Members Critique

Friday 24th January 2025

Frimley & Camberley Society of Arts is very fortunate to have Liz Seward as the President, as she has a wealth of knowledge and experience when it comes to teaching and making fine art. She offered to lead this Members Critique and reminded everyone that it is a good idea to start with positives and follow up with constructive suggestions.

There were around 40 paintings for everyone to look at, some were finished pieces of work, some framed and ready for exhibition and some were works in progress.

The sky and the sunset reflecting in the water were praised in this painting. It was suggested that perhaps more of the colours from the sky could have been introduced to provide more colour to the bottom part of the painting. It was suggested the reeds in the foreground could be removed.

This painting was on a box canvas and the artist had painted around the edges with the blue of the sky. Liz Seward advised that box canvases should always have the edges painted . Liz noted the use of complementary colours although she wondered if the foreground colour could have been more varied.

(the photographer apologies for the light reflection in the glass).The artist called this painting “Dark Thoughts” and intended the black image to be very dark. Liz Seward wondered if a glaze over the light coloured tiger might pull the painting together better.

Note: A glaze is a thin transparent or semi-transparent layer on a painting which modifies the appearance of the underlying paint layer. Glazes can change the chroma, value, hue and texture of a surface. Liz Seward has offered to make glazes the subject of her workshop in October.

(Once again apologies the ceiling light reflection in the glass of this painting.) It is framed and ready for an exhibition in the Woking Light Box. The lovely colour of the sky was admired. If there were a criticism to be made it was that there could be more definition in the middle section of the painting.

These robins delighted the audience and the artist said that she had become fond of using a splatter technique which everyone agreed added movement and interest. Liz suggested that perhaps five robins, being an odd number, might add to its appeal.

This striking portrait is still in the process of being painted. There is a lot of red and orange so perhaps the orange background could be darkened.

It was interesting to see a long shaped painting. Liz Seward reminded people that it was a good idea to vary the shape of paintings. The artist is still not sure what to do with the white on either side and he did not like the trees in the background. Liz suggested these could be painted in a blue hue to make the background more monochromatic to concentrate attention on the foreground.

This painting of a lake in Finland was greatly admired. Liz pointed out that the strong vertical in this painting was on the golden section and she praised the lovely sense of light and the skill of the artist.

This lovely little watercolour was painted from a photograph taken by the artist. The colours are very delicate however if the sky were made a darker blue it would contrast more with the white sails.

Liz Seward had some mounting board with her that she used to show how the shape of an image can alter. She was able to used this effective tree silhouette painting to illustrate the effect of altering the size and shape to change the emphasis of the composition.

The paint on this picture was still wet. The artist was keen to hear people’s thoughts. Another flower at the top of the flower arrangement and perhaps one on the lower opposite side to the fallen stem could create a sense of flow through the composition was suggested.

The rendering of the rocks and waterfall in this painting were praised. Perhaps putting a glaze over the rocks in the foreground could help to highlight the waterfall as the focal point.

People really liked this pastel picture but the artist explained that it had been done during lockdown from a group exercise on line so he wondered if there would be copyright issues. Liz agreed that copyright was often a concern however some images are made copyright free, which is likely to be the case with an on line class exercise.

There is no question that this is a portrait of Winston Churchill. The black & white monochrome is very effective. The eyes and facial expression are good; where the clothes are concerned adding some shadows under the bow tie would push it forward and make it appear 3D.

“Your Call Is Held In a Queue” made people smile as everyone has experienced the frustration which inspired the artist to paint this painting. Liz Seward said the lettering was as it should be and she felt sure this might prove a winner if exhibited.

This watercolour of a vase of flowers successfully drew the eye to the scene out of the window and the perspective of the window itself was very good. Making the green of the interior wall a deeper shade of green would help to contrast the interior with the exterior.

The foreground in this painting works very well but Liz suggested that a little more colour in the sky might heighten the effect of the bright white of the sunburst.

This painting of magnolias was greatly admired. The artist had painted it from her own photograph but she had eliminated elements that did not work for her. Liz Seward could not stress enough how good it was to hear this. It is very important to use a photograph only as a reference and to adapt it in terms of colour and composition to create your own work of art.

Apologies once again for all the unfortunate reflections in this photograph which are hiding most of the sunset. Liz said the row of houses were charming in themselves. Two suggestions were made, one was to subdue the sunset or to bring some of the sunset colours into the houses.

This arresting portrait of a boy with a lamb was generally praised, the eyes in particular. Liz Seward noted positively the use of turquoise in the face and the variety of colour in the skin tones.

These ballet shoes in watercolour skilfully captured the pink satin of the shoes. Liz Seward started the evening by saying that she did not want to discuss framing and mounting during the course of the evening but on this occasion she felt that this painting would definitely benefit from a mount and a larger frame.

The same artist who painted the ballet shoes also painted this wolf with its mesmerising eyes. The tone of the moon was declared to be perfect although someone pointed out that the moon itself is not quite perfectly round.

The artist was eager to know how to improve her crocus painting and Liz Seward suggested that by adding some more white tips to the petals of the flower below the two that already had highlighted rims, and by doing the same to one of the flowers on the far right of the painting would help to carry the eye in an arc around the image.

People liked the blues and turquoise colours in this seascape but to create more depth to the painting it was suggested that the sea in the far distance could be lightened and the foreground could be made more interesting with some splattering. Liz Seward reminded people that they should experiment and try different things at times. It should not always be about creating a perfect finished piece of work from the outset.

Here again it would be a good idea to get rid of the detail in the middle distance by making it a light orange yellow rather than the light patch there. Liz Seward’s main comment was that the painting could work at more than twice the size!

The use of salt in the watercolour was effective and it was agreed that the figures add perspective. The artist explained that the painting was used in her U3A class to demonstrate both the salt technique but it was also an exercise in using only two colours.

It is not surprising to discover that the book on the table is called “The Black Tulip”. The painting is delicately realised and Liz pointed out the use of complementary colours is very successful here.

The artist explained that this was taken on the Hogsback at dawn. People liked the detail of the vapour trails in the sky and the fact that the silhouette of the tree was placed off centre. The slight streak of complementary orange in the cloudy blue sky works well.

More complementary colours at work in this painting of Sarah Brown of Simple Minds. The turquoise dress has had a silver wash over it to make it shimmer in certain light. There was some debate about whether darkening the orange background might make the figure stand out even more.

People admired the beautiful reflections in the water and the light coming through the leaves of the trees. The artist was asked where it was and it is Frimley Lodge Park. It captures the scene and the autumnal colours skilfully.

Liz commented that the figures had been well painted. The colour green can be problematic. It is not easy to vary the shades and tones to produce natural looking greens. Liz Seward suggested darkening the trees to push them further into the background and taking some of the little details out in the foreground.

This was the first watercolour the artist had painted in a long time. He used his Russian White Knights watercolour paints and the yellow of the parakeet is wonderfully vibrant. Liz Seward suggested that some of the green resting on the upper part of the wing could be lifted to stop it distracting.

This painting created a lot of discussion, was the bus too long? were the windows too bold and detailed? should the statue of Eros be more prominent? The artist had added a busker to create interest and wondered if he should add more people.

Liz Seward used her mount board to illustrate how by changing the shape of the painting it might result in a better, more satisfactory composition.

The sky works very well in this painting and there is lots of variation in the greens of the field which is good practice. It is a good idea to lighten the middle distance.

In this colourful garden scene the artist was in fact using it as an exercise to illustrate the use of a limited palette. Here she had only used Permanent Rose, Ultra Marine Blue and Lemon Yellow. It is a good demonstration of how to create a variety of greens.

Time was running out and so these two pieces were put up on the easel together. Liz said the face of the girl in the bowler hat, although being at an early stage of its realisation, it was developing nicely and what was needed was some 3D modelling, a highlight on her nose for instance. The Jackson Pollock style painting was interesting especially when the artist explained that some of the paint actually glows in the dark; so the lights were turned off and sure enough it did! Liz said oddly it reminded her of slug trails.

These last two paintings were an appropriate way to end an evening full of a wonderful variety of paintings. Liz Seward said how much she enjoyed seeing all this work and she reminded people to be brave and experiment, it is always worth trying out new things.