Category: Uncategorized

Friday 21st November 2025

Frank is an award-winning ad man who started teaching watercolour painting on Zoom during Covid. He went to Hornsey College of Art to do his Foundation Course and while there someone from an advertising agency gave the students a talk which inspired him to go into the advertising industry. He began as a junior in 1972 working for Leo Burnett Advertising. He still works in advertising on occasions now.

Frank has a regular Wednesday Zoom class. This watercolour of Flatford Mill in Suffolk was painted during one of these Wednesday Zooms. His objective is to help people to paint expressively, to loosen up and create atmosphere in their paintings. He stressed there is no right way or wrong way to paint. Everyone will produce something unique but at the end of every session he asks people to show what they have produced so that people can learn from each other. He often learns from them too. He went on to mention some of the artists he particularly likes and has learnt from: Edward Wesson, Edward Seago and John Singer Sargent.

Frank has often contributed to The Artists & Illustrators Magazine. In the magazine there is a regular step-by-step section and Frank showed us his recent contribution to this starting with the composition pencil drawing and then following the development of the painting through to its completion.

Tonight Frank is going to paint two different scenes. In the first he will start with a pencil drawing of this castle in Scotland. The second painting of a snow scene will be a freer painting without any preliminary drawing. The whole image will be achieved using just paint and different paint brushes.

He has chosen the Scottish castle because he likes the strong shadows. Light and dark make what is called value. “Colour gets all the credit but value does all the work” he quoted, adding this is especially true for watercolour. It is so important to retain the white and the light in a watercolour. It is possible to use gouache Permanent White to paint white into a watercolour but Frank prefers not to do this.

These are the colours in his palette. He was asked which paints he uses and he likes Rembrandt , Schminker and Daniel Smith artist quality paints. When it comes to paper Frank likes  Baohong Rough and Saunders Watercolour Rough.

Always remember the warm and cool colours of the colour wheel bring vitality to a painting. The blues on the first row are the cool colours, the earth colours in the second row are the warm ones. Frank uses the same colours in his plein-air palette.

Looking at the composition Frank decides that he will make the sky dark where the side of the building is light and where the building is very dark he will make the sky lighter to give a strong contrast. He begins by sketching the composition out with a 4B pencil making decisions about how much to include or leave out. Always decide what should catch the eye and avoid anything that might detract from it.

The sky will be painted wet in wet using a 1 inch or 1.5 inch square brush. Frank begins by loading the brush with Cobalt Blue to paint the light right side of the sky and then adds Indigo and Sepia to produce a darker neutral blue/grey for the left side. Painting a sky always needs a little serendipity as it can only be done once, there is no going back.

The buildings are painted in warm earth colours with Raw Sienna and a touch of Orange. There is not time to wait for the sky to dry so Frank is careful to avoid the colours leeching into each other. He paints the lower section with Burnt Sienna and then the water with Cobalt Blue using a No12 Synthetic Da Vinci brush to leave ‘dry brush’ highlights in the water. One of the advantages of doing two paintings simultaneously is that it means the first can be left to dry.

The snow scene of Magdalene College Cambridge will be painted without a pencil drawing. Frank cleaned his palette and then used fresh Cobalt Blue and Sepia to create a very pale wash across the sky. The horizon was on the lower third where he was careful to leave the white for the snow.

Frank used a large square brush with Sepia and Cobalt to create a soft grey that he used for mark making and shapes. The college tower and the darks will come at the end when the rest is completely dry.

While the snow scene was drying Frank returned to the Scottish castle to begin putting in the mid tones. He used Olive Green for the bushes and greenery and Cobalt and Sepia to create a neutral grey for the mountain which was deeper but similar to the cloud above it. He used a No8 Prolene paintbrush which has a great tip for painting lines and some of the areas that needed more precision. It is particularly useful for negative painting. He took care to retain the light.

Once again while one painting dried Frank was able to return to Magdalene College to paint the tower. As always the pigment to water ratio is important, also it is important to keep the vertical lines vertical and horizontals straight and horizontal.

Frank used Cobalt and more Sepia to up the colours in the foreground. He put in some of the larger branches remarking that branches generally stretch upwards. He will use a rigger brush at the end to paint the finer branches. Back to Scotland.

He used more pigment and less water to put in the details on the building adding a few windows and the gate. He used Cadmium Red and Sepia for the roofs. Then it was time for the shadow wash using French Ultra Marine for a warmer blue together with Alizarin Crimson and Indigo to create the dark shadows on the buildings. He also added dark reflections from the buildings to the water in the foreground. This is where he will leave it.

Frank returned to the snow scene with No 3 Pro Art rigger brush. It is not at all expensive, more expensive brushes are available, however this one works well. The brush got the name rigger because it was made to be able to paint the rigging of ships. It works well for trees as well.

Frank used Sepia and French Ultra Marine, ensuring to keep it more blue than brown, to add more branches and foliage to the foreground. The image above is not quite the finished painting. Frank was recording the session and he will send details of this and the end result to Sue Whitehead, the Chairman, who thanked him for providing such an interesting demonstration with two very different paintings and lots of information about how to paint them.

For details of Frank Walter’s Wednesday Zoom demonstrations message him at : http://www.frankwatercolours.com

Following the demonstration, as promised, Frank sent these two framed images of the paintings and the recording to FCSA. Such a delight and wonderful to see them come into existence.

Write up & screen grabs by Carole Head

Friday 14th November 2025

Katie Gall is a Portrait Artist, Royal Society of Portrait Painters Exhibitor 2025 and was on Sky Portrait Artist of the Year 2024. On the show she painted Rebecca Taylor/Self Esteem and the painting was chosen by the celebrity to take home.

She has been actively portrait and life drawing/painting for about 10 years and became more focused on drawing during lockdown, then oil painting around 2 – 3 year ago.

When she ‘gets in the zone’ she can usually paint a portrait within 3-4 hours. She prefers painting a sitter but occasionally uses photos. 

Elaine Winter, one of our members, sat for her. Katie started out with a square 30 x 30 cm linen canvas panel (prepped with moulding paste as it is quicker than the slower process of applying layers of gesso). She uses the Zorn palette, named after the painter Anders Zorn. (The classic Zorn palette consists of four colours: Ivory Black, Yellow Ochre, Cadmium Red, and White (traditionally Lead White, with Titanium White being the modern substitute). She also used linseed oil mixed with Gamsol sparingly as her medium to ease the flow of paint. She typically uses Winsor & Newton paints but has no specific preference.

She starts by studying the model, seeing what colours are apparent. She makes a quick sketch with Raw Umber (which dries fairly quickly) to block in big shapes, mainly the head and where it sits on the page. She then maps in the features looking at the shapes they make and position within the head. She does an under drawing first, then starts to apply colour. She also uses the medium to erase any incorrect marks. She usually gives herself around 20 minutes to draw the initial drawing.

The next stage is the mixing the main colours she will use. She prefers to mix all the colours after the drawing stage than than pre-mix as some artists do. For example Elaine is wearing a red jumper, there is a lot of red reflecting on her face from the lighting so she takes this into consideration during the mixing.

Katie said that she doesn’t work from light to dark or dark to light as some artists do. generally starting from mid tones. She also doesn’t focus on any one area first looking for cooler and warmer colours around the face. She looks to make the right transition of tone from dark to light or from warm to cooler colours. Capturing these shifts in skin tones helps make paintings successful. She typically leaves the eyes till last. ‘If you do it first you get attached to them’.

She tries to use separate brushes for darks and light. She describes the blocking and eyeless stage as the ‘ugly’ stage and that the painting comes together at the very end of the process.

She said it is hard to paint people, you have to ignore what you see, and treat the painting a little like working on a patchwork quilt. You find a little spot, work on it, find another spot and work on that spot. 

She was asked where she got her unique stand and palette. She said it was a Pochade Box, made by a Martlet Pochades, based in Armenia (martletpochades.com)

She said that when you paint with a strong colour like red, it works well to incorporate in other areas of the painting too to ensure the painting looks cohesive and balances out.

She put in a bit of the background to ground the picture.

She discussed a bit about the digital artwork she creates using her iPad and showed us a little demonstration. She uses an Apple pen and iPad and uses the Procreate app. https://procreate.com/

Katie works in 20 minute blocks mainly to allow the sitter to take breaks and hold the pose. She completed the painting before the end of our short evening and may work on it further as she does typically for all her paintings.

 Many of her paintings and sketch books were available for us to look at.

There was a great turnout and it was a really amazing evening enjoyed by everyone.

Instagram @katiemaeveart , email: katiemaeveart@gmail.com

Write Up and photographs by Patti Dutton

Friday 10th October 2025

Liz Seward is the President of Frimley & Camberley Society of Arts. She joined the Society in 1979 and she is always happy to sing its praises as an especially friendly group of artists. Liz has been teaching for the past 47 years since she qualified as an Adult Education tutor and FCSA are fortunate enough to have benefited from her expertise on numerous occasions over those years.

Liz said that this evening she wanted everyone to concentrate on their drawing skills. It is said that “Good art is good drawing”. Every artist should have a sketch book. Dry drawing materials are very varied from graphite pencils, coloured pencils, charcoal, charcoal pencils and pastels. People had brought in their own reference and drawing materials. Liz reminded people to think in terms of rough and smooth. For instance in the picture above the sheep’s coat looks rough while the nose is smooth. The room set to work.

Liz pointed out that the pressure that is used makes a big difference to the effect of the marks. She advised people to start with a line drawing and then using sharp edges for hard lines and the side for softness develop the texture. To illustrate this Liz called people over to see her demonstrate how she would sketch a group of acorns.

Liz noticed that many people were drawing on white paper. She said it is advisable to put in background shading to help define the objects and bring them forward. Remember to always determine the direction of the light hitting the object. She made a tone gradient from darkest to lightest tones and suggested that this can be a great way to doodle.

Here are a few examples of what was happening In the room.

During the coffee break Liz invited people to look through the two sketch books that she had brought to illustrate the importance of keeping a sketchbook. These books were packed full of lots of different sketches and below are a few photos to give an impression of what was there.

It had been a very enjoyable and productive evening when the Chairman, Sue Whitehead, thanked Liz for another one of her greatly appreciated workshops.

Write up by Carole Head

The Mayor of Surrey Heath, Cllr Louise Ashbery, was invited to a Reception Evening on Thursday 11th September to open this year’s Annual Exhibition at High Cross Church. This was followed by Friday 12th and Saturday 13th September when the exhibition was open to the public.

The Society was very honoured to have Dr. Al Pinkerton, the MP for Surrey Heath, in attendance. He kindly agreed to present the prizes to the exhibition prize winners.

There is always a Themed Competition and this year the theme was “Music, Movement & Emotion”. There were lots of interesting interpretations of this theme, many of them depicting dancers and dancing. The winning painting was by Tracey Allen, and the artist chose to depict the theme in an interesting abstract way with this painting called “Aria”.

Every year Mrs. Leonie McGuigan has generously sponsored the prize for the best Watercolour/Mixed Media Painting in the exhibition with a prize of £100. This year the prize was won by Lianata Nagy, known as Nat, for her painting “Trainspotting”.

The winner of the Graham Scandrett Memorial Prize for the best oil/acrylic painting went to Martin Singer, for his painting “March Sky North Yorkshire” . He also won this prize last year.

Merle Hattersley was the winner of the Val Brookes Memorial Prize for the best pastel painting but she was not at the exhibition to collect her award for her painting entitled “I’m All Ears”.

This year for the first time there was a display of paintings from the Disability Initiative in Camberley which is a charity that has been supporting adults with complex physical disabilities and acquired brain injuries for many years. Isobel Glasser, the Deputy Manager of the centre explained how the creative arts play a vital role for expression, connection and discovery and the artwork displayed is an inspiring example of how art can unlock potential.

It was a delight to discover at the end of the exhibition that it had been one of the most successful in recent years. There were twenty ready-to-hang paintings sold, seven portfolios, 25 artists’ cards and numerous small items. It was also announced that the votes for the The Jerry & Jill Seward Trophy, more often called the People’s Prize, had been counted and won by Carole Head for her painting “London Calling”.

There was one member of Frimley & Camberley Society of Arts who used to be at the exhibition from start to finish for many years and his skill at putting together the display panels around the pillars was second to none, and that was John Stacey. He was a long standing member of the committee and he is greatly missed. His widow, Angela, arranged for one of his paintings “Lee Bay from Lee Abbey” to be displayed in his memory. Proceeds from the sale of this painting will go to the Skin Cancer Research Fund.

The Committee would like to thank everyone who was involved in mounting what has proved to be a very successful 2025 Annual Exhibition. Thanks must go to Alan Meeks of the Windlesham & Camberley Photographic Club who kindly took the photographs used in this report.

Report by Carole Head

with Sue Whitehead

Friday 8th August 2025

In a new initiative the Chairman, Sue Whitehead, offered to lead a paint along session based on her painting ‘Sunflowers’. To give enough time to complete a painting the meeting started early at 6.30pm and members were invited to bring along something to drink and nibbles if they wanted. Glasses were provided. The idea was to give everyone a chance to relax and socialise. For those who wanted to work independently there was a separate still life of sunflowers. At the same time, any members who wanted to continue with their own projects that was also an option.

The Paint-Along option was very popular as can be seen by all those who set up ready with their paints and paper or canvas. To start it was a matter of drawing the outline of the sunflowers to position them on the page or canvas. Sue was going to be demonstrating with acrylic paints and she offered some spare acrylic paints for anyone who did not have their own.

Sue Whitehead had suggesting using a small canvas in order to be able to paint the picture in the time available. Her canvas was 40 cm x 40 cm. Using a mixture of Cobalt Blue and Titanium White she painted a graduated wash over her drawing and the whole canvas. To paint the clouds she used a large round brush and a light blue mix from her palette and highlighted with Titanium White.

The next stage was to paint the flower. To start with the petals were painted with a base coat of Titanium White and then they were given two coats of Raw Sienna. The centre of the flowers were painted with Burnt Sienna.

The sides and centre of the flower were detailed in Mars Black and details added for the seed head. Cadmium Yellow as then used to highlight the lightest areas of the sunflowers and Raw Umber was used to paint the shadows on the flower heads. Lemon Yellow was finally added to highlight the brightest areas of the petals and Cadmium Yellow and Lemon Yellow was dotted on the centre of the flowers.

In the meantime in another section of the room a group of people were drawing or painting a large still life of sunflowers in a very appropriate vase. Somewhat reminiscent of Vincent Van Gogh!

It was almost difficult to draw everyone away from their paintings in order to enjoy socialising a little together with a glass of whatever drink they had brought. It was also equally hard to get everyone back to their seats so that Sue Whitehead could finish her paint-along. It was time to paint the leaves using Hookers Green and Sap Green and once again the highlights were added using Lemon Yellow and Titanium White.

There was clear enthusiasm to participate in this event and the room was almost full to capacity. It was a thoroughly enjoyable evening and Liz Seward, the President, spoke for everyone when she thanked Sue Whitehead for devising such a popular occasion and for leading the Paint Along with clear instruction over the course of the evening.

Friday 25th July 2025

A small area was set aside for new members and those who wanted to find out more about preparing to exhibit artwork for an exhibition.

What artwork can be exhibited?

(1) Framed Ready-To-Hang Oil, Acrylic, Watercolour and Mix Media paintings. Frames should be in good condition and fitted with D-rings and picture chord for hanging. Paintings should be clearly labelled with Artist Name, Title, Medium, Price.

(2) Unframed canvases, usually oil or acrylic paintings. It is good practice to ensure that the paint continues around the edges of a canvas. Unframed canvases still need D-rings and picture chord.

(3) Portfolios. These are mounted paintings which are ready to be framed. They should be wrapped in cellophane and labelled on the front rather than the back with Artist Name, Title, Medium, Price.

Where to get the different size cellophane pockets? Jacksons art supplies was suggested, as well as internet companies such as https://www.transpack.co.uk/gift-display/cellophane-bags/artwork-photo-bags. Liz Seward reminded people that a roll of cellophane also works and can be used on a variety of sizes. Longacres has florist cellophane that would also work.

Please note in order to submit Portfolios artists should have at least two Ready to Hang paintings in the exhibition.

How should paintings be framed? Liz Seward, FCSA President, has exhibited for many years. She admitted that framing is expensive but that if you are going to be exhibiting regularly it can be worth investing, although exhibition sales are not good at the moment.

It was important to ensure that the back looks professional even if you frame yourself. Photograph frames can be adapted but the metal clips need to be removed or concealed and the back sealed to the frame with gummed tape. D-rings and picture chord should be used to enable the painting to be hanged.

Can wire or screw rings be used? No, wire and screw rings are not allowed because they are known to badly damage other artwork and frames when they come into contact with these.

Craig Whitehead used an example of a charity frame that he discovered was just the right size for his painting. It has yet to be fixed into the frame. The wood used to make frames is often very hard so he demonstrated how he adds the D-ring using a power screwdriver.

How to adjust a frame to fit a painting? Craig demonstrated how a larger frame can be reduced to fit a given painting. He finds a corner vice a useful piece of equipment for securing the new corner.

How to make a mount? Lesley demonstrated how she makes her own mounts. She has created a useful steel rule and then she uses either a Stanley knife for the outer edge or a Logan Cutter for the bevelled interior edges. A full description of how she does this can be found here: https://fcsaonline.org.uk/mount-cutting-demo/

How to secure the picture to the mount board? Liz Seward warned against using Masking Tape to fix a picture to the mounting board because it deteriorates and moves. Acid free Mounting Tape is the best way to secure a painting to its mount.

If any members have additional questions please ask any committee member who will be happy to find the answers for you.

Sunday 13th July 2025

Frimley & Camberley Society of Arts took a stand at the Frimley Green Carnival once again this year. It was a beautiful sunny day and a good number of members offered paintings and cards to exhibit there.

The FCSA gazebo was in a shady spot which was very fortunate as the summer’s heatwave had persisted. The Carnival itself was well attended and there was a constant stream of interested people looking at the paintings, cards and portfolios on display.

It was certainly a scorcher of a day!

Committee members, Marie, Patti, Lesley and Sue who had been manning the stand all day found a quiet moment to sit down in the shade behind the stall. It is likely that Craig was still at the front talking to anyone who showed an interest.

It is pleasing to report that as well as putting on a good display of artwork and promoting the society to the Frimley community, the result was also the sale of seven paintings, a few cards and hand-painted coasters.

Thank you to all those members who contributed to the event and volunteered to help.

Friday 4th July 2024

Cat Croxford is a landscape artist based in Berkshire and Buckinghamshire. She takes her inspiration from the Savernack Forest and other local woodlands. She usually paints in acrylic and always on a black background. She paints with distinctive broken brushstrokes and this technique means that she will not finish a painting during the course of a two hour demonstration. The large painting below probably took about 8 days painting for 4 – 6 hours a day.

The scene she is going to demonstrate she had already sketched out using a white pastel pencil on a pre-prepared canvas painted with Amsterdam Black paint. She has a colour reference photograph which she has chosen because she likes the path that creates a sense of space and leads into the painting. and there is a large ‘hero’ tree that will help to develop the composition.

Many artists painting in acrylic start with mid-tones but Cat likes to start with no light. She loves to layer up. She does not premix her colours.  She always starts with the trees to establish the ‘bones’ of the painting. The temptation would be to paint the sky first but she wants the trees to go into the black background. She paints at a distance making marks rather than painting in detail. She is painting more than a photograph.

She begins painting the trunk of the ‘hero’ tree with transparent iron oxide blue and brown. She does not premix her colours. She goes back to her palette frequently.  Tonight the heat is making the paint quite sticky so she did use a little water to clean her brush but she usually cleans it on her trousers as she adds, applies and manipulates the paint.

Cat uses only one type of brush. It is a Silver 14mm wide brush which she gets from Jackson’s. The brush tends to get worn down so she goes through them quickly but she has found she can recycle them by giving these to her students to try them out. She buys in bulk which mounts up @£16 per brush.

Cat likes to paint with fluid, soft body acrylics from Liquitex and Golden. These may be a bit pricey but a little paint goes a long way. When it comes to painting the tree foliage Cat does not mix her own green, she likes to use Jenkin’s Green & Permanent Green Deep. She uses lots of Hansa Yellow Opaque to lighten together with Golden Vat Orange and Vivid Red Orange. She likes Cobalt Blue for the sky. Cat does the sky and foliage at the same time as she aims to create a bit of a blur initially. 

She wants to have no edges but to have all the colours blend.  She looks at her reference to determine how and where to apply her colours.  She thinks in terms of a rough map.  She often gets her students to cover their reference photo with tracing paper and to then draw around the major shapes to ensure they see in terms of shape rather than detail.

She has started by putting in a little sky, blue & white under the foliage.  Then she adds yellow and orange working the same area.  She wants to avoid hard edges but the paint is drying quickly. She holds the brush as far from ferrule as possible to keep nice and loose. She adds permanent Green Deep then pops a little sky over the foliage. She carefully delineates her branches by changing her brush shape to draw the line.    She leaves space to allude to the branch which she might paint in later or even leave black.

After the break Cat goes on to develop the blurry element. She does not usually paint the whole with one layer before starting on a second layer.  Instead she works up different areas.  The second layer tends to bring focus and balance. This is when she makes colour adjustments. She starts to develop the sky cutting in with the brighter pops of the blue and white. While painting in amongst the leaves she is aware of the negative space.

While painting foliage you are creating the illusion of layers. She uses the brush to vary the shape of her marks. You must be careful that the overall shape of the marks is random and cannot be interpreted as a face or an animal. 

Returning to the corner she is going to add more greens in the orange area which looks a bit too orange to her mind.  By adding a few marks she can send the sky back.  She wants it to look as if this layer is emerging from the first one. Cat was asked what colour she was going to paint the path and so she turned to that area of the painting and added some new colours to her palette.

Cat uses a colour called Muted Grey by Liquitex which is a kind of dirty purple. Any colour called ‘muted’ will be a mix and it is possible to see which colours have been mixed by looking on the bottle.  By adding a bit of white or orange Cat will ramp up the grey/purple. Another colour that is good for shadows is Alizarin.   As the path is in the foreground Cat will tend to be a bit more precise. This close up of the area shows the variety of colour being used.

During the course of the evening Cat talked about the experience of being on  Sky Arts Landscape Artist of the Year 2024 as a heat contestant.  She admitted it was very stressful but her advice was to “definitely do it!” She was surprised when she discovered she was going to be painting Donnottar Castle in Aberdeen. A castle and no trees. Not ideal for her.

Cat exhibits regularly at Affordable Art Fairs in Hampstead and Battersea. For more information see her video on Youtube or visit her website: https://www.catcroxford.com

Frimley & Camberley Society of Arts counts itself very fortunate to have had Cat Croxford for this demonstration especially as she is going to be out of the country for sometime soon.

Write up and photographs by Carole Head

Friday 13th June 2025 Deepcut Community Centre

The demo was presented by Patti Dutton, who has been a member of Frimley & Camberley Society of Arts for 4 years, and is also the acting Honorary Secretary. She discovered how much she enjoyed Gelli printing and mark making through crafting and during the Covid lockdowns.

Patti explained that Gelli printing is done with a Gelli plate that is made of silicone. These reusable plates come in different sizes. They are easy to clean with a damp cloth between prints or with soapy water at the end of a session. It is important to keep the two protection sheets on either side of the plate and keep it in its original cover to keep it moist and soft and preserve it for future use:

Gelli Printing Materials

• Newspaper or wipeable tablecloth to protect your work surface
• Acrylic paints
• Gelli Plate (you can buy gelli pads in a variety of sizes from different manufacturers). Or as Natalie Nagy has done, make her own. See link below.
• Brayer
• Sheets of paper (a wide variety of types of paper can be used from newsprint, printed wrappers, tissue paper, Japanese rice paper)
• All kinds of things that can add pattern or texture.
• Stencils are particularly effective

To make a Gelli print first put a small amount of fluid acrylic paint on the Gelli plate. Little dots of paint on the plate works well. Use the brayer to spread it all over the plate. The paint should feel a bit sticky, if there is too much paint it will just slide around and this will not print well. This is your base colour. 

Patti placed the paper on the plate, and rubbed it with her hands, so that the paint adhered to the paper. She pulled the paper off and put a second colour on the Gelli plate and added a stencil. Next she added the first piece of paper back onto the plate. After rubbing it again she pulled it to reveal the image of the stencil.

Patti can also remove the stencil which leaves another image, she can then put one of her pre-pulled backgrounds onto the plate and pull a ‘ghost’ image.

Patti went on to demonstrate that all sorts of things can be used to create a pattern or design such as different materials like bubble wrap or by using leaves, anything that will leave an interesting imprint. Printing onto a variety of paper also adds interest.

It is possible to write/draw on the prints that are created by using acrylic marker pens. These should NEVER be permanent markers. Patti brought a set of Posca marker pens. Posca PC-3M Water Based Permanent Marker Paint Pens for Art & Crafts. They can be used on wood, metal, paper, canvas, cardboard, fabric and a variety of different surfaces.

Patti then invited everyone to have a go for themselves and the room erupted into a hive of activity with everyone producing a range of unique, colourful prints. 

There is no question that people were keen to see what they could create with this form of interesting mark making. Here is a gallery of some of the prints that were created.

A few tips from Patti:

• Remember colour theory and choose colours that work well together for best effect.
• Thick paper does not print well. Thinner paper such as Chinese rice paper, Mulberry paper and other crafting paper works well.
• Fine paper may tend to tear so it is a good idea to pull gently from the corner.
• To keep the Gelli plate in good condition wash it with warm soapy water and use baby oil at the end of the session to clean it completely.

Here is a Youtube link for homemade Gelli Plates.

https://kimherringe.com.au/printmaking/gelatin-plate-printmaking-recipe/

With many thanks to Patti Dutton for her second Gelli Printing session both of which have been enthusiastically taken up by society members. Also thanks to Marie Bunce for taking the photographs and to Patti for the information in the text.

Friday 11th April 2025

Charcoal & pencil artist

Becky Gouverneur is a professional artist specialising in realistic, detailed portraits of animals. She works primarily in graphite and charcoal but occasionally in colour with pastel or coloured pencil. For this demonstration she is going to work in charcoal on a picture of a red panda that she started a little time ago.

Becky studied Textile Design and Photography at University. She  uses her skill with photography to capture the personality and character of her subject with her intricate and detailed drawing work.  She works on a magnetic board with magnets that keep her work in place. She used Snowdon 300 Gsm paper from Jacksons for this piece as it is not too textured and at the same time not too smooth “Goldilocks paper” she called it smiling. She did say that she sometimes uses Frisk 220 Gsm from SAA especially when she has an article in their magazine.

Becky began by explaining how important it is to keep the work clean. She uses a sheet of glassine paper to protect the artwork from being rubbed by her hand. She also wears an artist’s glove, which is a two finger glove that fits on either the left or right hand and protects the surface of the paper from the natural oils of the skin. She originally sketched the drawing on a separate piece of paper and then transferred it on to the final paper. She uses a putty rubber to lift off some of the lines. This has to be done before any charcoal is applied.

During the course of the demonstration Becky used the full range of the equipment that can be seen in the picture above. She began by telling us about the little pot of charcoal float powder that is top right of the screen. She explained that when charcoal is ground on an industrial scale the lightest and finest dust floats. She uses float powder because it is so fine it has no lumps. The lightest area of the panda’s cheek looked almost white on the overhead projector but it did have a light dusting of float powder. She uses a make-up brush to put this down.

Charcoal will not work over graphite. She wraps her willow charcoal in masking tape which stops it breaking and keeps her hands clean. Willow charcoal produces the second lightest tones. Becky can spend hours layering up and developing tone. She uses a greyscale value finder to check the tone of her work against the tones in the reference photo. There is an App that can help with this as it gives colours in isolation. She did not know the name of the App but suggested putting Colour Picker App into an internet search engine.

Becky visited the Sennelier Art Store in Paris once and decided to buy one of every charcoal pencil available, apparently she came away with 12. She wanted to test them to see which blended well, which would break too easily, etc. She likes to use Conté Pierre Noire pencils. They have soft leads that are dense, deep, and matt black. Pit compressed charcoal is the darkest she has found but a black pastel could be used if this is not available.

For the whiskers Becky uses a white polychroma pencil. She will use this again on the nose when she comes to do that. She uses Tombow Mono Zero eraser pencils to lift and erase. She has a round tip and a flat tip. She tends to use the round tip most. They work well on pastel and in fact on any dry media, they are almost an essential piece of equipment.

As can be seen in the photo above Becky is able to use the Tombow eraser to create the look of individual hairs. She said that students often do this too regularly. It needs to be a bit random and varied to look realistic. Becky was asked if she uses fixative when she has finished and she said she uses the Daler Rowley Fixative that comes in a silver can with a yellow label. Other fixatives are available but it is best never to use hairspray.

After the coffee break Becky began to work on the nose. She started by using the Pierre Noir pencil while looking for the darkest parts. She then decided to work in the resist polychroma white pencil. The little white dots on the nose are the result of the resist. “I am not drawing a nose, I am drawing shapes and tones”, she said.

Becky talked and answered questions while she worked and we learned that she had not only been a photographer but she had also been a police officer at one time in her career. She has even spent a short period teaching art in a prison. She told us that it was a terrible family tragedy that had led her to take up art as a business career. About nine years ago her parents were on holiday when they were in a serious car accident. Very sadly her father was killed and her mother, who was suffering from PTSD, needed her support. The school where she was teaching art would not let her go part time and so she had to reassess her priorities. As chance would have it a charcoal commission drawing she had done was put on social media and things took off to such an extent that by the time Covid came she had a three year waiting list of commissions.

Becky’s knowledge of photography compliments her drawing as she photographs her subjects for nearly all of her commissions and exhibition work. In fact she is running a four day Animal Photography & Charcoal Realism Drawing Retreat in Westcott Barton, Devon from Wednesday 23rd to Monday 28th July this summer. Here is a photo of the flyer.

There was also information about Workshops she will be running near Milton Keynes. She had brought a number of step-by-step guides, cards and prints that people could buy. Beck is working on a book that will be published next year. For more information and to book on the workshops please visit www.Bexarts.co.uk.

Becky’s style of work is clearly very time consuming and yet she managed to keep up a constant flow of conversation and information throughout the course of the demonstration. Smooth haired animals do not take as long as curly haired ones. Becky said she would never do another cockapoo although perhaps a cockapoo tariff might be the answer. In a light hearted, lively conversation about all sorts of things the evening came to a close as Sue Whitehead, the chairman, voiced our thanks and appreciation that Becky had been prepared to make the two hour journey from near Milton Keynes to be with us.

Photos & Write up by Carole Head