Fresh Paint
Inspiring new artworks, straight off the easel
Daisy Sims-Hilditch
Strolling along the streets of London’s Chelsea, past grand redbrick Victorian houses, it’s not hard to be transported back to the 19th century, when the area was an enclave of acclaimed artists. Thankfully this painterly tradition, led by former residents such as John Singer-Sargent, JMW Turner and James Abbott McNeill Whistler, is being kept alive by
plein air advocate Daisy Sims-Hilditch, whose in situ paintings of Chelsea and its surrounds (as well as the snow-covered Alps) are to go on show in January at the city’s Portland Gallery.
One artist of note who has fed more directly into Daisy’s latest work is the Camden Town Group’s Walter Sickert. A subtle tribute to the post-Impressionist awaits in her depiction of the Piano Nobile Gallery’s façade, painted while a recent exhibition of his work was on display inside.
“He is one of my absolute favourite painters,” explains Daisy. “I was very pleased when the lady in the red coat came to sit down on the bench as I was captivated by Sickert’s use of red especially in his theatre pictures.”
More apparent is Daisy’s delicate descriptions of light and shade, a contrast investigated throughout her plein air work. “Painting in situ is the only way to effectively interpret and translate the energy and freshness with my brush,” she explains. “Light in the real world is a transient, fickle thing which you must be there for, to capture in that fleeting moment.”
Having studied at the famed Charles H Cecil Studios in Florence, the London oil painter has more recently been developing her palette choices to better capture the way light plays on different surfaces, whether it’s the dappled light on lemon-hued shop awnings or the autumn sunshine reflecting off silver-grey pavements, as seen in the self-explanatorily titled
The Sickert Exhibition at the Piano Nobile Gallery.
Another subject particularly well-primed for capturing these subtle variations in tone that the changing light brings about (and one Daisy loves to capture) is the River Thames. “You begin to appreciate how light plays on the river”, she says. “Over a day it can range from a green colour to a purple. To this end, I use a lot of Burnt Sienna, a rich reddish-brown paint, in both the river and on the buildings running along it, which lends a subtle harmonising effect.
“Both the River Thames and the alpine landscapes lend themselves generously to a braver use of colour,” adds Daisy, whose masterful manipulation of paint serves as a reminder of what being more courageous can result in.
Daisy’s solo exhibition runs 13-28 January at the Portland Gallery, London. www.daisysimshilditch.com
LEFT Daisy SimsHilditch, The Sickert Exhibition at the
Piano Nobile Gallery, oil on panel, 25x30cm
Ruth Fitton
Yorkshire-based artist Ruth Fitton has had an impressive couple of years. Since winning the Emerging Artist prize at the Royal Institute of Oil Painters exhibition in 2019, she has since taken home the Winsor & Newton Young Artist Award at the following year’s ROI show and the ARC Purchase Award in the Art Renewal Center’s prestigious 15th Annual Salon. A copy of her painting Things Not Seen will even be sent to the Moon next year, as part of the Lunar Codex time capsule project. Far from letting such success go to her head, however, it has seemingly hardened her resolve to push her portrait and figurative work further and have conviction in her ideas.
Gathering Thunder is a case in point. “I took a model up onto the Yorkshire moors to make sketches one day last autumn,” she says of how the painting began.
“The weather at ground level had been calm; up in the hills, it was wild. I found myself exhilarated by the stormy light, the battle with the elements, and the bleakness of the landscape. I knew I had to try and capture the charge of this pre-storm atmosphere in a painting.”
The resulting work is far more than simply a record of weather conditions, however. Ruth intended the work as an emotional response to the storm and a metaphor for facing life’s adversities, while there are suggestions of broader themes at play, such as climate change.
The final painting was developed in the artist’s studio outside Harrogate, where she also takes commissions.
She built the composition based around plein air studies of the model as well as photographs manipulated on her computer. Oil paint was applied not as traditional glazes, but rather subtle layers of opaque colour: “This means starting fairly neutral and slightly warm, with cooler, lighter and more chromatic colour notes floating on top.”
Gathering Thunder brilliantly captures the rosy glow of her model, while Ruth’s advice for painting faces is to avoid making the nose too long. “We’ve all heard the rule of vertical thirds – that the distances from hairline to brows, brows to base of nose, and base of nose to chin, will be roughly equal – but double-check that rule with this: the top edge of the mouth is often located vertically half-way between the tear-duct and the bottom of the chin.”
“Try it,” she suggests, proudly. “If you find you don’t have enough space left between the top edge of the mouth and the base of the nose, you’ll know the nose is too long.” www.ruthfitton.com
Sandra Penstone-Smith
When somebody reconnects with their creativity, there’s often an almost palpable sense of excitement as they contemplate the many directions their art could take. Currently on this precipice of possibilities following a 30-year hiatus is Portfolio Plus member Sandra Penstone-Smith.
Despite the Hertfordshire-based artist’s optimistic outlook, it follows a foray into pet portrait commissions which, due to a worry of not living up to client’s expectations, left her lacking in motivation. The change in mindset occurred while attending Louise Fletcher’s Find Your Joy workshop.
“The course gave me permission to create,” recalls Sandra, who enjoyed experimenting with different materials. “Mixed media appeals because it takes you one step away from putting paint down. It’s not so direct and there’s not so much fear of something going wrong for me.”
Six months on and Sandra has already developed her own style, capturing the changing seasons of her local heath where she walks her dog, Millie. Most of the artist’s works have begun by priming watercolour paper with gesso before strengthening it with newspaper and sanding it down to create a grainy texture on which to create.
Other signature moves, as seen in Blackberries and Willowherbs, include using a lino roller to apply acrylic paint to leaves collected on her daily walk which she then prints onto the paper. The detailed marks of the foreground are then made with various tools, with a wax crayon-like Stabilo Woody 3-in-1 pencil her preference for the tangled mass of brambles in the midground.
The paper for the collage elements, meanwhile, is taken from old sewing patterns and magazines. “I spend my evenings going through magazines looking for pages to use,” she reveals. “Everybody gives me their old ones. I have drawers full of different collage bits to use now.”
Maybe one day a page from Artists & Illustrators will be lucky enough to grace one of Sandra’s masterpieces. www.artistsandillustrators.co.uk/ sandra-penstone-smith