7 minute read
Community
“I don’t plan; I don’t paint to a formula. Every painting is different,” Paul tells us as we cluster around to photograph the vibrant individual painting he has just completed.
Thank you, Paul, for an evening full of fun, enjoyment and knowledge.
‘Desert Oaks’ by Paul McCarthy. Photo by Marina Bishop.
Lights, darks and glorious colour
With an anticipatory buzz of pleasure, members of Lane Cove Art Society welcomed back their old friend, Paul McCarthy, as guest artist for their October meeting.
Versatile and much awarded for his colourful works in oils, pastels and water media, Paul is also an insightful teacher and great fun to watch paint.
Paul had set up a canvas with a preparatory drawing on it, ready to work in acrylics from an on-site sketch in watercolours.
“I’ve been away and done lots of work in my sketchbooks – 20 minutes max should give you enough information.” He passed the sketchbooks around while he started on the foliage of his chosen subject - a painting of desert oaks.
Paul’s palette contains Lemon Yellow (“the brightest I can get”); Cadmium Yellow; Cadmium Orange (“always brighter than a mix”) and Cadmium Red. He uses Permanent Rose and Magenta because they can be mixed with white for a bright pink, whereas Alizarin Crimson doesn’t work as well. He also uses three blues – Cerulean, Cobalt and French Ultramarine. Paul has earth colours on his palette for watercolours and acrylics, but not for oils, preferring the variety achieved by mixing his earths.
As Paul worked, he fielded questions from his audience, explaining that he works more loosely in acrylics than in oils, and also more rapidly as it dries faster.
According to Paul, all the brands are compatible in oils and in watercolours, but acrylics are tricky because the chemical formulae used in their manufacture varies from brand to brand. The advantage with acrylics is that you can go over the painting as often as you like.
Paul’s painting develops well, with touches of blue enhancing the oranges and yellows and the white trunks of the trees standing out in the desert landscape.
Paul offers a piece of advice from his years of teaching artists saying that all paintings, in every medium, work for the same reason and that is the tonal design. You have three tones – dark, medium and light – and the proportion of the whole surface allotted to each must be different. One must be smaller than the others. Colour should be treated the same – either warm or cool colours should dominate.
NEXT MEETING
‘Waterfall at Sunset’ by Patrick Carroll, who will present at the February 2018 meeting of LCAS.
The first meeting of 2018 for the Lane Cove Art Society will be in February at the Living and Learning Centre, 180 Longueville Road, Lane Cove (almost opposite the Lane Cove Library). There will be a demonstration by Patrick Carroll, award winning artist, and generous conveyor of painting methods. The meeting will start at 7.30pm. The meeting room is on street level at the end of the corridor.
It’s time for art
to shine!
The year might be coming to an end, but Gallery Lane Cove has one more exhibition for you.
It's Time is a collection of work from students, teachers, artists, hirers, artists-in-residence, staff and committee.
Time is an abstract concept that is unique to the human experience. This exhibition will explore the passing of time - summer time; the fact that we ‘never have enough time’ and find ourselves ‘out of time’.
We hope you can make it to our opening event from 12pm - 2pm,
Saturday 2nd December, where we will have flower steaming demonstrations with artist-in-residence Karen Tam; a slow stitching workshop with Rhonda Pryor; bubbles, nibbles and a chance to catch-up before the silly season takes hold.
The exhibition will be open from 27th November to 27th January 2018.
Please note Gallery Lane Cove and Centrehouse will be closed from 16th December and will re-open on the 12th January 2018.
Gallery Lane Cove has some exciting new term classes and workshops planned for 2018. Watch out for the programme in December, which will be available at
www.gallerylanecove.com.au
Penelope Lee will be demonstrating how to create a handmade book at her workshop in January.
UNIQUE ARTIST BOOKS WORKSHOP, WITH PENELOPE LEE
In this exciting new workshop, you will learn how to create a unique book from concept to cover while exploring the creative possibilities of handmade books.
This intensive course focuses on creative thinking, with an individual approach to help you to develop your book as an original and creative artwork. When: 10am – 3pm, Saturday 20 & 27th January 2018 Where: Gallery Lane Cove, Upper Level, 164 Longueville Road, Lane Cove Info: Ph 9428 4898 or info@gallerylanecove.com.au Cost: $240, bookings required
Karen Tam will be giving a flower steaming demonstration at the opening of the ‘It’s Time’ exhibition in December.
NATURAL DYEING WORKSHOP, WITH KAREN TAM
This introductory workshop will focus on exploring natural colour, from flowers and foliage and other ingredients like turmeric and food waste.
Students will develop an understanding of dyeing fabric samples and silk scarves using basic shibori methods. The focus of the workshop is to share Karen’s love for dyeing with natural dyestuffs and earth friendly ingredients in a fun and sustainable way. It is suitable for beginners through to intermediate.
When: 10.30am – 3pm, Saturday 17th February 2018 Where: Centrehouse Arts Centre, 178 Longueville Rd, Lane Cove Info: Ph 9428 4898 or info@gallerylanecove.com.au Cost: $140, bookings required
Phone: 9428 4898 www.gallerylanecove.com.au
U8s cheer on the Socceroos to victory!
A group of seven year olds, who call themselves the Benfica Rockets, gathered together with their support staff in mid-November to watch the Socceroos in the crucial must-win FIFA World Cup qualifier.
LCFC’s U8s team watched the Socceroos’ recent victory on the big screen set up especially by SBS in a local backyard.
The Rockets are a popular team that represents Lane Cove Football Club with great enthusiasm and panache in the local U8s competition.
The Rockets have played together for three years, starting their careers in the U6s. It has been three years of tears, laughter, laces coming undone, wins, losses that have felt like wins and postgame treats.
The support staff around them, aka parents and grandparents, have formed friendships that will stand the test of time and embody the true spirit of what a community like Lane Cove is all about. It is also testament to the very important role that team sports play in a community.
Apart from the thrill of watching the Socceroos qualify for the World Cup, the team and friends had a fantastic night together made even more special by the crew from SBS, who arranged a large outdoor screen and put decorations up for the occasion so that the backyard was transformed into World Cup Qualifier central for nearly 40 fans of all ages. There was of course the added excitement of TV cameras capturing these young Socceroos fans willing their heroes on.
For the Socceroos, and especially coach Ange, the 3-1 defeat of Honduras was the culmination of a long and arduous journey taking 22 games to qualify over two-and-ahalf years despite only losing twice - which says something about how difficult it is to qualify for the best sporting competition in the world.
The match itself had everything. The nerves were jangling after an agonising first half where the Socceroos didn't seem to be going anywhere, despite having a lion’s share of the ball.
When the second half got underway however, the game came alive with a very direct approach to goal resulting in a free kick smashed into the back of the net by Australian captain Jedinak. This really got the party started and two penalty kicks later, Jedi had a hat-trick and we are well and truly on the plane to Russia. The Rockets were in fine voice prompting a neighbour or two to pop over and join in the action!
A huge thanks to Lara, Jen, Lucy, Sean, Joey and Em from SBS for putting on a great night.
