This Week's Paintings

Actually yes, they are mine not the fabulous ones I post monthly. The next instalment of those will be in a few days time - April. The Amerindian painting was done at home. I have reappraised the way I do these portraits becoming dissatisfied with recent efforts. and have attempted a slightly different approach. Following Charles Reid's mantra "be a little crude...mistakes are part of it" I first made the drawing using a size 7 2B Pentel mechanical pencil. The following day I commenced the painting but did not complete it,  going so far then leaving time to reflect on what I'd done. One tends (at least I do) to see things differently after reflection and a little time - a day or two - rather than first impressions. Maybe that's just me. I still aspire to do better and never ever feel that I've produced a 100% result.

Whirling Horse Sioux 1900

I'm quite pleased with this and feel I achieved something approaching where I want to be.

Flowers - 16" x 12" Fabriano Artistico Extra White not.

Flowers /foliage was the subject at this weeks AVA session. I obtained the photo by 'googling', which is how  I normally get most of my references. The colours appealed to me.

I again made the drawing the day previous so could concentrate solely on the painting at the AVA session. Only two brushes were used, mostly a No 10 travel brush from Rosemary which is  a nice full-bodied sable, and a NO 6 Isabey travel brush. Flower colours were also limited. The reds were all various dilutions of Quinacridone Coral from Daniel Smith. The yellows were Hansa Yellow Medium (Daniel Smith PY97) and Indian Yellow (Rowney PY153). I still have stocks of the Rowney although PY 153 is said to be no longer available.. The marks on the petals were made by a Staedtler pigment liner. I bought a set of six a while ago from Cass Art in Bristol.

The greens are slightly more complex. Apatite Green from Daniel Smith, Sap Green from Lukas and one or two mixes of Ultramarine Blue and Hansa Yellow Medium. There is also some Cobalt Teal Blue (Daniel Smith). Possibly I've missed some out.

I was reasonably happy with this painting. The flowers are Alstroemerias ( I think that's the spelling).

I don't put these forward as good paintings just my current work.  I'm beginning to paint a little more often again and hopefully emerging from the trough I've been stuck in. Not painters block exactly but something similar. This also applies to my health, which although generally good, has been less than 100% the last few months and may have been a contributory factor.

Quinacridone Purple - Pigment Violet 55 ( PV55)

This is a new colour introduced by Daniel Smith in early 2011, who claim exclusivity, at least for the present.  It is a transparent non-granulating, medium staining, pigment described by the pigment website www.artiscreation.com/violet.html as a `Bluish Violet to Violet Blue'. Note there is no such thing as a `true' purple pigment which would be `PP' so we are in fact seeing a variation of violet. As a Quinacridone there won't be any of the possible lightfastness (fading) problems with dark violets like PV23 and PV37.

Up to now most purple shades listed by manufacturers have been convenience formulations composed of  a red and a blue. There are a few single pigment mixes, one being Dioxazine Purple (PV37 Graham) - but see previous comment. The usual method of creating a purple is to mix a red and a blue. But which red and which blue?  The Daniel Smith Purple is a mix of Ultramarine Blue (PB29) and Quinacridone Rose (PV19 - Violet Shade?) .For those who follow the single pigment argument - and not everyone does - the idea of such a purple holds attraction. Recently the colour has become available in the UK, initially it seems only via the SAA (Society of All Artists)  www.saa.co.uk/ I have just bought a tube and made the following swatches as well as giving small amounts to Yvonne Harry and Jan Weeks, fellow friends in Avon Valley Artists, to test. North American artists can obtain it from the Daniel Smith website and also their retail shops plus other designated stockists.

The swatches on the left are pure Quinacridone Purple with the strongest at the bottom. The orange is Schminke Translucent Orange, a sort of compliment although not exactly so. I haven't explored the possibilities for mixing with other colours. 

Yvonne Harry  `Fuschias' using Quinacridone Purple
www.yvonneharryfloralwatercolours.com
www.watercolourflorals.blogspot.co.uk

Yvonne's comments are:

".......I have used it on the attached painting as promised. There was enough for the top two blooms, mainly, and then I had to mix my equivalent for the bottom flower. You can see that it is much duller than the upper two. .........I expected it to be closer to a blue than a magenta, but why I should think that I have no idea. I mixed it occasionally with Opera Pink and where I needed darks I dropped a little Ultramarine into the wet paint. This seemed to do the job.

Like all Daniel Smith paints I have tried, it flowed well, remoistened easily and was a pleasure to use. I am converted to the Daniel Smith and Graham paints for the future.I think it makes lovely shades of purple/magenta and the fact it is a single pigment does give it more freshness.and transparency.. All in all I was delighted to use it and am having some of that. I have ordered a tube from the SAA as Jacksons had none in stock".

Jan Weeks has this to say:

" I have tried out the Quinacridone Purple, a lovely clear colour, and I would imagine it would be very useful for painting flowers, but would have limited use in landscapes and figurative work. I don't think I will be adding this one to my palette but enjoyed testing it".

Yvonne is mainly a flower painter with Jan more of a landscape artist so you have two viewpoints starting from different directions. I do think it will be very useful for flowers and possibly some still lifes.

ADDED 17/10/2019. After several months this paint went hard and could not be squeezed out. I discarded it but when it now happens, and it does with several other paints, especially those with added white, I cut the tubes open and use as pan paint. This works with the first tried the Daniel Smith Lunar Black. PV55 has now been introduced in other ranges including the budget one Van Gogh and also White Knights.

Gerard Hendriks - A Master of Watercolour

I continue to discover fabulous new artists - to me -  by the score.  One I have been made aware of in recent months is the Dutch watercolour painter Gerard Hendriks. Gerard is very well-known in Europe and has an enormous following. Although I subscribe to magazines like The Artist, and previously Leisure Painter and International Artist, I've never seen him mentioned, or many of the others, let alone featured. Why is this? Is it a language barrier or does it have deeper implications? Fortunately some changes are taking place and Gerard is highlighted in two of Robin Berrys  2011 books, including the `Compedium of Watercolour Tecniques' which I reviewed recently. Originally he painted in a very `photorealistic' manner in other mediums but gradually moved towards watercolour and his present  highly impressionistic and vivid colourist style.

Gerard Hendriks

I came across Gerard on Facebook, an incredible source of fabulous artists and their paintings. He is truly prolific with a wide range of subject matter that includes Sports, Flowers, Still Lifes, Birds, Wildlife and Landscapes. I have seen many examples of his work and his use of colour, together with a loose and adventurous approach appeals to me very much. We are friends on Facebook and when I contacted him with the idea for this post he was most helpful.

Poppies - Gerards most recent painting 57cm x 76cm although I'm sure this has now been superceded

Gerard at work.

 His Studio

He also paints in a more conventional position

What many artists are interested in are the materials that top artists use. In Gerards case he favours Hahnemuhle Leonardo 600gsm (300lb) rough. The only immediate UK source I knew for this paper was Ken Bromley but then found after some digging that Great Art, Jacksons, the SAA, Heaton Cooper and Artdiscount, all sell it although it isn't exactly prominent on their websites, nor does it appear in either the Great Art or Jacksons catalogues, despite them featuring several other Hahnemuhle papers. Viktoria Prischedko also favours Leonardo. The only reason I can think for this is that, being 300lb, it is expensive and not really a sensible buy for most amateurs so sales are in a niche market. Jacksons are apparently discontinuing this paper and are offering it at a cut price while stocks last.

Gerard only uses tube paints, a mixture of Rembrandt and Old Holland both well-known Dutch makes.

Rembrandt appears to be the main one with some specific colours from Old Holland. His palette is : Alazarin Crimson, Karmijn (Carmine), Perm Kraplak (Permanent Alazarin), Cadmium Red Dark, Cadmium Red Light, Cobalt Violet (Old Holland), Quinacridone Rose, Permanent Red Violet, Cadmium Yellow Dark, Cadmium Yellow Light,  Lemon Yellow, Gamboge (Old Holland), Yellow Ochre, Burnt Sienna, Burnt Umber, Blue/Green, Turquoise Blue, Cerulean Blue, Cobalt Blue, Ultramarine Deep, Prussian Blue, Neutral Tint, Ivory Black, Chinese White. That makes 23 colours but he only uses a limited number in each painting, depending upon subject. His basic palette is Permanent Kraplak (Alazarin), Cadmium Red, Cadmium Yellow Dark, Yellow Ochre, Cerulean Blue, Cobalt Blue and Prussian Blue.

As for brushes they are long handled Chinese brushes, which he imports from China, together with cheap flat varnish brushes 2cm and 5cm, several others of which he doesn't know the English name however here we are. 

Gerard does most of his watercolours in the studio but also paints plein air. He says he has no big stack of sketchbooks but draws directly on the board with pencil b4 and "lets all the lines, also the wrong lines, stand on the board". He then begins the painting process, the dry paper sometimes upright, sometimes flat, using lots of water and pigment, splashing paint on and letting it drip off and always retaining the beautiful parts (happy accidents?) that occur. If necessary he uses nails, credit card, the back of a paintbrush or a pencil to draw or scratch in the wet paint, everything to obtain a good result. He admits he does all sorts of things that are supposedly `not allowed'  but doesn't worry about that as he considers only two things matter, painting in a way you enjoy and obtaining a good artistic result. His ethos is that painting is an exciting adventure, a kind of safari behind the easel. 

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Now for some of his paintings.

This  painting of the cheetah is actually acrylic all others watercolour

The above selection gives a good coverage of most of the subjects that Gerard paints. I have read that he `specializes' in wildlife, but flowers, still lifes and landscapes appear almost as frequently. I think them stunning.

If you are as taken by the above as I am then you can follow this up by visiting his website www.gerardhendriks.net/ where many more paintings are displayed, and also Youtube to view three demonstration videos. Just search on there for `Gerard Hendriks' videos. If you Google `Gerard Hendriks' lots more comes up.

Back to Painting

Having had a barren last week as far as painting is concerned I needed to get the paint brushes flowing again, so after some little thought decided to attempt a flower painting. This was prompted by two nice plants of Phlox Maculata in the garden that had come into full bloom just as we returned from Devon. I cut two stems, stuck them in a jam jar and off I went.

For the initial drawing I had to restrain myself from making it too detailed as the flower heads are a mass of small blooms. I think I did slightly. I used a mechanical  07 Pentel 120 A3 DX with a 2B lead. I have a mass of drawing instruments but use this one quite frequently. Pentel do a very good range including the 120 series and the Sharplet.

Phlox Maculata - Centenaire 16" x 12" 140lb (300 gm) not

As far as colour was concerned this was fairly restricted, although I admit the shade in the painting is not quite right compared to the actual plant which is more of a lavender pink colour. Colours used were mainly Quinacridone Rose (Graham PV19), Ultramarine Violet (Rowney PV15) plus a little Cobalt Magenta (Rowney PV14) and Certulean Blue. The Greens were various dilutions of Hookers Green (Graham).

Brushes used were the Isabey 6228 Kolinsky Sizes 8 and 6. The whole painting took about 1 1/2 hours with breaks.

Wild Flowers

The other day I wandered along the lane near my home and collected a bunch of wild flowers, both from the verges of the road, down into the farmers field, and beyond into the community forest. I have done two  paintings with flowers collected from my small garden in the last two weeks, but wasn't really that enamoured of them. Recently I have started to question whether I was becoming too focussed on portraits to the detriment of other subjects. What exactly do I want to paint? I like doing portraits in the loose manner but also  still lifes, incorporating flowers and other objects in the manner of Charles Reid. Pure landscapes? Not really as I prefer old buildings with thatched roofs, and small boats on the rivers and canals around here.

 I managed to collect a good mixture of wild flowers, including a dark-coloured geranium from the verges outside one of the very old buildings along the lane, that may have been a garden escapee. Here is the result.

Wild Flowers- Fabriano Artistico Extra White Not 16" x 12"

I used a lot of colours in this painting. Transparent Yellow (W & N PY150), Cadmium Yellow Pale (Rowney PY35)), Indian Yellow (Rowney PY153) plus Green Gold (Rowney PY129). Reds were Permanent Carmine (W & N PR N/A), Opera Rose (W & N), Permanent Rose (W & N PV19). Greens were mixed partly from  yellows and blues except for Hookers Green (Maimeri PO49/PG7)) which was modified with Burnt Umber, Burnt Sienna and darkened with  Faience Blue (Maimeri PB60). The geraniums were Permanent Mauve (Rowney PV23) with some Carmine added. Other blues were Cerulean (W & N red shade) and French Ultramarine (Rowney PB29). A lot of the colours were mixed on the paper. The limited palette artists might flinch but flower painters usually have larger palettes and so do I. Opera Rose? A paint with limited lightfastness, although W & N say it is still better than many paints used in the past. I used it sparingly.

Conversely I only used three brushes. All Rosemary, Series 33 Kolinsky rounds in sizes 6 & 8 and Series 44 pure Kolinsky rigger size 7. Although this brush is called a rigger it is quite full bodied compared to most riggers and more like a very long No.6. I have bought a Da Vinci Series 35 No 8 specifically for flower painting but not used it yet. I quite like the result. Comments welcome.

Flowers ... and Things.

Flowers..and Things.- Canson Fontenay 16" x 12" Rough

The other day I decided that I needed a change of subject and went into my small garden to select some flowers as part of a still life. I added some fruit and two jugs. This isn't a specific flower painting just a painting with flowers in it a la Charles Reid's approach..

I first made a loose drawing and then painted. Not much preparation apart from juggling the still life about and the whole thing was completed in less than two hours. Yes possibly I should have spent more time on planning,  but I have a personal conflict between spontaneity and  deliberation. I should be more deliberate and think more about what I do I realise that, but on this occasion just wanted to get paint on paper with a changed subject after a lot of portrait work in recent months. Hopefully this will open the door to more considered paintings with a similar theme.

Colours used included Cerulean, Cobalt Blue, Indian Yellow (Rowney PY153), Ultramarine Violet (Rowney PV15), Permanent Carmine (W & N PR N/A), Permanent Rose (W & N PV19), Transparent Yellow (W & N PY150) with various blues for the greens. A touch of Greengold (Rowney PY129) and some Burnt Umber for the dark stems and white flower centres. Also touches of Gold Ochre (W & N PY43). I think that's more or less it. Usual brushes with Rosemary Series 33 No 9 prominent.

A word about the paper. I like Canson Fontenay a lot. It has a rough surface on one side and a not on the other. You can choose whichever side you want facing out when you order the blocks. A word of caution. The rough side is not very rough, more like a not on some other makes and the not surface moderately smooth. This suits me but may not suit everyone.  It is also available in sheets. I haven't looked very hard but the only source from the usual suppliers I deal with is Great Art www.greatart.co.uk . The other problem is the price has been increased in the last year and it is now more expensive than both Fabriano Artistico and Waterford, the other two makes I use most often. Still it is a very nice paper. Comments welcome.

A Change of Mood

White Ladies 12" x 12" Waterford Not

Recently I have been agonising, possibly too strong a word, about what to paint. Certainly portraits in the general style of Charles Reid are high on the list but what other subjects? Like many would-be artists I began with landscapes but the attraction of these has dimmed, although not entirely. I do like painting out of doors because there is nothing quite like it and old buildings, particularly those with thatched roofs, hold a strong appeal. 

Still lifes also interest me, again in the manner of Charles Reid, incorporating flowers, fruit, cups, and other objects, sometimes in association with a  portrait. The other day I decided to suspend the portraits, at least for a day or two, and have a shot at flowers with associated fruit. Gathering what flowers remained in the garden I set up a still life and off I went.  The result was so so but my wife didn't care for it and, after reflection, neither did I.  Feeling somewhat depressed I decided to have another try with a different approach. A company called  `Whistlefish'  have opened a gallery in Bath, adding to the already large number. How they will fare remains to be seen but they are an interesting company originating in Cornwall with several newly opened outlets. http://www.whistlefish.com/ . What is the connection? On browsing the Bath shop, and also the one at Looe in Cornwall, I noticed they were selling very attractive self-assembly frames complete with everything including mounts. These come in three frame sizes, small, medium and large, with white my preferred choice. I rather liked the medium size, cost £20, the large, interior 51cm x 34cm, being £25. The interior of the medium is 12" x 12" and it struck me as a good size for flower painting, concentrating on the flowers and omitting the rest. Above is the result. I used pan colours and mine are a mixture of W & N, Schminke, Maimeri and Rembrandt with W & N predominating. I also, almost a first for me, made the drawing and painting standing up at my `Alvaro', as opposed to the  table easel. Brushes were Sizes 9  and 6 Rosemary series 33 Kolinsky, plus a size 4 long handled W & N Cirrus and a small rigger. I rather like the result. What do you think? I invite comments as I do on all my posts.