Innholdsfortegnelse for November 2021 i Artists & Illustrators

I know I am biased, but we have some fantastic interviews and technique articles for you in this issue. I'm very pleased to be able to start things off with a profile of the American photorealist painter Richard Estes, who is having his first UK retrospective at the age of 89. It is a chance to view his vast, meticulous paintings of New York up close and arrives on this side of the Atlantic thanks to a rather unlikely celebrity fan… Find out more on page 20. Our beautiful cover image, meanwhile, was painted by Tom Shepherd, the wildlife watercolourist famed for his podcast presenting and YouTube tutorials. One of the many interesting parts of my chat with Tom focused on confidence and how far too many artists are lacking…

The collective power of the Bloomsbury Group left a long and lasting impression on the first decades of the 20th century. This liberal congregation of intellectuals and creative types famously “lived in squares… and loved in triangles”, such were their complex, intertwined lives which played out amid the leafy residential enclaves of bohemian central London A century on, however, while those controversial lifestyles continue to fascinate, the wide-ranging work that emerged from this hotbed of critical thinking has also lost none of its power to impress: Virginia Woolf’s novels remain loved and studied the world over for their idiosyncratic visions of urbane womanhood and English social structures, Clive Bell paved the way for abstract art with his theory of significant form, and John Maynard Keynes became one of the world’s…

All artists at one time or another will have felt stuck in a rut. But whether it’s down to a lack of motivation or an inability to progress, there is one guaranteed way to rejuvenate and develop your practice – by immersing yourself in one of the much-loved, highly acclaimed art courses at West Dean College of Arts and Conservation. If this has piqued your interest, you’ll be pleased to hear the West Sussex-based arts school is offering one lucky reader the chance to win a £1,000 voucher to put towards a three-day or long-weekend course of their choice. No matter what stage you’re at in your artistic journey, all levels are catered for at the college, with 300 plus courses ranging from acrylic painting for beginners to botanical drawing…

This month I’m capturing another favourite subject in mixed media: the human head. I was lucky enough to have Aonghas MacNeacail, the wonderful poet and songwriter from the Isle of Skye, as my sitter. I love his shock of white hair, the bushy brows over earnest eyes, and his wonderful capacity for weaving a tale out of thin air – all wonderful attributes for an artist’s model. In this series, I want to give special mention to a particular medium and this month it’s the turn of oil paint. Oil paint has such weight and substance, from Rembrandt’s lacy collars to Lucian Freud’s fleshy nudes. There is a lush, buttery feel to it that is second to none. It sings out from the matt surface of dry acrylic paint and…

Sarah Butterfield With its dreamy pastel hues, palm tree silhouettes and car headlights speeding into the night, Sarah Butterfield’s Oceans, Light and Palms XIV has a touch of Miami Vice to it. In fact, it was a return to another American hotspot – California, where the British artist had lived and worked as an architect in the 1970s – that first inspired this body of work. “I took our family to that place of dreams and a whole series of new paintings flooded my mind,” she explains. Collected together in her forthcoming solo exhibition Oceans, Lights and Beyond, Sarah’s recent works provide a much-needed dose of escapism for an audience largely confined to British shores over the last 18 months. “I hadn’t thought of my work as escapist, but I…

Tom Shepherd is one of life’s enthusiasts. Whether he’s talking about his latest artistic project or his long-term love of wildlife, his new home in Pembrokeshire or his passion for surfing, a conversation with him is a constant stream of infectious positivity and genuine intrigue about how the world works. He’s the sort of person who would find the bright side to a sudden downpour and no doubt treat his house falling down as a chance to learn a bit about architecture. The 36-year-old’s optimistic and knowledgeable outlook has made him not only a rising star in wildlife painting, but also one of the UK’s most in-demand art tutors and presenters. His YouTube tutorial videos have racked up tens of thousands of views, while more than 50 episodes of his…

Jeannie Kinsler was born in Stockport, England in 1963, before moving to South Africa. She left school to study a diploma in graphic design from Technikon Natal (now the Durban University of Technology), only turning properly to painting in her late 30s following three years in the studio of South African artist Pascale Chandler. Jeannie returned to England in 2019 and has since exhibited with the Royal Society of Portrait Painters and New English Art Club. Where does a still life painting begin for you – is it an object? The light? A concept? It’s probably a combination of those things. I do tend to paint from a collection of objects that I have gathered, even quite random things, but also some very treasured things. Sometimes I just come upon…

1 LATE CONSTABLE 30 October to 13 February 2022 John Constable’s seminal six-foot scenes of the River Stour are arguably the most iconic landscape paintings in British art. Yet this new survey uses the final offering in the series, 1825’s The Leaping Horse [above], as a springboard to explore the artist’s final 12 years. Among more than 50 artworks on show will be mezzotint prints, watercolours and more full-scale oil paintings, as well as some of his famous plein air cloud studies. Royal Academy of Arts, London. www.royalacademy.org.uk 2 THE EXPRESSIVE MARK 17 November to 2 April 2022 Abstract Expressionism was arguably the first artistic movement that shifted the focus of Western art from Europe to America. Nevertheless, post-war British artists still had a part to play in this new…

Since you’ve been making art, have you ever had a moment when your work has taken a leap forward? A time when something clicks and suddenly you have a creative change for the better? If I look back on the last 16 years of my printmaking career, I can point to specific moments when I can see sudden innovation has occurred. While it is impossible to engineer such magic, there are a few things you can do to improve your chances of a creative breakthrough. Firstly, don’t expect them every day. While we all hope such developments will be a regular occurrence, it is unrealistic to hope they will happen frequently. For the most part an artist’s career is one of linear progress. The more experience and skills you gain,…

Hashim’s materials • Paints Azo Yellow Lemon, Azo Yellow Medium, Azo Orange, Ultramarine Violet, Permanent Blue Violet, Cobalt Blue (Ultramarine), Greenish Blue, Permanent Green Light, Phthalo Green, Yellow Ochre, Burnt Sienna and Titanium White, all Amsterdam Standard acrylics • Brushes Daler-Rowney Skyflow large flat brushes, sizes 1/2”, 1”, 1.5” and 2” • Support Stretched cotton canvas, 60x75cm • Mixing Tray • Water pot1 1 Lay out colours Have you ever looked at your mixing tray or scrap piece of paper and found the crudely mixed colours more striking than what eventually landed on your canvas? It is unfortunate that acrylic paint can quickly become dull, especially if it is mixed or diluted too much. If you want vibrant, luminous paintings, mixing directly is a great technique to try. Begin by…