Wednesday 28 May Chester-le-Street art Society

8 members present.
Started glazing two paintings.

Started small painting to practice glazing in acrylics on a 12 x 10 in canvas board previously covered in yellow and orange and textured with cling film. Some roller work was applied to certain area and a loose outline of a cottage add. Glazing was then added to give more depth.

Glazing in acrylics

Watched a video on glazing with Paul Taggart  and tried it out on a Lake District painting

Glazing apples

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6_oxodVD0D8&list=WL

Original painting

Glazing use acrylic matt medium mixed with blue, red and yellow acrylic inks using the blue in the sky and background hills and warmer colours moving forward. Its helped to give more recession . Tube yellow and blue ink used for the near grasses. 

Found my way again

20 x 16 canvas Elvet Bridge in Durham City

Started with random lines with blocks of burnt sienna and yellow ink.

Image added not following drawn lines with black waterproof pen .

Texture added with a small roller with flat elastic bands covered in burnt sienna ink to give random marks in the foreground, the houses and the tree behind the building.

Ink added with my finger under the arches and soften by pulling down.

Some of the lines reinforced with a thicker black pen.

Happy with the result and enjoyed painting it but I think it needs some transparent coloured washes which will probably ruin it but its worth a try.

Wednesday night Chester le Street Arts Society 21 May 2014

Completely lost my way with this painting.

20 x 16 inch canvas board covered with yellow and orange and the image added in black pen

Roughly painted the sky, background hills and foreground.

Black ink and white added and re-established the buildings and bridge- still not working.

Added white over the whole painting and removed some with a tissue.

Leave it for another day.

Wednesday Night Chester-le-Street Arts Society 14 May 2014

Workshop with northern artist Susan Walton who encouraged the class to paint outside their comfort zone in acrylic paints.

Follow her web site on the link below:

http://www.susan-walton.co.uk/sunset/

I had all ready decided to paint an abstract based on a geological fault ( earthquake ) I had photographed in the opencast coal site.
I wanted to work mainly with turquoise against a hot orange with a certain amount of black.
I started with an overall wash of yellow, orange and pink over the entire canvas and and added plastic food wrap to texture the paint. This was removed when dry.
Using a foam roller with several rubber bands tied around I added more texture marks in blue and purple.
I then poured turquoise and orange straight from paint pot on to the canvas and flatten this with plastic food wrap.
Black was added to define the shapes.

' Faults '- Americano Acrylic paints and black ink on 20 x 16 inch canvas.

Reference material

Rothbury demonstration of watercolour coast scene

Only five people for the demo but everyone seemed to enjoy it. Coastal scene of Chourdon Point south of Seaham Harbour on the North Sea coast of County Durham. 15 x 10.5 inches on Bockingford 200 lb paper. This time I did tape the paper to board at the top and bottom to set a good example as a normally just allow the paper to bow after the first wash but it soon flattens on drying.

Showed three examples of lifting out 

1. Using wet cotton wool balls to create a soft edge as for clouds .
2. Using a draughtsman erasing shield with cotton wool or 'magic eraser sponge ' to create a definite shape such as circle for the sun or overlapping small circles to create sheep in a green field without having to paint round them.
3. Using a damp half inch synthetic brush to lift back paint.

 I use Bockingford wood pulp paper as the paint sits on the surface so non-staining pigments can easily removed. I do not like Saunders Waterford or Arches paper as I find the paper absorbs the colour giving a flatten tone and more difficult to remove.

My other bad habit is to always paint with a rigger after the main washes are done ignoring the smaller brushes. I find it easily to control the mixture of colours in a single wash and flattening the hairs to give a broken line.

Deerness Art Group Sunday 11 May 2014

Demonstration and workshop of Mixed Media by Tony Montague  using Alcohol coloured pens on tracing paper and plastic drawing film.

Random lines of red, blue and yellow draw on tracing paper then methylated spirits is dropped on to the paper which pushes back the colour. A defuser can be used to produce a fine spray of meths to cause a mottled effect.

Two of his paintings using this method.

Another method he demonstrated was to paint thin tissue paper with watercolour paint and use this as collage material.

This is Norma making an excellent collage using this method.

I tried using the alcohol pens on canvas board but after the initial  ink work separated with the meths

all the texture soaked into the canvas. I then using black sharpie to define the design and then some tube acrylics were added.

Added clear tissue to the background to try and give a sense of depth.

North Shields Fish Quay 20 x 16 inches on canvas board.

Really good session and Tony is an excellent demonstrator.

http://www.bayattic.com/tony-montague-art-prints-b108

Picture selection

http://us5.campaign-archive1.com/?u=837878f911e69783131c39f96&id=94d4af350e&e=8a520aba11

My picture selected by on line gallery Painters Online.

Wednesday 7 May 2014 Chester le Street Arts Society

Started watercolour painting of Chourdon Point at Seaham beach in Co. Durham for practice for my demonstration at Rothbury Coquetdale Art Gallery this Saturday.

http://www.coquetdale.org.uk/

Need to darken the cliff on the right, add figures on the beach and gulls in the sky.

Only six members present.

Last week started a Lake District scene of Greenhow End which is part of Fairfield as seen from Deepdale Beck. Tube acrylics on 20 x 16 inch  primed canvas board- needs lots of work.