Innholdsfortegnelse for Artists Palette 156 i Artist's Palette

Robyn first encountered paint as a child at St Joseph’s Convent in Bunbury (south-west Western Australia) but did not commence serious art studies until many years later. After marrying and raising a family she attended decorative art classes and found a renewed passion for painting, with a special affection for floral subjects rendered in acrylics. A move to the country put Robyn in a new situation where she was unable to attend art classes each week, so she started to teach herself. She began buying magazines, books, tutorial videos and virtually anything she could put her hands on to further her knowledge of painting, with colour theory and brush techniques as high priorities. At this stage Robyn’s paintings were all done in acrylics, but she wanted to move into oils.…

My works in watercolour use a method that is very untraditional. I work with very little water and use papers that tends to repel rather than absorb water. I sketch lightly in pencil first, mask the main images then airbrush the background. Finally I remove the masking and start the detailed work. STEP ONE My subjects have usually been buzzing around in my head for quite a while, sometimes even years, before I finally paint them. Whenever the opportunity arises I make sketches. With wildlife you have to be an opportunist, so if sketching materials are not close at hand I spend time watching and trying to identify key features such as stance, feather or fur detail, feet, beaks and eyes. I also take a lot of photographs. Many are…

In fulfilling its mission to be “a living arts centre”, Bundanon offers various education programs and workshops for individuals and groups, and also an artist-in-residence program. There is the opportunity for visitors to view exhibitions and the Bundanon Collection, as well as attend many special events such as jazz and classical music concerts. Importantly, it provides a setting to study and reflect on the Australian landscape which influenced Boyd’s perceptions and informed his work. A visit to his studio is at the core of the Bundanon experience. However, Bundanon embraces artists in all fields of endeavour – not only visual artists – and through sponsored programs, gives many students an opportunity to attend courses who otherwise might not be able to do so. The pocket of properties referred to as…

Choosing a subject has to be the most difficult stumbling block. The number one question to always ask of your subject is whether it’s worth painting. When I first started to paint with watercolours 26 years ago, I did a few landscape lessons and found these beneficial as they taught me about colour mixing, fluidity of paint and its effects on different papers. I taught myself botanical painting over time but never had the opportunity to do classes as I lived in a country town in north-east Victoria. As a child, I had always loved the wildflowers of our region, so they were some of my first subjects. Ground orchids fascinated me with their amazing variety of bizarre shapes and intricate patterning. These turned out to be the best subjects…

Jill Kirstein was born in Katoomba, New South Wales – high in the Blue Mountains west of Sydney. After the war, her family moved to Bulawayo in Rhodesia (Zimbabwe). It was at the Bulawayo Dominican Convent where a lifetime love of art first began to emerge in her youthful experience. Many years later, after marrying a Rhodesian cattle farmer, Jill took up painting with renewed fervour. The peace and tranquility of panoramic views from her farmhouse home inspired Jill to rekindle the flame of her passion for painting. As an accomplished flower arranger who had won several trophies and awards, Jill Kirstein followed her natural inclinations to pursue floral art in her personal search for artistic expression. Her particular love of roses reinforced her view that these distinctive blooms were…

Perhaps, as an artist, all you care about is the medium you are using. You don’t care what’s actually in the product – you just want to create with it. Whether it be acrylics, watercolours, oils, charcoals, or even crayons, we concern ourselves with colour first; placing performance and flexibility at a very close second (especially for the project we are doing at the time). The surface we are painting on is of concern … however not to the degree of the medium itself. When Matisse Derivan offered me an experimental sample of Liquid Pencil, I was eager to have a go at something new. As an artist, I like to try everything. I have even been known to ‘mix it all together’ to see what results I could achieve.…

STEP ONE Grid the canvas into sections (check line drawing). Sketch emu from the grids or use black graphite to trace the design onto the canvas. STEP TWO Wash over the emu with Yellow Ochre – this is a great colour as it is a translucent colour in the Genesis range. Paint in the dark areas of the beak using a combination of Ultramarine Blue and Burnt Umber – this combination of colours will give you a very dark blue/black colour. The grey area near the eye is painted using the above colours plus a portion of white to create a light grey colour. Once this procedure has been completed, use your heat gun or kitchen oven to totally dry the painting. I always sweep backwards and forwards across the…

STEP ONE I start by outlining my central flowers on the canvas with a thin turpentine wash and brush. This gives a sketchy appearance which forms the basis of where I will put my colours. I don’t try to be too precise – it’s too early and will probably get covered. This is just a start from which I get my bearings. STEP TWO Now, using a brush, I apply a thin turpentine wash to the whole canvas with the exception of where my flowers will be (this would ‘muddy’ the flowers, so I keep it clean for the moment). Light is very important here, so I try to gauge which parts of the finished background will have more light and which parts will be darker (less light/shadow). I fill…

The opening statement on Daryl Dickson’s website says, “I live surrounded by wonderful and rare creatures in one of the most vibrant and diverse habitats on earth, Australia’s wet tropics. A place of staggering beauty, breathtaking landscapes, ancient forests as well as wonderfully rich, varied and precious wildlife. A spiritual place of solace and renewal!” With this sort of philosophy, it’s no wonder that her paintings are so connected to her subject matter and to her environment. You can tell that she knows exactly how an orphaned joey sits in its makeshift pouch, how a possum scopes possible food sources from its treetop vantage point and how our colourful native birds perch on branches for a minutes rest before flying off. Her works not only capture the character of the…

Louise Saunders is a self-taught botanical artist with exceptional technical skill and just as importantly, a great passion both for painting her natural subject matter and for conserving their environment. When asked what drew her to art she remembers an incident in class as a young girl. “I was pretty quiet and not so good at maths,” she says, “and one day, my teacher invited me and a few other students up to the board to draw a circle. Next he asked the others to pick the best one – and they all chose mine. He then told the class that one day I would be a very good artist!” But still filled with self-doubt, Louise followed a career concerned with her other great love, working with and taking care…