Carmarthen Sketch Club and Art Society
ON November 11 we were entertained by one of our longterm members who is also a very well thought of local artist, Peter Davies.
Peter prepared and inspired us to get back and paint! If unable to sketch outdoors, he proposed that we should choose some photographs and parts of them to include in the painting. In fact, we were reminded to map out a subject, composition, surface and medium to use.
We should plan colours, select brushes and other utensils. Before commencing further, prepare the surface of the board, canvas or paper that you are using – which may mean priming, stretching, damping, etc. Keep some spare scrap paper for colour testing. Back to basics – refresh looking at trees and how to paint them and shapes, etc. Rulers are allowed to draw straight lines!
Peter reminded us that patience can be a great help in these stages of preparation – he also highlighted a long list of items to help in the process of achieving good results and some new products available in the market place. He also had on show several of his landscape paintings to prove the point of obtaining good results.
We concluded by drawing and painting a coloured bottle showing shadows, light and dark. It is so refreshing to return to basics and share the results with a group of keen painters. His finishing tip was to keep paint fresh in a plastic container which may have originally held some well known chocolates! The container base can be used for mixing the paint and the lid to keep the moisture in.
Putting greaseproof paper, tracing paper or parchment paper over the pallet also helps and a light spray of water over the paints could help. Of course, after the use of the plastic container one can devour all the chocolates, which our group did with pleasure.
Our sincere thanks to Peter for a very enlightening session. There are so many options to use in creating a piece of art and always new methods to obtain exciting results.
Unfortunately, due to Covid we are unable to accept new members at this time, but we hope this situation will improve and we can invite new members to join us in the future.