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Caroline began her demonstration with some points to consider before starting an open air painting session. Reconnoitre before choosing a site. Are there a lot of possibly intrusive people around? Consider the weight of your equipment. A half-size easel will ease the load, as you may have to climb for a better vantage point Do some thumbnails to help decide on your composition If using acrylic paints, remember that they will dry more quickly outside. Use a stay-wet palate Once you are settled and starting to paint, lay down light tones and darks at the outset, bearing in mind the changing light as time passes. Get your tonal values down at the beginning. She suggested working with big brushes to do this, to avoid “fiddling”. Outdoor painting needs you to make light colours lighter and darks darker, which will compensate for indoor light levels. Method: Working from the back to the front of the scene in light tones…look-paint, look-paint. To achieve shafts of light, use a glaze at the end of the work. Focus on lights and darks is most important. As an example, your composition should be 70% cold and 30% warm colours or vice versa. Keep a varied selection of greens and add a few browns to your palate for woodland scenes. Use a rigger for the small upper branches, which can be added later, along with foliage. Lastly – Be rougher and have fun with it!!

The Bauhaus (trans. School of Building) was founded in Weimar in 1919 by Walter Gropius, who was very interested in manufacturing combined with art. It was created as a centre for all arts.  The Arts & Crafts movement was a big influence, as, under William Morris, it espoused the idea of functionality and beauty. After a while the medieval forms were thrown out and a more stripped down model favoured. The school had pottery departments, furniture workshops   and produced posters in the art department. After a while, metal became favoured over wood and the material for chairs and tables. Famous artists such as Kandinsky and Paul Klee taught there, and many others aspired to join the teaching staff, such was the growing reputation. Below is a diagram of the comprehensive course offered after the move to Dessau. There was a strong influence from Mondrian’s works, which is apparent in the building at Dessau, and the modernist architecture of the building set a style for many buildings. In 1932 the school moved to Berlin, where, under political pressure, it was closed by its leadership in 1933. Caroline showed us many images of the furniture produced by the school, which cannot appear here, due to copyright constraints, but for those interested, the internet has many images on Google Images under Bauhaus furniture. Some will seem familiar, as indeed they are. The influence is very strong in today’s market place with the growing taste for modernist style in the home. The talk was very interesting, particularly as we are surrounded by furniture and design whose origins are in the Bauhaus. Ikea, although a Swedish company with the Karl & Karin Larsson historical connection, has many pieces reflective of this famous German school.

On the 24th May Caroline gave us a talk and demonstration on “Pop Art”. She started by telling us that although we associate pop art with the 50’s and 60’s, it emerged as early as the 1920’s. Artists were reacting against traditional movements typical of the Victorian era as well as the upheaval of WW1. They were looking forward to a brighter future and this was reflected in painting and design. Caroline showed us a jazzy print of a number five that could easily have been designed in the 1960’s but was in fact created about 1920. Pop Art was also associated with Art Deco and the Dada movement. After the Second World War artists again were looking at society anew and taking inspiration from consumer items and were commenting on the roles of men and women. Caroline showed us some more familiar images including Richard Hamilton’s collage of a man flexing his muscles while a woman sits on a sofa, surrounded by modern day trappings. Richard Hamilton was British but most of the artists we are familiar with were from the US, including Oldenberg, Lichtenstein, Rauschenberg and Warhol. Much of their work took a wry look at the superficiality of American life. Lichtenstein was inspired by cartoons and magazine images to make his paintings, such as a woman’s manicured fingers using a spray can or a high heeled shoe stepping on a pedal bin. He was also keen on using images of glamorous couples in sports cars, or macho pilots in planes with comments floating in speech bubbles. Caroline took her inspiration from Lichtenstein’s cartoon paintings to demonstrate an idea for a take on contemporary life. Using a felt tip she drew a typical family out to lunch at a fast food restaurant, all of them glued to their...

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 by penciling in the features, beginning at the nose, Caroline then outlined the mouth and lastly the eyes. To paint this very colourful subject, the following palette was used: Firstly she used a weak yellow wash generally. Yellow Ochre was the base colour, mixed with red & green. For the brown, Caroline always mixes her own with red and green. For the wrinkles she mixed Cadmium Deep Red with Ultramarine and Yellow Ochre was made and orange for the eye sockets. For the olive green of the cheek patch and background, Hookers Green, Claret or Cherry red were used and a purple used for the lips. We all watched with awe as the aged face emerged under Caroline’s deft brushwork. The following pictures give an idea of the gradual building of the portrait.

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 down for a drop down effect Wet in wet: using very clean water and wet paper, soak in for a minute. Paint across quickly…don’t over-work, then paint across. Graded: Start with a sideways sweep and use less colour for a graded effect. Clouds can be inserted by using a balled tissue to remove the paint. Note: Kurt Jackson used watery paint and turned the board sideways to dribble and splatters too! Flat work using materials for application  Cling film: using strong colours, apply cling film and ruche it. Leave to dry before removing for a foliage effect. Can also be used for rocks, using dark brown, green and wet in wet red. Washing-up liquid: can be used for waves by squirting into applied wet paint. Dry brushing: on very dry paint, drag a dry brush across. Fan brush: use to produce a wood grain effect Oil pastels: use colour free pastels and make marks, then brush over with a wash of colour. Salt: put on a wash, and quickly sprinkle on salt. Leave until fully dry before brushing off the salt. Good for a rain effect or snow on a dark ground. Scratching:  Apply the wash then then scratch with scissors to make trees. Scratch downwards so paint goes into runnels.  

Using a photograph of a farmyard battle between two cockerels, Caroline introduced abstract painting with the concepts of non-objective, by which we express something from within, and objective, in which the artist paints their impression of a subject. Caroline chose to begin with the tail feathers of the black & white bird, using bold strokes of black, which she later etched with the end of the paintbrush. Then, the opposing bird, which was ginger, was positioned using feathered strokes. A beak was added, and an angry eye! Pink dewlaps completed the confrontational element, which also gave the appearance of bloodied beaks. Loosely painted the dribbled effects added to the atmosphere of aggression and fowl play!

  On Wednesday, July 27th members of the Dupont Art Club were treated to a demonstration on the artistic use of resins by Aram Friedrich and Rob Jenkins of Eli-Chem Resins U.K. Aram explained that 95 percent of their business was industrial and 5 percent was for artistic purposes. They have excellent demonstrations on their website listed below which one should review for the detail on how the artistic process works. The use of resin as a painting medium results in a contemporary abstract design. By pouring the clear resin on paintings, the colour in the painting is much enhanced leaving the surface glass like and hard. Those who do watercolour were pleased that they would not have to use heavy glass over their paintings if they elected to use a resin top coat. During the demonstration, the class was allowed to add coloured resin to a surface to make a contemporary design. The photos below show how it first looks before some mixing and hardening. Although not a masterpiece (15 artists dabbling away) it does show the depth of colour and design possible. Aram stated that if members of Dupont were to order as a group, we would receive the reduced rate he offered on July 27th. Those interested should contact a board member to inform them of your interest. At the end of the afternoon, everyone attending agreed that it was very worthwhile learning of this new product with some embracing it as a new medium to choose to pursue. Aram Friedrich Eli-Chem Resins U.K Ltd 
Astra House, The Common, Cranleigh 
Surrey, GU6 8RZ, United Kingdom aram@elichem.co.uk 
www.elichem.co.uk Tel : +44 ( 0 ) 1483 26 66 36 or 37 
Fax: +44 ( 0 ) 1483 26 66 50 
Mobile : +44 ( 0 ) 77 11 66 9607

Painting Rocks Demo 22nd June   Caroline showed several photos from her sketchbook. Make dark and shadow shapes first, and then washes of colour after light. You can use sandpaper on the rock for surface (NB Put shapes in first with a light pencil). She mixes gouache with the watercolour to make some colours more opaque. Don’t over-water the paint, as it could affect your paper. Caroline then coloured the washes green, then went over them with red to tone them down, especially for the shadows.  

Our Wednesday. June 8th Dupont class lecture  with Caroline Marsland covered composition and simplification. It was an excellent class for all levels of artist. Some of the main points she covered were as followed: Decide early on what it is you wish to express in your picture and centre your design around this. Paint with large brushes using large shapes, Give yourself a time deadline to paint to, Do several thumbnail sketches first, Feel free to move or add objects in the picture to improve your design, Our eye is always drawn to a human figure in a picture. Tissot was used as an example of a great artist who was the master of simplification so if possible, study some of his paintings. Caroline used a photo of the familiar seven sisters  where she moved objects around to create a good composition. The photo below showed the result of this.