Innholdsfortegnelse for No 180 i Artist's Palette

My life began in 1966 at Auburn District Hospital. I grew up in north-western Sydney at Baulkham Hills – which was a semi-rural area at the time. We had no artists in my family; nor did I know of any. When I was a child my parents would take my sisters and I to visit the Art Gallery of New South Wales occasionally … but I noticed that most of the artists were dead and so believed that there were no practicing artists left. Deciding to be an artist at the age of 10, I resolved myself to the fact that I would become a commercial artist. And (impossible as it seems) it wasn’t until I began some study in Fine Arts at Meadowbank TAFE at the age of 21…

Victoria is my home State. I was born and raised in Mt Eliza, approximately 50 kilometres south of Melbourne on the beautiful Mornington Peninsula. For over 28 years, I have lived with my husband in Langwarrin which is only about 15 minutes from where I grew up. We have a larger than average suburban block and we have raised two children and numerous cats over the years. I have been a nurse for more than 20 years. During a time of raising children and suffering from post natal depression, I began Folk Art classes when my youngest was only two years old. I sucked this up like a sponge and soon it was no longer enough. After about 18 months of attending classes, I was asked to teach at the…

CANSON PAPERS HAVE A HISTORY OF SATISFYING THE NEEDS OF ARTISTS For over 450 years, artists such as Delacroix, Van Gogh, Degas, Matisse, Picasso, Maillol and Warhol have expressed themselves on Canson Papers. Degas preferred tracing paper for his pastels; Matisse had a fondness for C’ à Grain paper and many of Picasso’s pen and ink drawing and sketches have been reproduced on C’ à Grain paper. Indeed, Montval paper was created as a result of a request by Maillol. Today, the Canson tradition of quality and innovative papers continues with a broad range to cover the needs of every applicable artisan – from painters, to sketchers through to pastellists and fashion designers. Pastel paper – Mi-Teintes TEX and Mi-Teintes Mi-Teintes TEX is the latest innovation in Canson’s broad stable…

Have you thought about working for a gallery or managing one? Or starting up your own mini art space with a group of like-minded artists? Taking over an established artist run initiative (ARI) is the next closest thing. Not only is it great to be a part of for yourself (and your resume); you can also contribute to sustaining your local area’s artists, arts and culture. How do you get involved? Get a group together … people who feel passionate about starting an arts organisation. Once you have planned thoroughly, apply for funding. This is exactly what Susan Reid did when she founded and established Cell Art Space (CAS) in 2003 with the help of fellow artists. CAS is a contemporary not-for-profit art space voluntarily managed by artists for artists.…

• A good drawing will pave the way for a great painting. • If working from photographs, always choose good clear images with good information, and the correct balance of light and shadow. Never waste a photograph but instead store it away for another time. • Carefully position light and dark to balance the harmony of tones within paintings – to create contrast and depth of realism. • Use either harmonious or contrasting colours for effect, and remember that an odd number of items of different sizes and textures works best when composing still lifes. • Always completely dry each layer of colour before adding your next glaze – this will avoid ‘muddy’ colours. For speedy drying, a hairdryer works well.…

• Draw every day if possible; even if only for 15 minutes. • Do demonstrations found in books, magazines (like this one), and DVDs. It is amazing what you will learn from these. • Drawing can be a lonely hobby – start a group where you all draw or paint together regularly and enjoy sharing your passion and ideas. • Continue to challenge yourself. Don’t assume you cannot do something. Just give it a go. If it doesn’t work, find out why and what to do about it. Then have another go until you’re happy with it. • Take your camera everywhere. Take hundreds of photographs … every now and then, one or two of them will be outstanding. • Learn to love your work.…

MATERIALS • Stretched canvas on a wooden frame. • Winsor & Newton Artists’ Acrylic Colour – Finity range: Ultramarine Blue; Cerulean Blue; Dioxazine Purple; Burnt Sienna; Cadmium Red Light; Mars Orange; Azo Yellow Medium; Titanium White. • Four flat brushes: Number 9; three-quarter inch; half inch; quarter inch. • Charcoal. • Fixative. STEP ONE Using my visual arts diary, I do a number of thumbnail sketches. This is an important stage of any painting. It gives an opportunity to try different compositions, formats and viewpoints. Many compositional problems can be avoided by doing this. It is important that my frames are the same proportions as my canvas. STEP TWO Having chosen a vertical format, I sketch it onto my canvas using charcoal. I have chosen Number 5 as it shows…

MATERIALS • Selected exterior acrylic house paints. • A range of suitable brushes. STEP ONE After meeting with the client, we decided on a theme. In this case I would be creating a rainforest scene to serve as the background for a purpose-built aviary in Dural. Owner Brian was planning to landscape the area with flowing water, ponds and vegetation. The area I was to paint was approximately 38 square metres. I chose background colours that would be the predominant colours of the mural. I drew a horizon line and painted light blue for the sky and green for the vegetation below. I find it easier to work over dark colours, and add the lights – to give the image more intensity. STEP TWO I set up a safe working…

My father’s family were Welsh farmers from South Australia … but I was born in Newcastle, New South Wales. The name ‘Kozaczynski’ came from my first marriage; and ‘McCaig’ belongs to my husband Robert who is also an artist. Robert and I live in a wonderful old 1930s home surrounded by lush cottage gardens. It is a perfect place to be inspired to paint. I work in my studio inside the house. It opens onto the back verandah through French doors. It used to be a large bedroom. To a large extent, I have been self-taught – however I did attend Technical College for six years and completed the Art Certificate course. I have not always had the same artistic interests, but I have always had a passion for pen…

I’d always been encouraged to express my ‘artiness’ while growing up. One of my earliest memories was coming home from shopping as a small child, grabbing my pencils or Textas and the large sheet of freshly discarded butcher’s paper, going outside to my favourite spot on the garden path, and drawing to my heart’s content. This would generally last until I filled every square inch on the paper’s surface, both sides! This memory – and many others like it – have helped shape me into the painter I am today. Now married with my own family, I live and paint full-time in the picturesque Hunter Valley region of New South Wales. Being mainly self-taught with no formal training, I’ve always been quite happy having inspiration itself as my teacher. My…

I spent most of my childhood and teenage years in Orange, in central western New South Wales – although I was born in nearby Wellington. My family and I recently moved to the beautiful banks of the Manning River on an old dairy farm, near the semi-coastal town of Taree on the New South Wales mid north coast. For as long as I can remember I have loved all aspects of art – especially drawing and painting. I would draw on anything I could find. I would spend hours in the stationery sections of shops just pondering what each product did and how I could use it. In senior high school, I took art for a major subject. Unfortunately, half of my marks were based on history – which I…

• Use exterior house paints – low sheen or semi gloss acrylic. They are easy to paint with and can withstand weathering. • Selecting background colours that will match the main colour of the mural can greatly reduce the overall time taken to complete the work. • Paint in a broad background before you do any drawing. This is much quicker than trying to paint around things; and it will give the mural a more natural look. • Don’t spend time drawing too much detail. Do a basic outline and paint the rest. • It is quite important with a mural to work from top to bottom. Because of the scale, drips can be a major problem. You also get tired as the mural progresses, so if you’re not climbing…

• Unlike leadlighting, where your glass cutting skills need to be perfect for the perfect fit, cutting for mosaics allows more freedom. Cut the glass to fit the design and then place the cut pieces into a pleasing fashion. • When tinting powdered grout with acrylic paints, always mix more than you think you will need. It is almost impossible to get exactly the same colour tint a second time. Remember that wet grout is at least two shades darker than dry grout. • ‘Spot’ grouting is quite a tricky procedure. Work in cool conditions so that the grout does not dry out too quickly. Mask off any area where you do not want overlapping colours. The occasional ‘blend’ of grout colours, I think, is acceptable in this sunset scene.…

MATERIALS • Arches Rough Watercolour Paper. • Various pencils and pens as described. • Selected Matisse acrylic paints. STEP ONE To design a mask from my imagination, I started by making a rough sketch with a 2B pencil (which is easier to erase). I am not always happy with my first sketch, and I often change things. STEP TWO I introduced pen work on the eyes and the mask. For this, I used Faber Castell Pitt artist pens because they are waterproof and lightfast. I built up the curly strokes around the eyes and used a dark green Faber Castell brush pen on the eyes, together with a white gel pen for the reflections. STEP THREE Beginning to add colour, I used Matisse acrylics in Australian Sienna, Heritage Red and…

MATERIALS • Art Spectrum ColourFix paper – Black. • A mixture of pastel pencils and pastel sticks. • Sanding paper. • Kneadable eraser. • Sharpener. • Workable fixative. STEP ONE Because I love Art Spectrum ColourFix paper, I chose black as the background colour. In using black I hoped to highlight Woofa’s distinguished hair and beard. For this portrait I transferred the image (rather than hand-drawing it). I feel the importance of getting the features correct can make or break a portrait. I can hand-draw portraits, using a measurement method, but it takes a very long time and basically produces the same result. I like to have images of the subject around me as I draw, hoping to capture the personality. STEP TWO I examined the reference photographs and chose…