MARCH 3RD - SUE HOWELLS - WATERCOLOUR
The meeting opened with our chair making some announcements regarding the circulation of member’s paintings at The Redditch Art & Heritage Gallery and the proposed coach trip to the Patchings Art Fair at Nottingham. It was also reported that our new exhibition stands will be ready for the June exhibition and that our website should be operational by our next meeting.
Our speaker and demonstrator, Sue Howells, was introduced and spoke briefly about her work before starting her demonstration. She works mainly in watercolour but incorporates other media into her paintings when seeking a particular effect so the technique could be described as multimedia painting. A very successful series of her paintings have been colourful, bustling, cityscapes and her first demonstration painting was to be such a cityscape. The background of angular roofs and chimneys had been painted in and Sue explained that, for this phase of the painting, she favoured large, flat brushes, which were ideal for painting the predominantly straight edged shapes. Other implements such as plastic cards were also used to manipulate the neat, tube paint and produce the desired shapes. What had started as a roofscape, developed into a cityscape as building shapes were introduced with all the doors, windows and other features. Charcoal and pastel were used for some parts of the painting and Sue showed how she could exploit the edges of these materials to produce a variety of marks. Any dry media work was fixed to allow the painting to be developed. Figures were introduced into the foreground in her characteristic way. With the rest of the painting shielded with a sheet of card, the foreground was splashed with paint to produce a random pattern of blobs. After some study, Sue painted in the figures suggested by these random marks, producing images of a variety of characters and vehicles. With some finishing touches applied, Sue fixed the painting in its’ mount for display . The result was a colourful, lively picture, which attracted a great deal of attention and admiration during our coffee break.
The second demonstration painting was of a winter scene with bare trees in the foreground and distant buildings in the background. The trees were brushed in with waterproof ink and developed in a natural way by dragging and blowing pools of ink to form the spidery pattern of branches. Graphite sticks and watercolour pencils were used to work on the details before finally washing in the foreground and adding some figures. While explaining her technique and materials and answering questions, Sue had produced two impressive paintings and was thanked by her very appreciative audience.
David Price
