For the second year running the Paint & Sip evening at Deepcut Community Centre was very well attended by an enthusiastic group of FCSA artists. Sue Whitehead, the Chairman, led the beach themed evening by demonstrating how she had painted the reference beach painting. On what was probably the hottest night of the year everyone quickly forgot about the heat as they got lost in their artwork.
Sue began by painting the sky. She said that the horizon did not need to go directly across the middle of the page. She had used Cerulean Blue and Ultra Marine Blue. The sea needs to be a deeper blue than the sky. Sue had also used Turquoise in the lower section of the sea.
Next it was time to add the clouds. Just above the horizon there were light whips of cloud which Sue blended and softened. She used a small, stiff brush to give more form to the larger clouds in the sky.
For the waves coming into the shore Sue used a palette knife loaded with white paint. She then took some Raw Sienna and White to begin to paint the beach. Time to take a break and enjoy a sip of something fresh and cooling. There was even Pimm’s with ice on offer.
Sue used Sap Green to start to paint the grass. She used a fan brush at times to create the effect of tall grasses. She added Hooker’s Green to give more depth to the foreground and then added some individual tall stalks of grass using a Rigger paint brush.
An element Sue really enjoys is adding some flashes of colour by flicking the paint. She uses a stiff paint brush loaded with paint and pulls the bristles back to send the paint in a random way onto the canvas. The paint needs to be just the right consistency, slightly wet, to work well. She flicked some orange, yellow and even a little white on the grasses in the foreground of the painting.
Finally, in the foreground the flowers were added by loading a paint brush with Alizarin Crimson and White and using it to sculpted the shape of the petals.
A huge thank you to Sue Whitehead for organising and leading such a fun and inspiring evening. It was a great way to meet up and enjoy working creatively together.
Sera Knight is a professional local artist who has been a member of Frimley & Camberley Society of Arts for many years. She has won a good many prizes for her paintings at our Annual Exhibition. She works in watercolour, acrylic and mixed media. Sera is a member of the Society of Women Artists (SWA) and in fact spent much of last week at the Mall Galleries in London where the SWA were holding their annual exhibition.
Sera has developed a mixed media technique that works particularly well for wet pavements and streets and members had requested that she demonstrate one of these for us this evening. Sera began by showing everyone a quick sketch of what she was intending to paint. Looking at the sketch she said that she felt the telephone box was a bit dominant so she decided to fold back the reference photo so that it would intrude less.
Below is the reference photo Sera was using. She said that she liked the flags and the red bus in the background. She had drawn in some guidelines to help with establishing the perspective.
Sera said that she would start drawing with a Caran D’Ache Neo Colour II water-soluble crayon. She used red or brown because blue or green is too staining. The paper is Bockingford Watercolour Paper but this technique will work on canvas or board as well. It is not a good idea to use an expensive watercolour paper as it is going to be covered in paper and glue.
Sera began by sketching the telephone box and then deciding on the horizon line. She used a large set square to work out the perspective. Once she had lightly sketched in some guiding lines she started to cut up her magazine. She finds that Waitrose Food magazines work particularly well because of the quality of the paper they use.
It was time for Sera to get to work with her scissors and PVA glue. She could see that she was going to need quite a lot of red images. Sometimes she does just tear the pieces of paper she is going to use but by cutting she gets the straight edges she will need for the phone box and the bus.
Sera has been doing this type of mixed media painting since 2001. Initially it was luck and as she experimented she found it got better and she liked the result. Sera admitted the process of cutting and sticking is the time consuming and a bit boring.
Towards the end of the sticking process Sera used some crunched up tissue paper to put over the distant buildings to help to push them back in the image. She also likes the lines that are created by the tissue in the sky. She then painted over the tissue with lots of watered down PVA glue. She intends to use the coffee break to let the glue dry as ideally everything should be bone dry before she applies any paint.
Just before the break Sera used some acrylic ink to paint over the whole picture. Yellow was her colour of choice as it is a good unifying colour. After the break she began to paint in acrylic. She started with the red phone box and bus. She uses the same colours to paint the reflections in the pavement. Unfortunately she found that the paint was not gliding over the surface as it had not dried enough. The was being absorbed and appeared to be losing its colour.
When working in her studio Sera is able to let her work dry completely. She is also able to take breaks and look at the work afresh. This evening when she stood back to look at her painting she was not happy with the proportion of the bus. She was able to use acrylic paint to reduce it in size.
For the demonstration she needed to work quickly putting in the windows in the buildings, the red and white of the flags and working on the figures even deciding to remove an umbrella. She likes Titanium White for the coverage it gives. The last thing she painted was the wet pavement at the centre of the painting.
Sue Whitehead, the Chairman, thanked Sera for a fascinating demonstration. It was so interesting to see how Sera’s distinctive style of mixed media paintings were created. For more information about Sera and her art please see her website: http://www.seraknight.co.uk
Here is the end result that Sera has sent after she has defined it a bit more and cropped it. What vibrant colours!
Saturday 6th June was a very wet and windy day. This did not dampen the spirits of the members of Frimley & Camberley Society setting up the Pop-Up. It was decided to have only one gazebo given the weather and the challenge of keeping the artwork safe and dry.
Happily the weather forecast for Sunday was better as it predicted no more rain although there was a chance of strong winds. Nonetheless, it was decided to put up a second gazebo and fill them both with lots of members paintings and artwork.
By the end of the two days a good number of paintings and cards had been sold. It was also especially pleasing to see the number of people who showed an interest in our art society and we were delighted to sign up several new members.
These photographs were taken at the end of Sunday. Eagled-eyed will spot our President, Liz Seward, who was there to do her stint on the rota. Our thanks go to all who support Sue Whitehead, the Chairman seen here, by volunteering their help and exhibiting their work.
Patti Dutton is a member of FCSA and she offered to lead a demonstration on Neurographic art. This is a therapeutic art form, which has gained vast popularity ever since Dr. Pavel Piscarev first coined the term in 2014. Neurographica has been scientifically validated and proven, and it is one of the most widely used psychological techniques in art therapy today.
Also known as doodling, neurographic art is a technique, which comprises drawing freeform lines or ‘neuro lines.’
Neurographic art creates a mindful, meditative, yet aware state through the creation of new neural connections when engaging in this art form. The word neurographic encompasses two concepts within it: neuro, referring to brain cells and connections between them and the body, and graphic, as in depictions of images, shapes and ideas in art. Neurographic art allows for vast creative freedom, free of inhibition and positive changes due to its simple but positively impactful technique that requires no previous art experience or age limit.
The algorithm utilized in neurographic art enables us to transform and process the emotions that might have guided our freeform line drawings and turn them into new mesmerizing art.
What are the rules for Neurographics? The main rules include drawing free-flowing lines, rounding sharp intersections, and following a mindful creative process.
This algorithm consists of these simple steps:
1. Using a felt tip pen, draw a long, scribble-looking line, which may go in different directions on the paper. It is recommended to change the line’s direction as soon as you become aware of it in order to take full advantage of this process. The lines should also go either to the end of the page or merge with other lines on the paper rather than stop in the middle of it.
Additionally, the line is meant to be drawn by letting the hand flow freely without any pre-existing shape or object in mind. However, it is sometimes helpful to focus on a specific feeling that one may be experiencing before engaging in this practice and let that guide you through the process.
2. Next, wherever there are any crossing lines with sharp corners, fill them in with ink so they become more rounded. Add perpendicular lines that extend to the edges and round all new corners just as described in the previous step.
3. Shapes can now also be drawn on top of the lines.
4. Next, you may add colour to your work by mixing and matching all kinds of combinations that may feel suitable at that moment.
5. Now, smaller lines may be added, remembering to always round any new corners, which may have been created. You may now choose to turn some of the lines into a specific shape or keep all lines in an abstract form.
Field lines are thick, dark lines that are added to a drawing after the neurolines have been completed. Field lines are used to represent the connection between the individual and something larger than themselves.
Here are some examples that Patti brought to illustrate what she was describing.
The idea was enthusiastically taken up by those attending the demonstration and the following are some of the images that they produced.
Rodney Kingston is an artist based in Staines. He has been on Portrait Artist of the Year and Landscape Artist. He is graphic design trained and worked as a graphic designer until he decided to dedicate himself to his art. He went professional about 18 months ago and he is loving it. He does demonstrations, runs workshops, tutors a group and particularly likes to paint ‘en plein air’.
Rodney prefers to paint from life both when doing a portrait or a landscape but for a demonstration, of necessity, he has taken a photograph for his reference. He has chosen to paint Spurs fans walking towards the stadium on a match day for this ‘Figures in an urban scene’ demonstration.
The first image is the photo reference Rodney chose but he decided to alter it slightly. He used Photoshop to change the elevation so that people’s heads were all on a level plane. He also decided to introduce a cyclist on the left together with the figure on the right to frame the composition.
Rodney chose to work on A3 Georgian oil painting paper for the purposes of the demonstration. His palette was made up of Burnt Umber, Ultra Marine Blue, Cobalt Blue, Viridian, Cadmium Red, Yellow Ochre, Naples Yellow (which looks a little orange), Cadmium Yellow, Titanium White, and Unbleached White.
He used Burnt Umber to sketch which he thinned with Michael Harding ‘Miracle Medium’. He started with the head level line across the top of the page. He likes to draw in paint as it is very easy to remove and alter any marks. The perspective in the reference picture leads off to the left of the painting. By placing the cyclist heading into the painting from the left he takes the eye into the centre. At this stage it is important to use loose but accurate blocking. Drawing is the key foundation of a painting.
Next it is time to paint in the dark shapes in the background using Burnt Umber and Ultra Marine Blue. He used a Size 8 round brush and he kept the paint quite thin but enough to cover the paper. He likes Daler-Rowney and Rosemary & Co brushes.
To paint the grey tarmac area Rodney mixed some unbleached white into the Burnt Umber & Ultra Marine Blue, once again keeping the paint thin. Remember that adage ‘fat over lean’. He also mixed some Viridian and the two blues with a little Cadmium Yellow to create the colour of modern glass in the buildings at the back of the painting and he mixed some green for the trees.
He added some pale blue for the area of sky and used Cobalt Blue for the road sign. He used a fan brush to soften everything so that it all looked slightly out of focus. Artist quality paint is expensive and Rodney has tested different brands including Winsor & Newton and Van Gogh Oil Paints but he likes Daler-Rowney which is good as they are manufactured locally in Bracknell.
Having blocked in light and dark to create a sense of the people walking across the painting it was time to paint the strong figure on the bicycle. It is common to find himself holding the different paint brushes he has used in his left hand as can be seen in the image above.
This close up of the crowd in the background illustrates that it is made up of indistinct shapes and colours. It can help to turn a painting upside down to make it easier to see only the shapes rather than trying to paint individual people. Rodney used a silicone tipped paintbrush to scratch in and loosely suggest some lines of the buildings.The more discernible features and people in the foreground were painted with thicker paint. .
When painting the cyclist and the figures in the foreground Rodney used his fan brush to keep the edges soft and to create a real sense of movement. He used Cadmium Red, Yellow Ochre and White for the flesh of the people. He used Cadmium Yellow and Naples Yellow for the high viz on the cyclist and Naples Yellow box on the road. Strong vertical lines for the traffic lights and the blue traffic sign together with yellow for the bollard on the island and the white lines on the road surface bring some finishing touches to the scene.
It was interesting to contrast Rodney’s set up for a live demonstration with what he uses when he is painting ‘en plein air’. The laptop for the reference photo was on the small paint box easel that he uses when he is painting outside. He usually paints on boards of either 10″ x 12″ or 8″ x 10″. He prepares his boards with several layers of gesso sanding the surface down between each layer to create a very smooth surface.
Rodney recounted how for a time he had taken the train into London at 5.30 a.m. to paint for a couple of hours before going into work. It was as a result of the series of 6″ x 8″ studies that he made at this time that he got noticed for Landscape Artist of the Year, which proved a great experience. Subsequently, he went on Portrait Artist of the Year where he painted Ann Reid, the Coronation Street actress. He only painted from the model and not from a photograph so the time constraints were harder for him than those who were also working from a photograph.
Sue Whitehead, the Chairman, thanked Rodney Kingston for a very interesting evening. It was fascinating to see his painting process and to hear his experience of working ‘en plein air’ which clearly informed the way he was able to paint an oil in the short time available for this studio demonstration.
The Minutes of the Annual General Meeting have been circulated to all the members already. This report is only going to give a brief account of the meeting on Friday 6th February which was held at Deepcut Community Centre on a very wet night. Apologies were received from Simon Kidd, Jenny Colquhoun, and Brian Hammans.
The Chairman’s Report
Sue Whitehead gave the good news that it had been another successful year for the Society. The main exhibition at High Cross Church saw record sales. The Disability Initiative was well received and will continue this coming year by displaying their artworks again at the Annual Exhibition. The Society maintained strong links with the community by taking part in the Frimley Green Carnival and holding a Pop-Up Exhibition at Longacres Garden Centre, both these events are planned again this year. Sue went on to outline the variety of events in last year’s calendar and went on to describe some of the events and demonstrations planned for 2026 including Rodney Kingston, Sera Knight, Maggie Read, Jonathan Newey and Judit Matthews.
The Honorary Secretary’s Report
Patti Dutton recorded that there had been five committee meetings over the course of the year and 14 Studio Lives, 8 x Artist Demos at Deepcut Community Centre and 2 x Demonstrations via Zooms. She also noted that the Heritage Gallery exhibition area has now changed and FCSA will no longer have a permanent exhibition displayed there.
The Treasurer’s Report
Lesley Kilner explained how the Society had made a good profit this year despite the fact that hall fees and demonstrators’ fees continued to go up. The Income & Expenditure Account and the Balance Sheet for the year was distributed to those present and have been sent to the membership. Lesley expressed her thanks to Peter Tuitt for the sponsorship he continues to bring to the Society. She also thanked Fred Green who has examined the books for the last time this year after giving generously of his time doing this thankless task over many years.
The Membership Secretary’s Report
Craig Whitehead, reported that Membership in 2025 fluctuated between 56 and 98. Thirty-three members have not yet renewed and sadly 2 of our members passed in 2025. A graph that showed that the downward trend since Covid had been reversed.
The Webmaster’s Report
Olga Salgado produced a number of charts to illustrate the website trends and the pages viewed. Average unique visitors per month are 2700, so it is an increase from previous year (2025: 2500; 2024: 1000 average).
Election of Executive Committee
As the current committee members were happy to stand again, it was decided to vote in the whole committee. It was emphasised that new committee members are always welcome to keep the society going.
Post and present holder
Chairman: Sue Whitehead
Vice Chairman: Marie Bunce
Hon Secretary: Patti Dutton
Hon Treasurer: Lesley Kilner
Membership Sec: Craig Whitehead
Committee Member: Natalie Nagy
Newsletter Editor: Carole Head
Any Other Business
The following themes were suggested for the Annual Exhibition: Dark/Light, Contrasts, Olympics, Urban, Utopia, Joy. These were put to a vote and “Contrasts” was voted and agreed by all.
It was agreed that the Pastel Prize at the Annual Exhibition should include all dry mediums such as coloured pencils.
Patti Dutton asked for paintings for the Windle Valley Exhibitions in Bagshot on 24th/25th February, details of which were sent to members recently.
The Plein Air painting session will be at Tate Modern (outside) and Farnham Art Trail is being looked at for another of calendar event.
The Seward Memorial Trophy
The Seward Memorial Trophy, known as the People’s Prize, is given for the painting that won the most votes at the Annual Exhibition. The winner this year was Carole Head for her painting “London Calling”.
Several members of Frimley & Camberley Society of Arts donated their paintings to the Woking & Sam Beare Hospice “Inspiration for Life” Exhibition at the Lightbox again this year. It was wonderful to discover at the Private View on Thursday night 5th February that it was Lesley Kilner’s “See the Light in Reflections” painting that won the prize. The exhibition continues at The Lightbox until Sunday 22nd February.
Liz Seward, President of FCSA, agreed to lead the evening. She has been a member of the Society since 1979 and she brings to it her vast experience of teaching art. She remembers there was a time when she taught no fewer than 127 students a week. She did say that this would be more of an appraisal than a critique as she would concentrate on the positive aspects of all the work.
The first piece displayed on the easel was a wonderfully colourful picture of clematis and roses by Marie Bunce. She had mainly used Derwent Colorsoft pencils together with some cheaper crayons from Tesco which Marie explained are harder and help to push the colour into the paper and act as burnishers. Liz was impressed with the leaves and the good use of negative space. Liz said that artwork in colour pencils was becoming very popular. Some people in the room had watercolour pencils but these are not as good for dry work and some are not light resistant. Liz advised buying individual colours rather than an entire set some of which will never get used.
This striking portrait turned out to be a self portrait of Simon Kidd which he had done from an old photograph of himself at a different time in his life. ‘Are we who we appear to be?’ was the inspiration for this work and Liz observed that the emotional impact of an artwork was often what gave it interest. People admired how well the hair and earring had been drawn.
Liz was delighted to see that C.J. had brought along her sketchbook to show us. Liz could not stress enough how every artist should have a sketchbook to hand all the time. It is the best way to work out ideas. C.J. had used Neocolor II water-soluble pastels by Caran D’Ache which enabled her to produce such vibrant colours. These work well over acrylics and especially acrylic inks.
This pencil drawing was also by C.J. She explained that she used ChatGPT to create the reference. She wanted it to be herself on her motorbike. ChatGPT used a combination of the magazine cover and substituted the man for a lady rider. Liz suggested adding tone to the background to bring the rider forward and perhaps darken the flowing hair to give a sense of movement.
People greatly admired this acrylic painting by Lesley Kilner. It was done in an art class which was looking at rust. Lesley added the windmill and said she might call it “Revolution”. Liz liked the addition of the windmill.
This second painting by Lesley Kilner felt less finished. Liz admired the rolling hills in the background but thought that perhaps another tree would make it feel more balanced. She also said that it might be better not to take the tree on the right off the page as that tends to lead the eye away too.
Everyone agreed that the person in this portrait by Ann Bullimore was instantly recognisable as Elaine Winter. Liz wondered if the forehead was a little short but Elaine showed everyone that it was about right.
Michael Kelly painted this to consider the gains and losses of space exploration. The names on the astronaut’s helmet refer to Christina Koch, a successful woman astronaut and Gus Grissom who was killed during a pre-flight test for the Apollo 1 mission. Liz felt that the earth like planet might have been put slightly behind the head to bring the composition together but Michael intended it to be in its own space so to speak. Liz liked way the moon’s surface had been painted.
Brian Hamman’s ‘Murmuration’ appealed to people. Liz suggested lightening the tone of the tail to create a sense of distance and perhaps removing the large tree on the edge of the right side would do the same. Brian had created the murmuration with a toothbrush so changing it might be difficult but he agreed with the suggestions.
‘Clowns’ by Brian Hammans was well liked and the only suggestion Liz made was to tone down the background so that the main figure of the clown stood out more distinctly.
Janet Wilson’s breakfast table lead to quite a lot of discussion about composition. Janet herself had wondered about adding more objects and how to treat the background. Liz advised to bring the flowers forward so that the tallest object was not at the back of the group. Putting it on the third might help the composition too. The cereal bowl with blueberries was very successful.
This very lovely cat is a watercolour by Carol Emmett. She said that she used gouache to achieve the white fur and whiskers. Although it was once the received wisdom that watercolorists should not use white paint there are really no rules in art. If It works that’s what counts although Liz did warn against using China White as it is transparent; Titanium White is better and good for highlights.
Hilary Platt brought this landscape to show us. Liz was very complimentary about the colours used to depict the far distance. She said this was a good example of aerial perspective which focuses on how colours and details fade with distance, making distant objects appear lighter and less distinct. She wondered if the sun’s edges could be softened as it shines through the tree to be more realistic..
Ann Bullimore’s “Avian Bonaza” has to be admired. As Liz pointed out the essential thing with a painting like this is to ensure that every element is painted to the same standard, which is certainly the case here.
Liz liked the trees and the background very much in this painting by Hilary Platt but she questioned whether the foliage in the foreground was necessary because it might act as a barrier that stops the eye looking into the painting.
Liz admired Janet Wilson’s woodland stream, especially the fact that the leaves of the trees were an interesting green. Some of the rocks in the distance could be lightened to put them in the distance.
Janet Hole produced this dramatic image of wildebeest jumping into a river. Liz felt that there was a gap in the centre that might have had another wildebeest’s head there but the artist explained that the lower animals were in the water while the upper group were leaping from the river bank.
Carole Head’s acrylic trees on a cobalt background used complimentary colours effectively. She explained that it was painted it on a strip off canvas pad and wondered how it could be framed. It could be framed under glass but glazed paintings are so heavy that it might be acceptable to stick it to a piece of backing board instead and treating it is a canvas.
Carole Head asked if this collage on board could be entered to an art exhibition as she was concerned that all of the images were cut outs. It is very much mixed media. Liz said it was very effective and would be fine at a local art exhibition.
Janet Hole did this picture of two monkeys with pastel pencils. She did it as a drawing exercise from an image she got from the internet. There would be copyright issues if it was exhibited but as a personal exercise it was successful. A member of the audience said “Unsplash” is a website where there are lots of copyright free images available to artists.
Michael Kelly felt the subject of this painting speaks for itself. It is a very strong dystopian image of a dried up River Thames. Liz admired the astronaut figure in the foreground but wondered if the diagonal on the left was just a bit too diagonal in terms of perspective.
These little ink and watercolour sketches by Sarah Groome were made from photographs of Ljubljana in Slovenia and of Windsor riverside. Sarah said she is keen to do some urban sketching. People remembered Tushar Sabale, who gave a demonstration to FCSA quite recently, runs an urban sketching group in London. There is also UKS urban sketch groups that can be found on the internet. Liz suggested an urban sketching event might be a good idea for FCSA.
Patti Dutton is the artist of this striking eye looking through ripped paper. It is very effective and Liz particularly liked the tear drop which was in acrylic.
Patti Dutton’s close up of a rose gathered murmurs of appreciation. People liked it. Liz wondered whether the second rose at the bottom added to the whole or not. Patti agreed some of the edges could be softened.
Liz clearly delighted in this little painting by Nat Nagy. She particularly liked the bubbles and the drops of water on its fluffy feathers. Charming.
Liz questioned the amount of space that the artist, Ian Sams, had chosen to set this little flower arrangement in. She suggested it could be made into a smaller painting without so much background to better focus on the flowers . However, Ian said he liked his original version.
Simon Kidd produced this delicate hellebore with colour pencils. The structure and colours of the flower and the leaves were beautifully observed. Was the object at the base of the picture a distraction perhaps?
This bold self portrait by Nat Nagy was commended for its strong form and use of complimentary colours to very good effect. Nat had purposely worked on the facial features and left the rest of the body less well defined.
The final painting of the evening was by Elaine Winters. She was not sure how to make these wild African dogs stand out from each other. Liz identified the overpowering white fur in the foreground could be toned down and perhaps some highlights in the eyes might make the dogs’ faces stand out more.
Carole Head presented Liz with a little trough of miniature roses on behalf of Sue Whitehead and the committee to thank Liz for leading the evening once again. She had praised and appraised all thirty paintings that had been brought by members for consideration and her comments and observations were greatly appreciated.
Peter Keegan is a full time professional artist living and working in Buckinghamshire. He trained at the Cardiff School of Art. He mainly specialises in portraits. He is in the process of publishing a book and has made several Ask an Artist podcasts. He has a variety of painting courses and painting retreats which can be found on his website.
This evening’s Zoom demonstration is on Colour Theory and Mixing and Peter stressed that this applies to any medium. He will be working in oil paint and apart from the fact that watercolorists tend to use the white of the paper rather than white paint, the theory still applies. He will divide the evening into two parts.
Part 1- Theory : How to mix colour accurately.
Part 2 – How we see colour. How it can be bent and shaped.
Most artists will recognise the colour wheel although not everyone uses it however it is very useful to understand colour and how to mix it. The colour wheel is firstly made up of the Primary colours of Red, Yellow and Blue. The Secondary colours are Green, Orange and Purple. The colour wheel provides the full colour spectrum and it divides into cool colours on one side and warm colours on the other. Warm colours will contain red while blue combines to make cool colours.
Tonal value refers to how light or dark a colour is. Every colour has a grey scale. To lighten a colour add white while black will darken the tone. White is the coldest colour in the palette. Ice White appropriately describes the coldest colour available.
Complimentary colours are found on the opposite side of the colour wheel. Green is opposite Red, (think Christmas) Orange is opposite Blue (think sports), Yellow is opposite Purple and tends to be associated with luxury especially when the yellow is gold (think Cadburys).
Analogous colours are groups of colours that are found next to each other on the colour wheel. In the chart above the analogous colours all contain an element of the Primary colour Blue. They create harmony and go well together.
Tertiary colours are colours made with one Primary colour and only one colour that is next to it on the colour wheel. Examples of tertiary colours are turquoise, teal, pink, rose, magenta, chartreuse or lime green
Tonal Values refer to how light or dark a colour is. The tonal scale is Yellow, Orange, Green, Red, Blue and Purple. Colours change their temperature depending on their environment and what they are compared with.
After discussing the basis of the colour wheel Peter turned to colour mixing. He had prepared a palette of four paints: Titanium White; Bright Yellow Lake; Scarlet Lake; and Ultra Marine Blue. He then took four different colour swatches to demonstrate how the colour on these swatches can be matched with paint.
The first swatch was called “Spontaneous Combustion”. It was clearly not the same colour as the red paint on the palette but starting with the nearest colour to the one desired, Peter began with red paint, then he added some blue but he could see the desired colour was slightly chalkier so he added a little white. He then painted on the card to show that he had indeed matched the colour with his paints.
The next colour swatch was called “Blue Batik” so he began with the Ultra Marine Blue. This needed to be lightened with white and then made more purple with a little red. It took six mixes to reach the right match.
The third swatch was called “Hunting Jacket Green”. Green is a secondary colour made with yellow and blue. It will take more mixing to attain a match with this colour as can be seen in the image below. Nonetheless, Peter was only using the four paints he had on his palette to reach the match.
Finally, Peter took a grey swatch with the unlikely name “Poetry in Motion”. This was the lightest swatch so far. Consequently, Peter started with white, added a little red creating a pink. He increased the saturation of the hue with colour and desaturates it with white. Peter reminded people that what he was seeing in the studio and what we were seeing on line might vary slightly but after 15 mixes he had achieved a good match.
Next Peter took an apple to try to get the colours of the fruit bang on using the colours in his palette. Hue, which is often referred to as chroma by Americans, is the colour which can be saturated to increase the tone or desaturated with white. Peter saw the contour as yellow so he began with yellow and mixed in the red. He then used a little blue to darken the darkest side of the fruit. .
Looking at the core and the stalk Peter used a little green and yellow for the centre and the three primary colours to produce the dark brown of the core. The highlights come last and he used a combination of yellow and white, not pure white.
Part 2 – How we see colour
Colour Harmony is where groups of colours come together to great effect. Peter put up some well known artists’ paintings to illustrate this. The first was Claude Monet’s Houses of Parliament which uses an analogous palette of blues and purples but he pointed out the use of the yellowy orange, which are the complimentary colours to the blues and purples.
Peter then put up this David Hockney painting which uses intensity of colour with the high contrast of red earth and green fields.
Everyone would recognise Van Gogh’s Sunflowers which has a limited palette of yellows.
People were hesitant to name the artist of this painting in very muted desaturated colours using a tertiary colour palette and may have been surprised to learn that it was also a David Hockney painting.
Buckingham Landscape
Peter explained that he was going to use a reference photo of a Buckingham landscape to further demonstrate how colour can be manipulated to produce very different effects with 10 mins per sketch.
The first one would be an accurate representation and in fact he changed the blue in his palette from Ultra Marine Blue to Cobalt Blue to better depict the sky colour.
Next he painted an analogous/tertiary sketch with colours that all go with each other. The purples are harmonious and create a different feel to the scene. All the colours go with each other and are harmonious.
For the third little sketch ‘think Hockney’. He will use high saturation to intensify the colours. Contemporary artists often take sharp contrasting colour to make them bounce across the scene. (LFauve artists and Kaninsky)
Finally, it was de-saturation. It was to be almost completely devoid of colour. It necessitates the use of a lot of white. (Mogdigliani and Gwen John).
Below is the set of four little sketches
Colour is the most emotive thing available to us as artists. Subtle colour changes can change the emotional impact of the painting. Art with a capital A is trying to say something. You should write down the feeling that you want to convey so that you do not get lost. The emotive side comes from colour. It gives the artist a wider vocabulary.
To avoid muddy colours check the labelling on a tube of paint. The more pigments in a paint the muddier it is likely to be. Paynes Grey is made up of three pigments. Sap Green has lots of different pigments. Check what is written on the tube.
Series numbers indicate the price and pigment quality. Series numbers run from 1 – 6 or 7. For instance, Chinese Vermilion is series 7 and might cost as much as £80. A code such as PB29 indicates the name of the pigment i.e Ultra Marine Blue. Organic or Inorganic, Transparent or Opaque. Light Fastness and Tinting Strength. Artist Quality paints give stronger hues.
Peter advised artists to use a large palette. He sees his colours as personalities. Some colours get on especially well with each other. He uses this enormous palette with warm colours on the left and cold colours on the right. He keeps the white and black paint far apart from each other.
Finally, Peter illustrated how slippery colour can be and of course there are some people who are actually colour blind. Colour blindness is more often found in men. The test card below can help determine whether someone is colour blind by whether they can see the numbers in the circles. If you are not colour blind the numbers read 6,12, 29 and 74.
To illustrate just how the mind can play tricks on interpreting what it sees Peter illustrated with a number of images where despite appearances objects are in fact the same colour. For instance in the images below Tile A and B are the same colour, the pink crosses are the same colour and so are the peacocks. The backgrounds create the illusion that they are different.
This can of Coke image is particularly unbelievable. The colour red does not exist in this image and yet everyone sees a red Coke can. This might be societal. Perhaps people who have never seen one before might not be fooled as easily.
Peter Keegan runs a wide variety of classes and courses that can be found on his website as well as four classes on Colour Theory on line. For further information please see:
Grateful thanks go to Peter Keegan for an excellent demonstration of colour theory and mixing. Several members have already written to say what an extremely fascinating and informative demonstration this was. No knowledge was assumed and the whole topic was covered and illustrated very effectively.
