The Society Of Fulham Artists & Potters Events Reviews

August

August workshop with Soraya French

Soraya’s work comes as something of a shock to someone accustomed to polite English watercolours – equivalent perhaps to a bugler playing “reveille” in your ear at six o’clock in the morning! It is certainly a eye-opening experience. Actually, just watching her unpack two suitcases of art materials with every imaginable variety of paints, inks and brushes in serried ranks was quite daunting. But that is the name of the game – the game is MIXED MEDIA!

Starting with a thorough introduction to perhaps a dozen different ranges of materials, from watercolour, gouache, and three types of acrylic paints, plus inks, pastels both soft and oil, wax crayons and water soluble ones, and coloured pencils to name but a few, not forgetting different supports and ways of creating texture, she stressed that the common factor was that they were all water soluble, so they can be mixed together any way you want. The media can be mixed. Just be sure to dry layers as you go, or you'll end up with mud. So the ultimate tool is the hairdryer!

Then to start her demonstration, Soraya taped a sheet of heavy duty watercolour paper to a board, and stuck seemingly random patches of tissue to it with PVA glue. Collage. Cue hairdryer.

Hairdrier at work.

Using a reference photo of a flower-market scene*, and without any preliminary drawing, she added at first a few small dots of bright oil pastels, since these would resist subsequent coats of water based media and shine through at the finish. Then dipping large flat brushes into her palette (a Ferrero Rocher Chocolate box, appropriately enough ! ) of bright-coloured inks, she started to build her painting.

Soraya’s palette and reference.

To this onlooker, and I don't think that I was alone, the mystery deepened as the work progressed. Although Soraya referred constantly to her subject photograph, the painting took shape as if in an alternative universe. Rich, luminous colours gradually filled the space with only passing reference to the original. She painted only what existed in her mind's eye.

What next…?

End of demo. Now you see it!

Only in the last 15 minutes of her hour-long demo did we begin to see the final image emerge, as figures turned from abstract marks into recognisable individual forms. For the first time Soraya used a fine brush, to add significant darks and highlights just sufficient to clarify the scene without losing the overall freedom of the earlier brushwork. There was spontaneous applause as she peeled away the masking tape to reveal another masterpiece almost ready for the framer!

Once again, Soraya, like the true professional she is, gave us a thoroughly informative, stimulating and exciting demonstration. Though I did not paint myself that afternoon, I really felt the urge to start again. I think I'll go and buy a box of Ferrero Rocher chocolates!

SOFAP Summer Exhibition at the Chelsea & Westminster Hospital

Another feather in our cap! Sales would have exceeded £3,000 but for one buyer who was given a discount for buying two paintings! That is nearly 50% better than last year, and we raised almost £750 for the Hospital Arts Charity. 85 paintings were hung, and 14 sold at prices from £45 to £560. A very good result, possibly helped by the additional mailing we did to 200 previous buyers in the area, in addition to the invitations sent out by exhibitors.

So my thanks to all who exhibited, and especially for the great support from a whole raft of helpers. Perhaps I should explain that because of the limited, space it is not possible for all artist members to exhibit here. Selection is therefore made on the following basis. The show must represent a majority of members who are based in the Borough of H&F, with exceptions being made for some who have sold well in our regular Spring and Autumn shows. This is because we are trying to raise money for the Hospital Arts charity, as well as promoting SOFAP to a new and wider audience. Buyers are automatically invited to our other shows, so in the end the Society as a whole does benefit. On this occasion, 23 out of the 32 exhibitors were from H&F, while sales were equally divided between in and out of Borough members.

Well hung, Lucinda and the gang!

July

July Workshop – wet-into-wet with Julianna Franchetti

After a series of heart-attack moments when first one and then a second tutor that I had booked for this event found that they were double-booked – we only pick the most popular tutors it seems! – I rang the Putney School of Art and Design in desperation, and was very quickly and efficiently introduced to Julianna, who not only teaches watercolour there, but has a studio overlooking the back of the Ranelagh Sailing Club! Talk about serendipity!

Julianna gave us a terrific workshop, and I have to apologise for a shortage of photographs as I was completely absorbed in following her instructions! It was ‘hands-on’ from the start. First of all, basic exercises to see how watercolour pigments react to water. Then some simplified paintings to demonstrate stopping out or masking areas with a resist such as wax or masking fluid, and trying out washes of colour to get used to drying times and strength of colour. It always dries lighter than you think. Boldness, be my friend!

Then after lunch, we all set out to make a copy, stage by stage, as Julianna demonstrated, copying one of her own paintings of a yacht on the sands at low tide. We were only allowed the three primary colours, red, yellow and blue, learning how to mix or layer them to good effect. Planning the different stages of the painting is the most important element, which is why regular practice is essential to master this technique. First the sky. A wash of purple leaving some areas unpainted, followed by orange - the wet areas mixing and blending. When that was dry, three layers of grey, allowing each to dry before adding a darker layer, gave an atmospheric perspective to the distant horizon. Finally, some dry brush work in the foreground, mimicking the sky above and leaving highlights to suggest sparkle on the water. And lastly all the details of the boat and its rigging.

Doing this stage by stage with Julianna was a great way to learn, and I want to say a special thank you to her for coming to the rescue at the very last minute. But it's a smacked wrist to me. I haven't picked up a brush since! But then there was the Summer Exhibition to organise… Martin Chaffer

Workshop attendees with their work.

June

June Workshop – Pastels with Freda Anderson

“Different strokes”. This just about sums up the variety that is such a feature of our workshop programme. When you attend a regular weekly class, you may sometimes feel a sense of ‘deja vu’, but the variety of different approaches we get from our visiting tutors is, in itself, stimulating…

Freda Anderson's clear-cut instructions flow in an almost continuous stream of information. It would take pages to record all the rules and tips that she shared with us but perhaps one of the most useful was some commonsense information about how to start a painting. Here's a short list:

1. Plan your painting to fit a specific mount or frame. Measure it, and set out the proportions on a sheet of plain white paper lightly with charcoal (because it is easy to alter). Divide into thirds horizontally and vertically

2. Choose an object or objects that 'speaks' to you - something you really like - and never more than three elements.

3. Place them carefully on the page, avoiding dead centre, until you have an interesting composition. When you are happy with it transfer the composition to 'grit' paper for working in pastel (Colourfix paper - see below). Avoid paper with a surface texture, unless you want a lot of hard work ''punching' the pastel into the holes!

4. Start with the darks first, working towards the highlights.

Freda brought an impressive collection of props for us to choose from, so everyone found something that appealed to them. And rather than spending time demonstrating, she let us get on with our own efforts, coming round constantly with positive comments or corrections.

The afternoon finished with a full 'crit' of each member's work with some very interesting demonstrations of how cropping with 'L- plates" (L shaped pieces of mount board) could improve the final composition. Altogether another successful day with a dedicated and much appreciated tutor. Thank you Freda!

Use a full size sketch o create an interesting composition of your chosen items.

Foreground light, background dark and remember where the light is coming from.

May

Spring Exhibition 2010

A general view of the Exhibition prior to opening, showing the controversial central display

The Spring Exhibition 2010 was opened by Ray Silverman, a distinguished potter who has recently retired as Chair of the London Potters. The opening night was well attended as usual, although sales were few, which did not augur well. And the second private view was sabotaged by road closures all morning to allow supporters of Chelsea Football Club (aka The Blues) to hail their team’s double success.

Pity they did not know of their heroes’ portraits hanging in the empty silence of the library! A missed opportunity for Jiri Keller! And it seemed that we were doomed to a very mediocre result, until at the last possible moment on the final day another £1,000 worth of sales came out of the blue! (No thanks to the Blues!)

Overall, sales this time fell just short of £5,000 which, in this time of economic uncertainty, could be classed as a small triumph! But the real story is the success of the Visitors’ Vote experiment.

More than 300 votes were counted – by stewards at the end of each day – and any that were clearly duplicates (in the same shaky handwriting for the same two numbers) were discounted. The electoral principle of ‘One person, one vote’ seems to have been ignored by two or three voters. I wonder who they might have been?

Anyway, a clear winner emerged at the final count in the Best Painting category, and the Jackson’s prize of £50 worth of art materials went to ROY PETTITT for ‘Dogs on the beach’ (14 votes). Runners-up were Roy, again, with ‘Beach Reflections’, and Tony Hannaford’s vibrant pastel ‘Autumn, Holland Park’ which each received 11 votes. And the voters also put their money on the favourite! Roy sold all three of his entries – what you might call a Full House!

Clear winner, Roy Pettitt

The prize for Best Ceramic was also a close contest, JAIME BUENACASA’s
‘Sea Waves’ bowl winning by 14 to 13 votes. The runner-up was Karen Fall’s no. 66 ‘The Natural Way’. The prize in this category was a one-gallon teapot, kindly donated by Emma Bridgewater. The winners and their work were photographed on the final Saturday by H&F News, so look out for the June 3rd issue.

Jaime Buenacasa with his winning bowl

I feel that the experiment was well worth while, and a big thank you to the stewards who, on the whole, engaged with visitors to involve their interest, and then found it was an easy introduction to a catalogue sale! A good ice-breaker!

I must add one note of disappointment, which is that some stewards still fall well short of the standard required. The importance of keeping full records of sales transactions is non-negotiable. The reason is clear. If there is a query, which inevitably falls on the shoulders of someone down the line who was not involved in the original transaction, then there is chaos, and it reflects very poorly on the Society. What you must do is clearly set out in The Good Stewards Guide. Please be sure that you read it each time you steward, and make sure that you complete the invoice clearly and print your name at the bottom, in case of any unforeseeable complications. When you consider the huge effort that goes into putting on our Exhibitions, nothing less than 100% is acceptable. SOFAP expects…

April

Workshop: Portraits in Oil Workshop with Ilaria del Turco

A full complement of SOFAP members gathered at the Ranelagh Sailing Club on St George’s Day for the workshop run by Ilaria Rosselli del Turco, ‘Portraits in Oils’.

Ilaria, who comes from a family of Florentine Renaissance painters, started her career as an illustrator but now concentrates on portraiture. She was able to offer us a great many tips and ideas for ways of approaching the creation of a portrait, based on her own experience and teaching, using photographs as a guide.

We were treated not only to an exposition of her methods but also to a virtuoso display, in which she started with a blank canvas and created a most arresting small portrait of her son during the course of the morning. During this procedure she continuously paused to elaborate on what she was doing and answer questions, making the process lively and interactive.

She began by showing us her canvas, on which she had marked the position of eyes, nose and chin to ensure that the work would be accurate. To do this, she had printed out a photograph of her son in the same size as the canvas, and simply transferred the information using tracing paper.

A practical tip: do the initial drawing using warm dark colours, since these lines will probably be incorporated in the shadows of your painting. Shadows should be made from warm, rich colours; light areas should be cool. The rule is, don’t let white sneak into your shadows! Ilaria emphasised this again and again. If you add white paint to a colour mixture it has an immediate cooling effect – and if both the shadows and the light areas are cool, the effect will be muddy. Should we need to lighten the shadow areas, we should use a colour like yellow ochre or lemon yellow rather than white. Always remember: cool lights, warm shadows.

Ilaria explains her choice of pigments for portraiture

Ilaria spent some time discussing colours and their several values: as well as tone (light or dark), hue (red, yellow etc) and temperature (warm or cool) she explained that each pigment has a chromatic value, or saturation level. She explained that, because human skin is not highly coloured, a portrait looks more natural if low chroma paints are used, such as the earth colours of yellow ochre, burnt sienna, terra rosa, rather than those with a strong chromatic value like cadmium red and yellow. If a colour needs to be muted, she suggested that grey could be very helpful. We may have heard much of this before, but it was most refreshing to learn about it anew in the context of her ongoing painting.

Regarding the photographs on which the portrait is based, Ilaria recommended these should be specially taken for the purpose. A good plan is to have the sitter pose in the required posture and begin by making some sketches and colour notes, only taking the photographs after the sitter has settled and relaxed into the pose. It helps to take several photos using different camera settings, and then try out different effects on the computer (if available). Helpful tips: no casual snapshots, no teeth, no flash, no sunset light.

Several of us had brought with us photographs we wanted to use as a basis for a painting. For those who had not done so, Ilaria offered copies of her photographs – and (beyond the call of duty, I thought) took photographs of those of us who wanted to do self-portraits, dashed home during the lunch break and printed them out so we could work from those.

Ilaria gave individual attention every step of the way

During the afternoon, as we worked on our portraits, she made her way around the group offering practical suggestions and comments. She is a sympathetic and helpful teacher and I personally found her comments very illuminating.

I hope I can speak for us all in saying it was a most interesting and enlightening session. This was my first experience of a SOFAP workshop, and if others are as enjoyable as this I shall certainly be back for more!

Some students’ paintings done at the workshop – all painted from photographs.