Rob Wilson Mixed Media Demonstration 20/01/2024

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Rob 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.