Innholdsfortegnelse for No. 167 i Artist's Palette

STEP ONE This first step can take many months to achieve. I can do dozens of small sketches before I arrive at the composition that best expresses what I am trying to convey in the painting. In these drawings I will look at elements like movement and rhythm, and interesting negative and positive shapes (including shapes that echo other shapes). I try to vary the sizes of shapes to stop them all being the same size – which would create boring areas in the painting. At this stage, nothing is set in concrete; and I nearly always make changes after I have transferred my ideas onto canvas – as I can then step back and view the drawing from a distance. STEP TWO Once I have transferred my idea onto…

Joyce Hopwood-Knight lives at Kyneton, Victoria – a historic country town near Bendigo. She cares full-time for her elderly mother. Previously she farmed at Broadford in Victoria, breeding thoroughbred horses and cattle. Only a short time ago, purely by chance, Joyce met local artist Ray Ellis and was invited to view his studio. She was amazed at the quality of his work. He informed her that he conducted a working studio, and taught a number of local students at weekends. Prior to this, Joyce had never had any formal training of any sort in the arts. She decided there and then that she would take advantage of the opportunity, and become a student. “I guess that was the start of a wonderful adventure for me!” she says. “I became totally…

• Choosing and mixing colours is very important. I like to do this before I start. I also like to imagine that as I mature as a painter I will be more spontaneous with my decision on colour. • I always take paint from the tube with a palette knife, as it keeps the colours clean and gives me an excellent control of mixing. To blend and decide, I place a small amount of Titanium White on a sheet of white paper; choose the colours for the given task; and blend until I am happy with the result. I make notes along the way for reference. • At regular intervals I like to use a blank piece of white board to move over my painting, from top to bottom, to…

During an early morning walk along Bombo Beach at Kiama with my dog Mishka, I came across a newly deceased Sea Dragon. It was still in very good condition and the colours were bright. I raced home to take photographs of my find and to preserve him in the freezer for future reference! I thought he would make a good demonstration subject … STEP ONE I started by drawing the object onto the paper and applying some Brown Ochre along the back of the dragon. I applied it lightly at first, which allowed me to build up various layers as I went and also adjust the colours at the same time. STEP TWO I decided at this point to switch to the background, and (using the pencils at an angle)…

• Purchase the most expensive brushes you can afford. Good quality brushes make painting much more pleasant and, if well looked after, will last you years. • If using oil paints, make sure the canvas is evenly primed with an oil specific primer. This will ensure your work will stand the test of time and it makes the painting process much more controllable. Do not trust the primer that manufacturers use on their pre-primed canvas. • If using oil paints, allow each layer to dry for at least a week (depending on mediums used). This will prevent the previous layer ‘lifting’ when painting the next layer; and help to prevent cracking over time. • Try to achieve a bright white light in your studio, to avoid nasty surprises when displaying…

• The rigid rule when oil painting is to paint from lean to fat. I achieve this by upping the amount of oil in my medium as I progress. • The choice of the ground colour helps provide some cohesion to the work and significantly affects the final work. • For the initial stages (where overpainting is likely), tonking (placing a sheet of newspaper on wet work and gently rubbing the back of the paper) removes brush-strokes and texture that may interfere with later layers. Depending on the amount of paint to be removed, this can be done straight away or after it has partially dried. • Applying paint and using a rag to rub it in and remove excess paint, is an effective means of toning down backgrounds and…

ELIZABETH GUZSELY GALLERY Cooktown School of Art Society Inc operates the Elizabeth Guzsely Gallery at 125 Charlotte Street, Cooktown, in far north Queensland. This history has been compiled with the assistance of member Elizabeth Johns. THE HISTORY OF OUR GALLERY In 1979, Elizabeth Guzsely with several other very enthusiastic artists decided to start an art society in Cooktown. Elizabeth was born in 1934 in Budapest, Hungary – into a family of painters, musicians, singers, actors and writers. So, from an early age, art became a way of life. Surviving the Russian invasion of Hungary during the World War II, she gained a Diploma of Fine Art at the Hungarian National Institute, and worked as a graphic artist within the main Hungarian Military Academy – surrounded by Old Masters and teachers…

Michael Piegdon is originally from New York but has spent most of his adult life in Colorado. Michael’s love affair with the ruggedness and sheer majesty of the Colorado mountains and breathtaking terrain has been ongoing. His paintings and artistic pursuits are a result of this. Now, living in Australia, he has embraced the majestic terrain of the Blue Mountains and the jagged seacoast to enhance his collection of dramatic paintings. An avid mountain climber and adventurer, Michael has been able to capture the mystery and drama of some of the world’s most spectacular and scenic locations in beautiful watercolours. He uses wet-on-wet saturation of colour to depict the emotion and drama of every subject. Through years of study and experience, Michael has developed a precise and devout control of…

Bushwalking near Lawson in the upper Blue Mountains can be a sheer pleasure. As you descend down the mountainside through Dante’s Glen, you can follow a mountain stream with huge beautiful cliffs and high waterfalls. The terrain is breathtaking and full of wonder … you can see how the water has carved this canyon over the centuries. I was awestricken by the colours of the Wattle and the beautiful ferns. STEP ONE I soaked my Arches 140 watercolour paper in cold bathwater for about 15 minutes. I then stapled it down to my treated plywood watercolour board and sketched my initial image in light pencil. Then, with a mixture of grey made up of Alizarin Crimson, Burnt Umber and Prussian Blue, I painted the scene to give me an idea…

STEP ONE I tape the paper onto a large sloping board, taping only the top two corners so that the paper hangs freely. Then I tape two to three photographs onto the board which I will work from. STEP TWO I sketch out my subject in pencil. In this case, with the lorikeets, I have only sketched out the birds. I get a feel for where the leaves and branches should be placed as the painting develops. STEP THREE I work from left to right, developing the whole bird as I go. Due to working in this way, I rarely need to go over the work to touch it up. STEP FOUR The leaves and blossoms are done next. I always work the background in last. I need to have…

• Keep a journal where you can write down ideas, and draw and develop concepts. Look within yourself as well as at your surroundings, friends and daily life. Some of my best ideas come to me when I do nothing more than think laterally about a subject, topic or feeling. I often tell students to stretch their thinking to include the most obscure or mundane ideas. • Look at things in a different way. Look at how other artists develop their ideas. These ideas can often lead to your own ideas becoming more interesting. • Continually strive to develop your work so that it becomes an extension of you and your personality. So much can be said in a painting that you would never be able to express in words…

Bette Phillips had a life-changing experience in February 2003 when she attended a Maxine Thompson pastel portraiture weekend workshop at Woocoo Shire Hall, Maryborough. It was there that she learnt the basic techniques of using pastels. She continues to develop those techniques which now define her as an artist worth watching. Bette has her studio at ‘Yeltuka’ (a local Aboriginal word meaning ‘the new place’) at Antigua, 25 kilometres south-west of Maryborough in Queensland. She has carved a new place for herself, with her work easily bringing $1,200 per piece; and currently pushing up towards $2,500. Her commissioned works are held in private collections in the USA and Britain, and across Australia. When you glance at Bette’s art work, you wonder if you are looking at some well planned and…

ENHANCE YOUR CREATIVITY WITH PENCILS FROM S&S WHOLESALE Pencils as artists’ tools have a truly fascinating history. Graphite is one of the physical forms in which the element carbon is found. The decay of great forests yielded, under sedimentary pressure, the coal deposits common throughout the world. Not so common are the graphite seams formed by more extremes of pressures. The first graphite ever discovered was found in the Seathwaite Valley on the side of the mountain Seathwaite Fell in Borrowdale, near Keswick (England) in about 1500. The popular story is that, following a very violent storm, shepherds went out in the morning to see their sheep on the mountainside and found a number of trees had been blown down, tearing away the subsoil as they fell and leaving exposed…

• Using non-acidic glue, I put quality non-primed linen onto quarter-inch waterproof craft board. I apply three coats of gesso tinted with Cadmium Red Light to the linen.• Oil paints used: Art Spectrum Ultramarine Blue, Transparent Red Oxide, Cadmium Yellow Light, Yellow Oxide, Indian Yellow, Chromium Green Oxide and Titanium White.• Brushes: Number 4 and 6 Filbert bristle, Number 12 Bright bristle, Number 4 Fan bristle, Number 1 Round bristle, a 16 Filbert Taklon, and a Number 2 Round Sable.• Fixative.…

My approach to artworks is primarily influenced by both the subject matter and the medium I am using. Nothing can be truer than the saying ‘out of sight, out of mind’ when it is applied to our marine environment. While we are drawn to its shores and frolic in its waves, mostly we only see the sky reflected on its surface and close our eyes tight when we go under. This blindness has engendered an appalling ignorance and lack of concern for the waters that constitute most of Planet Earth. I hope that my paintings will help others to open their eyes and look beneath the waves … and then maybe to think more about what we put in our marine environment; what we take from it and what we…