Jane works in clay but also uses watercolours and other materials to enhance her work. In this instance the demonstration was using clay from a block. She started her career working part time, creating smaller shapes before deciding to move on to be full time artist. A highlight was appearing on television in 'Home is Where the Art is' and when she won the commission, her career really took off and since then she hasn't looked back. Today, she slowly built up a head shape adding to it where needed, working in a tried and tested way that suits her subject matter. She often works on a range of sculptures at the same time in various stages of finishing. When working on the sculpture she says, "You must remember to turn it 360 degrees making sure that you work on all the way round and not just on the front for it to be successful." Having started with the basic shape of a woman's head, she drew a line half way across vertically and adds horizontal lines where the features, such as the eyes and nose, would be. When working on commissions she stressed that it was important for her to talk to clients to make sure she knows exactly what they want. Next, she carried on adding shapes to the head and slowly the features started to appear, She stated that knowing the anatomy of the face is important to her work. She continued by making two small balls the same size to add as eyes, before starting to add muscles to the face. Working in her studio it would take several hours to do one of these heads, but for this demonstration she can work a lot quicker. She continued by adding more features and muscles continually visualizing it in 3D. When working she doesn't use tools until the basic shape is formed by hand. When working with beginners the mistakes they often make are to start adding features too soon or in random areas which can create problems. One way to get around this is to squint and you then see just the basic shapes. When asked about adding ears she does this to show how it is done, although in many cases a hat or hair mean these can't be seen in her work. At this stage she started to to smooth out some areas and continued to work on the features before adding hair. By this time it was starting to get near to the final image that she hoped for and demonstrated how she would achieve hollowing out the final sculpture (Hollowing out is done from horizontal cuts) Even though in reality this would be done at a later stage when it would be dryer and the shape would not collapse. She then joined this section, back together to finish working on it for this session, and then revealed that the idea for the face came from a Modigliani portrait. Jane doesn't use glazes which is very technical skill as she wasn't taught this way. This is just her particular way of working with final colours added using acrylic paint. An impressive demonstration and it's not often that someone can work in front of a group and pass on so much useful information about a working process and how their style has developed.
An enjoyable afternoon spent with a knowledgeable artist.
0 Comments
#artrobwilson #salfordartclub #salfordmuseumandartgallery #mixedmediapaintingRob introduced himself and then mentioned Liam Spencer, Alice Kettle and Michael Bernard who had all influenced his work, which now was a combination of all their techniques in his own unique style. For this demonstration he was using Inktense pencils and doing a picture of Prague. He started with a quick drawing on canvas with a brown pencil doing a rough sketch before shading in the dark areas. He used a large canvas and at this stage he captured the essence of the picture. He doesn't use black but mixes his own dark colours before he using red oxide for the roofs. He slowly introduced more colours, before adding a deep blue to the sky and other areas. At this stage he added a little P.V.A. to some water as he would be adding tissue paper to the canvas. This was when the true colours of the Inktense pencils was revealed. He also mentioned that he normally works with the canvas flat but as this was a demonstration, he used an easel for our easier viewing. Using tissue from old clothing patterns, he covered most of the canvas, wetting some areas to create different textures. At times he dragged some colour onto the tissue paper with a brush before he allowed it to dry. For the final stage on this painting, he illustrated other techniques he uses on his work, starting with acrylic inks and washes of colour, as well as white acrylic to bring back contrasts in the silhouettes of the buildings, for which he used a business card to scrape on the white paint. Finally, he used a brush to push the white around a little then a Prussian Blue and Raw Umber mixed to make a nice dark colour applied with the corner of card, quite thick in areas. After reaching this stage he left this painting and brought out another one to show us the next stages. He enjoys using magazines to add to the work and ripped out a pink colour for adding to the umbrella, as a background, which he could work on afterwards. Once satisfied he then proceeded to work across the painting, concentrating on separate areas. Next, he added washes of thin watercolour to unify areas and brings out textures. Then he used a dry brush with a little white paint on it, rubbing some areas to bring out the light. Finally, he said he would take the canvas off frame so that he could sew on it with an industrial sewing machine allows him to add up to 8 to10 different coloured cottons. The finished painting would then be varnished to unity the surface colours before being framed behind U.V. Glass. A fascinating insight into Rob’s working style and I am sure everyone was inspired by his technique as well as enjoying the demonstration.
Week 1 Week 2
|
Categories |