Innholdsfortegnelse for Issue 53 i Australian How To Paint

For as long as I can remember, I have drawn and painted and have always had an interest and awareness of the environment. When I was 15, my father’s job took him to Fiji so instead of pursuing a career in commercial art after I left school, I found myself living in Nadi for two years. I revelled in the uniqueness of the people, flora, fauna and the uniqueness of the landscape and I painted constantly. This culminated in my first solo exhibition. Various jobs over the next 20 years, including secretary, bookkeeper and sales manager, still allowed me time to indulge in my passion for art. During this time I gained a TAFE qualification in Fine Arts. Having a young family prevented me from relinquishing my full-time employment to…

MATERIALS • Paper: Arches 300gsm hot pressed smooth watercolour paper• Pencil: I used a 0.5mm HB clutch (propelling) pencil• Grey kneadable eraser: for removing pencil lines• Round Sables Brushes: Raphael and Winsor and Newton sizes 1,3,5• Palette: I prefer a ceramic palette with 10 or 12 individual sections to keep colours separated. It is also easier to clean.• Colours: Winsor & Newton Artists’ quality 5ml tubes. I always work with a very limited palette and try to keep my washes to a 2-colour mix, which ensures the colours remain clean and bright. Overglazing at the final stages gives areas of the painting a glow and enhance the underneath colour.• Colours used: Cadmium Lemon, French Ultramarine, Burnt Umber, Quinacridone Gold for overglazing, Raw Sienna. THE PLANT SPECIMEN It is necessary to…

ITALIAN ARUM FRUITS AND SNAILS Down in the far corner of our back garden, next to the compost bins, there is a clump of Italian Arum (Arum italicum). Early one morning, after heavy overnight rain, I spied the dramatic orange fruits and the snails that had emerged from hiding to feast on their bounty. While I love using colour, I must confess that drawing is an absolute passion. It is immensely satisfying to create a work of art using simple materials that every Australian school age child takes for granted – a sheet of paper and a pencil. For this particular tonal drawing, I selected a softly marbled sheet of pale pewter-coloured paper. Because my style is precise and detailed, I prefer to use propelling pencils and 0.5 leads. Beginning…

Contributed Choosing the right easel is an integral part of the painting process. The importance of having the correct easel is often overlooked but having a firm and steady easel can be as important to the finished painting as choosing the correct paint, canvas or brush. One of the first considerations when selecting an easel is the type of material it is constructed from. Timber is primarily used for the majority of easels although some easels are constructed from aluminium. Whatever material is used, the object is to create an easel that doesn’t move, shake or vibrate when in use. North American Red Oak, or any Oak for that matter is the finest material for constructing easels. It is an extremely hard wood, so glue and screws do not come…

Highly qualified Queensland artist Helen Lawson has a BA from Queensland University, an LTCL from Trinity College of London, and a Diploma of Education from Monash University. Her early years were spent on the Darling Downs in Queensland, where a long-term love for nature and colour began. She completed her secondary and tertiary education in Brisbane. After Helen married, she pursued a teaching career which included transfers to Southport, Melbourne, Sydney, Mackay, Perth and Terrigal. She is finally ‘home again’ on Queensland’s Sunshine Coast at Noosa Waters. While moving from place to place, Helen furthered her tertiary education and was also blessed with two sons. During this time she created many beautiful gardens and acquired numerous family pets. Each fortuitous move brought her into contact with differing aspects of art,…

Vanua Levu, one of the outer islands of Fiji, promises all the recognised hallmarks of an island escape … and much more. For the past three years, Leonie Norton has been taking two botanical painting groups and a holiday sketching group each year to Daku Resort – a small privately owned resort situated on the waterfront near the town of Savusavu. Modern bures offer comfortable accommodation, with the added bonus of being lulled to sleep in the evenings by the rhythmic lapping of water on the sand. Leonie is a highly sought after international artist and tutor. She is a prominent professional botanical artist who balances fine botanical art with her spontaneous pen and wash sketches. MATERIALS • Colours used: Cadmium Lemon; Permanent Rose; French Ultramarine; Sepia. STEP ONE Over…

Patricia Williams readily admits that she has had no formal background in art, although she loved to draw as a child many years ago. She did not study art at school – she has simply developed her creative skills by learning from books and observing the work of other people. After leaving school at the age of 15, this lady trained in the Public Service and became a secretary. She married young and raised a large family; simultaneously completing nursing and midwifery training in her late twenties. Circumstances led to her remarrying before she was blessed with another daughter (together with several stepchildren). During all those busy years she was primarily occupied with work and had no time for hobbies apart from reading. “When I retired in my fifties, I…

I live on a beautiful property just outside Cowra, NSW, and I travel into town, where I have my studio, six days per week. It has been very important to me over the years to have this separation of home and painting, especially when my children (now in their early 20s) were younger. When I think about what I do as an artist it seems to me I spend my days painting irrelevant details, well, what others may consider irrelevant, but to me these subtle colour changes and details are what make a painting really work. Our eyes look for these details as they scan a painting, even if we are not aware of it. The hard part is the balancing act of using these details without letting them take…

I have always drawn. I cannot remember a time when I wasn’t sketching something. My uncle used to holiday with us for two weeks each year and he would spend the whole time teaching me to draw. I absolutely loved our time together. My father was a design engineer draftsman and would bring home large sheets of paper for me to use. As an enterprising child, I used to run drawing classes for the neighbourhood kids. Instead of going to sporting fixtures on weekends, I went along to oil painting classes in the garage of a couple who were both artists. Strangely, however, the lady who ran the classes was allergic to terps. I can still remember her yelling whenever she smelt it. Kind of hard to get away from…