intimate Histories of Riotous Black Girls,  On display from Rebecca Hossack Art wholly transient. ▫
Troublesome Women, and Queer Radicals. Gallery will be works by Nikoleta Sekulovic
COURTESY OF GALA FINE ART

As such, this year’s exhibition is named and Carla Kranendonk. Gala Fine Art will be London Art Fair returns to its traditional
Beautiful Experiments. It includes works showcasing powerful work by Golnaz Afraz. January slot from 18-22 January 2023,
from the 1980s through to the present day By RAW Editions it will be works by Peter launching the international art collecting
© THE ARTIST

and will think through ideas of ‘home’ in a Doig, Grayson Perry and David Hockney, calendar once again with an exceptional
number of ways. and No Photos Please by Eve de Haan.  collection of modern and contemporary art. 

3 8 ARTISTS & ILLUSTRATORS

 The Lake Petworth,
Sunset, oil paint on
canvas,
63.5x139.7cm

Two new exhibitions this year are looking at J.M.W TURNER ’s middle period. They show
how many of his works focus predominantly on the light, says Adrian Mourby ▸
40 ARTISTS & ILLUSTRATORS
 E XHI B IT IONS

© TATE

A R T I S T S & I L L U S T R A T O R S 41
 T
urner (1775-1851) was the
premiere landscape painter of
his generation, dominating the
art world, not just in Britain, but
also Europe. Remarkably, his
work was divided into three distinct
periods. While Gainsborough and
Constable painted in their old age very
much as they did in their youth, Early
Turner can be distinguished from Middle
Turner and most definitely from Late
Turner. And yet, his paintings, prints and
watercolours remain undisputedly the
work of one man.  where he painted The Devil’s Bridge, St
Joseph Mallord William Turner was born
into a pre-industrial world – when America
was still a series of British colonies – but
© THE FRICK COLLECTION, NEW YORK
lived long enough to see and paint steam
trains and steamboats. The early Turner
was a superb draftsman and watercolourist,
capable of capturing infinite detail. His
painting High Street, Oxford (1810) in the
Ashmolean Museum is sufficiently detailed
to be an architect’s elevation. Indeed,
42 A R T I S T S & I L L U S T R A T O R S
Turner in his teens thought of becoming an
architect but another destiny called. J.M.W.
Turner was about to change our perception
of landscapes profoundly, especially in
relation to the sun and sky. Hitherto the sky
was often an empty space above the more
interesting trees, mountains and church
spires. Not after Turner.  atmospheric effects
Because of the French Revolutionary Wars
(1792-1815), Europe was mostly closed to the
young Turner as a source of inspiration. In
1802, after the brief Peace of Amiens, the
27-year-old painter headed to Switzerland
Gothard (1802) with the kind of dramatic
vertical distortion that art collectors and
engravers demanded. After Napoleon’s final
defeat in 1815, Turner returned repeatedly to
Europe to rediscover inspirational
landscapes. Heading south, the painter
visited Italy where his hero, the French
artist Claude (1600-1682), had worked in
Rome. The Italian light changed Turner’s
way of looking at the sky and brought a
As he aged, Turner
became increasingly
interested in
luminescent quality that ushered in his
middle period.
In 1826, Turner painted Cologne, The
Arrival of a Packet-Boat: Evening where the
riverside harbour and the spires of the city
seem to float in a continual wash of yellow
light that begins in the sky and ends below
the beach. The city, its busy population and
its visiting boats are picked out in haze and
shadow. This painting, which has been at
the Frick in New York since 1914, is
currently on a special display at the
National Gallery in London. 
Also on display is a similar view of Dieppe. ▸
© TATE

TOP LEFT
Harbour of Dieppe:
Changement de
Domicile
1825-1826,
oil on canvas,
173.7x225.4cm
A B OV E The New
Moon, 1840,
oil on canvas,
65.4x81.3cm
L E F T Going to
the Bar (San
Martino), 1846,
oil on canvas,
61.6x92.4cm
© TATE
 Both large canvases seem a world away from
the early Turners that catalogued the British
countryside with such precision, albeit with
a certain romantic distortion.
To this period of Middle Turner belong
two other famous paintings on display in
the National Gallery: The Fighting
Temeraire (1839) which shows a ghostly old
ship of the line from the Nelson era being
towed away for scrap by a modern paddle
© THE FRICK COLLECTION, NEW YORK, ABOVE: ASHMOLEAN MUSEUM

steamer. The picture is predominantly a

study of sea and sky during an atmospheric
sunset with two very different ships and two
accompanying vessels, breaking up the
horizon. Rain, Steam and Speed (1844) hangs
nearby and depicts a swirl of bad weather,
its top half is all sky, wind and rain, and its
bottom half a deep drop towards the River
Thames. Two viaducts span the river and a
steam train hurtles towards us, scaring away
a hare (which is now almost obscured by
excessive cleaning over the years). Less than
a quarter of the canvas is taken up with the

train and viaduct, however. The painting is
predominantly a play of light effects during
a summer storm.
Christine Riding, Curator of Paintings at
the National Gallery says that in his forties
and fifties, Turner was a revered and
commercially successful artist. “But far
from resting on his laurels, he went on his
own way. This may explain the boldness of
colour and the luminescence of his
paintings. Harbour of Dieppe (1826)
and Cologne, the Arrival of a Packet
Boat (1826) both make extensive use of
Cobalt Yellow which was also known as
Turner Yellow. Some thought it unnatural
but Turner was rightly praised for lifting
landscapes out of tame insipidity.”
Also on display in the National Gallery is
Turner’s Ulysses Deriding Polyphemus (1829)
which is on a Homeric theme with a great
sailing ship coming towards us while the
sun rises brightly on the horizon.
Meanwhile, Polyphemus, the giant cyclops
T O P L E F T The High
Street, Oxford,
1810, oil on canvas,
68.5x100.3cm
L E F T The Ponte Delle
Torri, Spoleto,
1840-1845, oil on
canvas, 91.4x121.9cm
BOT TOM LEFT
Cologne, the Arrival of
a Packet-Boat: Evening,
1826, oil on canvas,
168.6x224.2cm
B E L OW L E F T The
Dark Rigi, 1841-1842,
© TATE
oil on canvas,
44.7x59.8x2.5cm
© TATE
Light dominates
and infiltrates these
pictures. They bask
in its glow
is almost obscured by clouds and the glare
of the sun as it lifts into view.    title, The Sun is God, from (possibly) Turner’s
“As he grew older, Turner became
increasingly interested in atmospheric
effects rather than topographical detail,”
says Katie Chester who is project manager
for a new touring exhibition Turner: The Sun
is God from Tate Britain. A study in oils, The
Lake, Petworth Sunset (1828) prefigures
Turner’s evolution towards the end of his
middle period. The distant sun dominates
the canvas, half of which is mainly sky and
the other half water. The Petworth estate
E X HI BI TI O N S
itself is reduced to a horizontal line of trees
and misty shapes that bisects the picture.
As he entered his late period, the 70-year-
old Turner cared nothing for criticism and
everything for sunlight. Ponte Delle Torri
Spoletto (1845) depicts a shadowy tree
foreground and a distant aqueduct, but the
focus of the picture is a large blur of Cobalt
Yellow which represents the risen sun on a
misty morning. Going to the Ball, San
Martino (1846) is a Venetian scene, half sky
and half water, with a setting sun and some
suggestions of the floating city bisecting the
picture yet again. “Light dominates and
infiltrates these pictures,” says Katie. “They
bask in its glow.”
By the time Turner reached his four Dido
and Aeneas paintings (1850) – the last works
he ever exhibited – each canvas is angled
towards a setting or rising sun and the
human figures that give these paintings
their narrative are grouped into a
foreground that makes up less than a
quarter of the image. In Mercury Sent to
Admonish Aeneas (1850) we have to assume
that the tiny figure with a red cloak and his
back turned to us is Aeneas and the even
tinier white figure with flaming torches (or
maybe wings?) is Mercury, but our focus is
on the middle of the picture where white
sunlight breaks through what might be a
rocky gorge.
Certainly, we know that Turner could
paint lifelike figures in convincing detail
and render hills and valleys with almost
photographic accuracy, so the fact that he
doesn’t do this in his Late Period suggests
that the human story was so much window
dressing; a hook to get one to look at the
picture and to then (literally) see the light.
Some dubbed his very last pictures
“fantastic puzzles;” bursts of light with a few
roughly sketched angels or sea monsters to
give the viewer purchase on what is almost
abstract art. While Ruskin described Turner
as the artist who could most “stirringly and
truthfully measure the moods of nature,”
fellow landscape painter, Sir George
Beaumont described his last paintings as
“blots.” The Tate’s new exhibition takes its
last words. Indeed, these final pictures do
seem to be his votive offerings to the great
obsession of his mature years: sunlight. ▫
Turner on Tour, paintings from the Frick
Museum, Boston will be on show at the
National Gallery until February 2023.
Turner, The Sun is God is a travelling Tate
exhibition which is at the National Gallery of
Ireland, Dublin until February 2023 and
thereafter in Switzerland. 
ARTISTS & ILLUSTRATORS 45
T H E B R I TI S H AR T P R I ZE

The scene outside

the gallery

gallery@oxo,
Coin Street

Artists &
Illustrators
editor, Niki
Browes, mid
speech

Left to right: Abigail

Waddell (People’s Choice),
Kirsten Todd (edding
Acrylic Prize), Gary Armer
(1st Prize), Ann James
Massey (3rd Prize)

46 ARTISTS & ILLUSTRATORS

 Attendees at the
Private View,
listening to the First prize winner Gary
speeches Armer with his painting,
Life Finds a Way

The private view for this year’s British Art Prize at gallery@oxo
was a runaway success, not least because of the standout
quality of the winning artwork. Here’s a sneak peek

O
n a blustery winter’s evening
in November, we hosted the
private view for this year’s British
Art Prize, our annual, national art
competition which is open to everyone;
whether you’re an amateur, emerging or
professional artist.
It was fabulous to see many of the winners,
those highly commended and the finalists, in
attendance on the night to celebrate along
with many friends and supporters of Artists &
Illustrators. Prizes were handed out to four of
the five main winners, followed by speeches
from the winners and sponsors.
It was a brilliant evening, thoroughly
enjoyed by all. And we are not merely
blowing our own trumpet; our inbox was
bursting with messages of thanks over the
next few days. Of the event, finalist Lucy
Marks said, “What an evening! The show
looked absolutely fabulous. I was thrilled that
my painting was the backdrop to all the
wonderful speeches. It’s such a tremendous
honour to be part of your prestigious show.”
People’s Choice Winner Abigail Waddell said,
“I had a really wonderful evening. I am still
reeling from the win and am very grateful for
the opportunity. It’s a wonderful
competition, featuring an eclectic mix of art
and people and was so well organised and
presented.” Meanwhile, Andrew Torr, a
highly commended artist, got in touch to
say, “Thank you for a great private view at
such a prestigious venue. The speeches were
brilliant whilst everyone I spoke to was super
nice. Seriously, well done!”
Over the next few days, the exhibition was
packed with admiring members of the
public, many of whom snapped up the
artworks on display. So, if you want the
chance to be part of such an exciting and
impactful competition and exhibition, and
Gary Armer and
get your artwork seen and sold, enter 2023’s Niki Browes
British Art Prize competition, the details of
which will be revealed in a future issue
of Artists & Illustrators. ▫

A R T I S T S & I L L U S T R A T O R S 47
 Thomas View of
Gainsborough , 1759, Gainsborough’s
oil on canvas House
NATIONAL PORTRAIT GALLERY, LONDON

48 ARTISTS & ILLUSTRATORS

 RES T OR AT IO N
View of the new
building designed
by ZMMA at
Gainsborough’s
House

View of the temporary

exhibition
Painting Flanders:
Flemish Art 1880-1914 at
Gainsborough’s House
THOMAS GAINSBOROUGH ’s house
in Suffolk has undergone a major
£10 million redesign and restoration.
What’s now on offer makes it well
worth a visit, says Amanda Hodges ▸

View of the early

Gainsborough
gallery at
Gainsborough’s
house

T
he eighteenth-century
painter Thomas Gainsborough
was a man of many hues. His
contemporary, the mercurial
and renowned actor David
Garrick once memorably commented about
Gainsborough’s receptive mind that it was
“so crammed with genius of every kind that
it is in danger of bursting upon you like a
steam engine overcharged.” The sheer
diversity of delights that now await visitors
to his childhood home in Sudbury, Suffolk
(recently benefiting from a major
redevelopment, courtesy of the National
Lottery Heritage Fund), would probably have
been much to his liking, a cornucopia of
artistic treasures celebrating both
Gainsborough and the work of his peers.  His passion for this type of painting was
A painter, draughtsman and printmaker,
Gainsborough is today considered one of the
most prominent British artists of the late
eighteenth century. A genial, lively man, he
50 ARTISTS & ILLUSTRATORS
David Garrick, 1770, Wooded Landscape
oil on canvas, with Rustic Lover,
Herdsmen, Cows and
Flock of Sheep at a
Pool and Distant
Mountains, 1784-85,
oil on canvas
NATIONAL PORTRAIT GALLERY, LONDON
was famed for his ability to paint both He developed his career first in London
speedily and with emotional veracity. A in his teens and subsequently in Bath,
master of both landscape and portraiture, resourcefully painting prominent members
who painted in a variety of mediums, of society (including King George III) to
Gainsborough is often considered the enhance his reputation. Later, he’d
founder of the eighteenth-century British introduce aspects of landscape or ‘landskips’
landscape school (alongside Richard as he termed them, as background for his
Wilson) and also, through perseverance, portraits, such as the famous picture of Mr
he became instrumental in the foundation and Mrs Andrews, always longing to return
of the Royal Academy.  to his favoured mode. He once wistfully
Born in 1727, the youngest of John and Mary wrote, “I’m sick of portraits, and wish very
Gainsborough’s nine children, his artistic much to walk off to some sweet village,
ability was evident in boyhood sketches and where I can paint landskips and enjoy the
paintings of the countryside in Suffolk. He fag end of life in quietness and ease.”
embraced landscape painting, inspired by the Sir Joshua Reynolds, his contemporary and
woodland and fields surrounding Sudbury. rival, was fascinated by Gainsborough’s
This early motivation was key to all his art. acute powers of observation, noting that he
drew inspiration from an eclectic range of
steadfast throughout his career and, although stimuli: “He had a habit of continually
he’d become celebrated as a skilful, prolific remarking to those who happened to be
portrait painter of keen detail, his personal about him, whatever peculiarity of
preference remained with landscapes.  countenance, whatever accidental
 RES T ORAT IO N

combination of figures or happy events of

light and shadow, occurred in prospects in
the sky, in walking the streets or in
company.” Everything was equally useful as
potential material for his art. Such a richly
talented man, who saw the whole world as
his canvas, surely deserves his oeuvre to be
seen within the broadest context. But, before
the major £10 million restoration, there was
in Sudbury what Mark Bills, Director of
Gainsborough’s House, describes as
considerably more circumscribed facilities
on offer, namely a “historic house, which
served as exhibitions gallery, museum,
offices, archives and store rooms. The site
also had a shop, print room and events space
in the old cottages. The house was
enormously restricted because of this and
meant that the visitor experience was
limited,” with “large-scale exhibitions
impossible,” and, in addition, as a museum,
“financially it struggled, making only a
modest impact upon the town.” 

His childhood home

now contains a
cornucopia of artistic
treasures and delights
FROM A PRIVATE COLLECTION

Given the opportunity to acquire

additional premises, courtesy of lottery
assistance, the potential for significant
expansion, overseen by architectural firm
ZMMA, became apparent. The new three-
storey building, on the site of a former
labour exchange and a small car park, has
View of the new
building designed been designed with local brick and flint
by ZMMA at materials in mind, possessing a new
Gainsborough’s entrance and four innovative galleries,
House making it the most comprehensive
collection of Gainsborough art in the world.  
With space freed up elsewhere, the
existing Weavers Lane Cottages have
been reorganised, allowing access to the
historical print workshop now offered here
for established and emerging printmakers;
as Gainsborough himself turned to
printmaking to reproduce his drawings,
traditional printmaking skills are being
made accessible for a new generation, the
largest of its kind in Suffolk.
On the ground floor of the new building, a
gallery lined with Sudbury silk damask
showcases Gainsborough’s greatest work,
collating twenty portraits and landscapes
from throughout his career, whilst within
the historic main house there are interesting ▸

ARTISTS & ILLUSTRATORS 51

 Wooded Landscape
with Herdsman
seated, 1746-1747,
oil on canvas

View of the Finnish

Scott Painting Room at Mindful of heritage,
Gainsborough’s House
there’s been a
judicious restoration
of the townhouse
opportunities to explore every aspect of
Gainsborough’s world: one can enjoy tracing
the arc of his formative years in Suffolk or his
love of music; dip into the eighteenth-century
Painting Room complete with a printing
press and easel or perhaps view the Constable
room, the only place where a selection of his
landscapes can serendipitously be seen
within this painter’s native Suffolk. As
Adam Zombory-Moldovan, Project Director
at ZMMA says, “Gainsborough’s home has
been reimagined and enriched to make
©HUFTON+CROW

complementary historic and modern

settings for the museum’s displays.”
Mindful of heritage, there’s been a

52 ARTISTS & ILLUSTRATORS

 REST OR AT IO N

judicious restoration of the Grade I listed Ignatious Sancho,

1802-1820,
townhouse, decorated with a rich palette of
oil on canvas
colours throughout the galleries, and study
centre. On the building’s third floor there’s
also now a Landscape Studio which would
surely have gladdened Gainsborough’s
heart, offering a valuable space for learning
and educational events; it also boasts a
Camera Obscura and offers visitors the
prospect of enjoying, as Zombory-Moldovan
says, stunning “long views of that
countryside beyond the town’s rooftops,”
an inspirational landscape once familiar
and fruitful for the painter.
Having begun in 2013, the project only
finally reached fruition in 2022 so it has
been almost a decade’s labour of love.
Explaining why it has taken so long to
evolve, Mark Bills elaborates that during the
transition period “we faced pestilence,
asbestos, archaeological excavation and war,
all of which had a major impact upon the
project. COVID-19 was a big one that affected
delays. Our opening exhibition was to come
from the Pushkin Museum in Moscow until
they invaded Ukraine. There were many
other setbacks too; large-scale projects are
always full of such hitches (well, perhaps not
GAINSBOROUGH’S HOUSE, SUDBERY, SUFFOLK

a pandemic and war) but the important

thing is how you complete them.”
And the result is admittedly spectacular,
offering what Mark hopes will be “a catalyst
for the regeneration of Sudbury.” He is

NATIONAL PORTRAIT GALLERY, LONDON

thrilled with the result of such hard work,
saying, “The new project means that we have
effectively tripled public spaces, offering a
greater visitor experience.” With a series of
temporary exhibitions also on offer, one
currently showing Gainsborough’s portrait
of Ignatius Sancho (the first black man in
Britain to vote and to receive an obituary)
the intention is for the familiar and less
well-known to happily co-exist, as Mark
emphasises: “All visitors at all times will see
at least forty Gainsborough paintings, but
they will also see other artists dead and
living, British and non-British.”   
Famed for his richness of colour and an
exquisite lightness of touch, Gainsborough’s
work can now be seen to its very best
advantage within the new premises. Citing
what he intends will become “a cultural hub
in the heart of East Anglia,” Mark says that
GAINSBOROUGH’S HOUSE, SUDBERY, SUFFOLK
GAINSBOROUGH’S HOUSE, SUDBERY, SUFFOLK

“this ambitious transformation of

Gainsborough’s House will fundamentally
change this historic site, all within the
unique environment of the artist’s
birthplace and home,” ensuring that the
name of Thomas Gainsborough “continues
to be a relevant force in art history and an
inspiration for generations to come.” Peter Darnell Muilman, Charles Crockatt and William
For further information visit: gainsborough.org ▫ Keable, 1750, oil on canvas The Pitminster Boy, 1769, oil on canvas

ARTISTS & ILLUSTRATORS 5 3

S T EP BY S TE P

M
y idea for this painting
SUSAN CLARE shows
began on spotting some
you how she painted beautiful underwater photos,
SUSAN ’S
by Belinda Collier-Morrow, MATERIALS
this underwater
posted on the White River Fish Sanctuary
Paint
reef scene in acrylic, Instagram page. She kindly gave me her
Winsor & Newton Artists’
permission to paint from them.  
to raise money for Acrylics:
I still love the reefs and feel every bit as
Perylene Green
a charity supporting protective of them as when I worked in
Permanent Magenta
scuba diving, here in Jamaica, in my
the health of the Yellow Ochre 
twenties and thirties. Despite my change
Liquitex Heavy Body
world’s oceans of career and having witnessed a
Acrylics:
heartbreaking deterioration of the reefs
Cadmium Red Medium Hue
in the last 20 years, I still feel compelled
Cadmium Yellow Medium
to do anything I can to help. Although
Hue
damaged, the remaining reefs and their
Raw Sienna
residents represent an important
Golden Artist Colours:
indicator for the health of the ocean and
Phthalocyanine Blue
by extension, our planet. Being an island
Dioxazine Purple
nation, the looming threat of rising sea
Titanium White
levels (with associated problems from a
Bushes and Tools
more acid ocean) is even more relevant,
Liquitex Freestyle 4” paddle
as we all face the enormous, and now
brush
immediate, challenges of climate change.
2” used house painting brush
I knew I wanted to create a statement
Rosemary & Co ½” acrylic
piece that could raise awareness of the
flat brush
plight of our coastal environment and
Credit card 
earn some much-needed funds to
Kitchen sponge
support the White River Fish Sanctuary
Palette knife
– founded by Belinda and assisted by the
Jamaica Inn Foundation – in their work, Support
helping reefs and the local community 1.25 m sq ¼” thick plyboard
alike. I wanted to produce a work of Gesso
complexity and hidden textural layers, Found upcycled objects:
created with found items relating to the tissue paper, nylon mesh
health of the world’s oceans. Satin acrylic medium
Instagram: @whiteriverfishsanctuary ▸

5 4 ARTISTS & ILLUSTRATORS

ARTISTS & ILLUSTRATORS 5 5
 1
REFERENC E PICTURE S
I chose two of Belinda’s photos, pulling elements from both, preventing me from ‘just reproducing’ either of them. Compositionally, I
wanted a stream of these gorgeous red fish running through the painting diagonally, creating a sense of movement. By having a large fish
swimming in the other direction, the eye is led back to the centre. The viewer looks up towards the light, giving us a sense of hope for the future.

4 5
JUST ADD WATER ADDING REEF AND FISH
Keeping it simple, with just Phthalo Blue and White acrylic Cool tones (deep violet, blues and greens) created a
paint, I applied broad sweeping strokes with a 4” Liquitex shady feeling inside the crevice. I pushed colour into
Freestyle paddle brush, moving my whole arm and following the surfaces with an old brush; textured gesso is not kind to brushes.
path of light. I picked up both acrylic colours (medium consistency) I skimmed a lighter or darker colour across the top, from the
on the brush and allowed streaks to form with the movement, so side of a broad brush, to reveal patterns. I wanted the fish to gleam
they were not well-blended but imitated the light streaming through like gold, the key being many layers. I started with a flat layer
the water. Again, I left it to dry thoroughly. of Cadmium Red.

56 ARTISTS & ILLUSTRATORS


TEX TURE L AY ER
2 Working on a wood panel, I embedded found objects, (like
discarded paper tissue from paper-wrapped toilet tissue
and nylon mesh from supermarket citrus nets) into a gesso layer and
left it for two days to dry. The nylon mesh echoes (on a different
scale) the ghost nets abandoned by the fishing industry. This is,
currently, one of the biggest threats to large marine life, particularly
turtles, causing entanglement and then starvation.
6 7
FISH FORMATION
I ‘rounded’ the fish bodies by adding layers of orange, then
gold, creating progressively lighter mixes from the red, by
adding yellows and a minimum of Titanium White, with a 1” flat
brush. These fish are Black Bar Soldierfish; their bar markings and
large eyes are definitive. I added details of eyes, bars and fins with a
dark mix created from all the dark hues in the rocks, applying it with
a Rosemary & Co ½” flat brush.
S TE P BY S T EP
SHAF TS OF LIGHT
3 An appealing feature of this composition is the water
column, with the streaming shafts of light forming a
backdrop to the action. To seal the wood panel and create a
calm point for the viewer’s gaze, I applied gesso with a sponge in
smooth, simple strokes, contrasting with the busy texture of the
reef and rocks, but still leaving long streaks visible. All the gesso
had to be thoroughly dry before moving on.
FINDING FOREGROUND FISH
After completing the Black Bar Soldierfish, working out the
placement and angle of the ‘in between’ fish – like the
yellow-green Grunt – creating colour contrast between the foreground
red fish was a bit of a challenge. Next, I continued giving form to the
corals, building depth and volume with contrasting colour layers over
the textured surface. As described earlier, I skimmed and scraped
paint with a palette knife, broad brushes and even a credit card. ▸
ARTISTS & ILLUSTRATORS 57
S T EP BY S T EP

8 9
CONTRE JOUR FISH C LOSE UP
Strong contrast is needed to create the illusion of bright I wanted the two foreground Soldierfish to jump out
sunshine beyond the crevice, so as well as adding darker towards me, so I enriched the red, orange and gold in their
greens and purples in the shadowy corners, I made sure to have bodies, then highlighting blocks of shining scales, by including more
white paint, varied with touches of blue, framing the crevice white paint in the mix. When those were dry, I detailed the white
opening. All coral and rock surfaces are in cool dark tones, whereas outer edges, especially on the raised dorsal fin, a distinctive feature
the fish scales are reflecting the camera’s flash. of the Squirrelfish family, to which these belong.

10
MAKING MORE OF
THE ME SH
I added brighter hues in some
places, skimming or scraping paint into the
‘gullies’ of the mesh. Patterns of Permanent
Magenta and Yellow Ochre trapped in the
mesh hint at the complexity of Purple Sea
Fans or filtering sponges, just two of the
many overlooked but important reef
inhabitants which keep reefs and water
clean. With the sea smothered in plastic, silt
and ghost nets, it’s not only the reef that
dies but an entire community of species.

11
COMPLETION
Coral Crevice, the framed original
The final stages
painting (1.3m sq) is available for sale.
involved standing
67% of the proceeds will go directly to
back and looking for
the White River Fish Sanctuary.
where to balance values
Viewing by appointment at The
across the entire square
Jamaica Inn, Ocho Rios, or via my
composition. I applied
website: 
three layers of satin acrylic
susanclarefineart.com/originals
medium for protection,
ensuring all texture Susan will be co-hosting a
elements were completely week-long art retreat at The Wharf
sealed in. The final touch House, Jamaica in September 2023
was fitting a hand-crafted, with Hertfordshire artist, Alex
locally made, white- McIntyre. Spaces are limited, so
painted wooden frame. register your interest right away at: 
Voilà! I’m now ready to raise susanclare.art or susanclarefineart.com
some funds for the reefs. ▫
 ARTISTS’
VALUE
BRUSHES
(]HPSHISL[OYV\NOHZLSLJ[NYV\WVMZ[VJRPZ[Z
^^^HY[PZ[ZIY\ZOLZJV\R
MVYM\SSPUMVYTH[PVUVUYHUNLZZL[ZWYPJLZ
.YLH[]HS\LIPNZH]PUNZ

ARTISTS & ILLUSTRATORS 59

HO W- T O
There are many different tools to use for mark
making, says LANCELOT RICHARDSON , who
for this animal ink tutorial uses feathers, twigs,
bamboo cane, chalk and wax resist
A
s a liquid drawing
medium, ink requires
additional tools to apply
it. We usually think about
pens or brushes; however, it is
possible to use a wide range of
other tools to draw with or
manipulate ink. Found objects,
such as feathers or twigs, can make
unique marks, and it is also possible
to craft our own drawing tools.
Wash offers a few more ways to
create different textures and effects
in water-based inks as well, for
instance with wax resist and bleed
behaviours, much in the same way
as watercolour.
Using tools like this to draw with
ink opens up a range of expressive
marks to use in our drawings. Twigs
and feathers introduce an element
of randomness to the marks they
make, especially when twisted or
tilted as they are drawn with. Small
60 ARTISTS & ILLUSTRATORS
canes can be carved into simple
nib shapes with a knife to produce
thick and thin marks. Old hog
brushes are excellent for making
gritty drybrush textures and are a
great way to reuse and recycle
brushes no longer suitable for
oil painting.
These techniques are well suited
to drawing animals as they help
produce busy textures easily, and
the more random marks have an
organic feel that helps better
represent fur and living things.
Coloured inks tend to be quite
intense, suiting them well to less
literal, expressive results. One
approach when using such intense
colours is to limit yourself to two to
four different inks in order to keep
the colours from becoming too
overwhelming and to keep a clean,
organised palette.
Instagram: @lancelotrichardson ▸
 L ANCELOT' S
MATERIALS

Inks
Sennelier: Walnut Satin,
Sanguine, Turquoise, Indigo
Blue, Neutral Tint, Raw
Sienna, Red Brown, Deep
Green
Support
Size 12 synthetic brush
Various found sticks
Found feathers
Reshaped garden canes
Toothbrush
Old hoghair brushes: well-
worn ones with splayed
bristles are ideal
Chalk
Wax Candle
Pipette
Watercolour Paper
(Seawhites)
Plastic palette
Jar for water

ARTISTS & ILLUSTRATORS 61

Red
squirrel
This sketch of a red squirrel uses the layered results of drybrush and
the difficult-to-control marks from drawing with a feather. To get a
little more definition to the limbs, a stick was used to create lines with
a variable thickness, to represent the texture of fur. Longer sweeping
marks for the fur of the tail were created using a feather.

◂ Drawing with a shaped cane

The end of this cane has been
trimmed into a wedge shape using a
blade. When drawing with a shaped
cane, it can be twisted onto its narrow
side to make thin marks, or broad side
to make thicker ones. Try carving
different shapes, such as angled tips
or chevron shapes that draw two lines
at once. Canes tend not to pick up a
lot of ink on the tip and tend to work
best when dipped in deeper ink so it
can flow down.

Gritty textures in dry brush ◂

Drybrush is a technique that works
well for producing gritty,
directional texture. To do this,
select a splayed, worn brush – hog
hair works well – and dip it in ink.
Dab out any excess ink using a
cloth or paper towel so the brush is
quite dry. It should feel quite
scratchy when drawn with. Here, a
wider brush was used for the bulk
of the fur and a small round brush
◂

was used around the ears. Creating splatter effects

This splatter texture on the bark was created by
dragging a piece of stiff card over a toothbrush laden
with ink. When doing this, remember to mask off the
rest of the image, as the ink is liable to go everywhere
otherwise. This technique can be very messy, but it is
an excellent way of producing a random texture and
breaking up even areas of colour.

◂ Long fur textures

The long strands in the tail were created using a
feather dipped in ink. Carefully dragging the tip of the
feather over the paper creates long fluid marks
reminiscent of the long strands of fur present in the
tail. Whilst it isn’t possible to draw every single strand
of hair, it is important to think about the growth
pattern, and the texture; as the tail hairs are quite long,
it is relatively wavy compared to the rest of the fur.
 HOW-T O

Tiger
This drawing of a tiger relies heavily on
different layers of ink. It started with a
wash of orange – created by mixing
Sanguine and Raw Sienna inks – on top of
which a layer of drybrush textures were
added for the fur. The complex pattern
of stripes was added on top of this.
Green and brown-red inks were mixed to
create the chromatic black of the stripes.

◂ Building fur textures with drybrush

To produce the fur, I used short,
quick strokes using the hog hair
brush. Compared to the squirrel’s
longer fur, the tiger’s is quite short and
the small strokes help indicate this. The
direction of the marks is important as
well, as even though they are quite
loose, they still roughly follow the
surface volumes like the growth
direction of fur would, rather than
pointing off in arbitrary directions.

Drawing stripes with a

feather ◂
A feather was used to draw the
stripes. The end of the feather
produces an interesting and
slightly calligraphic mark
when dragged across the
◂

paper – twisting it pushes for a Adding water with wet-in-wet ink

thinner line, and side on for a To create the bleed effects for the water, the paper was
thick line. Adding pressure wetted first before a brush loaded with ink was dipped
also makes the line thicker. into the wet areas. This also works with pipettes
As it is so springy, it is a bit holding ink or other drawing implements. Paper can
unpredictable, though this is be wetted in various ways. Here I’ve used a brush for a
useful in preventing the controlled shape, but it is also possible to use spray
stripes from looking too even bottles or sponges to create larger damp areas that
and unnaturally perfect. might have a more random distribution of droplets. ▸

ARTISTS & ILLUSTRATORS 6 3

HO W -T O

Flying fish These flying fish make use of wax resist and
bleed techniques heightened with chalk to
achieve a shiny texture. Fish scales present a
unique challenge of being quite complex, yet
at the same time, often too subtle to draw in
detail without appearing overworked. The
wax resist approximates this complexity and
introduces an element of natural randomness
thanks to the texture of the paper.

◂
Creating gradients with bleed effects
Applying ink to wet areas – much like wet-in-
wet watercolour – creates striking bleed effects.
This can create gradients that are particularly
useful in portraying colour shifts present in
animal markings, as well as leaving interesting
patterns and textures. Neat inks produce quite
intense bursts of colour, especially when they
haven’t been mixed with other colours.
◂

Adding chalk highlights

Whilst it is possible to mask off the white of the
paper from the ink, chalk is also a great way to
add a white highlight. The heaviness of the chalk
◂

Using wax resist

To create the shiny textures on the back of the fish, I rubbed a wax candle over the tooth of the creates a strong, opaque highlight that feels as
paper, and then applied another layer of blue ink wash. The wax left there resisted the water in though it sits on top of the ink. It also picks up
the ink and stopped it from settling on top, leaving highlights. This can produce effective the tooth of the paper – much like the wax resist
textures when used in layers, as the colour beneath the wax comes through quite well. does – to introduce a bit more texture.

6 4 ARTISTS & ILLUSTRATORS


◂
Drybrush textures with dilute ink
Again, the fur textures were produced
by using dry brush techniques, this
time with a larger, flat hog hair brush.
The brush was a little wetter this time,
as the ink is quite diluted and wouldn’t
show very well if it were more thinly
applied. To produce the idea of white
fur, the shadows need to be applied in
a way that leaves the white of the paper
showing through.
Polar
bear
With white being dominant for this bear, the
ink was diluted to create paler washes that
better reflect this and let the luminance of the
paper show. The bulk of this was drawn in
Turquoise, Deep Green, Raw Sienna and
Purple. Because most of the ink was diluted, it
uses a light tonal range with paler shadows.
◂ Drawing with a
natural stick
To tighten up the shape of
the bear and add some extra
definition to detailed areas
like the paws and face, extra
line work was added in a few
places. This was done with a
twig, which has a more
uneven flow of ink from it,
making it great for
producing broken lines. I
didn’t want to outline the
entire body, as it would
likely reduce the appearance
of light in the image.
Mixing blacks from
◂
colour inks
The few dark areas in this
drawing, such as the paws, eyes
and mouth, need to appear black,
but using neat black ink is too
dark in comparison to the light
colours. Here Raw Sienna was
mixed with brown-red and deep
green. Red and green inks tend to
mix well to create neutral greys,
and a little Raw Sienna helps
warm it up to unify it with the
rest of the colour scheme. ▫
 F OC AL P O IN T
From the Impressionists through
to abstract artists of the modern
day, AL GURY investigates
the fascinating story of colour, as
told through the works of the
masters and the author himself
C
olour is one of the greatest joys in the whole painting
process. Sometimes, just sitting and mixing colour with no
serious agenda other than the pleasure of seeing colours
unfold is all that is needed. Comparing the chromatic
intensities and temperatures of the mixtures is a great way to keep
energised with your art through the bleak winter months.
Even though colour in painting can seem like a mystery, colour
practices can be organised and understood in a way that can help
painters make choices and develop their own approaches.
The following will present the core colour methods that have been
the most present and usable approaches of the past two hundred years.  Abstract painting – often described as a focus on shape, pattern, colour
One of the hallmarks of Impressionist painting and colour is the
description of the varying qualities of ambient light and how it
changes and affects the subject. Rather than controlled studio
setups, Impressionist painters favoured the surprises and delights
of uncontrolled nature.
COURTESY OF THE AUTHOR
The 1880s and 90s in France saw the exploration of colour in painting
as a more theoretical and even abstract exploration. The theories of
Michel Eugene Chevreul on the simultaneous contrast of colours and the
optical mixing of colours had a profound effect on the Impressionist
painters but most importantly on post-Impressionist artists such as
66 ARTISTS & ILLUSTRATORS
Seurat and Signac. A more deliberate and even scientific approach to
the placement of complimentary colours – often pure and unmixed,
applied as an even patina of spots or small strokes – created paintings
that are as much about the colours and patterns of colours as the
subjects themselves. 
As a movement, Fauvism, unveiled in the Salon d’Automne of 1905
in Paris, lasted from around 1904-1910. Its major proponents, Henri
Matisse and Andre Derain took colour usage in painting into the realm
of aggressive and pure interpretation. In an almost childlike manner,
visions of colour in nature became purely subjective.
and movement on a two-dimensional picture plane – appears in Europe
by 1909-1910. Francis Picabia and Vassily Kandinsky are credited as being
among the first, but the painting The Talisman by the French painter Paul
Serusier (1888) is often seen as the first tentative beginnings of
abstraction in painting.
While there are many variants within these concepts, understanding
the basics will help an artist have a practical understanding for
use in making a painting, and even help to develop one’s personal
voice and approach.
algury.com ▸
Al Gury, Head of a Man,
2021, oil on board,
40.64x30x48cm
John Constable,
Stoke-by-Nayland,
1810-11, oil on canvas,
28.3x36.2cm
John Constable 
STOKE - BY - NAYL AND, 1810 - 11
Constable’s palette is Lead White, Yellow Ochre, Red Earth, Emerald Green,
Ultramarine Blue, Prussian Blue and black. Strong tonal values show Yellow Ochre
mixed into the green to create warmth in sunlit surfaces, while umber and black are
mixed into the greens to make cool, darker shadows.
Carolus-
Duran ◂
HENR I FANTIN -
L ATOUR, 1861
This powerful portrait of the
young Fantin-Latour is
structured with strong
anatomical planes and a
dramatic, cool raking light. This
directional light arrangement
throws the form into high relief.
The palette of colours is limited
to umber, black, white, rose and
Burnt Sienna. The mid tones
that sculpt the face are neutral,
greyer versions of the lighter
colours made by the addition of
a grey or umber. The overall feel
suggests an overcast day.
68 ARTISTS & ILLUSTRATORS
OPEN ACCESS METROPOLITAN MUSEUM OF ART, NY, USA
◂
OPEN ACCESS METROPOLITAN MUSEUM OF ART, NY
Auguste Renoir,
A Road to
Louveciennes,
1870, oil on
canvas,
38.1x46.4cm
Auguste Renoir
◂
OPEN ACCESS METROPOLITAN MUSEUM OF ART, NY, USA
A ROAD TO LOUVECIENNE S, 1870
Unlike the dense, short, thick strokes of paint in the
Monet, Renoir uses a greater variety of sizes and
densities of strokes to evoke visual interest. The
warmer lighter strokes of the sunlight are softer
and less highly chromatic than the Monet. The cool
Carolus-Duran,
mid-tones and shadow colours are decidedly greyer
Henri Fantin-Latour,
1861, oil on canvas,
than the more intense blues used in the Monet. The
47.6x38.1cm overall effect is one of summer light, but in a softer
range on a hazy day.
 F O CAL PO INT
◂
Berthe
Morisot, Young
Berthe Morisot
Woman YOUNG WOMAN KNIT TING, 18 8 3
Knitting, 1883,  Many Impressionist works are constructed of colours that are
oil on canvas, close in value but diverse in temperature. The effect is a close
50.2x60cm value range of colours that create an almost flat effect. The energy
here is in the quick, lively opaque strokes of colour. Her colours
were a mixture of earth colours combined with the pure, bright
colours of the primary and secondary colour wheels.

Georges Seurat,
Study For A
Sunday on La
Grande Jatte, 1884,
oil on wood,
15.2x24.1cm

OPEN ACCESS METROPOLITAN MUSEUM OF ART, NY, USA

◂
Georges Seurat
STUDY FOR A SUNDAY ON
L A GR ANDE JAT TE, 18 8 4
Following the ideas of Michele Eugene Chevreul,
concerning the optical mixing of colours and colours
intensifying each other by proximity, Seurat creates a
layered effect of closely related values of opposing
colours. Touches of yellow in the greens warm them
Vincent Van
while touches of blue amongst the green strokes cool
XXXXXXXX

Gogh,
Cypresses,
the green. Unlike Renoir and even Monet whose
1889, oil on colour evokes a sense of reality, Seurat’s paintings
canvas, take on an almost flat abstract quality in his use of
93.4x74cm closely related colour values and definition of shapes
and silhouettes. Vermilion, Red Lake, Burnt Sienna,
Iron Oxide Yellow, Chrome Yellow, Cadmium Yellow,
Viridian, Emerald Green, Ultramarine Blue, Cobalt
Blue, Lead White and black were used.

◂
Vincent Van Gogh
C YPR E SSE S, 18 89
 The Divisionist movement in colour – the practice
of separating colour into individual dots or strokes
OPEN ACCESS METROPOLITAN MUSEUM OF ART, USA

of pigment – suggested placing adjacent touches of

colour without layering, and sometimes not even
touching. The pale canvas unified the mosaic of
colour strokes into a whole. Van Gogh brought his
own sense of energy to these adjacent strokes of
colours rather than in the short, layered spots of
Pointillism of Seurat. Even so, he utilised
interactions of warm and cool colours, with each
stroke being an energetic mark and lyrical
movement in its own right. ▸

A R T I S T S & I L L U S T R A T O R S 69
 Claude Monet ◂
ROUEN CATHEDR AL ,
WE ST FAÇADE , SUNLIGHT, 
1894 - 1894
OPEN ACCESS, NATIONAL GALLERY OF ART, WASHINGTON, DC, USA

 Small, dense strokes of pale yellowish

warm colours in the light are contrasted
here with literal blue cool strokes in the
shadows. The glitter of reflected lights
and the feeling of an enwrapping
atmosphere are created with touches
of cool colours stroked into the areas of
warm light whilst warm reddish touches
are spotted into the cool shadows.
The resulting patina of layered
strokes of paint create the shimmering
quality of light.
OPEN ACCESS NATIONAL GALLERY OF ART, WASHINGTON DC, USA

Robert Delaunay,
Political Drama, Claude Monet, Rouen
1914, oil and collage Cathedral, West
on cardboard, Façade, Sunlight,
88.7x 67.3cm 1894-1894, oil on
canvas, 100.1x91.4cm

Robert ◂
Delaunay Al Gury,
Al Gury
◂

Susan, 2015,
oil on board,
POLITICAL DR AMA, 1914 SUSAN, 201 5
50.8x40.64cm
Delaunay used interactive colour Susan is lit by a warm directional light.
patterns and shapes of colours that The value scheme and palette, is similar to
created a sense of movement, but that in the Carolus-Duran painting, but
which could stand alone as the sole the light is warm, dictating warmer,
point of a painting. Like many brighter colours in the light and warm
artists of the early modern period, he umbers in the neutrals and shadows.
experimented in his development Cadmium Orange has been added to the
with a broad range of visual limited palette of Yellow Ochre, Burnt
COURTESY OF THE AUTHOR

ideas extending from Post Sienna, Ivory Black and Burnt Umber.
Impressionism to pure abstraction.
Highly chromatic adjacent colours
create complimentary vibrancy in
Political Drama.

70 A R T I S T S & I L L U S T R A T O R S
 F O CAL PO INT

◂ Al Gury
HE AD OF A MAN, 2021
This portrait is in the Fauvist tradition of colour interpretation as
expression and choosing bright analogues of realistic colours. As in
the original Fauves, let by Matisse and Derain, the colours are
unmixed except with white and right out of the tube. This highly
chromatic palette is: Cadmium Yellow, Cadmium Orange,
Cadmium Red, Dioxazine Purple, Permanent Rose, Ultramarine
Blue and Cerulean Blue. 

Al Gury ◂
STILL LIFE WITH SUNFLOWER S, 2021
Simplified to their closest pure, out-of-the-tube bright colour
analogues, Fauvist colour did not rely on any true interpretation of
natural, observed colour. Impressionism often appears closer to the
older traditions of en plein air painting than the new freedom of the
movement led by Matisse and Derain. The colours used here,
Cadmium Yellow, Cadmium Orange, Cadmium Red Light, Permanent
Rose, Permanent Green, Pthalo Blue and Cobalt Blue and white
represent an intuitive approach to colour and brushwork.
COURTESY OF THE AUTHOR

Al Gury,
Still Life with
COURTESY OF THE ARTIST AND GROSS MCCLEAF GALLERY, PHILADELPHIA, PA, USA

Sunflowers, 2021,
oil on wood,
45.72x35.56cm

◂ Michael Gallagher
BLUE NOCTUR NE, 202 2
In Gallagher’s Blue Nocturne, the colour and design influences of Paul
and Sonia Delaunay, Matisse and Kandinsky come together to create
an intense and organic interactive colour puzzle. Pure chromatic
Michael Gallagher,
Blue Nocturne, 2022, colours, in the tradition of the Fauves, create a shimmering effect of
mixed media/acrylic the colours of nature filtered through the lens of pure abstraction
on board, 119.38x and subjective interpretation. ▫
106.68cm
ARTISTS & ILLUSTRATORS 7 1

All of ANNE - MARIE BUTLIN ’s work is
essentially an attempt to make beautiful,
uplifting images. Here, she paints
serene pine trees against a backdrop
of wide-open space
T
his painting is
based on some
photographs taken
on a cold February
day in Suffolk. The dramatic
line of tall pine trees
silhouetted against the light
sky really appealed to me.
Each of the solo trees in the
foreground seemed to have
their own distinct character
and as they receded into the
distance, the overlapping tree
trunks provided an
interesting tangle of shapes.
Gentle February light
enhanced the soft ochres,
slate blues and blue greens in
the East Anglian landscape,
so I wanted to replicate this by
keeping my palette
relatively limited. It’s also
full of horizontal lines,
something I am always
drawn to in a composition.
I aimed to treat both the sky
and the foreground as a
series of colour bands.
The overriding atmosphere
that I wanted to capture was
the sense of wide-open space,
the drama of the tall trees
and the feeling of cool winter
light, but with the promise
of sunlight and bluer sky
coming through the cloud.  Yellow
I am still relatively new to
landscape painting so it’s a bit
of a learning experience for
me. Even so, it’s energizing to
try something a bit different to
the flower paintings I usually
produce. I have found that
working extremely quickly
and with a sense of keen
urgency is most effective.
Keeping the work loose and
expressive, with lots of
obvious brush marks, and
maximizing the chance of
happy accidents with the paint
seems to result in the most
successful image.
anne-mariebutlin.com ▸
T EC HNI QU E
ANNE' S
MATERIALS
Oil paint
Winsor and Newton:
Titanium White, Naples
Yellow, Naples Yellow
Light, Yellow Ochre,
Prussian Green, Sap
Green, Olive Green, Terre
Verte, Indigo,
Ultramarine, Turquoise,
Raw Umber, Davy’s Gray,
Paynes Gray
Michael Harding: Lemon
Brushes
Pro-Arte Polar 32 White
Nylon, square-edged sizes
1”, 3/4”, ½”, 3/8”, ¼”,
decorator’s paintbrush
38cm
Support
50x50cm square, primed
fine linen stretcher from
Bird and Davis,
Southgate, London:
 birdanddavis.com
Primer
Winsor and Newton
Galeria Gesso 
Zest-it Oil Paint Dilutant
ARTISTS & ILLUSTRATORS 7 3
TE C H NIQ UE

◂ PREPARING THE SUPPORT AND

1 APPLY ING THE GROUND
I always use a fine linen support which is
ready-primed, but I like to add at least another
layer of primer by roughly and generously
applying acrylic gesso with a large brush,
making sure that there are plenty of visible
brush marks. I find that this provides a variety
of textures which really enhance the image. I
then applied a thin wash of Ultramarine mixed
with Indigo to act as a ground.

MAPPING
2 OUT THE
COMPOSITION ◂
Keeping the paint thin, I
started to draw out the
composition with
Ultramarine. I drew the
horizon line about
two-thirds of the way
down the canvas – as I
wanted some land in front
to give a sense of distance
– as well as an expanse of
sky. I also wanted to fit
the whole line of trees
into the composition, so
used a bit of artistic
licence to fit the trees in
on the left-hand side. 

◂ ADDING THE DARKE ST TONE S

3 I find Indigo a very useful neutral colour. I
mixed it with Prussian Green and Sap Green to
draw the trees more accurately and achieve a rich,
dark silhouette. I always use a ground as it gives
the painting cohesion from the outset and
conveys a sense of light from underneath. So, I
tried to keep the paint thin and not too uniform,
to leave bits of the ground showing through.

74 A R T I S T S & I L L U S T R A T O R S
 STARTING TO ADD SK Y
4 AND REFINE THE DR AWING
Using Cerulean Blue mixed variously with
other blues, white, Davy’s Grey and Naples
Yellow Light, I started to add the colour of the
sky. In applying this around the trees,
I refined the drawing of the trunks, really
starting to get a sense of their character and
complexity. At this stage of drawing,
I feel as if I am completing a complicated
jigsaw puzzle, pushing the paint around and
juggling a number of brushes. ▸

ARTISTS & ILLUSTRATORS 75

◂

FILLING IN THE SK Y
5 AND STARTING TO
C RE ATE ATMOSPHERE
Having blotted the whole painting with
some newspaper to soften the trees a
little, I continued to fill in the sky with
loose brushmarks, finding all the bands of
grey and blue, as well as the whiter clouds
at the horizon line. I exaggerated these as
they worked really well compositionally. I
also used a dry brush to drag across parts
of the painting to blur the edges of the
tree trunks.

◂ WARM IT UP
6 I started to fill in the foreground,
simplifying it into bands of colour; the
strong shadow of the trees, the warm Sap
Green of grass and some of the blues from
the sky. The whole painting needed some
warmth, so I introduced a few touches of
the warm orangey ochre colour of the
dried grass, and the same paint to enhance
the light on the side of the trees. 
 XX X XXXX X X XX

SC R APE IN
◂
7 The image was still quite
stark at this stage, so I felt that
the mass of reeds and grasses
at the bottom of the image
was really needed to soften
the composition. Using
square-edged brushes I also
found patches of the ochre
colour in various parts of the
painting and did the same
with the blue of the sky. I used
the end of the paintbrush to
scrape into the paint.

DEFINE AND
8
◂

REFINE
I tried to refine the trees a bit
more by finding little round
patches of light in the densest
part of the leaves.
Maintaining the heavy
silhouette of the trees, while
also giving them some hints
of colour was a difficult
balance. I used more of the
warm highlights on the
trunks to give them depth,
and also added some more
strong brushmarks in the sky
with thicker paint, leaving
them quite raw-edged.

THE FINISHING TOUC HE S

9 Finally, I re-introduced a band of indigo at the
bottom of the image amongst the reeds and used a
dry brush again to pull some of the colours together
in the foreground, creating some vertical marks. I
was keen to keep a freshness and sense of
immediacy in the painting so I tried very hard not
to overwork it and make it too neat. Hopefully, I
have managed to capture something of the cool
winter Suffolk landscape. ▫

ARTISTS & ILLUSTRATORS 7 7

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Tranquility, oil
on round,
stretched
canvas, 40cm

In every issue, we ask an artist to tell us about a piece of work that holds importance for them. This
month, Devon-based ocean artist ROSIE ROWELL tells us what her painting means to her

I remember feeling this pressure when painting Tranquility. It
was at the beginning of my journey as a full-time artist, and I was
overwhelmed by the thought of pursuing an art career. I felt such
a sense of accomplishment when it was finished; it left me both
confident and relaxed about my journey ahead.
To me, this piece offers the exact feeling of tranquility, which is
something I often try to portray in my ocean paintings. I wanted the
sky to hold significance as before this, I had painted a lot of ocean scenes
that had more of a chaotic feel, focusing on the movement of the water
during violent weather but I always had a desire to produce artwork
portraying the opposite. With Tranquility, I created a more captivating
sky to produce a painting that gave a sense of calm and belonging.
The ocean is objective, but I am inspired by how the sea’s
atmosphere varies every minute and the subjective emotional
attachment people have to the sea. My artwork aims to capture the
experience and mood of this deep connection. rosierowell.com ▫

82 ARTISTS & ILLUSTRATORS

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