Purple & Green

Once again due to the weather it wasn't possible to paint outdoors so the AVA group were again in St. Marys Church hall this last Thursday morning. As the forecast had been pretty poor I had already prepared two drawings of flower subjects the previous day. They were based on photographs I've taken recently and I decided to paint the oriental poppy I  photographed in Pats garden the previous Saturday. Its a simple composition but there is a lot to be said for simplicity.

15" x 11" Saunders Waterford Extra White 140lb not

I determined that I would adopt a very loose approach other than for the flower itself. I initially splashed clear water onto the paper in a random fashion, which was near vertical so that dribbles ran down to the bottom. For the flower, which I painted first I used Permanent Magenta (Rowney PV19), the violet shade of PV19. I previously masked out the anthers in the centre using Pebeo Drawing Gum and part of the centre itself. I then began to put in the green leaves that surrounded the flower in a loose manner which was helped by the wet paper. Hookers Green (Graham PG7/PY110), which is quite dark at full strength, was used for the darks but I softened the edges in places to get a balanced mixture of hard and soft edges. The other greens used were Sap Green (Daniel Smith PO49/PG7), a brighter green, and Green-Gold (Rowney PY129), a so-called two tone paint, which varies from light green to yellow when heavily diluted. 

Once the flower was dry I darkened certain areas as per the photograph with a stronger mix of Permanent Magenta, again softening the edges to avoid a `hard' look.  After this the rest of the green foliage was painted. I should say I `splashed' colour on at various times, some of which finished up on my face, spectacles and  right arm! I still have trouble getting splashes exactly where wanted. This caused some amusement and generally my fellow painters keep well clear when I'm in action. Finally I dropped some Primary Blue Cyan (Maimeri PB15-3 Green Shade) into the dark areas of the flower when still wet and let them blend.

At the very end I removed the masking fluid and finished off the stamens and centre with light use of white gouache.. Apart from the centre of the flower I only used one brush the Da Vinci Artissimo Series 44 Size 2 Kolinsky Mop, roughly equivalent to a size 14 round. The small brush for the centre was the Isabey Size 6 retractable which is small for a number 6, closer to a 4.

The colours of green and magenta are near compliments, not exactly so but I thought they work quite well together and was not displeased with the final result. The whole exercise, including the drawing took about 1 1/2 hours. I have another flower painting drawn up and Mick has set a flower painting, a hollyhock, as the August Challenge.

Evie

I have made several attempts to produce good paintings of my grandchildren with so far mixed results. Several good artists say children are the most difficult to paint and they certainly aren't easy. I have already produced two paintings of Evie and she proudly displays them in her bedroom, but the deafening silence from both parents and grandmother makes me think they aren't that impressed. In mitigation I am trying to paint a `Charles Reid' type of interpretation where absolute realism is not the aim but this is what most people like to see. Another problem with painting children, at least to me, is making them look older than they actually are.

This was my guide photograph

Evie 16" x 12" Centenaire 140lb (300gm) not

I don't put this up as a definitive effort by any means. I think slow improvement is visible compared to the others. She thinks it great by the way but then she would! I followed CR's advice in stressing one eye over the other. I have messed around with the left side and could have done it better initially. 

I first made a careful pencil drawing using an 07 mechanical Pentel. For the skin tones I used Cadmium Red with a little Yellow Ochre. Where I wished to darken I added Cerulean or Cobalt Blue Deep. I concentrated on the eyes then the nose and mouth using slightly darker colour, where necessary stressing the inner eye. There is some Hookers Green (Graham) in the corners. When completely dry I added more colour - for instance on the right facing cheek. I also did this with the lips. I tried to do the eyes very carefully in order to maintain a good resemblance. Evie recognized herself immediately. 

 The colours in the eyes included very diluted Raw Umber. The hair is essentially Ultramarine Blue and some Burnt Sienna, stressing the blue. Evie has very dark - almost black - hair. I used Cadmium Orange for the clothing to compliment the blue.

Brushes used were the Rosemary series 33 Size 12 and also the Rosemary (ABS) Kolinsky mop Size1. The Isabey size 6 also featured.  

Schminke Translucent Orange (PO71)

In her latest book Jean Haines, when discussing her palette, waxed lyrical about Schminke Translucent Orange, which after having found it at an art fair, she regards as indispensable. What is so special about this colour? To begin with this pigment, PO71 Pyrrole Orange, was until recently only available from Schminke, although this has now changed with the addition of Permanent Orange from Lukas.

The best known orange is Cadmium Orange (PO20) which is very opaque and has the disadvantage of being a cadmium pigment, all cadmiums being toxic. It isn't the most popular of colours and isn't an automatic palette choice. Nevertheless Handprint rate it as a 'Top Forty' pigment.

According to Handprint PO71 is a lightfast, opaque and staining pigment of a red orange shade. Note the opaque. I'm aware cadmums are toxic but thought, wrongly it seems, that the newer oranges on offer were also supposed to be more transparent. Actually this question of opaqueness is not always what it seems because nearly all watercolour pigments will show varying degrees of transparency when diluted. 

Cadmium Orange (Maimeri PO20) is upper left. The two middle top swatches are translucent Orange with the left one more diluted. Upper right is Rowney Warm Orange which is PO73 also called Pyrrole Orange. PO73 is also available as Pyrrol orange from Daniel Smith, Winsor Orange Red Shade from guess who and Scarlet Pyrrol from Graham. Also shown is the compliment Cobalt Blue with underneath the result of mixing them together - grey. If you click on the image you should be able to read off what they all are. Incidentally Handprint also rate PO73 as a `Top Forty' pigment. There is a definate difference between the Schminke colour and the Rowney Warm Orange. Another orange is PO43 Perinone Orange, Orange Lake from Maimeri and Perinone Orange from Daniel Smith, ` delightful' say Handprint. There are a few other orange pigments of which PO62 is the most common in use and they are fully covered in the paints section on Handprint.

I haven't tried Translucent Orange yet so I'll leave the last word to Jean Haines : "At an art fair I came across a colour I would now be lost without -if you haven't tried Schminke Translucent Orange you are really missing out on something very wonderful! When diluted, it is really transparent, glowingly vibrant and works well with many other shades as a contrast". Wow praise indeed and with her soaring popularity I'd be amazed if Schminke have not seen a sudden huge increase in sales.

July Challenge

For July it was my choice of subject and I chose the following, a photograph I took some time ago. For newer readers (!) Mick or Michael Carney and I, good friends after meeting on a Charles Reid workshop three years ago (is it that long?) alternatively select a photograph each month and paint our version of it. We then display the results on the blog. Micks blog is www.thepaintingstruggle.blogspot.com/  We shall meet again hopefully at the May 2013 Charles Reid workshop at Stow-on-the Wold. 

Dundas, a spur off the acqueduct which is very popular with canal boats. I have painted here plein air several times.

18" x 12" Fabriano Artistico 140lb (300gm) not

As you can see I pretty much followed the photograph, except where I changed the colours of the trees to brighten them up and create greater contrast. Colours used varied from Cadmium Red Pale to Ultramarine Blue. Cerulean also featured on the boats. The red of the people is Cadmium Red Pale. The browns are Hookers Green (Graham) with Burnt Sienna. There is some yellow, Hansa Yellow Medium (Daniel Smith PY97) in the background. I deliberately didn't make the water too dark and used some white gouache to help with the reflections, which I finalized on the following day. Throughout the Escoda travel brushes were used.

I  painted this at an AVA indoor session earlier in the month. We couldn't go outside because of the appalling weather. It was suggested by Jan that the boat looked as if it was going uphill. I couldn't quite see that but I altered the bottom slightly afterwards to take account of this. The only other change I made, again the following day, was to darken the foliage, adding Ultramarine to Hookers, on both the left and right hand sides. My thinking here was to create greater recession. This was my first and only full attempt at this subject. I didn't think I could do much better, although would have preferred a more radical approach, so left it at that. 

Bull_Goes_Hunting

This is my latest Indian portrait. It is of an old Indian photographed by Edward Curtis around 1900 (?).

Bull_Goes_Hunting Apsaroke Indian 

www.firstpeople/us

What a face! Obviously old (ancient?) with greying hair. The Apsaroke, better known as the Crows, a name given them rather contemptuously by the whites, were a warlike tribe although not especially numerous, who inhabited the Rocky Mountains. In the Indian wars of the mid to late 1800s they frequently served as scouts for the cavalry against their deadly enemies the Sioux and Cheyenne.

Bull_Goes_Hunting 16" x 12" Centenaire 140lb (300gm) Not 

I initially made a careful drawing, not over detailed, and used a limited palette with Cadmium Red, Quinacridone Rust (Graham PO48) , Raw Sienna and Cobalt Blue (Rowney PB72) plus some Cerulean for the skin tones. The hair was varied dilutions of Ultramarine Blue and Burnt Sienna. After the initial washes I let it become fully dry and then added the furrows and fissues in the face.  Finally, the following day I applied some white goache quite thickly in places shown as white in the photograph. 

Brushes were the Isabey Kolinsky sables Series 6228 sizes 4, 6 and 8.

Two books on watercolour techniques

Recently I saw something about two new books on watercolour techniques, or rather one an updated edition, by Hazel Harrison (with Diana Craig). One of the very first books I purchased was `Watercolour- step-by-step' written by Hazel, first published in 1993 and reprinted several times and she is the author of several other books with a similar theme.  

Search Press 2011 143 pages Approx. 81/2" by 83/4" rpp £12.99p

This is an updated version of `The Encyclopedia of Watercolour Techniques', published in 2004. As readers of the post on my recent trip to Devon will know I already have it, bought at £5.99 from Trago Mills. At that price it is a steal but you will generally have to pay around £9.49, which was the price of all other copies at Trago. Actually the current Amazon price for both books is £9.09p and used copies are listed at £6.21p, again for both, but the used copies are no doubt from Amazon partners who add a carriage (hefty?) charge. I still have another copy on loan from the library and was in process of reviewing it when the chance to buy a cheap one arose. 

The book is broken up into three main chapters, (1) Tools and Materials, (2) Techniques and finally (3) Picture Making. As usual with Hazel  many of the illustrations are of paintings by a variety of different artists. Chapter one covering tools and materials is something which is partially covered in many other books  but here is comprehensive and all options are clearly outlined. To my mind the most useful is that on techniques which details everything in a way that even the newest beginner can understand. It is a very useful primer and even the more experienced could usefully dip into it from time to time. I certainly shall. The final chapter, picture making, is also good starting with palettes then tone, light and shadow, perspective, spatial depth(!) and more. Everything is there. All in all a very good book, especially for beginners and intermediate painters in watercolour.

Search Press 2011 176 pages approx. 71/2" x 91/2" rpp £12.99p

The second book, also borrowed from the library, is another from Search Press called `The Compedium of Watercolour Techniques', by Robin Berry, also published in 2011. Two similar books on watercolour techniques by the same publisher in the same year? This is what intrigued me in the first place, and after discovering a while ago that it is possible to borrow a surprisingly wide variety of art books from the local library consortium, I ordered both titles thinking I would review them, satisfying my curiosity at the same time. Robin Berry is a new name to me and although we are friends on Facebook I know no more about her than she about me. Some details are on the back cover, in such faint small print that it is very difficult to read but I did gather she is a recognized artist with over 35 years experience. This book is slightly larger and with more pages than the Harrison book although carrying the same retail price. It has four chapters (1) Getting Started, (2) Painting (3) Choosing a Subject and (4) Techniques. Including Robin Berry the extensive number of artists featured include Gerard Hendriks and Stephie Butler, both of whom I like very much. I have a feeling it is slightly less well-organized than the other book and goes into greater detail. There is a very good section on selecting pigments and palettes and there is much else of interest. One part that made me smile is the one on `Arranging your equipment'. I presume the book is mainly aimed at amateur artists and I doubt many have such a setup as that depicted. Professionals maybe but most amateurs? To be fair she does say you can paint with minimum equipment in the kitchen, as many do.  Robin Berry has written other books including one with  a similar theme to this published almost at the same time by Readers Digest. The sub title is identical so are they one and the same in a slightly different guise?

Let me be clear though. This is an excellent book, especially at the price. I think it  better suited to the intermediate or more advanced amateur rather than the beginner. For the absolute beginner the Harrison book is the better buy. As said earlier I have this book and shall probably buy the Berry one. It is different in many ways and contains a great deal of interesting and informative material.

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.

Plein air, Watercolour books and other bargains

Last week we were on holiday in Devon, which is in the South West of England. We already live in an area that is classified as the South West but Devon is further south, only Cornwall further away. I took a full painting kit even though the weather forecast was poor (or very poor). In fact the general area we were staying in near Newton Abbot had several red warnings from the Met office and some places quite close suffered devastating floods. Where is this heading? Essentially in a roundabout way I am saying that conditions, rain most days, although mostly intermittent,  precluded any substantial plein air activity, but I did get one short session in at Kingsbridge, which is further down near the coast.

This is the scene I was facing. I have more photographs.

 Unfinished sketch 16" x 12" Centenaire 140lb not

The previous day we had been to Trago Mills, a very well known major discount operation and something of an institution - they sell everything - close by. They have three such, the other two in Cornwall where the original one is on the site of what had been a large mill. Trago has an art section where a limited range of products are on offer including Daler Rowney Artists watercolours. The full range (79 colours) was for sale and I purchased two tubes of Cobalt Blue Deep for only £5.59p each! The RPP is £15,25p and even Jacksons are £8.80p, while most other artist quality Cobalt Blues are around £12.00p. Series A were £3.99p while B/C are £5.59p. See what Handprint say about Rowney Cobalt Blue Deep. Except for the fact I'm overloaded with paint at present I would have bought more.

And that isn't all! Trago sell books (what don't they sell) and amongst some art books I found a copy of  the  `The New Encyclopedia of Watercolour Tecniques' by Diana Craig and Hazel Harrison (Search Press 2011), originally published as `The Encyclopedia of Watercolour Tecniques' in 2004. I have recently been evaluating this book (both from the library) together with `The Compedium of Watercolour Techniques' by Robin Berry, again Search Press, for a feature on the blog and it struck me these are useful books and not just for beginners. I won't go into detail because I'll be covering, and comparing them, in more detail in the next two weeks. Trago had several copies most of which were £9.49p (RPP £12.99p). However quite by chance I picked up a brand new copy that was priced at  £5.99p and that was what I paid! I've left the best until last.

Paperback 128 pages AC Black , London 1985 (reprinted 1987) Size 81/4 x 103/4

These days it is very difficult to find a real book bargain. You do get some fair prices on Abebooks  but in general used booksellers have the market tied up and  finding a bargain is rare. In fact the reverse is true. Quality books tend to rocket in price once out of print and those by many well-known artists may be priced at several times the original cover price. UK sellers can be expensive and when on holiday to the USA and Canada I have found that used books are generally far more reasonable and availability very good..

With the mushrooming of charity shops in the UK in recent years many sell some used books. Stocks vary  but there is always a chance you might find something good. A couple of years ago in Keynsham two miles from my home, I found several which obviously had come from the same person, including a copy of `Watercolor' by John Pike. The late John Pike, he of the JP palette, is  famous in the USA and his books much sought after. I didn't buy it at less than £10 and have regretted this ever since, though as a matter of principle I don't tie myself in knots over what might have been. When I was in Kingsbridge a wander up the high street spied a charity shop with some books. The book above was the result. I have two John Blockley books, an A5 paperback published in association with Daler Rowney and the hardback `Country Landscapes in Watercolour' (1982). At this moment I also have `The Challenge of Watercolour' (1979), another hardback, on loan from the library. These latter two seem to be his best known and I confess I didn't know the book above which was published in 1985 so in many respects it supercedes the others. It has the advantage of being in colour whereas the earlier books are mainly monochrome. Just out of curiosity when  home I looked it up on Abebooks and found several copies for sale from different booksellers. The cheapest was £22.98p including carriage, and the others ranged from £31.35p to £51.35p!!! I paid £2.99p for a mint copy with just a pencil inscription on the inside cover.

The weather might not have been great last week and the plein air painting plans a washout but there were other compensations!

Jean Haines `Atmospheric Watercolours'

If ever there was an artist who can be said to be flavour of the year, last year as well as this one, it is Jean Haines. In the 1990s she studied Chinese brushwork in Hong Kong and has travelled extensively, with spells in Dubai, France and Belgium. According to the introduction in her first book `How to Paint Colour & Light in Watercolour' (Search Press 2010 softback 64 pages £8.99 US $17.95)  her work was already in collections all over the World and she has particpated in many prestigious events at major galleries. I had not heard of her until the first book came out, which I bought, but this has provided a launching pad to propel her to dizzy heights and she appears exhilarated by it as one might be. At the recent Patchings Art Festival her demos were booked solid with a large crowd unable to get in. She has a huge and growing following on Facebook and the new hardback is selling very well, according to her latest remarks.

Hardback Search Press 2012 174 pages £19.99p US $35

I purchased this book pre-publication from Amazon, £12.99 including carriage! It is profusely illustrated and  much more substantial than the previous softback. In the preface she talks about  quote`the many new tecniques and exciting colour combinations found on these pages' end of quote. Perhaps I am misinterpreting some of her comments as implying many of these tecniques are somehow original. Clingfilm and salt tecniques have been used by some artists, particularly in America, for years and one book I have `Watercolor Tricks & Tecniques by Cathy Johnson North Light Books 1987 covers all sorts of things. It isn't the only one by any means. Possibly, as she calls the clingfilm/salt combination her `Venetian Tecnique, she means the way in which she gets them to interact. She says in one place you should not use black and brown, some would agree but other good artists might disagree.

Since the first book - only two years ago - Jean has moved on in some ways and this applies to her palette. She has discovered - as have many of us - the delights of Daniel Smith watercolours and also mentions  a Schminke colour Transparent Orange which she enthuses about in her expressive way. This is an interesting colour which I have just received from Jacksons on her recommendation. Until recently it was the only colour to use PO71 Pyrrole Orange, although Lukas have now introduced it as `Permanent Orange'. Basically this, together with one or two other Pyrrole Orange pigments, is a transparent and non-toxic alternative to the opaque Cadmium Orange. 

Where do we go from here?  In my humble opinion, although she might not agree, Jean could be described as an English proponent of the realistic abstract way of painting brought to prominence in the original Dutch  book by Keest Van Aalst  ( English Edition - Realistic Abstracts - Search Press 2010  £12.99 US $25.95) and in this respect all her tecniques are not so new. She certainly uses the wet into wet tecnique quite dramatically, but this again isn't new, as many other artists do something similar. Her brush work is heavily influenced by her Chinese teachings and she clearly explains and illustrates her methods. It's very rare however that someone invents something utterly unique. She certainly uses brilliant colour but so does Viktoria Prischedko, one of the artists featured in the Van Aalst book. I also have the impression she is becoming ever more abstract and some of her latest work doesn't appeal to me in quite the same way. I suggest you look at her current exhibition at the Wey Gallery www.theweygallery.com/ where you can download a pdf file of the paintings or view online, which are selling so well that additional ones have had to be brought in. She is also commanding quite high prices, although as you can see below some of her works are much larger than the average watercolour. The well-heeled art buyer seems to have bought into the Jean Haines experience. Her website is: www.jeanhaines.com/

Jean Haines at the Wey Gallery. Large paintings indeed.

How do I sum things up? This is an interesting and individual book from a talented lady who has a large and growing following. The way she paints is a bit of a minefield for any but the more experienced because her methods need considerable skill and ability. It just doesn't happen by chance.  Beginners should be very wary of plunging into the water without careful thought, and in order to benefit from her teachings you do need some experience. Is she pioneering new ways of painting in watercolour?  I'm a lover of loose and impressionistic paintings, but there are also many other artists who are producing exciting and dynamic work. I shall feature some more in future posts.

I shall be on holiday for the next week so there will be no more postngs until I return. 

Owls

I am  intrigued by the owl paintings of Jean Haines and have done several studies trying to utilize some of her tecniques. Unfortunately they haven't worked that well so I reverted to a rather more othodox method, although keeping her approach in mind. I'm not satisfied with the result and am still mulling over how to handle such a subject. There are several artists whose approach to birds and animals I like - Gerard Hendriks, Bev Jozwiak and Liam Quan Zhen for example and there are others....!

What a Quartet!

 16" x 12" Fabriano Artistico Extra White 140lb Not.

I don't put this forward as a good painting just the latest - could be the fifth - attempt at making something of this difficult (to me) subject. In the painting I've deliberately toned down the three  owls  at the rear and made the slightly larger one at the front prominent using colour to do so. First I made a not too detailed drawing using a mechanical pencil with an 07 2B lead. I like the Pentel 205 series. Colours were Cerulean, Raw Umber, Quinacridone Gold (DS PO49), Quinacridone Rust (Graham PO48), Indigo (DSPB60/PBk11) (mainly for the eyes), some Cyan Blue (Maimeri PB15:3), Cobalt Teal Blue (Graham PG50), and Quinacridone Rose (Graham PV19). I think that's it.

 Brushes used were the Rosemary Series 33 Size 12 plus a smaller size 6. Following this I tried another.

16" x 12" Centenaire 300gm (140lb) not.

Actually, although I don't consider this anything special, it is in fact an example of a failed painting at least partially recovered. I was about to tear up the first one in a fit of pique when I had the thought  what if I washed most of the colour off, because there was nothing wrong with the  underlying drawing. I duly did this with plenty of water using a sponge and then let it dry. What remained was a faint impression of the original with the colours in very pale tints.

Next day I had another try and this is the result. The other thing is that the paper used was the reverse side as the front or `good' side already had a (discarded) painting. For those still reading colours used were mainly yellow/browns and blues, Quinacridone Gold (DS PO49), Quinacridone Rust (Graham PO48), Raw Sienna, Raw Umber, Burnt Umber with some Hansa Yellow Medium (DS PY97) and Indian Yellow (Rowney PY53) for the eyes. Blues were Indigo (Daniel Smith PB60/PBk11), Cerulean and Cyan Blue (Maimeri PB15:3). When all was dry I dry brushed some white gouache on to various places. I  think that's it. I only used one brush the Isabey Series 5228 Size 8 Kolinsky, except for the gouache, a small bristle brush.

The lesson from this if there is one is that watercolours can be corrected and, to some extent rescued. It isn't ideal and some will say just junk the failures. Still good paper is very expensive so why not try.