the 2025 Dupont Art exhibition was a resounding success. We exceeded the football from previous years and sold 12 paintings along with over 450 pounds sold at our shop People kept saying that it was so difficult to choose a winner as the level of expertise of our members was exemplary. In spite of this, … Read more
Painting with Pallet Knives. Painting with pallet knives can give an interesting textural effect to your painting.The knives come in different shapes and sizes. There are short square ones which tend to be good for using on roofs and shingles shapes as well as various flowers and grasses. The smaller diamond shaped ones have the … Read more
Caroline chose a large sheet of water colour paper and liberally applied water to the surface, the subject was a beautiful forest scene with reflections in a lake. With a mid sized pointed brush, for the background the Quink was diluted and as it hit the paper burst into the damp surface, some of the … Read more
Lost Edges in Paintings Using photographs from paintings by John Singer Sargent, Caroline showed the edges which melded into surrounding background colours. These lost edges create moods of mystery and creating distances. It makes images meld into the surrounding area. The surrounding hard edges will pop out bringing your attention to them. In Carolines demo … Read more
Caroline demonstrated how to use and get the most out of watercolour pencils. She picked quite a colourful portrait of an older lady. Looking carefully she decided which colour pencils were needed for the face, red being a strong colour and yellow a weaker one. Starting with the dark areas, she began to ‘layer’ the … Read more
Caroline was unavailable to demonstrate for us this week, but fortunately Amanda Davies came along to show us how to draw with ‘drawing’ ink as opposed to writing ink, the latter used more for calligraphy. It’s was am extremely informative demonstration. Pens, different drawing pens for drawing ink, these have a split in the nib … Read more
Caroline said nothing is too difficult to draw! If you look at the picture upside down.By turning the picture you make your brain think in a different way. To start look for shapes, major shapes, in Caroline’s picture this was the rectangle in the middle, easiest point. Check if the vertical or horizontal lines are … Read more
Caroline picked a lovely picture of an Owl she wanted to create a loose and expressive picture. Using water colours and remembering not to keep painting over the same spot, which would mean the luminosity would be lost as the paper surface could be spoiled, two yellow ochre eyes were painted, then a wash of … Read more
The demo today Caroline chose a winter photo of a small brook and trees in quite dull mono tones. She mixed a yellow quite watery and washed over the sky, she then mixed some purple with the yellow and blended the paint onto the paper, carefully leaving an eye catching, White centre to emphasise the light.Caroline then added … Read more
How to critique a painting. Caroline explained that in looking at any picture one should follow the line, colour, tonal value, contrast and how the eye is guided through the picture. The focal point is a very important area of interest. It is where you’re going to put the most contrast in value. Caroline has … Read more