Category: Art

Pastel Painting

Published on by Margaret5 Comments

For a change I thought I’d write about what I’ve been painting and some painting books.

After dabbling with watercolours and trying out acrylics I’ve settled on pastel painting – or at least the paintings I’ve done recently have all been with pastels, using a mix of soft pastels, hard pastels and pastel pencils. Pastels are pure pigment, held together with a small amount of gum. You can use them on their own or blended together. You do get your fingers messy though!

There are loads of books on watercolour and oil paintings, not so many on pastels, but I have a small selection that I’ve found useful. They all begin with the basics, explaining the different types of pastels and the various techniques, composition and giving step by step demonstrations of how to build up your picture.

  •  The Pastel Artist’s Bible, edited by Claire Waite Brown – this is spiral bound so it’s easy to use and full of good ideas, but the illustrations are quite small. This is more of a reference book than an ‘how to paint’ book.
  • Pastel School by Hazel Harrison – another good book of reference on techniques and developing your own style.
  • Pastel Workbook: a complete course in ten lessons by Jackie Simmonds. This is what it says in the title, with lessons in landscape, water and skies, still life, winter scenes and sketching.
  • Pastel Painting Step-by-Step by Margaret Evans, Paul Hardy and Peter Coombs, a lovely book, with large illustrations from three artists demonstrating a variety of styles and techniques.
  • Painting with Pastels, edited by Peter D Johnson, another book of demonstrations by different artists, which I’ve found very useful for the descriptions of how each artist works. It highlights the fact that there is no correct way of painting.

Posts on paintings

Published on by Margaret5 Comments

On the 6th anniversary of my blog I wrote about a selection of books that I’ve enjoyed over the last six years. I thought I’d also look back at some of my favourite artists and paintings, that I’ve written about. It’s taken me quite some time, but here they are, with links to my posts.

(Click on the images to enlarge them)

Claude_Monet The Artists House at Argenteuil1

The Artist’s House at Argenteuil by Claude Monet,  oil on canvas painted in 1873, now held in the Art Institute of Chicago. I especially like this painting because of the colours and also the figures adding personality.

beata-beatrix

Beata Beatrix by Dante Gabriel Rossetti, completed in 1870, oil on canvas, held in Tate Britain. This portrait, mourning the death of Lizzie Siddell, shown in a trance-like state, was inspired by Dante’s poem La Vita Nuova about his love for Beatrice.

ChattertonChatterton by Henry Wallis, 1867, oil on canvas, 1856. Thomas Chatterton was an 18th century poet who committed suicide. Peter Ackoyd’s novel Chatterton tells the story of the artist’s suicide.

Van Gogh Church at Auvers-sur-Oise 1890-6

 Vincent Van Gogh’s Church at Auvers-sur-Oise, oil on canvas, 1890. I love the colours and the wonky perspective.

Hunt Birds nestPrimroses and Bird’s Nest by William Henry Hunt (1790 €“ 1864), an English watercolourist. The date of this painting is not known – thought to be during the 1840s. It’s a still-life arrangement painted indoors. For more information about Hunt see Craig’s comment on my original post.

william-dyce-blog

Pegwell Bay, Kent, a Recollection of October 5th, 1858 by William Dyce 1859 €“ 1860. I love the sepia colours and the geological detail.

Turn of the Century Salon: March

Published on by Margaret8 Comments

Turn of the Century Salon

The Turn of the Century Salon, is a monthly literary event where you can share recent posts related to literature or authors from the 1880s-1930s. One of Katherine’s suggestions for this month’s post is to find a work of art or music within the same time-period that reflect the book and share it.

After reading Siegfried Sassoon’s Memoirs of a Fox-Hunting Man I decided to read more of his works, including his poetry and bought The War Poems of Siegfried Sasson, World War One British Poets: Brooke, Owen, Sassoon, Rosenberg and Others, edited by Candace Ward. I’ve also borrowed Sassoon’s Memoirs of an Infantry Officer and Siegfried Sassoon: a Biography by Max Egremont and am slowly reading through these.

I’m familiar with some of the World War One war poets, such as Rupert Brooke (The Soldier – ‘If I should die, think only this of me: That there’s some corner of a foreign field That is forever England), Wilfred Owen (Dulce et Decorum Est), and Thomas Hardy (Channel Firing) and so on, but I hadn’t read any of Sassoon’s poems.

They are satires condemning the war. Sassoon described his poems such as The One-Legged Man as “satirical drawings”, which he intended to “disturb complacency”. Here is his poem In the Pink

So Davies wrote: ‘ This leaves me in the pink. ‘
Then scrawled his name: ‘ Your loving sweetheart Willie ‘
With crosses for a hug. He’d had a drink
Of rum and tea; and, though the barn was chilly,
For once his blood ram warm; he had pay to spend,
Winter was passing; soon the year would mend.

He couldn’t sleep that night. Stiff in the dark
He groaned and thought of Sundays at the farm,
When he’d go out as cheerful as a lark
In his best suit to wander arm-in-arm
With brown-eyed Gwen, and whisper in her ear
The simple, silly things she liked to hear.

And then he thought: to-morrow night we trudge
Up to the trenches, and my boots are rotten.
Five miles of stodgy clay and freezing sludge,
And everything but wretchedness forgotten.
To-night he’s in the pink; but soon he’ll die.
And still the war goes on; he don’t know why.

Looking for more information about this poem I found this description in Siegfried Sassoon: a Study of the War Poetry by Patrick Campbell (page 94):

‘The first of my outspoken’ war poems.  I wrote it one cold morning at Morlancourt, sitting by the fire in the Quartermaster’s billet, while our Machine-Gun Officer shivered in his blankets on the floor.  He was suffering from alcoholic poisoning, and cold feet, and shortly afterwards departed for England, never to return.  Needless to say, the verses do not refer to him, but to some typical Welshman who probably got killed on the Somme in July, after months and months of a dog’s life and no leave.  The Westminster refused the poem, as they thought it might prejudice recruiting!!’

Reading Sassoon’s war poems brings home the horrors of war, the deaths, the devastating injuries and the appalling indifference of the war leaders and the lack of understanding of the people back home.

Similarly some works of art were considered controversial and not suitable for public viewing. Such a painting is Paths of Glory by Christopher Nevinson showing the corpses of two dead British soldiers lying face down in the mud among barbed wire behind the Western Front. Their helmets and rifles lie in the mud next to them.

Paths of Glory by Christopher Nevinson 1917 Oil on Canvas Collection: © Imperial War Museum

This painting is held in the Imperial War Museum website. Its description is:

“The title is a quote from ‘Elegy Written In A Country Church-Yard’ by Thomas Gray. ‘The boast of heraldry, the pomp of pow’r, And all that beauty, all that wealth e’er gave, Awaits alike th’inevitable hour. The paths of glory lead but to the grave.‘ Whereas the poet reflects on bodies dead and buried in a church-yard, the so-called ‘Paths of Glory‘ have led these soldiers to death in a wasteland.

‘Paths of Glory‘ was famously censored by the official censor of paintings and drawings in France, Lieutenant – Colonel A N Lee. His concern presumably being the representation of the rotting and bloated British corpses at this stage in the war. The decision was confirmed three months before the opening of his exhibition at the Leicester Galleries in 1918 but Nevinson still included the painting with a brown paper strip across the canvas, blatantly inscribed with the word ‘censored’. As a result, Nevinson was reprimanded for exhibiting a censored image and for the unauthorised use of the word €˜censored’ in a public space. Predictably, the stunt created the publicity Nevinson desired. The painting was purchased by the Museum during the course of the exhibition.”

This was the ‘war to end war’! The pity is that it didn’t.

Saturday Snapshot: more cat pictures!

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This time it’s the Cheshire Cat!

Last Sunday was my granddaughter’s birthday. Her party had an Alice in Wonderland theme and so instead of pin the tail on the donkey it was stick the smile on the Cheshire Cat.

I drew a cartoon version of the Cat and M and I painted it in pink and purple stripes:

here’s the Cheshire Cat minus its smile:

and here with smiles added by the children blindfolded:

For more Saturday Snapshots see Alyce’s blog At Home With Books.

Cats: Drawing and Painting

Published on by Margaret5 Comments

I drew this last week, copied from a card, using pencils and pens. It’s made me keen to try painting/sketching our cat Heidi. She’s white so I’ll have to use coloured paper, or a coloured background.

I looked for help in this beautiful book:

 Cats: Drawing and Painting in Watercolour by Lesley Fotherby. This is what she has to say about drawing white cats on white paper:

You can’t paint the cat in white, so you have to paint the background and leave the cat to show up against it, ie look at the negative shape, paint that in and the positive image will appear. (page 96)

I’ve tried negative painting before and didn’t find it easy. She also suggests using pencil and paint and to illustrate the technique shows this painting:

There is so much in this book, from using different materials, paper and techniques  to showing how to depict movement and markings and composition. I’m going to study it and have a go.

Previously when I’ve posted photos of my sketches some people have commented that they wish they could draw. I can only endorse what Lesley Fotherby writes in this book:

Many people feel that being able to draw is a gift and that either you can draw or you can’t. It is true that some will find it easier than others, but in fact drawing is a skill which can be learnt like any other. As with other skills, it can only improve with practice, so do not be discouraged if your first efforts are unsatisfactory. …

Learning to draw is a bit like learning to swim: you can stand on the side of the pool and listen to a lecture, or you can jump in, wearing your lifejacket of course, and feel the element around you. Then you understand what they are all talking about. (page 8)