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What a week that
was-thanks to lovely friend Anne,
www.mims-easyart site is on the way & ready
to be passed around friends, family & anyone
interested in amateur art. The site is
ongoing, as are the easyart sessions, & we
tried out another couple of hours on zoom
last Friday morning. This is now booked as a
permanent event every Friday morning, so
will be passing on the link to those who are
interested & reporting back in these blogs
as we go along.
Given that this was only a teeny idea a
couple of weeks ago I am astonished at how
it seems to be working out- the main idea as
ever is to share the fun of painting with
friends :-) – no shyness, no criticism, just
some helpful hints along the way. Everyone
is enthusiastic & encouraging, & willing to
share tips, experiences-although of course
no lending of equipment is possible on zoom.
So there we were, brushes, paint & paper at
the ready- all copying from a previously
posted painting on the new easyart site –
paysage avec laurier rose. This was meant to
incorporate some landscape & a little bit of
floral interest, with a way of creating an
old stone wall with the new trick of using
some wax- a white candle or crayon, just to
make some random marks for texture. When you
paint over it leaves a vague, pale mark so
the more random the better, but don’t go mad
& do too many!
We finished off by scattering some salt on
the ground underneath the wall to give some
texture- & again up to everyone how lavish
they are with their scatters…..
As ever, a simple sweep of blue for the sky,
but everyone has a different version, some
clouds if you want with the judicious dab of
tissue or kitchen paper, or a deeper blue
than the card we were copying. The biggest
difference for me is learning as I go along,
& realising that it is much easier if I do a
sample painting beforehand, then I can put
all my effort into helping the others along
the way without dripping paint etc, or
losing the point of me being there to help!
I had also emailed the colours we’d be using
in advance & suggestions re what kind of
brushes to have to hand if possible.
Normally a reasonable sized round brush will
do most of what is required, but sometimes
it helps to have a square ended brush to
give a definite line for the buildings-
usually in the distance as am not gifted as
an architect, & have trouble with straight
lines…However, we tried a distant old
church/tower with a few strokes of sandstone
colour & later put in tiny touches of rust
for the tiles & some tiny windows - far away
buildings can be done quite easily as no
detail is required.
Then more sweeps across the paper to denote
varying colours of distant mountains, some
upright strokes for the cypresses, & moving
down to the fields behind the wall. Similar
colours for the ground underneath the wall &
we were nearly there. The greenery of the
laurier rose was done in a few upward
strokes & the pink flowers dabbed on at
random. The wall itself was shaped by
painting in some crooked lines & then
diluting those lines with plain water to
diffuse any hint of rigidity. As ever,
everyone has a different interpretation, &
it is great to see how the paintings
develop- sometimes one is happy about the
result, & sometimes not- but so long as you
enjoy the whole process it is a good way to
lose yourself for a while.
Given that we now have a permanent slot on
zoom every Friday, I shall have to think of
new subjects, thankfully backed up by quite
a lot of my cards/paintings done in the
past, but this is a creative time for all of
the group, so if anyone chooses a particular
subject we can always give it a try. There
was a request to do a building next week, so
am going to post the painting of the
Bastidon in Sillans-la-Cascade years ago,
before it became the smart new, function
room it is now- watch this space….
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