Anne Blankson-Hemans Zoom Demonstration

Friday 15th November 2024

Anne Blankson-Hemans B.A (Hons) Fine Art, SWA studied Fine Art at the College of Art, Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology (KNUST) in Ghana and came to live in the UK in 1984, She is a multi-award winning artist and a full member of the Society of Women Artists.

Anne explained at the start of the Zoom that she was going to be working on a 50cm x 50cm board which is small for her as she usually works on much larger pieces. She is keeping it small for the Zoom but even so she warned that she is unlikely to finish the painting by the end of this evening. In any case, she likes to return to a painting at a later stage to look at it afresh.

Anne had supplied the above reference photograph which was taken in Ghana. She remembers this crowded scene on a beach where fishermen were sorting the catch. They sort the prawns, crabs and fish and sell them straight away to the waiting crowd. As can be seen the image has cut off some of the heads of the people in the crowd but Anne is not deterred by this at all. The reference photo is there to aid her composition. She will feature some of the figures more than others.

Looking at the image in black & white can be very helpful. She uses Notan to explore the light and dark elements. It was a happy coincidence that Notan had been the subject of Marie Bunce’s studio demo the week before. As can be seen some of the brightest colours in the photo are in the background.

Another technique is to use an app that can blur the image. There is an app by Clive Bryant of Artist Eye that Anne often uses to blur the background and to see shapes and spaces. The next step is to sketch the scene. Anne made at least three sketches altering the composition until she was happy with it. She decided that she liked the idea of working with an A-frame to help take the viewers eye to the apex of the A and then back round to the foreground.

It was at this stage that Anne was ready to use paint to sketch the composition on to the board she was going to use. The board is linen canvas that has been primed several times and stuck onto MDF board using PVA glue. Anne used an acrylic primer as she finds there is a marked difference between Gesso and Acrylic primer, which she much prefers. It can help enormously to have done the sketches beforehand as it means you can put down the paint confidently.

Anne’s palette as can be seen above is a large piece of glass. She tends to use Michael Harding paints although there may be a very few other brands. She uses Rosemary paint brushes and she likes to use big brushes to block in initially.

To begin with she uses Burnt Umber with Rectified Spirt of Turpentine. Next she will use Warm White, Burnt Sienna and Yellow Ochre mixed with 50/50 Medium Linseed Oil and Turpentine. She uses two mediums, the turpentine dries quickly while the linseed dries slowly. By the end of the painting she will be using neither medium.

Anne sketches the outline of the A frame, she then sketches in the figures. She focuses on the figures in the foreground and makes the figures in the background lighter and brighter. Clearly she has given these figures their heads.

Anne continued to work up the painting increasing the colours that she was using adding pinks and reds to the figures. She decides to bring the man on the left forward to make him take up more of the area on the left. She used an oil stick to highlight the man’s yellow shirt at the top of the painting.

Anne explained that Sennelier oil pastels can be useful. She has a complete set. They can be good for layering and they mix well.

Anne has used Magenta and Cobalt for the figures in the foreground and she has added more colour to the figures in the background giving the woman a phthalo blue skirt. She likes to let the colour combinations develop as she paints. She is likely to work on the fish at the end using a heavy impasto. As Anne had warned, it was not going to be possible to finish the painting over the course of this Zoom but she will send FCSA the finished version when it is ready.

During the course of the demonstration Anne stressed how important it is to practice sketching. She has a large number of sketch books. She showed just a few of these sketches to encourage people to do the same.

The finished painting will appear here at the end of this report when Anne is able to send it and in the meantime thanks must go to Anne Blankson-Hemans for a very helpful and informative demonstration which people clearly enjoyed.