#salfordartclub #dannymorrell #salfordmuseumandartgallery 

Recently the club has been looking at ways to adapt our still life sessions. 
Danny started with getting us to look at Vincent Van Gogh's paintings of shoes and the ways other artists had conveyed this subject matter. With Vincent's shoes he explained how by the way they were portrayed could be used to tell a story with every scuff, scratch or hole adding to their character.
After producing his own well worn trainers we were given a shoe to draw using just black and white materials. 

Danny always gives entertaining workshops and all three of these motivated members to try new ways of working, which when we return after the Summer break can be used in club sessions.

#peterdavis #peterdavisartist #edwardhopper #lowry #JamesPatchellChettle

In his introduction, Peter described himself as a social realist artist who captures the modern day. He also introduced the term 'zeitgeist'  which was an unfamiliar term to some of our members.

He explained that it meant capturing the spirit of a time or in his case painting the characteristics of a period in time.


In his first talk he introduced us to Edward Hopper, one of his heroes and greatest influences. 
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Hopper was born at a time of shift from rural life to towns, where people were working in factories and steel production was cheaper and more effective. This was the start of a building boom in the cities.

He moved to New York and  as the city changed, cars became affordable to middle classes and railways  connected towns and roads were being built.
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These changes had an impact on several of his paintings  such as 'House By Railroad' which incidentally was thought to inspire the film Psycho.  Paintings such as 'Route 6 Eastham' with its stark shadows and 'Gas' where the pumps have been made bigger emphasizing the robotic feel to the scene,  capture the changing times.

It was interesting to hear about Hopper's detailed research  and sketches as he worked out the composition, including adding the tea urns seen in a nearby café.

Moving on, Peter talked about his own work and how it relates to modern life in the city and technology.
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He likes to include posters and graffiti capturing the dereliction of old buildings that are often being replaced with soulless blocks. The theme of isolation, as seen in Hoppers work, is also present. Capturing todays' figures, his paintings often include phones or other aspects of technology that influence our everyday lives. 

After the coffee break, he moved on to introducing aspects of MAFA; The Manchester Academy of Fine Arts, a group of which he is the archivist. Here he  talked about how it originated and the strong influence of James Chettle in ensuring the growth of the society.
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In 1935, it was due to Chettle's involvement that L S Lowry was invited to join the society and started to exhibit with them.

Although Chettle and Lowry were contemporaries, often painting similar scenes, the unique quality of Lowry's  style has made him famous.  Chettle has largely been forgotten, although his influence on the early art scene, especially in the north west, was very important.
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An interesting talk by Peter and we all had a deeper understanding of the meaning of Zeitgeist and  links from other artists that had encompassed this theme.

Carl likes to paint on a dark background on MDF that he has primed first and then paints plein air. He says that he prefers working outside as painting is easier as you can see what is there
First, he draws in chalk on to the prepared board covered in Vandyke brown, to work out the composition before starting to apply paint. He says he is creating a journey through painting using oil paints and believes the better the materials are, better the painting. Zest-it is used as a brush cleaner, and he also uses walnut oil to mix with the paint.
He paints some of the key areas in thin paint and then overlays a coat of fat paint around the figures. He is just getting colour on in different areas seeing how they react with each other. Because of his experience he knows what colour he wants and has a small book of colour mixes to refer to if he needs a specific colour. He then adds more light colours and starts to get some perspective on it.

​After the break, he starts to paint the tree and adds the sky between, before random yellow is applied to represent traffic lights etc. He then darkens up some areas making sure he is not too neat and adds pure titanium white to make parts stand out. He continues working on various parts of the painting using smaller brushes to add details and works in layers before adding leaves to the tree using a palette knife. He uses white beeswax to thicken the paint. More sky is added between tree branches, eventually adapting it to a twilight effect.
As the composition progresses, a rag is used to blend the sky, before branches are added and then more leaves using a range of similar colours. He washes out some of the chalk lines than aren't needed using thinner and a cloth is used to rub some areas, to blend them in. Towards the end he needs to colour balance the composition by using a continuity of colours, once the framework is in place.

He uses dabs of white and sometimes knocks these back as he says, “You don't often get pure white.” As the painting started to look Christmassy, he decides to add Christmas lights adding light areas where needed. Finishing touches are now added, and some areas are blended again before a few final brushstrokes are added and the painting is complete.
A super demonstration by a gifted artist. I'm sure everyone learnt something that will be of use. We look forward to further demonstrations from him.

#gillnicholas #salfordartclub #salfordmuseumandartgallery 

She then returned to first canvas  adding a thin white glaze which knocked back colours before next layer is applied.
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Next she worked on the second painting, just using white. Not, yet, worried about shapes of sunflowers, then drawing the leaves in pale blue before adding colour for the vase.
Continuing she added yellow mixed with medium and paints on top of white paint and this showed the difference from just white mixed with Yellow. Then by putting Yellow on  top of the blue for the stalks it turned them green. Burnt Sienna is painted on the center of the flowers. She mentioned that as the painting had  a lot of warm colours she now now added some cold colours  using Ultramarine. For the next step she added warm shadows before  a thick glaze went over the whole painting of raw umber and a little burnt sienna.

Whilst this dried she returned to the lighter canvas and painted raw sienna over some of the flowers, talking about use of complimentary colours used in paintings.
Gill likes to work from life not photographs as that can take away part of the decision making process.
Then she worked on the vase and background, Glazing over some of the flowers that she wanted to stand back, Before  adding a layer of clear medium. 

Finally returning  to work on the dark canvas adding colours, each time using slightly smaller brushes. When finished  a glaze coat is added to get even gloss finish.
Gill doesn’t use black in any of her paintings.
Finally before her session ended  more details were added on painting putting some darks in the background.

An informative and enjoyable afternoon and it would be interesting to do a workshop using these techniques.
On a side note the set, using two cameras and a television screen, is something the club must look into for the future.

#TomQuigley #SalfordArtClub #salfordartgalleryandmuseum #localartist

Another technique which he demonstrated, was​ using a rubber with a sharp edge to produce lines on a prepared surface, before adding graphite pencil on top to darken an area.

Having put masking strips on a board and cut into them with a Stanley knife, he used the cut out thin strips to stick onto a piece of already prepared  paper  and then  added watered down coffee on top. Once this was done, he then removed the thin strips to reveal the white lines underneath.
 
Moving on, he used white acrylic paint and a scraper, made by folding paper, to add to different surfaces and scratched through some of this with a graphite stick. 
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​From one of the experimental sheets, he cut out a shape and added it to the working design to show how things  can be be layered to create an interesting composition. Continuing, he added gummed paper to the base paper and the work started to look like the intended map design.

Using more stencils and then darkening some areas with graphite, as well as using card to apply white paint, he started to refine the work.

Drawing on the paper with the pencil, he added detail to create a the 'city-like' scene. 
Lastly, he used a paint brush to paint over the masking tape and then added white paint. These layers started to build up, before tight pencil marks were added. He then used the edge of a rubber to remove small areas of graphite, which resulted in a stage where he was happy to finish this session.

​His final act was to cut the rectangular work into the more interesting shape shown here.



With experimental works such as this, it’s always possible to keep adapting the composition before being happy with the final result.
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A fascinating insight into how these materials can be used.
​ I'm sure everyone present enjoyed the presentation and learnt new ways to use the materials demonstrated.

An excellent turnout for this workshop with nearly thirty members taking part and extra tables being needed.

Lyn started by introducing the subject and asking the members to enjoy different ways of using watercolours to portray the wide range of flowers she had provided.

Because of the number involved the demonstration was given to two groups. Here different techniques were shown, using the paints to show wet on wet and other ways to use watercolour. Next she demonstrated how wax crayon, rock salt and masking fluid could add effects to the paintings. Members were then encouraged to try out these methods.

Members continued to experiment until the break and afterwards were encouraged to either focus on a small part of the plant or try a larger still life.

An enjoyable afternoon, if a little crowded. Lynn has gave a well informed and useful workshop and the group look forward to the one on watercolour landscapes at a future date.

Charles started by showing us some of his work and explaining his usual working process. He uses  a variety of pens, brushes and ink brush pens in his work.
Working from a photograph, he draws the bridge in pencil first, straight onto the white paper. When doing these in the studio or live, he  often does a thumbnail sketch first.  After the bridge, he draws the  mountains in the background before adding the trees. Then he uses a 0.3 pen to add details on the bridge starting with the keystone in the middle. Some structural mark making is added as well. 

 Ink is put in a small container with a dropper, then a couple of containers are made up by mixing water to ink on a 4 to 1 ratio for the darker wash and 8 to 1 mix for the lighter wash. Using a couple of nylon brushes he paints a light wash to add mountain detail at the back before doing the mountain on the left side with a  dark wash.
He then starts adding texture on the bridge and the darks under the bridge using brush marks to get the right effect. He can darken this, if needed, by going over it again. As he goes along he builds up areas adding some more darks with the brush, then more details with the pen.

Then he sketches in the bridge's reflection with a pencil before wetting that area of the paper with clear water and starts to add the reflections in a horizontal fashion. The trees are added behind the bridge before working on the stones along the riverbank making the large one at the foreground more textural.
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He carries on adding detail continually working on different areas as well as adding darks to harmonize the  painting. As the session comes to an end he adds some final details such as the  shrubbery .

Another interesting and informative session from Charles and I'm sure he will be back in future with a new demonstration.