Demo sheds light on the painter’s technique and approach David Cobley is an English portrait and figure painter, best known for his oil paintings of famous people including actors, royalty, broadcasters, and leaders of large institutions. Luckily for us, David lives in Wiltshire and this demo came about by chance when one of our members, Ken Baldy, attended a talk David gave to a local business group about his life and work. Chatting after the talk Ken asked about doing a demo for us. And the rest, as the saying goes, is history. Held on 5 September at Lacock Village Hall, this demo is our best-attended in recent years, if not ever. The chance to see a painter of such calibre at work proved highly appealing. With about 40 people present, including some visitors, we ran out of chairs so for a few it was standing room only. The aim of the demo was for David to paint a portrait of a ‘live’ sitter, who we could choose, and show how he approaches his craft. Given that Ken instigated the demo it was only fitting that he was David’s muse for the session. David started the demo with a question for the audience; what did we want him to cover during the session? His technique and thinking, was the answer. Equipment With Ken in position sitting on a chair on the hall’s stage, a pale gold curtain as backdrop, and David all set up, he quickly explained about the kit he’s using:
Initial marks He pre-paints a canvas usually with a neutral, greeny blue background, saying that this is partly so as not to feel daunted by a white canvas and it gives a tone to work into. He explains he thinks more in tone than in colour, and this background is 3-4 on the tonal scale where 1 is white and 10 black. David starts the painting by making black marks on the canvas to indicate the position and tonal value of the eyes, nose and mouth, followed by white marks on the forehead, also for tonal purposes. He mixes Prussian Blue (PB) with Venetian Red (VR) to make a darkish grey and advises people to use bigger brushes than you think you need, for faster coverage. Impatient by nature, says David, he likes to see quick results when he paints. The first marks made on the canvas are really important, he says. As he’s never painted Ken before, he doesn’t know what his head looks like so he explores it first. He explains that if this was a normal sitting he would have done some sketches beforehand for exploration. Next he starts thinking about Ken’s head, neck and shoulders and makes a rough outline on the canvas. He also pointed out that, while painting, he constantly flicks his eyes quickly from Ken to canvas and back again, and constantly adjusts the drawing as he goes. He tells us that he has a life size skull at home so is very aware of bone structure and how the flesh falls on a face. Fleshing out Having got the outline down, David changes the paint to Yellow Ochre (YO). He’s now thinking about the contrast of Ken’s pale blue shirt against the warmth of his face and the greeny/blue background so puts YO on the background. For the forehead skin colours he uses a warmer blue than PB, Ultramarine Blue (UMB) and a different brush for each pigment to avoid muddying the colours. Tonally, the forehead is 3 on the scale, he informs us – an overhead light shines on it. He reminds us that the head is asymmetrical so he tends to paint one feature (such as an ear) on one side of the head and checks the corresponding feature on the other side of the face straight away, for accuracy. As he was making adjustments David remarked matter-of-factly that Ken’s neck is thin. Ken retorted, “Well, it’s been wrung a few times!” The audience chuckled loudly, enjoying the banter. Ken pointed out that he’d noticed the high degree of concentration on David’s face when he looks at Ken and back to the canvas. Someone commented that he hadn’t done much to the eyes but nevertheless the likeness is there, just as they are. The best advice he says he’s ever been given came from his school art teacher. He told him to paint what you see, leave your preconceptions at the door. David says he’s conscious the painting looks a mess at this stage, so tries to ignore the messy start and reassure himself that he’s done this before; it will be OK. He need not have worried. Within a mere 20 minutes of starting the painting he had captured a distinct likeness and the essence of Ken. Further refinement After a short tea break we resume. So far he’s used PB, YO, VR for this painting. Responding to a question from the audience about preferred colours, he says he uses PB and VR a lot, but apart from those doesn’t have a standard set of colours as such. Always aware of complementary colours he tries to bring them out in his work, with this painting the colours are orange and blue. Although working from a photo of a subject can sometimes be helpful David says there’s no substitute for a sitting with the person. In portraits you’re trying to create the illusion of a 3D object in space, using pigment and brushes. That’s hard to do from a photo because it’s a flat, 1D surface. Talking as he works, David explains that he’s trying to suggest Ken’s neck is dipping into the collar. More friendly banter ensues. Ken: “Do I look like a tortoise to you?” David: “I think I need my lawyer!” “You’re coming out of your shell, Ken,” quips someone in the audience. As well as painting people David says he loves to get out into countryside and paint the lovely landscape of Wiltshire. He also likes to think, and be controversial in his paintings. Now that he adds more detail and refines the painting he uses thicker paint, which you tend to do as a painting progresses. He adds that using paint straight out of the tube is probably the best approach from a permanence standpoint as it has been mixed specially for this purpose. Asked how to avoid over working or flattening out when painting from a photo, he replies, “Good question. I suppose it’s experience, knowing when to stop.” The session went in a flash and suddenly it was 9pm, time to stop. Feedback from attendees was overwhelmingly positive, saying the demo was “superb”, “amazing”, “fantastic”, “great to listen to – gave us factual information but didn’t overdo it”, “a privilege”, “incredible and inspiring”. Our thanks to David for making it such an enjoyable and interesting evening, and to the art group members who helped to make it all run so smoothly on the night. David spent another hour and a half on the painting the following day; his final version is below. It's interesting to see that the relatively small tweaks and refinements at this stage make such a major difference overall. The painting will soon adorn a wall in Ken’s house, if it doesn't already. David's Devizes exhibition starts soon
David is exhibiting in Devizes, at the White Chalk Gallery, 5 Old Swan Yard, SN10 1AT, from 17 Sept – 5 Oct 2024, Tuesday to Saturday, 10am to 5pm. Called Traces, the exhibition also features ceramics by Janene Waudby. More information is available on David’s website, where you can also buy a copy of his book, All by Himself. It’s a fascinating read, discussing his artistic influences and putting his work into an art historical context by charting his work through key stages of his career.
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A chance to enter your art into two major local art exhibitions
40th anniversary of the demolition of the Harris factory, Calne This year is also the 40th anniversary of the demolition of the C&T Harris bacon factory, which dominated Calne's town centre for many years and was its biggest employer. To mark this anniversary the Festival is holding a community art project, inviting people to buy and decorate one of 500 papier mache pigs. This has been under way all summer, creating a great deal of engagement from people and some impressively themed and painted piglets. A selection of the piglets will be included in an exhibition at the Calne Heritage Centre throughout October, alongside exhibits charting the history of the factory and what it was like to work there. CMAF art exhibition - key submission dates and information
Oexmann Art Award & Exhibition, Devizes Held every two years, the main purpose of this event is to encourage and promote Wiltshire artists - who are born or live in the county. Wiltshire Museum organises and holds the exhibition in Devizes home, which includes selected entries and is open to the public from 19 October to 23 November, 2024.
Key facts
Join us on Thursday evening, 5 September at Lacock Village Hall This chance to see well-known Wiltshire artist, David Cobley, at work is one that's not to be missed! David, one of England's foremost portrait and figure painter, will be painting a portrait in oils, working with a live model on the night, explaining and demonstrating his approach. He has been commissioned to paint many famous personalities during his career including comedian Ken Dodd (a remarkable painting of reflections now hanging in the National Portrait Gallery), broadcaster Sir David Attenborough to mark his 96th year, The Princess Royal, and artist David Hockney, as well as lesser-known people.
He is driven by his fascination with the way human beings think, move and behave. His book, All by Himself, discusses his artistic influences and charts his career is well-worth reading. To learn more about David and his work, please visit his website. Here are a few of his portaits, provided by David and including a self-portrait. Details of the demo are on the poster shown. A look back at Kate Wade’s demo for Lacock Art Group Kate is a Wiltshire based landscape artist who specialises in watercolour and gouache, and who also uses acrylic inks, acrylics and oils in her paintings to convey certain characteristics to best effect. She finds inspiration for her work from nature, the countryside and coast, which offer a never-ending variation of colours, patterns and textures through the four seasons. You can see Kate’s work in an exhibition at The Corsham Gallery, in Corsham, Wiltshire, until 28 August. We were very pleased to welcome Kate at the end of May to give an insight into her approach to painting along with some tips about how to apply her technique into our own artwork. Kate used a reference photo taken of Avebury earlier in May, which Kate calls the ‘fluffy month in the countryside. The scene is of distant trees and hedgerows, beyond a bright yellow field in the middle ground, and a dense bank of foliage (grasses, nettles, cow parsley) in the foreground. Her style is very loose and tends to feature fresh, bright colours. Getting started Her ‘go to’ paper is 300g/m2 Bockingford stretched NOT (cold pressed) paper. For the demo Kate uses half a full sheet of this paper, taped to a board. She prefers Jackson’s Art Supplies own brand paint of watercolour paint or Windsor & Newton’s Professional series, and tends to use flat paint brushes. Kate starts off by drawing a light sketch, placing the horizon centrally on the paper – there are no rules, she says. Initially she focuses on the foreground, aiming to put texture here, using masking fluid to block off twigs and other foliage, preparing the base for further layers of paint to give the impression of masses of leaves. Next she spatters masking fluid with an old toothbrush, using a very light touch. Trying not to overdo the cow parsley. The applicator for the masking fluid (which has a small pipette able to mask off quite fine lines) is from Jackson’s Art. After this she moves to the sky and before approaching the bottom half of the painting. Sky and foreground Tackling the sky is always a bit scary, acknowledged Kate; it was comforting to hear that even accomplished, professional artists also find this rather daunting at times. Using a range of different blues, beginning with Cobalt Blue for the stream of blue sky among the clouds, followed by Kings Blue Light, Kate then adds another shade of blue. She softens the edges of the clouds for variation and darkens this with Burnt Sienna, running it into the Cobalt and dabbing with tissue paper to soften it. Generally Kate paints her skies wet on dry, preferring a bit more control over the paint than you get with wet on wet. Now Kate moves to work on the foreground, putting in some acrylic ink, which is waterproof, to represent grasses and leaves. She builds up foliage of nettles etc in layers, making grassy lines with a rigger brush, getting movement into them, mixing Yellow Ochre with Emerald Green. Using a small squirrel mop she makes nettle shapes on the grass before laying a wash. Fields and distant trees Kate next turns her attention to the fields in the middle ground of the composition, first applying yellow, the lighter, brighter colour, to avoid it getting lost. Starting with Cad Yellow Light plus a bit of Indian Yellow (a very intense colour) out of tube to warm it up. She takes yellow over the grassy areas as the undertone and adds yellow to where trees will be on the horizon to give them a little light. Permanent Green, knocked back with Yellow Ochre, keeps this area sunlit and bright while a ground of green will blend in with trees when they’re painted. She uses a bigger brush for the foreground colours that are more saturated and spatters paint to distract eye from hard edges. When this is dry, she paints a layer on top adding Cerulean Blue to the green to exaggerate reality slightly. Once the sky is dry Kate starts work on trees. She spatters and stipples the paint to achieve the effect of soft, fluffy edges on the trees. Getting the right shade of green can be tricky, says Kate, and Hookers Green is an option. For the smaller trees, Kate uses a round brush to blob the paint on, adding a darker colour in middle of the tree. Here, granulation of paint enhances the effect. She adds a tiny bit of French Ultramarine to darken the green further. Foreground depth, finishing off Kate decides to put shadow undertones into the foreground to the bottom half of the painting. To do this she mixes Burnt Umber and Quinacridone Purple, creating a clear, nice dark. Using a big flat brush she paints it across the foreground noting that it may look drastically dark, but the paint sinks in and you can put more colour over the top. Next Kate adds more green to the foreground shadow, keeping the green bright but tempering it with Burnt Sienna. The more opaque the colour the more it sits forward in the painting so she recommends using it to your advantage. The final step is to rub off the masking fluid from the foreground, applied at the outset, to create the grasses. Kate adds more detail with thick Yellow Ochre mixed with white gouache. She also use gouache to create white or pale highlights. Creating the effect of cow parsley is laborious takes time to do, but is worth the effort. To do this Kate uses cotton buds to spatter gouache, a creamy white colour mixed dirty water. With grateful thanks to Kate for an inspirational, enjoyable and educational demo.
A summary of the art produced during this special session Occasionally we hold life drawing sessions for our member artists to take part in if they wish, with the latest one held towards the end of July. Experienced life drawing model, Loz, sat for a variety of timed poses: 5 x 2 minute poses; 2 x 5 mins; 2 x 10 mins; 1 x 15 mins; and 1 x 25 mins. Loz was brilliant, holding a range of poses, standing, seated, and lying down. The high speed sketches were a particular challenge to draw, causing the brains of one or two of us to freeze in sheer panic at the prospect! It was hugely enjoyable, highly intense, and a valuable exercise. Here are a selection of our drawings. On behalf of everyone who took part in this session, we extend our thanks to Loz for her professionalism and patience. 5 and 10 minute poses 15 min poses 25 min pose Takes place on Sat, Sun, Mon 24, 25, 26 August, featuring artwork produced by members of Lacock Art Group
Profits donated to Lacock Primary School It may feel like summer has only just arrived in the UK yet we are already approaching the half-way mark, and before we know it the countdown to 2025 will begin! Time to get organised and ahead of the game. We’ve produced the Lacock Art Group 2025 Wall Calendar, featuring paintings produced by some of our members, which is now available to buy, priced at £10 per calendar. We are very happy to announce that we will donate all profits from calendar sales to Lacock Primary School, which is located in the village where we hold our weekly art group meetings. If you buy one of our calendars not only will you have some lovely art images to look at in your home but you will also be supporting a very worthwhile cause. Plus, the calendars make excellent, practical and appealing gifts. About our calendar The calendar is double A4 in size when open and hung up, with a feature painting on the top page and the relevant month’s dates on the bottom page. Each dates page includes a handy section for writing additional notes and reminders. How to buy a LAG 2025 calendar You can buy copies of our 2025 calendar at our August and November exhibitions as well as at forthcoming demos, while stocks last. Our next demo is at the end of October. Details of future exhibitions and demos are on the events page of this website. Alternatively you can request to buy copies by sending an email to: committee@lacockartgroup.co.uk and we will post calendars to you upon receipt of payment. Please include in your email:
Postage & Packaging All calendars come in a protective cellophane wrapper. Calendars despatched by post fit into Royal Mail’s large letter category, and we will post them in cardboard envelopes. This incurs an additional charge for postage and packaging of £2.80 (including the cost of the board envelope). Up to three calendars will fit into a cardboard envelope. How we selected the calendar images We invited all members to submit up to two images of their paintings for our committee members to consider. We received a great response and are grateful to everyone who took part. In the interests of fairness, we felt it was important to use a methodology for selecting the calendar images. So we asked committee members to choose their 12 preferred options plus two reserves, from the submissions. We collated their choices and ranked the images according to the number of ‘votes’ the paintings received, selecting the final 12 on this basis. To keep the process simple and speedy, our Chair, Joy Tickell, allocated paintings to months – some, of course, were self-selecting due to the subject. Joy asked committee member, Elspeth Wales (who co-ordinated the calendar’s production), to choose the cover painting, which she selected because it's eye-catching and general in its appeal. We wanted to offer as wide a representation of artwork as possible so we decided that each artist would only have one of their paintings included in the calendar. To see other artwork created by members please take a moment to look at their personal galleries on this website. There were a couple of requirements for submissions to meet, such as images/paintings had to be landscape in orientation and meet a minimum file size. We hope you find our calendar useful and would like to thank you, in advance, for supporting this project.
REMINDER: takes place on Thursday 30 May at Lacock Village Hall, 7pm.
Guests are welcome - no need to pre-book attendance. Pay on arrival. We are looking forward to welcoming local Wiltshire artist, Kate Wade, for her first demonstration to members and guests of Lacock Art Group. Kate is a contemporary landscape painter who works predominantly in waterolour and gouache. To find out more about Kate and what inspires her work please visit her website, where you can also see some of her brilliant art. Featuring our members' artworks, takes place on Sat/Sun 18-19 May
Demonstration review Watercolourist Jake Winkle, who’s known for his bold, loose and lively style, returned to Lacock Art Group towards the end of March to demonstrate his approach to painting wild animals. Before going any further, apologies to Jake for borrowing the title of one of his DVDs in the headline of this blog post. ‘Going Wild in Watercolour' is also the title of one of his art workshops at the White Horse Bookshop in Marlborough on 22 May. Jake previously demonstrated his method to LAG in about 2016, and he remembered one or two members who had evidently made a lasting impression on him! This time around Jake created two paintings during the demo; a pair of otters were the main feature, followed by a quicker painting of a cockerel. Equipment To start with Jake gave a brief explanation about his preferred painting kit, as follows. Paper He uses Arches watercolour paper, rough, 140lb/300g/m2 because it absorbs water quickly and evenly, allowing the paint to bed into the surface of the paper in a consistent way. He also stretches the paper to prevent it cockling when applying very wet washes. The paper then tightens up again when the paint is dry. Palette Jake used a portable palette for the demonstration, although a white dinner plate does a sufficient job if you have nothing else – the base of the plate provides a big enough surface to mix paints while the rim holds blobs of paint. He said it’s important to keep the mixing space of your palette away from paint itself so that it doesn’t become contaminated. Easel His easel is home-made, portable and built to his specification, with all the key features positioned exactly where he needs them to be. Paint As he is a colourist Jake, uses secondary colours straight out of tube rather than mixing them to achieve greater intensity of colour. Using the full range of tones and colours is key to his style. The brands he tends to use are Winsor & Newton (W&N) plus a couple of Daler Rowney colours. He uses these brands partly because they are what he started with but also because, in his view, some of the other brands aren’t as thick as W&N out of tube. This is important for his style of painting, which involves applying dark colours straight away, rather than the more traditional approach of building up depth of colour in layers. Brushes Jake recommends using hair (sable) brushes because they create a clearer wash, and hold about three times the volume of water than synthetic brushes. With watercolour, he explained that for optimum results it’s essential to touch the paper with the brush as little as possible. Practice, practice, practice It gets complex when combining all the basic techniques of watercolours so he advises learning how to use watercolours through a lot of practice, to the point where it becomes second nature: you know how the paper reacts to and absorbs water; you can anticipate what happens when wet paint hits wet paper; how watery or thick the paint needs to be, and so on. Only when you are fully familiar with how watercolour behaves can you begin to consider your own artistic interpretation of the subject, which is what makes your art different to others. Painting 1: Otters
Second otter The second otter, on the right of the picture, is very pale, providing contrast. Jake explains that paintings need busyness and quietness, achieved with tonal differences. Instead of grey, he puts in a combination of blue and crimson, wet into wet, to add depth. Spattering paint helps break up patterns and shapes, but also can help bring together the object and background. Making the whiskers overlap onto the second otter also helps to connect the pair. The background is a pale, delicate wash of cobalt blue, a dominant colour in the rest of the painting, helps to unify it and also helps to reveal the otters’ edges. Jake also discussed how he fragments, or breaks up, the image to simplify it, adding that the key to simplification is, in fact, understatement not omission. Find a way to understate the image, not omit elements because that can change the scene, making it unrecognisable. Understatement can be delivered through reduction – reducing lots of small shapes into larger ones by connecting them together, often by tone, and by merging shapes together with soft, blurred edges. Painting 2: cockerel This was a very quick, gestural painting.
Wrapping up It was a pleasure to welcome Jake back to LAG to show his approach. His demo not only proved to be inspirational for the 30 or so members and guests who attended, it also provoked some lively, good natured and amusing discussion from one of our more provocative members on the topic of sustainable art materials! Overall, this demo was tremendous fun, informal yet most informative. If you’re interested in finding out more about Jake’s work please visit his website where you can also find details of the workshops and online tutorials he offers.
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