Lansdown Art Club: Roger Jones "Oil Painting. Good Habits. Bad Habits."

IT WAS certainly the coldest evening of the winter so far but members of the Lansdown Art Club were well rewarded when they attended Roger Jones’s talk and demonstration on "Oil Painting. Good Habits. Bad Habits."

He came with the usual equipment plus his special pot of "jolop" which he uses for priming and sketching.

With a limited number of brushes, some showing considerable wear and giving more than one effect, and half a dozen colours of paint, he explained his approach to producing an interesting picture.

It is not always wise to paint exactly what is in front of the artist but once the main subject has been chosen try looking at it from different angles.

Perhaps moving buildings, trees or water, adding or taking away objects can produce a better effect.

The way a canvas is primed also effects the final outcome.

Artists starting out tend to use a primer as one would do when decorating, giving a flat, smooth surface, whereas changing the direction of the brush strokes, perhaps using his magic ingredient, Roger showed how to add texture to the canvas and interest to the painting.

As he talked a picture was produced illustrating the effects described.

Trees appeared with different colour and types of bark, branches of different size and density, bushes and grasses of several colours where paint was not mixed but combined on the brush.

Final effects were achieved with the use of fingers, cotton buds and wooded wedges giving a picture with considerable interest and depth.

Picture of the month was won by Jean Sandham with a gentle seascape in oils.

The raffle was drawn giving a generous number of prizes.

The next meeting will be on Tuesday, February 9, at 7.30pm in Sainsbury’s cafe when Colin Brown will demonstrate street scenes, using acrylics.