JULY 7TH - STEVE ABBOTT - DERWENT PENCILS
Opening the meeting, our Chair explained that the planned speaker had had to cancel her visit but that, at short notice, Mr Steve Abbott had kindly agreed to give a presentation on the Derwent product range. A report followed on the recent FLAIR exhibition at the Kingfisher Centre and the results of the public voting. Peter Jones received the most votes with Karen Read second and third place shared by Angie Merris and Chris Tansley. The trophy was presented retrospectively to last years winner, Barbara Winfield and then to this years winner, Peter Jones. In the junior section, Joe Geehan took first and second place with two of his paintings and Sophie Wall took third place. Joe was presented with his certificates and Barbara Winfield accepted Sophie’s on her behalf.
Steve described how his career as an artist had developed and how his association with Derwent came about. He explained how the availability of graphite in Keswick area led to the development of black graphite pencils and then to the expansion of Derwent pencil and pastel products to its present comprehensive range. The properties of each of the pencil products were explained and demonstrated starting with a simple black and white landscape made with a graphite rubbing technique over cut-out masking profiles. Linear images were produced with straight edged masks and tone gradations introduced by more subtle rubbing techniques.
A discussion and demonstration of water soluble and non-soluble pencils followed with Steve showing us watercolour paintings that he had produced. In some he had used the soluble pencils as a colour palette, lifting the required colour off the pencil with a wetted brush. In others he had completed a dry pencil drawing and then developed the subject into a painting with the use of a water cartridge brush.
The Derwent range includes charcoal sticks and pencils with colour-tinted charcoal as well as the traditional black, and the properties of all of these were explained and demonstrated. In the course of the demonstrations, numerous questions were answered and advice given on suitable surfaces, compositional aids, and the mounting and presentation of finished pictures. To round off his presentation, Steve enlisted the help of sitters from the audience and produced some of the artwork in which he specialises. First he cut a paper silhouette, which he used to make a tonal silhouette portrait, and then drew a more conventional portrait using his Inktense pencils. He presented the portraits to his delighted sitters, Joe Geehan and Morag Ford respectively.
Closing the meeting, our Chair thanked Steve for his interesting and informative presentation and also for the Derwent products that he had kindly donated as raffle prizes.
David Price
