“My work centers around feelings of sentimentality, nostalgia, and the memory of places within the natural world that once played a larger role in my life, before we digitized our lives completely. I aim to spark conversations about those experiences and how to incorporate them back into our lives.
I love using Nitram Liquid Charcoal for its ability to blend the best qualities of drawing and painting into one hybrid form. My work is directly inspired by nature, and the fluid aspect of Nitram Liquid Charcoal helps me to capture organic, life-like forms with ease.”
~ Grace Worley
To watch Grace Worley work with Nitram Liquid Charcoal, please visit www.nitramcharcoal.com/grace-worley or scan the QR code.
Grace Worley is a painter born and raised in the Greater Cleveland/Akron Metropolitan Area of Ohio. She is currently a third-year MFA degree candidate at Ohio University in the Painting + Drawing program. Her work has been exhibited throughout Ohio and across the United States. Since 2021, her work has been featured at the Swope Art Museum (Terre Haute, IN), Wild Goose Creative (Columbus, OH), Manifest Gallery (Cincinnati, OH), Don Drumm Studios & Gallery (Akron, OH), and the Springfield Museum of Art (Springfield, OH.) www.graceworley.com | Instagram: @graceworley.art
“Hederacea”, 42 in. x 60 in., Liquid charcoal on canvas
SKETCHBOOK Quick tips, ideas and inspiration. Plus, this month’s exhibitions
YOU TELL US Write in and win a £50 Atlantis art voucher
PRIZE DRAW Win our gift packed Christmas hamper worth more than £1,700!
WE PRESENT... Portfolio Plus member Mark McCallum
HOW I MAKE IT WORK With oil artist Chris Rivers
PICTURE THIS Canadian-Irish artist Kayla Martell on what her painting means to her Inspiration
GIFT GUIDE Our top picks for the best creative Christmas gifts IN THE STUDIO Former Deputy Headteacher David Barber on pursuing a full-time art career
HOW I PAINT Ed Fairburn on how he gives old maps a brand new life
THE BIG INTERVIEW Award-winning artist Ian Bourne on why he isn’t ready to give up his full-time healthcare job
THE BRITISH ART PRIZE
The fabulous 2022 winners and shortlist revealed
RETROSPECTIVE Great Britain’s hidden art gems
IN DEPTH Jake Spicer explores a complementary colour palette in the penultimate instalment of his series
HOW TO Terence Clark shows you how to paint a child in oil and acrylic MASTERCLASS Ray Balkwill shows you how to capture a landscape’s authenticity
STEP BY STEP Last year’s British Art Prize winner Lotta Teale paints a scene from Jerusalem
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… that I can reveal the winners of this year’s British Art Prize. Featuring work in all mediums, subjects and styles, myself and the other judges had the di cult task of whittling the 50 winners out of the thousands of entries from across the globe; it’s at times like this when you wish you could make everyone a winner. But those who got through are very deserving – the rst prize winner’s work is featured on the cover; another perk of entering The British Art Prize – and all will be exhibited side by side at gallery@oxo on London’s Southbank, home to worldfamous cultural venues. We’d like to invite you to come and see the paintings up close: the exhibition is open daily from 22nd27th November from 11am-6pm and is absolutely free to enter.
I’m also excited to showcase our annual Christmas prize draw featuring one hamper full of fabulous art products worth over £1,700: there’s simply no reason not to enter with such a haul of valuable art swag up for grabs. With the competition closing on 30th December, the win is sure to make one lucky artist’s 2023 start with a creative bang!
Elsewhere in the issue, we have tons of practical features –including one from last year’s British Art Prize winner, Lotta Teal, whose win led to her being signed to a top London gallery – along with plenty of inspiration and advice from professional artists to keep you enthused on your art journey. Overall, I hope you enjoy the encouragement this issue has to o er and that, when you put the magazine down, it has spurred you on to pick up your pens, pencils and brushes and get creating
Niki Browes Editor
Ray is a strong advocate of painting en plein air, his main objective being to capture the mood and spirit of a place. Living as he does on the East Devon coast, it is little wonder that the wide-open spaces of sea, estuary and sky have been the mainspring of his art for four decades.
Editor
Niki Browes Art Editor
Stuart Selner Assistant Editor
Ramsha Vistro
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Martha Alexander, Ray Balkwill, Terence Clarke, Jake Spicer, Lotta Teal
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Artists & Illustrators, The Chelsea Magazine Company Ltd, Jubilee House, 2 Jubilee Place, London SW3 3TQ Phone: (020) 7349 3700 artistsandillustrators.co.uk
Cover artist and winner of the British Art Prize 2022, Gary is a contemporary artist who seeks to celebrate the beauty of organised chaos through intricate oil paintings of collections. He specialised in portraiture until lockdown gave him the opportunity to explore his latest series of works.
Lotta takes her paints with her wherever she goes, living as she has recently between Jerusalem, Bangkok, London, Tuscany and Pakistan. While her mainstay is still life painting – for which she won the British Art Prize in 2021 – she loves painting in the sunshine and rarely takesa day o .
TERENCE CLARKE Terence graduated with an MA in Painting from the Royal College of Art in 1979. His work is characterised by the use of strong drawing and bold expressive colour. He exhibits widely across the UK and his work is held in many private collections including the Royal College of Art archive collection.
Send us your latest paintings, tips or artistic discoveries and you could win a £50 voucher: info@artistsandillustrators.co.uk
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This November, the rst major UK exhibition devoted to women artists working in Germany in the early 20th century will be on show at the Royal Academy of Arts. Making Modernism will include 67 artworks, primarily by Paula Modersohn-Becker, Käthe Kollwitz, Gabriele Münter and Marianne Were in. Although less familiar than their male counterparts, these artists were central to the development and dissemination of modernism.
Seen through the lens of its female practitioners, key themes of modernism such as self-portraiture, still life and urban and rural scenes will be re-evaluated. Visit the Gabrielle Jungels-Winkler Galleries between 12 November 2022 and 12 February 2023.
EDITED BY RAMSHA VISTRO
…the spotlight on Pieter Bruegel the Younger (1564 – 1638), an artist who was hugely successful in his lifetime but whose later reputation has been overshadowed by that of his famous father, Pieter Bruegel the Elder (c.1525 – 1569). The exhibition, entitled Peasants and Proverbs: Pieter Bruegel the Younger as Moralist and Entrepreneur, shares recent research into the Barber’s comical yet enigmatic little painting, Two Peasants Binding Firewood setting out fresh insights and o ering a new appreciation of a gure whose prodigious output rmly established the distinctive ‘Bruegelian’ look of Netherlandish peasant life. Visit the Barber Institute of Fine Arts, Birmingham B15 2TS before 22 January 2023. barber.org.uk
This autumn, Haymarket Hotel will host a special ‘Adventures in Art’ tour led by Kit Kemp Design Studio’s Willow Kemp and India Dickinson. Guests will discover a personally curated art collection and nd out how to collect and successfully hang art, making it fun and interesting within a living space. Visitors will be guided through a personally chosen art collection, before journeying on an intimate walking tour to some of Mayfair and St James’ most prestigious galleries. It’s £110 per person which includes a walking tour and afternoon tea or three-course lunch from a set menu at 10.30am on 12th November 2022. Haymarket Hotel, 1 Su olk Place, London SW1Y 4HX. rmdalehotels.com
Help turn art into food for those struggling this winter. Artists are invited to donate their artworks and sculptures for auction to raise money for local charity ‘Poole Waste Not Want Not,’ intended for individuals and families that are struggling to maintain a nutritious diet due to nancial hardship. Artists will display their works at GATHER exhibition space, The Dolphin Shopping Centre, Dorset BH15 1SZ from 9.30am on 5th November 2022 for potential buyers to view. The auction will begin at 11:00am until everything is sold. Visit pedas.org.uk to take part.
This book, by British-Ghanaian curator, critic, art historian and curator of International Art at Tate Modern, Osei Bonsu is an expansive overview featuring 50 enlightening pro les of some of the most interesting and innovative contemporary African artists
working today. A phenomenon traceable back to the 1980s, contemporary African art is undergoing a period of artistic renaissance. No longer con ned to the margins of institutional and commercial visibility, African art nds itself at the centre of a global narrative of permanent change. Ilex Press, £40.00
An eclectic mix of antiques, paintings, and illustrations are for sale at the Chelsea Antiques and Fine Art Fair until 6th November at the Chelsea Old Town Hall. chelseaantiquesfair.co.uk
The Royal Cambrian Academy of Art invites submissions for its 2023 Annual Open Exhibition. Both 2D and 3D work in any medium is welcome. rcaconwyopen.artopps. co.uk
30 NOVEMBER EU residents or taxpayers are encouraged to apply to the European Media Art Platform’s residency programme. Prize funds total up to €11,000 plus accommodation. call.emare.eu
If you love the magazine’s redesign, you’re going to fall head over heels for the new look Artists & Illustrators website. It’s still one of the biggest resources for artists on the internet, but a fresh new feel makes our how to guides, competitions and interviews even more enjoyable to read. artistsandillustrators. co.uk
A new exhibition shines the spotlight on a remarkable group of Scottish artists establishing their position as the break-through moderns in the story of Scottish art. The Glasgow Girls and Boys brings together more than 30 paintings, including works from every signi cant member of the group, and focusses on the period between 1880-1895, when the Glasgow Girls and Boys were at the height of their international acclaim.
Art Gallery at the Brynmor Jones Library, University of Hull, Cottingham Rd, Hull, HU6 7RX hull.ac.uk/gallery
Donna Huanca, known for her immersive painterly installations, concludes Whitechapel Gallery’s series of artist-curated displays drawn from the Christen Sveaas Art collection. She addresses the entangled relationship between colonialism, displacement and self-recognition.
Gallery 7, Whitechapel Gallery London, 77-82 Whitechapel High St, London E1 7QX
whitechapelgallery.org
18th November 2022 to 7th January 2023
Iranian-American artist
Nasim Hantehzadeh will have her rst solo exhibition in Europe this autumn at Pippy Houldsworth Gallery. Working in oil, pastel and graphite – across both canvas and paper –Hantehzadeh brings together freewheeling gurative elements in vibrant and arresting compositions that allude to a range of references. These include Paleolithic cave paintings and indigenous
art from Mexico, Islamic architecture and ancient Persian rug patterns.
Hantehzadeh’s work draws on both personal and collective memory, with particular focus on liminal states of being. The artist returned to the United States – her country of birth – after being raised in Iran until early adulthood. Her deeply personal works re ect this cultural duality in the hybrid forms that occupy her paintings and drawings.
Pippy Houldsworth Gallery, 6 Heddon Street , London W1B 4BT houldsworth.co.uk
12th November 2022 to 19th February 2023
Kettle’s Yard will present an exhibition curated in dialogue with artists Paul Dash, Errol Lloyd and John Lyons. Alongside a selection of their own works, the artists will bring together the collections of Kettle’s Yard and The Fitzwilliam Museum for the rst time, assembling artworks that re ect the rich history and themes of carnival –from street parades to folklore and fauna. Kettle’s Yard , Castle Street, Cambridge CB3 0AQ kettlesyard.co.uk
17th November 2022 to 14th January 2023
This autumn, Victoria Miro will present The Conceptualists, an exhibition of new paintings by Hernan Bas. Bas is celebrated for works that, permeated by an aura of decadence and loaded with codes and double meanings, point to the intricacies of self- identity. The works in this exhibition follow a new theme, in which Bas’ protagonists engage in a variety of obsessive pursuits that, deemed strange under everyday circumstances, might be rationalised or even championed when considered as ‘conceptual art’.
Victoria Miro, 16 Wharf Road, London N1 7RW victoria-miro.com
This exhibition will explore the ways in which the enduring landscape of Sussex – and its fundamental elements; chalk, wood and water –have continually drawn the attention of artists and writers across the centuries. Through nearly 100 works of painting, photography, sculpture and print, the exhibition will present a multitude of responses to Sussex’s distinctive landscapes, from the chalk cli coastlines and rolling expanse of the South Downs, to dew ponds and woodlands.
Pallant House Gallery, 9 North Pallant, Chichester PO19 1TJ pallant.org.uk
My sources of inspiration are multivarious. Lately I take a lot of inspiration from whatever is happening in the world and close to home. I pick up ideas for techniques from various sources too, including Artists & Illustrators where I pick up wonderful tips on how to layer, compose and create elements of the piece like foliage and sky. As an artist it is important to look at art and other artists because, even though I am in my 40s and back in education, I nd that there are few aspects of these courses that show you how to do the simplest things like creating clouds in the sky by simply using tissue to blot the paint. I am mostly self-taught as I create a lot as a means of therapy for my depression and anxiety which I have had since I was a child. I currently make artwork to be donated to the Bradford Teaching Hospital who have been so enthusiastic and made me their Artist in Residence.
I have had a love of art for as long as I can remember and have picked up issues of Artists & Illustrators whenever I could. After working for many years in a photorealistic style, using mainly acrylic and
occasionally oil paint, I recently decided it was time for a complete change. I now work exclusively in alcohol markers, as demonstrated in my painting.
A huge thank you to Artists & Illustrators for introducing me some years ago to the wonderful Hash Akib through the brilliant articles and who I had a bit of a cheek to invite to our Henley Arts Guild to give a painting workshop. What a fantastic day we had with him. He is such a terri c painter and tutor, he gave everyone personal attention and even did a critic of everyone’s work at the end of the day. I really hope he is not too busy to come all this way to Henley from the Essex coastline again to give another workshop next year in his unique style – already our members
are asking for another one as soon as possible. Thank you, Artists & Illustrators and Hash!
I found Adebanji Alade’s article in the Artists & Illustrators September issue most interesting. His philosophy towards art hits the nail on the head. As I progress with my art journey, quality becomes more important than painting subjects that sell well in great quantity. There is no better reward than a complete stranger passing positive comments on your work that you have lovingly created. The icing on the cake is when they purchase it and take it away with a smile on their face. As Adebanji says, encounters like this are so rewarding. They overshadow the inevitable knock backs experienced by all artists.
Send your letter or email to the addresses below:
Post: Your Letters, Artists & Illustrators, The Chelsea Magazine CompanyLtd., Jubilee House, 2 Jubilee Place, London SW3 3TQ
Email: info@artists andillustrators.co.uk
The writer of our “Message of the month” will receive a £50 gift voucher to spend with Atlantis Art, the UK’s largest art materials store. atlantisart.co.uk
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e Finest Quality Handmade Artists’ Brushes
It’s time to start filling your carts with Christmas gifts for your loved ones. Struggling to find something for an art-lover?
Here are our top picks for creative Christmas gifts this year
The right tool for the job, Gamblin’s studio knives are sustainably crafted and thoughtfully designed to spark joy, express your artistic intention and support a lifetime of painting.
With a one-piece, nonre ective blade, these are the palette knives you won’t want to put down. They o er a balanced, progressive tension and spring and exibility for the subtlest of colourmixing and markmaking, yet strong enough to hold their own against a canvas. £105.60 for set of six gamblincolors.com
balanced, progressive
Inspired by Van Gogh’s Almond Blossom masterpiece, Floral Street’s sustainable fragrance collection brings to life the essence of the painting where ne art meets nefragrance. Their Sweet Almond Blossom setbrings delicate orals and matcha tea for a touch of greenness to ll your home with a serene, hopeful aroma. £85.00 oralstreet.com
New to the traditional range this year, the Hahnemühle Watercolour Book is made of 100% cotton bres and is a must have for all watercolour artists. The pure cotton bres give the papers a natural white tone, incomparable texture and high resistance. It contains 30 sheets of 250gsm watercolour paper with a ne-grained surface. £42.00 hahnemuehle.co.uk
This range of classic lip balm compacts are inspired by the work of William Morris. The re llable mirrored compacts are hand poured and enriched with organic shea butter, meadow foam seed oil and protective beeswax. From £15.00-£19.50 andreagarland.co.uk
Derwent’s premium range of oil-based Lightfast Pencils o ersrich and vibrant colours not seen in other lightfast collections. Moreover, their L ightfast P aper P ad’s exceptional archival paper maximises the performance of the Derwent 100% Lightfast Pencils.
Lightfast Pencils 100 Tin: £349.00
Lightfast Paper Pad 12x16: £76.00 derwentart.com
The Set 175 is ideal for oils and acrylics and is a great way to try out the Evergreen range which is a welcome addition to Rosemary and Co’s synthetic brushes. The bre is softer, cleans well, lasts long and will withstand the abuse of acrylic and oil paints alike. This range promises to be a great addition to your brush
arsenal Set 175 is 100% synthetic, vegan friendly and contains eight brushes all on long handles. It includes the Evergreen Short Flat size 6, Evergreen Long Flat size 2, Evergreen Long Flat size 8, Evergreen Round size 4, Evergreen Round size 8, Evergreen Rigger size 4, Evergreen Filbert size 2 and Evergreen Filbert size 6. £49.00 rosemaryandco.com
This Jane Austen Art Journal Discbound Starter set can be used in many ways as there are multiple add-ons, allowing you to create your own bespoke journal. You can switch, add and remove pages easily, making the journal interchangeable and increasing its lifespan. The pack includes everything from dotted sheets to mixed media paper and gel pens.
edding o ers a wide range of high quality products in di erent areas. You could pick one product or create a bundle as a gift for someone special.
Their Metallic Gloss Paint Marker set of ve is perfect for opaque labelling and outstanding adhesion especially on smooth, dark and transparent surfaces. These metallic markers are extremely wearresistant on most surfaces due to the waterproof, quickdrying ink. They are perfect as a gift set for a friend or to use for personalising a Christmas gift. £21.18 edding.com
Join tutor and artist Lizet Dingemans and learn to paint an alla prima still life over two days. ‘Alla prima’ literally means ‘in one go’. Whatever your ultimate goal, painting an alla prima still life is the perfect way to improve your painting skills. This course is suitable for beginners £200.00 rawumberstudios.com
Own a deckchair with your favourite artwork printed onto the sling. It makes an excellent personalised photo gift as a quirky Christmas present. The deckchairs can be matched with any artwork. £120.00 eyeswidedigital.com
Every member of Pegasus Art's friendly team is a gifted artist. Through their passion and expertise they have created a collection of art materials for artists worldwide. Their Koi Watercolours Pocket Field Sketch Box is a great starter set. Sakura Koi Watercolours are smooth, creamy and instantly responsive to water. The selected pigments used in these paints give professional and vibrant results. £33.50 pegasusart.co.uk cities. This
The perfect gift for travel-lovers, those with an Italian escape planned or for whom Venice is particularly special Matthew Rice’s Venice: A Sketchbook Guide is the perfect gift. For years, Venice has been a source of deep creative inspiration for Rice; and now, in this book, he captures the highlights of the most beguiling of Italian cities. Thisbookcombines enchanting illustrations with an informed, personal and witty text £18.99 penguinrandomhouse.com
turn the page and enter our prize draw and you could win a Christmas gift hamper worth over £1,700
Enter our Christmas prize draw for the chance to enjoy an abundance of art materials and more for the new year!
For the rst time ever, we are proud to be giving away a gift packed Christmas hamper to one lucky winner! With more than 12 exciting prizes, the value of this month’s prize draw comes to over £1,700! From paintbrushes and pencils to artinspired fragrances and lip balms, one art-lover could win an amazing array of inspiring gifts this Christmas.
Here’s everything that’s included in the hamper: Derwent 100 tin Lightfast Pencils and Lightfast Paper Pad, an assortment of edding pens and markers, a £250 gift voucher from Raw Umber Studios and from Rosemary and Co, a customised deck chair from Eyes Wide Digital, Hahnemühle FineArt papers for drawing, painting, journaling and digital ne
art, a £100 Pegasus Art gift voucher, Floral Street’s home fragrance collection inspired by Van Gogh’s Almond Blossom masterpiece, Gamblin studioknives and gesso blades, Andrea Garland’s collection of lip balm sets inspired by the work of Victorian everyman William Morris – the founding father of the Arts and Crafts movement in the UK, a Jane Austen art journal discbound starter set from Relatively Thoughtful and Matthew Rice’s Venice:A Sketchbook Guide hardcover from Penguin Press.
If that’s not enough, we’ve also added a bundle of art goodies to the hamper to round it all up. One thing’s for certain: whoever is the lucky winner of this fabulous prize will have a year packed full of (free) creativity!
Enter by noon on 30 December 2022, either at artistsandillustrators.co.uk/ competitions or by lling in the form below and returning it to: Christmas Hamper, Artists & Illustrators, Chelsea Magazine Company Ltd, Jubilee House, 2 Jubilee Place, London SW3 3TQ
derwentart.com
rosemaryandco.com
edding.com
rawumberstudios.com eyeswidedigital.com
hahnemuehle.co.uk
andreagarland.co.uk
pegasusart.co.uk
oralstreet.com gamblincolors.com
sallyelvebutlerdesigns.co.uk
penguin.co.uk
TERMS & CONDITIONS The prize is non-transferable. No cash alternatives are available. For full terms and conditions, visit chelseamagazines .com/terms
Name: Address: Postcode: Email: Telephone: The
on
December 2022.
Mastering your inspiration. Rembrandt, a legendary name for a range that is known for its superior and unparalleled quality. It has been developed through pure skill and artistic insight and is based on the best raw materials. This allows Rembrandt products to boast unique characteristics such as maximum neness, lightfastness and durability, making it the choice for the professional artist. This luxurious black wooden set contains a beautiful selection of high-quality products to start or complete your collection of oil painting supplies, including a well-balanced selection of pure, intense colours and various brushes, accessories and auxiliaries. The perfect Christmas gift. www.royaltalens.com
ROSA Gallery Fine Art Watercolour Paints are produced in Ukraine using high-quality materials and developed in collaboration with Professional Artists. Available in 60 assorted colours in full pans of 2.5ml or tubes of 10ml, as well as metal box sets from 12 to 21 assorted Classic colours plus di erent colour ranges speci cally designed for Landscape, Botanical, Urban Sketching and other speci c painting styles. Prices from RRP £2.49 for individual single colour, RRP £24.99 to £44.99 for full pan sets. The 10ml tubes available at RRP £3.99 as well as wooden gift box with 14 assorted Classic colours, RRP £49.99. www.jakar.co.uk | Tel: 020 8381 7000
This monochrome set of pencils from Faber-Castell, was created with artists who work on the go and the pencils come in a portable metal tin. It features a variety of graphite, charcoal, pencils and crayons making it ideal for sketching and drawing, studies of still life or the great outdoors. This set also includes a range of di erent types of leads and hardness to choose from which are perfect for shading and getting you perfect values and tones. It also contains a host of erasers, blending tools and brushes to enhance your techniques. RRP £69.99, Sale Price £59.45. www.londongraphics.co.uk
Lightweight and ergonomic Electric Eraser is the ideal tool to create sharp highlights and e ortless blends in graphite, charcoal, mixed media and more. Comfortable in either hand, with soft button press and responsive control, it won’t interfere with creative movement when forming photo realistic e ects like hair, feathers and other precise textures. This electric eraser is gentle on soft materials like sketching paper, yet powerful enough to create stunning contrasts. It comes with both small and large eraser sizes allowing for precision highlights and controlled contours. Since it’s USB rechargeable, there’s no more batteries to buy! Try our USB Rechargeable Electric Eraser and open new dimensions of creativity. SRP: £19.99 inc.VAT. Sale price: £14.90 inc.VAT. Sale ends 31/12/22. www.airbrushes.com | Tel: 01903 767800
Give the gift of creativity this Christmas! Help your loved one unleash their imagination with Curtis Brown Creative – one of the UK’s leading writing schools. Over 170 of their former students have major publishing deals. Their course gift vouchers will make a unique and inspiring present for the writer or illustrator in your life. They run a variety of online courses, including Creative Writing for Beginners, Starting to Write Your Novel and Writing & Illustrating a Children’s Picture Book. Vouchers are available at a range of price points from £50 to £220. www.curtisbrowncreative.co.uk
While he was found doodling on bits of cardboard as a small boy, Mark McCallum’s love for painting didn’t emerge until he was in his twenties, which was very much encouraged by his lecturer at university in the eighties. “The very rst oil painting I completed was a compositional study of a medical skeleton wrapped in a colourful material. It was at that point I became hooked on painting.”
He describes himself as a semi-abstract, impressionist painter, but also a colourist who enjoys creating landscapes, particularly seascapes, on a stretched linen canvas for the sense of comfort of knowing how his brushes will respond. Though he trained in oil painting, for the past five years he paints solely in acrylic for the improved pigment quality and less drying time. He also incorporates sand found on location for texture, mixed with other media which he encourages viewers to touch. “Art should not be just visual; touch should also be a part of the experience.”
Mark nds inspiration from the nature around him and tries to emulate all the advice and nurturing he was given by previous tutors. “I was brought up in the North Yorkshire countryside and the vast open moors have moulded my love for landscape painting.”
His passion for painting wild seas, big skies and vast beaches coincided with his move to the Scottish Highlands in 2004. “Living here gives me boundless amounts of inspiration, of which I will never tire. My body of work is very much in uenced by my perception of colour and form, and the incredible quality of light that the Scottish Highlands has to o er.”
Mark loves the freedom painting has given him, to wake each morning, go down to his studio overlooking the river Ardle and create in a peaceful, rural setting. portfolio.artistsandillustrators.co.uk/ CairnGormGifts ▫
This month’s spotlight on a Portfolio Plus member
An artist who always strives to achieve an emotively charged pieceAn Meallan Highlands of Scotland, acrylic and sand on linen canvas, 96x96cm
Rockpool
Camusdarach
Edinburgh
A Deputy Headteacher who waved goodbye to a 20-year teaching career and fat salary to become a full-time artist. Ramsha Vistro finds out why ▸
As a child, David Barber would get lost in drawing the stories in his head; it was his form of play. From battles and undersea adventures to lorries and diesel tanks – they all featured in his drawings, courtesy of his imagination and his father who was a truck driver. But while he spent his childhood covered in paint, he doesn’t particularly come from a creative family. “Sport was always at the centre of my family. However, my dad has always enjoyed making [things] and is an accomplished woodworker. I think I get the urge to create from him,” he says. “I remember family members telling me that I was good at drawing when I was small and I’m sure that motivated me to do more. The combination of enjoying art and then being told I was good at it led to me drawing and painting all the time.”
Although he completed a degree in art, David went on to pursue a career in teaching. “My mum, sister and wife are all teachers and before qualifying, I had some experience in teaching adults which I thoroughly enjoyed. This, along with encouragement from my family, led me to pursue teaching as a career. At the time, we also had two small daughters and one big mortgage. Teaching gave me a reliable income and allowed me to spend time with my family during the school holidays.”
He began his teaching career in primary schools where he became a maths specialist and then progressed to Deputy Head. But everyone knew about David’s creative side and he was always the rst port of call whenever any artwork was required. “Every year I was taken o the timetable to paint the scenery for the school play; it was great seeing the children’s reaction to their stage backdrop,” he laughs.
But years passed and David was no longer enjoying his role, especially after the challenges presented by COVID. “During the pandemic, I was regularly in school from 7am until 7pm as the school delivered a full timetable remotely. My job as Deputy Head was to schedule and manage this remote learning for the whole school as well as planning and delivering my own maths lessons.”
He had always dreamt that, at some point, he would make his living from art. A few years ago, the family downsized, paid o the mortgage and built a studio, all with this dream in mind. But making the nal decision always seemed like too big a step to take. “For a long time, we were laying the foundations for this change but never quite pinning down exactly when it was going to happen. Time ticked on and before I knew it, I was 50.
“My wife made the point that it might easily
take me ten years or more to get established, if at all, and if I waited until retirement then it may be too late. Plus, all this coincided with me going through a very di cult time personally.” In the end, it was clear that David needed to make a change in his life and so, with his wife’s support, he nally made the leap of faith.
David doesn’t regret leaving his teaching career and wishes he’d had more self-belief when he was younger. Should he have made the switch sooner? “The likelihood is that my painting career would be established by now, but in truth, I probably made the decision at the right time. My daughters are now grown up and my teaching career gave me the chance to spend time with them while they were young. When you are trying to build your life; buy a house and have a family, having a reliable income makes these things easier.”
At rst, the move had David riddled with self-doubt. “The voice in my head was telling me that I was a fool to believe that I could ever succeed, and that the world would see me as a failure.” But just a month after▸
Blue Birds, oil on linen,
quitting his job, he was contacted by a collector; someone he’d only ever brie y met once. “He was so supportive of my decision and invited me to spend a week with him at his house near the Dorset coast. I had a fantastic time and was able to explore and paint the area. This visit reassured me that people would see the value in what I was doing and I’m enormously grateful.”
Yet, it was his wife who kept his insecurities at bay. “She would write down every positive thing that had happened during the week on a slip of paper and put the paper into a teapot in the cupboard. Whenever I was feeling uncertain, the teapot would come out, along with the reminders of all the highs.”
During the rst few months of his painting career, David did several commissions out of necessity but doesn’t particularly enjoy them; most of his time is devoted to creating work for gallery exhibitions. He is a realist oil artist who loves painting interesting objects his wife nds in various charity shops. “I have always enjoyed painting directly from life rather than from photographs and up until I made this move, I’d been anenthusiastic plein air landscape painter. I set up the still lifes initially to give me some subject matter to paint when the weather wasn’t suitable for painting outside. However, I very quickly found a new obsession.”
He spends most of his time working from his studio in the garden which he shares with his wife who makes pottery. “Due to the nature of still life, coupled with the time needed to make my paintings, most of my time is spent in the studio.” He adds, “I’ve always tried to make a dedicated space to work. Many years ago, I remember ripping up the carpets in a bedroom so that I could throw paint around without worrying about the mess. This room was later redecorated as a nursery.”
While David is naturally a messy person, he tries to keep his studio as tidy as possible, as any chaos quickly impacts his paintings. “My work is quite meticulous and requires concentration which can easily be broken if I have to hunt around for paint or brushes.”
He is certain he made the right choice at this point in his life and is constantly attered that people want to hang his work in their homes. “Knowing that I’m doing something that is truly me is the best thing about what I do. I’m a maker at heart and I now feel that I’m doing what I was put here to do. I feel incredibly ful lled. We often de ne ourselves by the job that we do and can get weighed down trying to build status in a career that, deep down, is not who we are as individuals. I’ve dropped that burden and am now being true to myself.”
davidbarber.co.uk
Icome from a music background; I was the drummer in a rock band called Heavens Basement. We had a great time and released an album and toured around the world. But I’d always liked painting and began whilst on tour. I would paint in the tour buses and dressing rooms before shows.
I decided to step away from music in 2016 for both personal and professional reasons but by this point, I was already obsessed with painting and had begun selling my work. I dived into painting full-time almost right away. Financially, I had next to nothing when I left the band, but it was crystal clear to me this was the path I had to follow.
Art fairs were a great starting point for me. The rst year I did it (2017) was a disaster, but it was a good eye-opener for me. I decided to book a stand twice the size the following year, knowing I had time to build up a good body of work. It all sold on this occasion.
Following this, I booked a show in Hong Kong which provided a huge success in sales too. Around this time, a number of galleries began to approach me. So, taking a leap of faith can begin a chain reaction.
I take on the odd commission but most of my income comes from my exhibitions. I also market my art on Instagram and Facebook – both of which have been amazing over the past few years – but nothing beats having your work hanging in gallery spaces and art shows. Art is meant to be seen in the esh. Instagram: @chrisriversart
It might pay o , it might not. Rent a studio space, book an art fair, whatever it is, do something that gives you real goals to work towards and put you in a professional mindset.
Don’t please anyone other than yourself Paint what you enjoy, not what other people enjoy. If those two things happen to mix, great.
But try to resist following trends. Be in it for the long haul You want to paint for the rest of your life. Social media and all that is great, and I’m sure everyone reading this knows the importance of marketing but that is an ever-changing landscape, so spending time putting paint on canvas is the most important thing.
Oil artist Chris Rivers tells us how his career as a drummer led to life as a full-time artist
Working from a blank canvas can be intimidating for any artist, which is one reason why ED FAIRBURN repurposes old maps, transforming them into beautiful, highly-detailed portraits. Niki Browes finds out about his practice
Edgware, Hendon and Mill Hill, carbon ink on pocket map, 40x44cm
In his final year studying illustration at Cardi University, Ed Fairburn became interested in context, intervention and the idea of ‘hijacking’ ordinary objects and surfaces in extraordinary ways. One of his most enjoyable e orts was a mail-based project, a series of illustrated envelopes, postcards and unusual objects: anything he could paint on and post, to create a forced gallery space within the postal system. Lots of the items he mailed were simply empty envelopes, which he used as canvases, but he also posted the odd puzzle, including a Rubik’s Cube placed inside a clear plastic bag with stamps and the words “solve me” written on
the outside. He wrote the delivery address across several faces of the cube, before jumbling it and dropping it into an extra wide post box. To his amazement, the postal workers solved the cube and delivered it back within a remarkable 24 hours.
The postal art is what sparked his interest in working on anything but plain paper. Alongside this, he has always had a longstanding love of drawing and painting people. In 2012, a few months after graduation, he bought a map, the rst of thousands. He found it in a charity shop, priced at 20p, and now often looks back on that purchase as the best investment he’s ever made. ▸
I didn’t think much of it at the time, but it wasn’t long until the map was on my desk.
I was fascinated by the colours, patterns, and layers of information roads and railways twisting and turning, swathes of colour transitioning from one hue to another and realised that like nature itself, everything had an order and sense of logic, despite the apparent chaos. I began wondering if I could add to that chaos, in my own orderly way, interjecting my own imagery, while respecting the pre-existing rules of the map. What I ended up creating was a gurative drawing, weaving in and out of the details of the map. I was amazed at how natural the synchronisation appeared; so many structural and tonal elements aligned seamlessly, and the map was still perfectly functional. That was the very start of what has become an ongoing exploration, a long-term project which I enjoy even more today than ten years ago, when it all began.
I’m always asked where I source maps from and my usual answer is, in short, there is no short answer!
Over the years, I’ve become a keen and selective collector. I know what I like and I know what interests me. My search takes me to all sorts of places from charity shops to old bookshops and even other collectors, both o ine and online, and has become an art form in itself. I absolutely love folded maps, but the act of folding and unfolding a map is one of my least favourite things to do. It doesn’t help that there’s no standard way to do it; I have to gure it out from scratch almost every time. I now have maps and atlases stored all over my house in boxes, drawers, shelves and even hanging from makeshift indoor washing lines (those spaces are usually reserved for works in progress). I own more maps than I’ll ever use, and my ever-growing to-do list outpaces what I’m actually able to achieve, despite working all day (almost) every day.
On the rare occasions that I do work on a blank canvas, I really struggle.
The patterns and compositions of a map push me in a particular direction, helping to inform the way in which I should proceed. In many ways, it’s a collaboration. I usually work with old maps instead of new, for a range of reasons conceptual, aesthetic and legal. One of the best things about working with old maps is the feeling of not being able to ruin the look of the map, through inadvertent marks or any knocks or bumps.
Of course, I’m very careful with the physical handling of my work, but it’s always
reassuring to know thatI’m working with a surface that is already ‘broken in’, like an old pair of shoes.
I’ve always enjoyed drawing people, and conceptually, the association between people and places works.
On a small scale, my work can celebrate the link between an individual and a particular location but on a wider scale, the synchronisation is thought provoking; a gentle reminder that we are a product of the landscape, this place we call home. Perhaps it’s an optimistic coexistence. As a species, we’re affecting the planet and its habitats in all sorts of ways, mostly negative, but we have the odd positive impact too. Either way, we’re responsible for Earth, just like Earth is responsible for us. Everything is connected.
A common misconception of my work is that I see faces in maps, like a form of pareidolia, in the same way you might see faces in clouds.
I don’t see faces in maps. I see possibilities; potential compositions. There’s never any
ABOVE River Thames; Staines to Richmond, pigment liner on pocket map, 21x42cm
FAR LEFT Marquette Michigan, carbon ink on geological map, 43x55cm
LEFT Fountains Earth, carbon ink on topographic map, 38x38cm
one, perfect t and actually, there are so many variables that I sometimes struggle to gure out the best approach. I look for details in both the map and the gure which complement one another; they may not necessarily line up perfectly, but perhaps echo one another. A lot of time is spent planning and playing around with roughs before any nal work begins.
I’m very much a pens and pencils sort of artist.
I paint occasionally, usually in watercolour or acrylic and very occasionally in oil, but the vast majority of my works are drawn or painted using ink. I have a collection of di erent inks, pens and other tools to match the range of paper types I encounter. Every map is di erent and the way in which the mediums interact with each map can be a bit of a rollercoaster. Some inks bleed while some inks never dry; just as with the maps themselves, some papers are thin and frail, some are thick and fabric-backed, and some maps aren’t even made of paper. It’s the variety of that unexpected drawing experience that I enjoy.
My very rst commission back in 2012 happened to be with a commercial client, and since then I’ve worked with numerous brands from Nike to Penguin. I think the concept behind my work lends itself well to a lot of commercial and editorial campaigns, whether that’s advertising, book cover illustration or even wall coverings for interior retail space. Receiving commercial enquiries is always a thrill because I never know what each commission will entail, and often I don’t even know who the client is until I sign a non-disclosure agreement.
Private commissions vary and, generally speaking, I have very limited time for them.
I’m grateful to be able to sell my own self-initiated work, so that’s really what I want to spend the majority of my time on, but that’s not to say I never enjoy or take on private commissions. As with the commercial work, I’ve had the pleasure of meeting people from all walks of life. It’s one of my favourite parts of being an artist.
My commute to work is two left turns and a set of stairs; I basically work on the ground oor of my house. It’s not a huge space, but it’s not exactly small either; it’s about right for what I need A lthough, I think I’ll always want more space, whatever situation I’m in. I dream of a warehouse-sized studio, one that is big enough to negate the need to tidy up. I would just create a mess in one area, before moving to the next, in the same way a gardener might rotate fruits and vegetables around an allotment.
I share my studio with my partner in life and business, Viola. She manages the studio shop, which includes everything logistical from packing and dispatching prints and originals, to answering enquiries and of course, providing invaluable feedback on my creative e orts. She’s my most honest critic and my practice wouldn’t be the same without her input.
It’s the little things that I like most about being an artist: having a lie in, choosing when to break, spending every day with my partner, not having to dress formally; those are the perks. The ipside is the need to have discipline and structure. But overall, I love what I do, so I don’t nd it di cult to stay motivated and get stuck into each day.
edfairburn.com
ABOVE Philadelphia, carbon ink on pocket map, 31x35cm LEFT Paris, pigment liner on statistical map, 71x56cm
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He might be an awardwinning photorealism artist with an A-list client base, but IAN BOURNE isn’t ready to give up his full-time job in healthcare. He explains why to Niki Browes
Despite having a waiting list of approximately 200 commissions, Ian Bourne still hasn’t given up the day job as an Operations Manager for a social care company. Juggling a full-time job with his art is far from a stroll in the park and often involves regimental planning, especially when he has a show to put on. His rst was in New York in 2016 and, if he has any regrets in life, it’s the fact that his father – who was a
draughtsman by trade – didn’t live long enough to attend the rst night.
He’s mostly settled into portrait painting and, of the 1,000 plus he has now drawn, less than half of them have been famous faces. But the familiarity of drawing someone known is intriguing anda viewer can be more engaged with a drawing of someone they recognise. But it was a request from a Hollywood megastar that took this side of his paintings to the next level – all kick-started over a game of cards.
The actor John Corbett is a friend of mine from the States.
He played poker with Brad Pitt and occasionally mentioned my paintings in passing. Out of the blue, I received a request from Brad to draw a picture of the British folk singer, Nick Drake. Brad is a massive fan. Over a period of time, we exchanged messages and, for research, I took a trip to Drake’s resting place in Tamworth, near Birmingham, and had tea with his sister, Gabrielle, who looks after her brother’s legacy. I nished the drawing, although always considered it very poor. It came at a very early stage in my artistic development and in hindsight, I wasn’t ready for the commission. The guilt of this stayed with me until 2016 when I drew a new portrait of Drake which I sent to Pitt free of charge. That Brad and Angelina had me on their Christmas card list – not anymore, I should add – remains one of the more bizarre happenings in my life.
The recent Eddie Marsan portrait resulted in over ve million views on Twitter alone.
That was very humbling, I must say. I have Eddie to thank for the exposure his portrait led to. Once he shared it on his page, mine went viral, or whatever it is the millennials call it nowadays. This led to a tidal wave of interest in commissions. I politely responded to all, explaining my current situation, and many people said they were willing to wait as long as it takes. Eddie himself was keen to purchase the original of his portrait, but I had to confess I had already given it to a friend who is going through cancer treatment. Hopefully, if all goes well, I will be presenting Eddie with a framed print sometime in the future.
In 2018, a portrait I did of Sir Tom Jones generated unexpected interest when he shared it on his social media platforms along with a complimentary statement from the man himself.
As a result of those shares, I received over ten thousand messages. Then, last year, a drawing of Dawn French attracted nearly two million interactions. Such numbers freak me out a little if I’m honest. I usually think I am not worthy. Even today, it is always the people closest to me that get the most excited about such things.
I am sure a lot of professional artists will say that being a full-time artist is not as glamorous as many non-artists may believe it to be.
It is unpredictable, unforgiving at times and
can be very hard work. If I had a pound for every person who has contacted me more or less expecting me to trot out a picture for them, often for a next-to-nothing price, well, I would most likely have enough to buy one.
I feel fortunate to just know that I could go full-time if I wanted but choose not to. That is enough for this moment in time. Perhaps, I will rethink things at a later date.
I am often told that the eyes in my portraits say something more than words can.
For example, when one draws a face, and the eyes have tears in them, the viewer could assume that the person is sad, but I will always have my own inner narrative on the reasons why the person is tearful; that can just as much be because they are happy tears. Tears can come at any time, in anyone, and nowadays as mental health issues a ect so many people, I dare say most of us have tearful moments as we reassess our lives in the wake of the pandemic storm. I certainly do. They come from nowhere sometimes, or seemingly so, but there is always a reason for them, so drawing a face with tears can suggest so many scenarios if the viewer wishes to create their own backstories. I do it with portraits all the time, whether I have drawn them, or not.
I was sent a selection of Daler-Rowney pastel pencils some years back, at a time when most of what I drew was graphite. I soon found introducing colour brought new interest to my work. Once I had used them for six months or so, I felt con dent to try new ideas. Soft pastel pencil, in my opinion, is better suited to backgrounds, especially if one is trying to create a bokeh e ect. I attempted a few more extreme examples of this in the early days; night scenes with the fractured light of car headlights, for example, with varied degrees of success. However, after a lot of practis e, I began to understand just how far I could go with them.
This then led me to oil pencils. I purchased some Polychromos pencils, made by Faber-Castell. Polychromos are often referred to as the nest oil-based colour pencils on the market. Each pencil has a 3.8mm lead which is coloured with pigments suspended in an oil-based binder. It is water-resistant, smudge-proof and covers well, though it will also sharpen to a very ne point for detailed work.
As a guide, I would say most drawings take between 15 and 30 hours.
There are some exceptions. When I began to get painful nger joints in my drawing hand in 2016, I began to draw some pictures left-handed. My reasoning was that should my right hand give up one day, I would be able to have a hand to fall back on. I still do the occasional left-hand drawing. It takes a while, but I get there in the end. I usually give those pieces away. In addition, I have a
folder which I call Tequila Drawings. These have been created after a glass or two of tequila, or something similar. I have even added tequila to a couple of drawings in the past – used as a solvent when using oil-based colour pencils. I would like to add that I don’t normally drink alcohol whilst drawing, but sometimes a small glass is just part of the preparation. I have learned not to dispute it.
Not only do I get bored easily when I am drawing – hence the time frames for my pieces – I also normally provide myself with a choice of subjects depending on my mood at the time.
I would love to have the patience to spend hundreds of hours on a drawing, but I know myself enough to appreciate this just isn’t within me. I would say that my limit for concentration on a piece is 30 hours. At that point, I begin looking for another subject to draw. I suppose that if I could spend more time on a drawing, it would have more detail in it, but I do alright as is, so why change?
In most cases, I compile a Spotify playlist that relates to the drawing I am working on.
If the subject is a musician, then of course it is fairly easy to put together a selection of their songs, and this keeps me company through the drawing process. Then, if I draw a scene without people in it, I will put together a playlist that will, in some way keep my focus. For example, I once drew a scene of a boat stranded in choppy seas and Kate Bush’s Ninth Wave from the album Hounds of Love seemed the perfect soundtrack. Kate Bush is a frequent companion whilst I am scribbling away.
Over the years I have had two working spaces.
One at whatever house I was living in at the time and one being a more conventional studio space. It’sdelightfully bohemian, but not always the most comfortable. It can be rather draughty, so I sometimes draw at home in a room set aside for such things. I have never been particularly bothered about a traditional studio space as I have seen a lot of people spend so much time aspiring to have the perfect space in which to create that they forget to actually create stu . It’s a bit like people who own musical instruments but don’t learn to play them.
Try not to compare yourself to anyone else.
The moment you do, it can result in a lack of con dence. The rst thing anyone should feel whilst creating any sort of art is enjoyment. If you don’t enjoy what you do, what’s the point? Art is subjective; it is whatever the creator and the viewer wish it to be, even if both those views are polar opposites. In broad terms, no one is better than any other. If anyone reading this is struggling with achieving what they aspire to, just keep practising. Whatever anyone thinks of what I produce, I am still practising all the time. Every piece I do is a step towards my perfect piece, althoughif I ever feel I have achieved that, I may as well lay down my pencils and nd something else to do with my time.
Our annual British Art Prize, in association with edding, was designed to provide artists of all ages and abilities with a platform to gain valuable exposure and recognition for their work. A prize fund worth over £15,000 attracted the entries by the thousands and quality paintings and drawings poured in from the UK and beyond. An esteemed judging panel made up of Scottish artist Bruce McLean, professional artist, tutor and Artists & Illustrators columnist Jake Spicer, The One Show’s Artist in Residence, Adebanje Alade, the Managing Director of edding, Andy Gutteridge and Niki Browes, the editor of this magazine, had the impossible task of narrowing the entries down to a longlist of 150 before choosing the shortlist of 50.
Of the process, Jake said, “It’s been a privilege – and a challenge – to select pieces of work from such an exciting selection of accomplished paintings and drawings. I looked for work that spoke to me on an emotional level, which appealed to my personal tastes and that would have caught my eye if I were to pass them on any gallery wall. Work that showed technical competence in the handling of the medium and the eloquence of the visual language articulated by the artist and nally, a message and sense of personal vision in the work.”
You’ll be able to see the artworks up close at the gallery@oxo from 22nd to 27th November (11am-6pm) but for now at least, let us introduce you to the winners, those who were highly commended and the nalists. Congratulations to everyone who got through.
As Steve Jobs famously said, “You can’t connect the dots looking forward; you can only connect them looking backwards. So you have to trust that the dots will somehow connect in your future.”
While I appreciate lots of art genres such as pop art and surrealism, I’ve always found myself drawn to representational art. It was the subject that I excelled in at school but it was at college where I fell in love with oil painting. It was here I won awards for painting and graphic design and went on to study design at university. My fascination with branding led me to a career in marketing working with a creative agency but all the while I was painting alongside.
I carved out a career as a portrait artist painting commissions inspired by the excellent contemporary painters seen in the Mall Galleries and BP Portrait Awards such as Mitch Gri ths, Mark Roscoe and Jonathan Yeo. Committed to lifelong learning and always striving to improve as an artist, I completed workshops at the London Atelier of Representational Art and Northern Realist in Manchester to help improve my ability to paint from life.
To help practice sight size portraiture, I painted friends and family from life in my studio and one of these portraits went on to be selected for the National Open Art Exhibition in 2017 and was voted in the top 10 of the World Art Vote. This piece then took on a life of its own as it was next selected for the Football is Art Exhibition at the National Football Museum in Manchester (2019) where the work was exhibited alongside the likes of Picasso,
Banksy, Lowry, Hockney and Nash.
At this time, I also experimented with en plein air painting. I invested in a pochade box and set o painting scenes of rural Lancashire where I live. Enjoying this so much I completed more en plein air paintings on a trip to Switzerland which led to a commissioned townscape of Nyon and subsequent print sales.
Meanwhile, I continued to paint portraits and while I loved the thrill of painting a sitter from life, I recognised that my strength lay in the academic approach to
painting portraits and I went on to specialise in realist commissions, particularly enjoying the nery of military uniforms.
Despite all this experimentation with traditional portraiture, still life and en plein air landscape painting, I’ve always had a burning desire to develop a unique body of work and distinct style which could establish me as a contemporary gallery artist.
Coronavirus and lockdown hit and social distancing meant I couldn’t meet with portrait clients. Now was the time to put
the vision onto canvas. Life Finds a Way may have taken over 200 hours but I was hooked. I stopped taking on portrait commissions and since then I’ve painted more artworks in this series which I refer to as Organised Chaos. Why organised chaos? Because that’s what they are. I carefully collate the subject matter and usually spend a day arranging the objects into a mass. At rst glance, they look like chaos but there is an incredible amount of order involved. I think the works re ect a lot of modern life, echoing themes of
consumption, abundance, order and chaos.
In May 2022 I nally started to share these works with the world and have been delighted with the feedback I’ve received and not least with this win, which I’m incredibly proud of. After working on these paintings for hundreds of hours, it’s massive for me to achieve such recognition, not just as reassurance in the appeal of the works but also as I look to build momentum at this stage of my art career. I can’t wait to see my work exhibited in London and seeing the incredible quality of the other
shortlisted artworks makes me feel even more honoured.
I may be biased but you have to recognise that The British Art Prize represents a fantastic opportunity to potentially raise your profile if you are selected as a winner or are shortlisted. The exhibition in London, the People’s Choice Award and coverage in the magazines are all fantastic. If you are fortunate enough to be selected as a winner then the prizes are the icing on the cake. garyarmer.co.uk
I’ve been an artist for as long as I can remember.T hough, for a long time, I never had the courage to call myself one. After all, at what point in your creative career are you considered an artist? I think it’s a concept a lot of creatives struggle with. Recently, I’ve come to terms with the fact that it probably isn’t a gold stamp for talent, training or yearly earnings, but more of a lifestyle. I’ve been painting and drawing since I could hold a pencil. I mean how else are you supposed to spend your six-week summer holidays?
A lot of the time, my paintings start with a photograph that catches my eye. Often something that plays with light or captures someone’s skin in hyper detail. Fire y began with a photo that did both. And I must credit both Yeside Williams (the model) and Melissa Co e (the photographer) for the reference photo, because I came across it on my friendYeside’s Instagram feed, and just had to paint it. It’s hard not to
notice the way the street lights play across her face and then re ect and refract on her glasses. I adored the blurring around her coat, bringing her face into focus, like when you’re on a train that’s just started moving and you lock eyes with someone on the platform. And I loved the night-time, bus-stop backdrop, placing this moment in a particularly youthful, carefree setting. That’s how the title Fire y was born. It’s an ode to the ery glint in the glasses, the sense of belonging to the night – the way a lot of people feel in their teens and early twenties (I’m 25).
Being included in this magazine and the opportunity to have Fire y exhibited in London was a huge appeal of entering my work. I can’t wait to meet other artists like myself. T he brilliant prizes were also very attractive. I still can’t believe I’ve won one. imartcee.com
A s I am ageing, I want to incorporate in my work tributes to all the important factors in my life, including family, animals and spiritual support. The annual service of the Blessing of the Animals in my church – The American Cathedral in Paris – supplied the perfect inspiration for the integration of these in uences. Despite the realistic illusion, this painting is not a rendition of what I have seen. Created entirely freehand with no mechanical means, it is drawn from decades of my own source material. It took a year to decide on and create the composition and was then eight years in the making.
Often in my work, I’ll have a child in red in the main body of the piece, but here it would have stopped the eye. Note too that the altarpiece is not in the centre – I think it is boring to divide any painting in half – but slightly to the right. The scale of the Cathedral is larger in relation to the participants on purpose; as well as is the attening of the perspective in order to create a more pleasing composition.
This painting is atypical in that I normally only have one to three living characters in my work, but here you can nd 28 participants, including only one that is looking directly at the viewer. Can you spot who?
I’m excited and pleased that the appreciation of my subject matter, and the hard work involved, have found the favour of the judges to the point that my painting received one of the top awards. annjamesmassey.com ▸
This painting is one in a series of paintings entitled The Divine Feminine, highlighting the strong spirit and strength women possess and the ght to make their voices heard. They celebrate strong women, showing within them the inner strength of a warrioress; not harsh or cruel but with strength, compassion and humility.
This piece, called Perception is asking you to question, step back out of the matrix, take o the blinkers and see things from a di erent perspective. The abstract background is built up in layers, using acrylic and spray paint, oil pastels and paint pens. I always start o creating an abstract and then create the
portrait over the top, building up in layers again, still using intuitive marks and colour choice, creating the features, and leaving large areas of the background visible thus creating a connection with the portrait. The face now seems part of the background and vice versa seemingly emerging from within it, highlighting their connection and our connectedness to all that is. I am absolutely over the moon with my win. It was a huge and totally unexpected surprise in my inbox. Being part of the winning entries is a great opportunity to add a feather to your cap, boost your career and exhibit in London, the art centre of Britain. artatvixen.co.uk
My work, as a modern-day aneur, takes me into the city where I take images on a camera or phone, later to be re ned and honed digitally in the studio before commencing painting on paper, board or canvas. The intense colour of the nished piece is achieved by painting multiple layers; the image also changing and re ning during this process with elements added or subtracted to obtain the nal image.
This piece Café Scene with Four Figures is based on a photograph taken during a trip overseas. The image was then manipulated on the computer before being transferred onto paper for the start of the painting process. I was drawn to this scene because of the light, colour and placement of the gures in the overall composition. rogeraslin.com
I was born and grew up in Hong Kong. Its my home where all my family, friends and memories are and which are deeply relevant and integral to my identity. To reciprocate the love, care and support that this community has provided for me, I like to preserve the vital legacy of Hong Kong through my paintings. Ready to Go features the iconic Star Ferry, Hong Kong’s historic ferry company which has served both sides of Victoria Harbour since 1898, carrying passengers between Hong Kong Island and Kowloon. It’s a ne example of how I like to spread Hong Kong’s positive energy. jacksonlee-art.com
Dungeness was conceived after a visit earlier this year. I wanted to heighten the di erence between this busy, knotty line and the swathes of open space by being as economical as I could with the big paint elds above and below the horizon. I’ve visited Dungeness dozens of times over the years, but I’ve consciously resisted making paintings of the beach because there are so many hackneyed versions of it on the walls of gift shops in Rye. But I’m really pleased with this painting. It won’t be the last time I use the area as a subject for painting. andrewtorr.com
My work is a uid moment in time; it is energy passed from my being to my brush. Fantasy is a re ection of the Lotus Pond. The dark mud and shimmering light on the water are re ective of how we never know what lies beneath the surface of anything in life. Yet out of this darkness comes a beautiful bloom in the brightest, cleanest of Pinks, teaching us that beautiful things can come from dark places. Beauty can ourish in adversity.
The painting composition is both linear and organic, and portrays the dark and light values using layers of medium and acrylic washed over the canvas before the pinks and nally, the light bright white is added. The rst stroke is always the most important. First impressions matter and we can make or break a painting in the rst 30 seconds. natashabarnes.com
My work is portraitcentric, often with a view to conveying a theme that is fundamental to the human experience, exploring topics many of us can relate to. This piece was themed around anxiety, something that, today, is more prevalent around the world than ever before.
With Helix, I wanted to create a drawing that really conveyed the sensations of stress; the twisting of the stomach and mind. The helix shape twists and turns throughout the composition of the drawing, from both the overall shape of the composition to the subtle curls in the hair and re ections in the anxious eyes. eteportraits.com
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It’s no secret that the UK is home to extraordinary pieces of art and host to exciting, innovative exhibitions. From Renaissance retrospectives to showcases from modern masters, there is always something rousing to see, says Martha Alexander
When it comes to discovering great art establishments, our focus is often London centric: we are (rightfully) wowed by the shows put on by the capital’s world-famous galleries and drawn to their vast and weighty permanent collections.
However, incredible paintings and sculptures can be found in the most unexpected (and even unglamorous) places. Here, we explore the small galleries, studios, private houses and niche collections that are home to some spectacular pieces of art that are deserving of a wider audience – and many of which are absolutely free.
The eponymous former home and studio of Victorian painter and sculptor Frederick Leighton – who became Lord Leighton in later life – was purpose-built to his exacting speci cation. Its grand and imposing exterior is matched with an even more magni cent interior with the Arab Hall and Narcissus Hall’s vibrant, decorative spectacles quite literally at the centre of the artist’s world.
Leighton’s rst major painting was bought by Queen Victoria in 1855 and he was President of the Royal Academy. His commitment to and love of art and painting is in every last square inch of this house from his north facing studio to his personal painting collection with impressive works by the likes of Corot, Millais, George Frederic Watts and Lawrence Alma-Tadema. Adults £11, rbkc.gov.uk/museums/leighton-house
As a boy, Sir William Burrell (as he became) was obsessed with art, buying his rst painting at 15 with money he earned from selling his cricket bat.
Today, the Burrell Collection is made up of some 9,000 objects and is a major cultural landmark in Scotland and beyond. It was gifted to Glasgow in 1944 by Burrell and his wife Constance, who believed in a universal right to education and that everyone should have access to culture. The collection now lives in a recently refurbished, purpose-built museum in the heart of Pollok Country Park.
Alongside artefacts such as Medieval stained glass panels and Ming vases, are jaw-dropping paintingsincluding Edouard Manet’s Rosesin a Champagne Glass and over 20 works by Edgar Degas.
Free entry, burrellcollection.com
This is a London gallery, true, but it’s also a Georgian townhouse tucked away in leafy Canonbury and holds a collection of impressive but niche pieces.
The majority of the works in the collection are examples of Futurism from the early 20th century, including paintings by Umberto Boccioni who was a key gure in the movement.
There are also plenty of paintings and sculptures which are worlds away from Futurism with standout works including Gino Severini’s Quaker Oats –a c ubist s till l ife from 1917 – that despite being created during a time when the artist was deeply concerned with order and discipline is a startlingly playful and joyful painting.
Adults £7.50, estorickcollection.com
Discovering Kettle’s Yard is like being welcomed into the home of a (very tasteful and discerning) friend. And this is exactly what former Tate Gallery curator Jim Ede and his wife Helen envisaged when, in the mid-1950s, they bought four crumbling cottages in the middle of Cambridge.
What was to be both their living space and home to their vast and impressive collection of paintings, sculptures and artefacts – by the likes of Ben and Winifred Nicholson, Henry Moore and Joan Miró – is now the University of Cambridge’s modern and contemporary art gallery.
Even when the Edes were in residence, they wanted to share their bounty with everyone, particularly students. As a result, Kettle’s Yard became an ‘open house’ with the Edes welcoming visitors every afternoon of term time. Unlike most art galleries, Kettle’s Yard was, and is – because it is almost exactly as the Edes left it – an informal space. Yes, it is achingly stylish and packed with treasure – but there are no labels or anything that screams ‘gallery’ except for an extraordinary collection of art.
Free entry, kettlesyard.co.uk ▸
It might seem jarring to describe Wales’ national museum as a ‘hidden gem’ but in the context of an often London centric mindset when it comes to major artworks, it is an apt inclusion.
The art collection here is surely one of Europe’s nest, especially in terms of its Impressionist and Post-Impressionist works, which include an example of Claude Monet’s water lilies paintings and the endlessly striking La Parisienne (also known as The Blue Lady) by Auguste Renoir.
Welsh talent is widely represented by sculptures from John Gibson and paintings by siblings Augustus and Gwen John.
Augustus’ portrait of poet Dylan Thomas is a major draw, while Gwen’s A Corner of the Artist’s Room in Paris (below) is a perfect rendering of sunlit serenity. She also loved to paint cats – and a little painting of a tortoiseshell is impossibly charming.
The contemporary collection is just as dazzling with works by Francis Bacon and Turner Prize-winning sculptor Rachel Whiteread DBE. Free entry, museum.wales/cardi /
The former home of painters and Bloomsbury Set royalty, Vanessa Bell and Duncan Grant, Charleston is both charming and an invaluable insight into the lives of their contemporaries, widely considered to be some of the 20th century’s most radical artists, writers and thinkers.
Charleston, surrounded by the bucolic idyll of the South Downs, is not a structurally imposing house but what Bell and Grant created inside – from the time they arrived in 1916 – turned bricks and mortar into a historic artefact. They each had a studio but they also decorated the walls in vibrant greens and reds. It remains how they left it: pretty, rather than grand, and stu ed with secrets.
One of the loveliest paintings here is Iceland Poppies by Bell which was one of her earlier works and not painted at Charleston. It was the rst painting Bell exhibited at New England Art Club and garnered praise from Walter Sickert.
Another must-see is the Famous Women Dinner Service, a collection of 50 plates decorated by Vanessa Bell and Duncan Grant with the faces of famous womenincluding Queen Elizabeth I, Charlotte Bronte and Greta Garbo.All of the women are strong, de ant and unconventional – like Bell herself – and indeed Charleston.
Under 18s have free entry, adults £16, charleston.org.uk
Part of the University of Birmingham, the Barber Institute is home to a magni cent collection of paintings from old masters including Anthony Van Dyke to modern heroes like Frank Auerbach.
The building itself, an art deco beauty nestled in leafy Edgbaston, is the de nition of a relaxing gallery experience. Inside, there are various galleries – named after the colours of their walls and each (roughly) concerned with a particular section of time. In the Green Gallery you’ll nd paintings from the Middle Ages, in the Red Gallery you’ll nd Renaissance art.Then, in the Blue Gallery, you’ll nd more modern pieces including The Flavour of Tears by Rene Magritte or A Woman Seated in a Garden by Henride Toulouse-Lautrec.
It is all highceilings and high shine woodand the perfect place for quiet contemplation. Free entry, barber.org.uk ▫
It might seem jarring to describe Wales’ national museum as a ‘hidden gem’ but in the context of an often London centric mindset when it comes to major artworks, it is an apt inclusion.
The art collection here is surely one of Europe’s nest, especially in terms of its Impressionist and Post-Impressionist works, which include an example of Claude Monet’s water lilies paintings and the endlessly striking La Parisienne (also known as The Blue Lady) by Auguste Renoir.
Welsh talent is widely represented by sculptures from John Gibson and paintings by siblings Augustus and Gwen John.
Augustus’ portrait of poet Dylan Thomas is a major draw, while Gwen’s A Corner of the Artist’s Room in Paris is a perfect rendering of sunlit serenity. She also loved to paint cats – and a little painting of a tortoiseshell is impossibly charming.
The contemporary collection is just as dazzling with works by Francis Bacon and Turner Prize-winning sculptor Rachel Whiteread DBE.
Free entry, museum.wales/cardi /
Part of the University of Birmingham, the Barber Institute is home to a magni cent collection of paintings from old masters including Anthony Van Dyke to modern heroes like Frank Auerbach.
The building itself, an art deco beauty nestled in leafy Edgbaston, is the de nition of a relaxing gallery experience. Inside, there are various galleries – named after the colours of their walls and each (roughly) concerned with a particular section of time. In the Green Gallery you’ll nd paintings from the Middle Ages, in the Red Gallery you’ll nd Renaissance art. Then, in the Blue Gallery, you’ll nd more modern pieces including The Flavour of Tears by Rene Magritte or A Woman Seated in a Garden by Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec.
It is all highceilings and high shine wood – quiet and serene without being stu y – and the perfect place for quiet contemplation.
Free entry, barber.org.uk ▫
When you are painting you might mix complementary colours to make a neutral grey and when designing colour schemes you might choose to juxtapose complementary colours for maximum contrast of hue. In this drawing, we’ll be using them for the latter purpose, keeping the two colours largely separate for a non-representation colour scheme that draws attention to the expressive features of the face.
If we de ne complementary colours as those which sit opposite one another on the colour wheel, we can run into the problem that di erent colour wheels apportion di erent amounts of their circumferences to named hues. Thus, one colour wheel might present red and green as opposite one another, while another shows red sitting
In the penultimate instalment of JAKE SPICER’S series exploring coloured pencil portrait palettes, he’ll be delving into the unusual images that can be created using a complementary colour palette.
across from turquoise. Arguments about which colours sit precisely opposite one another on the colour wheel are ultimately a distraction from the purpose of the complementary palette; to select two hues that are as di erent from one another as they can be.
Post-box red could be considered diametrically opposite a green-blue wedge so that any colour from a tealy-turquoise sea of linguistic uncertainty will perform the desired role of creating a complementary contrast. I used Munsell’s colour wheel to select my complementary colours and, so as not to repeat the imagery of last month, avoided both red and blue. Side-stepping the pitfalls of tonal contrast that a purple and yellow-green pairing presents, I was left with a striking green and magenta complementary palette for this month’s drawing.▸
This portrait upends the order of working elsewhere in this series, where we begin with carefully observed lines and build tone and colour over the top. Instead, we will adopt a more intuitive process, which requires energy and constant dialogue with the page. I would recommend holding the pencil with an underhand grip, rather than a traditional writing hold and keeping your arm moving as you ick your eye between paper and subject. Start o by lightly establishing the big shapes of the head with circular motions that begin in your shoulder.
Not all coloured pencils erase cleanly and the price of a pencil tells you little about how easy it will be to rub out. Highly pigmented oil-based coloured pencils can be di cult to erase; as can cheap, waxy coloured pencils. Test your favourite coloured pencils to see how easily they rub out using a vinyl eraser that can cut into a wedge with a craft knife and seek out the most erasable pencils when your drawing process requires it. I used Derwent Procolour pencils for this drawing (above)
In one of your two colours, build up marks in response to the forms and tonal shapes that surround the features, deliberately avoiding pinning down the shapes of the eyes, nostrils, mouth or ears. You should draw as if you were sculpting the face in clay, building up malleable forms with your marks – working and re-working them. Too often a portrait becomes a at plane punctuated by features. This alternative process helps you to explore the landscape of the head and the spaces between the expressive landmarks of the face.
Your marks should remain open and searching so that rather than pinning down the contours of the face with hard-edged lines you are able to explore the undulating form of the face. Make fast, light marks, staying aware of the direction of your mark-making; explore longitudinal lines that shape the side planes of the head, the long edge of the nose and the temples. Experiment with marks that follow the cross-contours of the face, feeling around the latitude of the head to describe its rounded form, the soft esh of the lips and chin or the sweep of the forehead.
Using the freshly cut edge of an eraser, bring light back into the portrait. Maintain the speed that you build up in the early stages; a subtractive eraser mark should be made with as much energy and intention as an additive pencil mark. Here I erased the shape of the hair clip from the dark of its surroundings and brought re ected light into the chin with eraser marks that followed the direction of drawn pencil marks.
Introduce your second pencil and prepare for the balance of the drawing to shift. Regardless of the colour it is rendered in, a monochromatic drawing speaks about tone, so introducing a second colour brings new contrasts of hue and saturation into the drawing. Use this colour to draw the features of the face into the space created during the earlier stages, as if you were setting a colourful gemstone into a piece of jewellery.
Finally, build up heavier marks in both colours, using the eraser where necessary. Think about how the powerfully contrasting hues of the complementary colours draw the eye when used selectively and introduce a rmer line to pin down the malleable shapes of the preceding stages.
A key source of expression in the face, the mouth, is an articulate feature in our daily lives, constantly moving to facilitate eating, speaking and nonverbal expression. In a portrait sitting, the mouth relaxes to a slim line of occlusion shadow, bounded by the eshy forms of the lips. It is the skill of a competent portrait artist to recognise and catch the eeting expressions that pass across a model’s face during a portrait sitting.
The centre line will be the darkest part of the lips and its specific weight and rhythm are the best indicators of expression. Pay specific attention to each change in direction along its length as you draw it in.
The soft forms that surround the lips are as important to how you perceive them as the lips themselves, with the creases that descend from either side of the nostril framing the shape of the muzzle of the face and the soft pads below the bottom lip surmounting the bony mass of the chin. Notice how the top lip is often in shadow, while the bottom lip catches a highlight. ▫
Draw the mouth after you have established the nose; it is more likely to move during a sitting and by adding it later you allow yourself time to catch the fugitive expressions passing over the model’s face.
Dash in the outer limits of the lips in relation to the features above and the horizontal centre marked by the ‘V’ of the cupid’s bow.
The bottom lip is a cushion with two wedges receding away to the pursed edges of the lips while the top lip is defined by the rhythm of its top edge and the characteristic ‘V’ that sits at the end of the channel of the philtrum.
Even though painting children isn’t the easiest, TERENCE CLARKE says that shouldn’t put you off. Here he shows you how he painted his great nephew Henry in oil and acrylic
It’s a woeful effect of rather male-dominated art history that there aren’t more great paintings of children. One thinks of the wonderful works of art of Mary Cassatt and even the great Norman Rockwell, as painters who painted children’s lives rather than using children as an adjunct to a story or just included in a formal portrait.It’s true that children being children do make it more di cult. They don’t like to sit still for any length of time or be quiet for long periods, so arranging a sitting is not easy. Also, a child has a verysubtle structure, as compared to an adult.
So, for this How To I wanted to discuss some of the problems and pleasures of painting children. My painting is really only a study due to the pressures of time, but it works for the purpose of explaining the process and techniques of working from a child’s face.
Firstly, it’s very important that the child wants to take part in the experience and that there is at least one other adult present so that the child feels comfortable and safe.
Fortunately, Henry, my great nephew, was enthusiastic about sitting and his father was with us whilst I worked. I wanted to capture Henry ’s precocious and vital personality in a quick study that, without too much fuss, captured something of his delightful personality. To this end , I posed him looking slightly to the side which gives him a rather reflective gaze.
He deemed himself very happy with the result especially how I had treated his unruly hair – and it was a real pleasure to have the chance to paint him at this very special stage of his young life, his ninth year.
terenceclarke.co.uk ▸
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This is the original drawing for the painting. I’m working quickly and using the angles of the lines to block in the face. There is no point worrying about likeness at this stage but it’s important to indicate the main areas of form and the proportions. I usually start in the centre, organising the distances between the eyes, nose and mouth before placing the outer contours of the face.
It’s very easy to forget them as you are painting. If they don’t work in the nal image, it’s the rst thing people will zoom in on. If you get them right, they subtly enhance the whole painting. I recommend rstly drawing several di erent ears as an exercise to get to understand their essential structure.
Using a mix of the Cass Art Lemon Yellow and red, I start to develop the painting in terms of the general light e ect. The rich tones of the linen canvas provide half tones to bounce the lighter shades o . The Cass Art oil is thick and buttery which gives a strong e ect of light. Here, the painting immediately springs to life. The Cass Art linen canvases are primed with a transparent primer, so it’s ne to use oil paint directly onto the canvas.
I’ve mixed the paint to an inky consistency so that it ows onto the canvas. As well as using rm lines I’m also blocking in tonal areas with washes of the paint mix. It’s vital that I’m drawing freely and correcting as I go. You can see several attempts at the mouth and chin here and an indication of tone under the mouth and by the nose.
3FACTOR IN THAT A CHILD WILL MOVE MORE THAN AN ADULT They just can’t help it. Here you can see how I am drawing and re-drawing the side of the head and ear. Gradually one comes to a decision as to where to place the various elements of the structure. Notice too that the beginnings of the hair are drawn in and there are more washes to indicate the light on the face.
It’s important to infer the space behind the subject as it develops the sense of the head in a space. This really accentuates the form and is very much part of the composition. At this point, the likeness of the portrait is becoming evident. A likeness is very much something arrived at – rather than forced – and can only capture some aspects of the sitter’s face.
Here, I was thinking of the way Toulouse Lautrec used a warm canvas ground in his paintings. The soft undertone of the Cass Art linen allows one to work spontaneously with the paint and the tone of the linen is holding the colour together. Here the dashes and marks of oil paint, used without medium, begin to ‘sculpt’ the form. I’m using the paint as blocks of tone rather than blending them too much. This allows for speed of execution and keeps me concentrating on the face in front of me.
The painting has progressed with all the esh tones developed and the hair begun. I dragged the background tone right into the neck area to give a complete line from the side of Henry’s face to the chin. This will be adjusted later. I used Cass Art Magenta and Ultramarine to develop the purple tones on the face and background. It’s important that the background and the face are integrated tonally.
Although Henry was an excellent sitter, the painting had to be developed and adjusted. Here the eye is being re-drawn in paint and the ear is being restructured with more foreshortening. I’m now using Prussian Blue oil to cut into the form. Note also how the original greenish wash by the nose is still working e ectively as a tone and some greys from the background are re ected o the cheek. Also, note just how many di erent hues are incorporated into the esh tones.
This is the last element to be painted and usually enhances the likeness a great deal. It’s painted freely and in an almost abstract manner to suggest the hair as a mass or form. The real di culty with children’s faces is that the forms are extremely subtle.
The structure at the end of the nose and around the chin is the key to the whole form of the head along with the relatively large size of the eyes.▫
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A n artist’s relationship with a particular place is a constant in art but infusing the elusive quality of its spirit into a painting can be challenging. As a professional painter, I have always been an advocate of painting en plein air, the inspiration coming from my love of nature and being immersed in the landscape itself. As a native of Devon, I rst discovered this innate romanticism in the brooding landscape of Dartmoor, but then had it reawakened on the banks of the Exe Estuary where I now live and work.
Above all else, paintings must contain emotion and a connection to the place. Of course, the head is important, but it is the heart which is the vital ingredient. The biggest challenge of course, is to get your hand to reproduce what your heart feels.
Although working in the same landscape brings familiarity and a better understanding, it can also be
problematic. Therefore, in order to prevent work from becoming repetitive I experiment with new techniques and alternate between di erent media. A few years ago, I decided to try acrylics and I was immediately hooked. I also decided to change my working practice; so rather than paint on location, I chose to work in the studio instead. I didn’t want to merely recreate the scene as I saw it, but rather attempt to distil the essence of it. Working from quick sketches, jottings and memory gave me the minimal information required to record an idea. The aim was to seek a much simpler response, which in turn allowed me to interpret the subject with more freedom and emotion. This latest series of paintings therefore, are a balance between representation and abstraction. They are more about the spirit of the landscape, rather than the landscape itself. ▸
Capturing landscapes with atmosphere has always been at the heart of RAY BALKWILL’s paintings but as he explains, one has to delve deeper to capture their authenticityBurst of Light over the Exe, mixed media, 29x29cm Upon the High Moor, Dartmoor, mixed media, 35x35cm Golden Light on the Exe, mixed media, 35x35cm
Galleria acrylics: Naples Yellow, Titanium White, Cadmium Orange, Ultramarine Blue, Burnt Umber, Permanent Rose, Powder Blue, Pale Violet, Viridian.
1” Flat Brush, ½” Filbert brush, Rigger brush
Mountboard, PVA Glue, Gesso, Texture Paste, Palette Knife, Found Netting, Ballpoint Pen, Masking Fluid (plus an old brush), Masking Tape, Plastic Ruler
I often include foraged items in my paintings such as grasses, but here I chose to include some netting. Using PVA glue, I stuck this to the reverse side of mountboard. With a palette knife I then applied an equal parts mix of gesso and texture paste to create a textured support. When this was dry, I drew out the basic composition with a ballpoint pen, based on a simple monochrome sketch. I then applied masking uid with an old brush to reserve some highlights around the focal point. I also spattered some of this in selected parts of the foreground.
I prefer to stand when painting, and I always work with the board at a slight angle. I nd this gives me more freedom to create painterly strokes, as well as being able to stand back and assess the painting far more easily. To establish an overall mood, I applied a watered-down mix of Naples Yellow, Titanium White and Cadmium Orange with a 1” Flat brush.
When this was dry, I placed a strip of masking tape below the horizon line in order to create a straight edge. I established the darks for the hills using a mix of Ultramarine and Burnt Umber. I then applied the same mix but with a little more water added over the netting in order to create random runs. When this was completely dry, I removed the masking tape and then rubbed o the masking uid with my nger.
I applied a mix of Ultramarine and Permanent Rose to the sky as well as to the foreground, the boats and their re ections. A few touches of grey were also added to the sky with a mix of Ultramarine, Burnt Umber and White. I nd using a plastic ruler as a mahl stick is a useful aid in creating straighter lines. This technique was also used later for adding the ner details on the boats with a Rigger brush. A mix of Ultramarine and Naples Yellow was applied to suggest more distant hills.
In order to simplify, as well as unify the sky, I applied Powder Blue straight from the tube. This was also echoed in the water. I then added Pale Violet, again straight from the tube, using the ½ inch Filbert brush on its side to pick up the texture in the foreground. Touches of this were also added to the sky to give further unity to the painting.
The darks on the boats were added with a mix of Ultramarine and Burnt Umber. In order to emphasise the focal point, I added touches of Titanium White around the boats. I then knocked back the lighter areas in the water with a diluted wash of Cadmium Orange plus White. Finally, I randomly spattered a mix of Viridian plus White to the foreground. The Exe E stuary is renowned for its evening skies and sunsets, providing me with inspiration for this painting and many others.
Spirit of Place: An Exhibition of Paintings of the Exe Estuary and Beyond by Ray Balkwill is being held in his Studio Gallery, Exmouth on 3rd and 4th December raybalkwill.co.uk
Last year’s British Art Prize winner LOTTA TEALE saw her career transformed as her win meant she was taken on by a central London gallery. To congratulate this year’s winners, she paints a scene from Jerusalem, where she now lives
It was melon season in Jerusalem, and I wanted to make the most of our sunny terrace to create a painting giving a sense of the luxuriousness of fresh watermelon on a hot day. I felt white wine was the perfect foil to evoke the deliciousness of a languid afternoon. I included the edge of the chair to give a sense of inviting the viewer to step inside and sit down. I aim to keep my paintings loose but accurate, with a certain liveliness of brush strokes which requires the viewer’s eye to do a bit of work. Because of this, painting in the sunshine is a welcome challenge as the constantly changing shadows require speed, decisiveness and precision along with a certain tolerance for chaos. I painted under the shade of an olive tree, having made the mistake a few days before of painting out in the 36-degree sunshine, but I consequently had to deal with constantly changing shadows on my canvas as well as on the subject, adding to the vitality of the experience.
lottateale.com
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I tend to spend several hours on composition, moving objects in and out and then starting all over again, using my camera phone to frame pictures and think about options. I deliberately keep colours to a minimum: usually, I will just have two opposite colours (in this instance red and green) with a series of neutrals as I nd more colours can detract from the simplicity of the piece. In this composition, I wanted the bowl to be backlit but the watermelon to have full sun exposure, which de ned where I had to sit in relation to the table. I had intended to paint it without the shadow or plant in the background, as it looked too complicated, but as you can see, that plan changed midway through.
I spent some time that evening considering the painting and I realised the background was too warm and dominant. When I came back at the same time the next day, I painted in the background shadow on the house to give it depth and the green of the plant to make it pop, while leaving out the ugly grey pot. I was pleased with the result, even if a bit of artistic license was used. It was a reminder that quite signi cant changes can be made even quite far down a painting if it’s not heading as you had hoped.
I chose a 40cmx50cm linen panel and gave it an initial tint mixing a neutral colour, which I thought pervaded the composition, and diluting it with odourless spirit, rubbing it o and waiting a few minutes until dry. Then I sketched in the outlines, holding up my paintbrush as a measure to work out the initial points, adding vertical lines, such as the wine glass stem, and gradually building out the approximate picture, correcting as needed.
After drawing, I lled in blocks of key colour and shadow to get a sense of how they relate to each other, working around the whole painting simultaneously. I painted this with a limited palette of six colours: Lemon Yellow, Cadmium Yellow, Alizarin Crimson, Ultramarine Blue, Raw Umber and Titanium White. I prefer to use only a limited number of colours as I get to know them really well and nd I can do most things with just a few.
As there were a lot of whites in the composition, it was important to get them in early, so this was my next step: working on the bowl, table, chair and napkin, including highlights on the bowl. This is to get a sense of how they related to each other, and how much space there was to go up and down. By the end of this step, I had to nish for the day as the light had changed so much.
With the background clearer, I was able to build out the wine glass, re ecting the colours behind it. I tried to resist the temptation to add more and more sparkles as the sun moved, being aware that fewer highlights are better than more.
As I nished up, I was regularly propping the painting up against di erent walls to help me see it with fresh eyes. I added midtones, removed watermelon pips and evened out the background. Everything was changing all the time so it was a question of making a decision about where shadows should be and not worrying too much if they were inconsistent I feel a gut instinct when a painting is nished. Soon, it hit me, and I stopped.
SOUTH WEST ART Old Fore Street, Sidmouth EX10 8LP Tel: 01395 514717 info@southwestartmaterials.co.uk www.southwestartmaterials.co.uk Run by artists, for artists –extensive range of quality fine art materials & professional bespoke picture framing service. Friendly & knowledgeable service. Delivery or store collection of orders online or over the phone.
PEGASUS ART – suppliers of the finest art materials Griffin Mill, London Road Thrupp, Stroud, Glos GL5 2AZ Tel: 01453 886560 info@pegasusart.co.uk www.pegasusart.co.uk
THE ART SHOP & CHAPEL 8 Cross Street, Abergavenny NP7 5EH Tel: 01873852690 admin@artshopandchapel.co.uk www.artshopandchapel.co.uk Fine art supplies, exhibitions, workshops, talks, concerts and creative food from our Chapel kitchen.
ATLANTIS ART MATERIALS – UK’s largest and one of Europes biggest art stores Unit 1 - Main Shop Unit 6 - Office & Warehouse Unit 7 - Paper Department Bayford Street Industrial Centre Bayford Street, London E8 3SE Tel: 020 7377 8855 www.atlantisart.co.uk Car parking, open 7 days.
INTAGLIO PRINTMAKER The Specialist Supplier of Fine Art Printmaking Products 9 Playhouse Court, 62 Southwark Bridge Road, London SE1 0AT Tel: 020 7928 2633 Fax: 020 7928 2711 info@intaglioprintmaker.com www.intaglioprintmaker.com Wide range of tools available to try in our store (near Tate Modern).
STUART R. STEVENSON Artists & Gilding Materials 68 Clerkenwell Road, London EC1M 5QA Tel: 020 7253 1693
SHOP ONLINE www.stuartstevenson.co.uk
ART4ALL & ARTYCRAFTY
5 Market Square, Crewkerne TA18 7LE
Tel: 01460 78574 www.art4allframing.co.uk www.artycraftysupplies.co.uk
Bespoke framers, art, craft, hobby supplies. Open 6 days a week. EASY PARKING.
GOSLINGS
50 Station Road, Sudbury, Suffolk C010 2SP Tel: 01787 371932
A family run business specialising in Bespoke Picture Framing and Artist Materials
THE ART TRADING COMPANY
55 Earsham Street, Bungay NR35 1AF Tel: 01986 897939
TheArtTradingCo@btinternet.com www.thearttradingcompany.co.uk
“...a truly excellent art materials shop” East Coast Net
NORTH YORKSHIRE
1 Millgate, Thirsk North Yorkshire YO7 1AA
Tel: (01845) 574457
Independent stockists of fine art materials by Winsor & Newton, Sennelier, Golden, Faber Castell etc; Wide range of papers, crafts, kits and models. Friendly knowledgeable service from experienced art tutor.
Unit 20 Watery Lane Industrial Estate
Watery Lane, Willenhall WV13 3SU Tel: 01902 633 332
hello@hmcanvases.co.uk www.hmcanvases.co.uk
Specialists in Artists Canvases and Professional Painting Supplies.
This year, I wanted to push myself to take on more interior paintings rather than just still life. [This] was a painting that was unusual in that it required almost no initial composition. In fact, I had only started the painting to try out a new canvas. That morning, I was looking for a still life arrangement, but when I walked by the washroom door, I was struck by the light coming through the window.
It didn’t require any studies to a rm that it would be worth my time; it was enough to simply paint. The combination of the plants,
the sink and the light really struck me. I wanted to capture a moment in time in an otherwise ordinary part of my house and convey a little bit of that whimsical magic; a little bit of that joy and mystery.
Painting has taught me to accept failure. But more, to notice how my brain reacts to protect me from that failure. It means I know myself that much better. Sometimes it’s almost funny how much a speci c subject seems to just keep landing punches on me. They can be great little competitors.
In every issue, we ask an artist to tell us about a piece of work that means a lot to them. This month, we speak to Canadian-Irish oil painter KAYLA MARTELLDreams of my Washroom, oil on stretched canvas, 50x60cm
