The Importance of Good Design

Yesterday I had the pleasure of stewarding at the Scottish Diaspora Tapestry being exhibited  at the Westminster Hall in London. This spectacular collection of embroidered panels from people of global Scottish descent was amazing in it’s blending of colours, line, and design. Many people commented on the use of similar colours and drawing style. This … Read more

Categories Art

When is a Painting Finished? 12th April

A talk by Caroline Marsland. There is no limit time-wise to finishing a painting. The examples by Turner of a ship emerging from fog and a train emerging from steam capture the mood effectively yet have little detail.  Turner stopped painting as soon as the work said all he wanted it to say. Several paintings … Read more

Life Drawing Domonstration

Life Drawing On March 1st Dupont art instructor, Caroline Marsland gave us a lecture and demonstration on life drawing. She started out by advising us that we need to decide at the beginning what we want to say in the picture. We can be accurate, want to accentuate certain features, show certain emotions, etc. She … Read more

Portraits in Watercolour 15th February

In discussing the differences between painting young and old faces, Caroline began with a very helpful hint: use wet in wet for young smooth faces, wash over first and drop in the colour, giving the bloom on the cheeks. The model this week was a Cuban woman of some years, accompanied by her cigar. Starting … Read more

Mixed Media Demonstration

Caroline Marsland demonstrated the use of mixed media to the Dupont Art Club  class on January 18th, 2017 It is important to chose the media to match the painting. Layering is the key to mixed media. She pointed out that almost anything can be used in a this type of painting. Suggestions for the first … Read more

Painting a glass bottle 7th December

In this very interesting demonstration, Caroline started with a pale green wash, onto which she loosely sketched the shape of the straight sided bottle. Then she put in a white background around the shape. Using a flat brush she painted in the four corners and the base of the bottle, then the round neck. A … Read more

Book Jacket Talk – 12th October

My thanks to Lesley McBride for again supplying notes and images for this talk. Caroline began by discussing the ways in which book covers are designed nowadays. Everyone uses a computer, employing either GIMP or Photoshop, which are both compatible with Mac and PCs , but GIMP is free. The work is done in layers: … Read more

Watercolour Textures Demo 28th September

Caroline introduced a number of ways to produce washes, using both a paintbrush and other materials to get varied effects. The first was with an upright board and brush: Wet on dry Wet on wet Graded Wet on dry: using a flat 1” brush and dark paint, not too water brush once across and drag … Read more

Abstract Still Life Demo14th September

Many thanks to Lesley McBride, who kindly provided the photos and commentary for this demo. The still life Carolyn selected to work from was this: Artists often pick out one aspect of the still life. Difficult to know where to start?  Consider:  Look at line  Look at colours: are they warm or cool?  Colours talk to … Read more