Innholdsfortegnelse for No. 168 i Artist's Palette

Steve Leadenham is a Sydney-based artist specialising in transport subjects. He paints in oils and acrylics on canvas. He was brought up in Doncaster, South Yorkshire (England) and while attending the local grammar school was encouraged to undertake a number of short courses at Doncaster School of Art including life drawing and mixed media classes. Steve pursued a career in the rail transport industry in Yorkshire and London during the 1970s, finding time to produce the occasional painting. In 1980, he married and emigrated to Australia to continue his logistics career in the transport and electrical engineering industries. This artist maintains that he has always had the same basic interests. “I remember having my train paintings posted on the classroom wall in primary school,” he reflects. “I won a prize…

The son of a scrap metal and bottle dealer, I was born at Leichhardt, Sydney, in 1936. As a young man I was employed in various occupations including factory worker, salesperson and tram guard. Late in my teenage years, I hitch-hiked around parts of Australia including Victoria, South Australia and Queensland – working itinerantly in timber mills, on fishing boats, and in hotels as a barman. I joined the Army in 1958. I served for 17 years. I was involved in the Malayan Emergency from 1951 to 1961. I went to Vietnam in 1966, serving in the Infantry and Catering Corps. In 1984, I formed the Australian Vietnam Veterans Art Group in Sydney. Prior to this, I had taken up painting and exhibited at various venues around Sydney including ‘Art…

This painting is a tribute to one of my many favourite watercolour works by Norman Lindsay. I bought a print of his painting many years ago, and each time I visit Lindsay’s home at Faulconbridge in the Blue Mountains (which is now a gallery and museum run by the National Trust) I immediately make a beeline for ‘The Garden God’. I love the innocence and unashamed abandon of the beautiful young girl who is full of life and joy, with arms outstretched – standing before this grotesque, lascivious looking, small lifeless stone figure in the garden. To see this work in real life and to walk about the grounds of the renowned artist’s former home is heaven for me. At my own home, in what I call my ‘upstairs garden’,…

My home and studio is at Leonay, an outer Sydney suburb. I was born in East Germany. My wife and I arrived in Australia in November 1960; and in 1966 we moved into a new house at Leonay where we have lived ever since. I have had no formal artistic training, but my interest in painting and also photography has always been strong. Painting has always been a hobby of mine, and I like it to remain that way; it makes me feel free to paint what I want to paint. This seems to work well for me. A few years ago, my wife and I were stranded in a caravan park at Alice Springs for eight weeks – due to our four-wheel-drive vehicle breaking down. I started painting local…

My favourite palette is a large traditional wooden one that sits on a painting table among jars of brushes and mediums, and gets scraped off and cleaned with turps every few paintings. It is gradually becoming heavier with coats of paint residue, but I find that half dried out paint can be very useful at times. Silverband Falls is a local landmark in Victoria’s Grampians just out of Halls Gap. What is amazing about this pretty little waterfall is that there is no pool of water at the base – instead the water disappears into the rocks and rubble and comes out in a stream some distance down the canyon. My painting is based on my first impressions as I came within sight of the falls. I like to do…

STEP ONE This was a rough but accurate sketch done on canvas with a Number 1 or 2 round hogs hair brush using a mixture of Ultramarine Blue and Burnt Sienna diluted with turpentine. The whole canvas was then covered with a mid-tone, turpentine-diluted mixture used in the initial sketch with some Raw Sienna added – so that the white of the canvas did not show through. It is easier to gauge tonal values if the darks and mid-tones are washed in with the initial steps. It can be quite daunting to mix the full spectrum of tones and apply them to a white canvas! All the darks were blocked in next, using the initial mixture of Ultramarine Blue and Burnt Sienna; wherever possible connecting the dark areas to form…

This painting of a 1950s Sydney double decker bus climbing through the suburbs above Bondi was produced at the request of an enthusiast who sought the recreation of this scene from his childhood. A detailed colour photograph was provided but, for the purposes of the painting, the model of the vehicle had to be changed to one illustrated in a second photograph provided for that purpose. This demonstration provided a useful example of production of a painting for a critical audience; and the potential pitfalls that can be encountered. STEP ONE The reference photographs were provided as digital files, so to begin I prepared an A4 print of the main reference photograph and a grid five squares wide by four squares deep was applied in pencil. I selected a canvas…

STEP ONE I apply a coating of White directly to the paper. Three-quarters of the way down, I blend in a small amount of Australian Ocean Blue with the side of the brush. I check the colour before painting a dark line at the base. STEP TWO I dip a knob of steel wool into the paint and dab in a treeline for the background. I paint in the background tree trunks with fine lines of White. I proceed through the foreground and background, creating rough shapes as I go, and using all the selected colours. STEP THREE Moving on to the trees, I use a long fine brush for the trunks and branches. Being careful not to overdo the number of trees, I work with a long thin brush…

STEP ONE I prime a 10 x 12 inch canvas board and tape it around the edges. I do this so that my artwork appears photographic and sharp. I divide the canvas (in this instance into background and foreground). Using Van Gogh Ultra Marine oil paints, I loosely fill in the top portion of my canvas; and I fill in the bottom area with a mixture of white and Yellow Ochre. STEP TWO Using a small brush and Art Spectrum Wax Medium, I load my Number 1 brush with Burnt Umber and sketch in three teapots. They juxtapose each other to create interest and form the mid-ground. STEP THREE I block in the small teapot to the right with the mixture of Yellow Ochre and white, and use Burnt Umber…

I was born some decades ago at Charleville in western Queensland – due to the simple fact that there was no doctor at Augathella where my parents lived. Primary school was at the Augathella Convent; then I was off to boarding school at All Hallows Ladies College in Brisbane. Mother insisted that I should do a commercial course … but the shorthand class was beside the art room and often I would wander in and see what was happening. I worked as a telephonist at the Augathella Telephone Exchange for a few years. Then in 1971, I married a local grazier and we moved to nearby Tambo. My husband Jim had purchased a cattle property at Tambo in 1969 (with his two brothers); and because we were newlyweds Jim wanted…

STEP ONE I sketch a scene in pencil to make sure that everything is in the right place. With a large flat brush, I underwash the sky and clouds. I use a Number 5 flat brush to underpaint the background trees and the tops of the mountains. STEP TWO Here I block in the sky and clouds. I also paint the cliffs and the background trees. STEP THREE I underwash the grass area and indicate the road in the foreground. STEP FOUR Here I paint the background trees; then highlight the clouds and cliffs. FINAL STEP I block in the road and the grass. Then I paint the trees in the foreground. For the bark on the tree trunks, I use a palette knife – to make it really stand…

Nature has some wonderful treasures for us to discover. Blue and pink native waterlillies are common plants which are found where quiet lagoons, billabongs, lakes and swamps occur. I am passionate about such native subject matter. The large flat floating leaves have very prominent raised networks of veins that spread from the junctions of the leaf stems on the undersurfaces. The upper surfaces are shiny bright green and water repellant; while the undersurfaces are often purple. I love purple. Here is how I want to demonstrate my ‘Rhapsody in Blue’. STEP ONE I glue the wooden wedges into the corners of the canvas with PVA glue, to tighten the surface; and I assemble my reference materials. The leaves have been pressed in a heavy telephone book. STEP TWO I paint…

GALERIE B AT BALINGUP I am originally from Holland where I worked for the Arts Council in Amsterdam. When I came to Australia, I completed a Diploma in Visual Arts Management and worked for a variety of art galleries and arts organisations in Perth for about 15 years. In 2005, an opportunity came up to buy an empty shop in a small town in the south-west of Western Australia: A town called Balingup. It was the perfect space for a small art gallery/ studio. It was a long-held dream come true. I felt I was ready to leave the security of a steady job behind and take the plunge into the unknown. As I am a practising artist myself, I know that having your own gallery space gives a real…

Marc Poisson enjoys painting landscapes, street scenes and figure studies with an emphasis on the dramatic effects of light and shade … creating works which often capture the beautiful atmosphere of his favourite subjects. Born in 1952, Marc displayed an interest in art from a very early age. Mostly self-taught, he became interested in pastels and developed his distinctive style – culminating in a group exhibition with the well known South African artist Wallace Hulley. Following the success of his first solo exhibition in 1981, Marc established his career as a professional artist with a view to capturing the beauty of the South African landscape in both oils and pastels. He then went on to join the highly-regarded Brush and Chisel Club while continuing to hold annual solo exhibitions in…