Coming soon - our first exhibition this year is on 15 to 16 April 
Everyone's welcome, including well-behaved dogs out for a walk with their owners! Please drop in if you're in Lacock - details are below - we'd love to see you.​

Informative and inspirational
A recent demonstration by Phil Madley that introduced our members and guests to encaustic wax proved to be an inspiring treat as well as a tonic. Phil has a background in design and graphics and originally got into encaustic wax after visiting a craft fair years ago where he bought a starter kit. 

Warmly witty throughout, Phil talked  about the kit needed to work with encaustic wax and 'waxed lyrical'  about the importance of using the right kit when you start out and then experiment with alternatives once you’ve mastered the essentials. 

Getting started
A basic kit consists of a small iron, hot stylus, hot air gun, a range of attachments such as mini iron, circles, squares, rectangles, plus a scriber, kitchen paper, and a duster. 
Phil buys his wax from Wakes Waxes which offers 48 different coloured waxes, each costing about £1.40 per stick (price is correct at the time of publication). Sometimes people are tempted to heat up standard wax crayons or candles instead of using specialist wax, but when that type of wax is cold it loses elasticity and becomes rigid. If the card it’s used on bends, the brittle wax will break and your artwork ruined.
He advises utilising a special coated card with a shiny surface when using encaustic wax, which doesn’t absorb the hot wax. You can also use board and MDF too. Prepare the MDF with a coating of gesso to create a surface barrier preventing the hot wax from penetrating the material. 
Ensure you set the iron to the right (low) temperature when you start off; iron temperatures vary from one to another so some trial and error is to be expected until you find the optimum temperature for your equipment. 

Mark making
Apply the cold wax to the warm plate of the iron, by rubbing the stick of wax onto it, similar to the way you’d use pastels. Bear in mind that the lighter the colour of the wax the runnier it is when put on the surface of the card.
So, the wax is warm and ready to go, what next? Phil showed us how to first convey the wax by ‘ironing’ it onto a piece of card. While the wax was warm and manoeuvrable, he then started to make patterns in the wet wax with the iron. He used the edge (side) of the ironing plate to make straight marks/lines in the wax, creating flower petals (as in the image at the top of this post), and more abstract designs by working the iron back and forth producing Spirograph style patterns.
Phil made this technique look easy, which is a testament to his excellent skills, as are the art that he creates using encaustic wax.

Using the the pointed tip of the iron produces dots to represent the stamens in a flower, while the attachments make marks such as small circles or triangles to represent whatever you like! The scriber tool can be used to scrape away wax as another method of making marks.
When happy with the pattern created, you can use kitchen paper to polish the picture, or to tone down the colour. This produces a glossy finish, and the picture can also be buffed with a duster.
It was inspirational to see the colourful beauty of the art that Phil achieves using encaustic wax and since the demo at least one of our members has had a go it!
Our thanks to Phil for opening our eyes to the art of the possible, and keeping us all engaged in a different, informative and entertaining demonstration.

To find out more about Phil Madley and his art please take a look at his website here.

A new logo for LAG

When we launched this website in November 2021 we did so using a temporary logo, with a plan  to replace it soon afterwards with an official logo. For various reasons, however, deciding what our logo would be has taken longer than anticipated. Until now!

We encouraged our members to be involved in choosing our new logo. So, instead of holding our usual end-of-year painting competition for members in 2022 the Committee decided to hold an informal competition to design a new logo. Entries were displayed at our Christmas Frolics event last December and everyone who attended voted for their preferred design – the entry receiving the most votes would be the winner. 

Fast forward to today: we're pleased to unveil our new logo, which from now on we’ll be using on all our art group promotional materials. The winning entry, by Elspeth Wales, was judged to have best met the brief of being clean, clear, simple, contemporary, and conveys who we are/what we do at a glance.

We hope you like it too.

On behalf of the Committee, thanks go to everyone in LAG who took the time and effort to design and submit a logo entry; especially as this type of graphic design is different to what most of our members are familiar with.

Demo diary date: Thursday 30 March
At the end of March we are putting on a demo with a difference. Instead of featuring watercolours, oils or acrylics, this demo is all about making art with encaustic wax. Phil Madley, a talented, contemporary artist who works with encaustic wax to create stunning, original, unique paintings, will take the audience through his approach. Encaustic wax is an ancient method of painting, using heated wax, often painted onto firm yet absorbent surfaces, such as wood. 

Take a look at Phil's website to find out more about his art and technique. To learn more about the history of encaustic wax and using it to paint with, there's an interesting article on Jackson's Art Supplies website.

What to expect
Phil will produce several paintings in wax during the demo, and pass them round for people to look at. He works with an iron, hot stylus, hot air gun, scriber, to name a few tools. He’ll also bring paintings along to the demo to show the audience and he promises the session will be fun, informative and quite a bit different!

Phil works on a flat table, rather than an easel, which means that the audience usually gathers around the table so they can see what he’s doing. Therefore, we will use a camera and projector, which will be set up above the table, looking directly down at the work surface, to ensure everyone has a good view of what's going on.​

Timings
Arrive no later than 6.45pm for a 7pm prompt start.
​Further details are available on the events page of our website, where you can also find out about forthcoming events organised by Lacock Art Group. 

Guests welcome
This demo is open to  guests and visitors for an entry price of £5 per person, payable at the door on the night. Please come along and join us. 

Featuring the work of South-West artists Max Hale and Paul Weaver
​
​Well-known local artists Max Hale and Paul Weaver are holding their spring exhibition – Creative Journeys – at the Tetbury Goods Shed Art Centre from 29 March to 7 May 2023 (Wednesdays to Sundays).

At Lacock Art Group we’re always happy to support local artists so encourage you to visit their exhibition and tell friends and family about it if you think they may be interested.

Further details are shown below. Both are excellent artists; Max works in watercolours, oils, acrylics, and pastels while Paul specialises in watercolour presently and also works in oils, acrylics, and line and wash.

To find out more about the artists and their work please explore their websites using these links:
https://www.maxhaleart.co.uk/ and https://www.paulweaverart.co.uk/

One cold Saturday in January professional artist, Jamel Akib, delivered a workshop for LAG members featuring four different subjects, each to be painted in acrylics or oils, in the style Jamel is known for – confident, deft, bold, brush strokes, blocks of bright colour, and an economic approach.

​It may have been chilly outside, yet the atmosphere and mood inside Lacock Village Hall, where we held the workshop, was very warm, relaxed and good humoured. Holding a four to five hour long workshop on a weekend is a different type of activity for LAG members, the aim being to offer more variety and the chance to try out new techniques under the guidance of professional artists. 

Landscape – St Agnes
Jamel started us off with an ‘easy’ landscape; a photo of St Agnes in Cornwall with hillside tin mines and bay in the distance, contrast turned up high making the vast expanse of heather sloping down to the foreground burst into a riot of purples, pinks and oranges.

​He showed us the step-by-step process for painting this scene. Starting with a simple outline drawing on a canvas or board pre-prepared with a pink/purple base, he then painted the sky using a mix of Naples yellow and white, turquoise with white for the sea, and burnt sienna for the buildings. Jamel painted the heather with a wide, flat brush, using long, vertical strokes to apply blocks of colour – amethyst, oranges and yellows – and permanent rose for the path. He continued to build up the layers of paint, adding shadows and highlights to the buildings, and depth to the heather. Then we all had a go! Photos on the workshop gallery page show how Jamel approached this and you can also see some of the paintings we produced on the day.

A few of us generally paint with watercolours and have little or no experience of acrylics so we felt out of our comfort zone. Nevertheless, it was good to try something completely different for a change. To attempt four paintings in four and a bit hours meant the pace of work had to be super-speedy! This was too ambitious for some so several of us opted to do two or three paintings during the session, rather than the full set.

Feathered friends - owl and hummingbird
Next up was to paint an owl and a hummingbird. Again Jamel took us through how to approach these subjects in a step-by-step process. This time, however, we didn’t draw the outline of the birds, we went straight in with paint. Jamel blocked out the shape of the owl’s body and head, using pale orange for the neck, darker orange for the body and turquoise on the right of the body to create shadows, adding permanent rose next to the blue for darker shadows. He applied amethyst for wing shadow detail and body feathers, giving it shape. For the face, he used a paler blue with a dab of yellow, and amethyst to suggest the beak, and chin line (do owls have chins?). Amethyst mixed with black were used for the eyes, with a speck of white as a highlight. To finish it off, Jamel painted large brush strokes in amethyst as the background, making the owl merged the body edges into the background. 

​Jamel used a very similar approach to paint the hummingbird, building the painting up in blocks of colour and applied orange and raw sienna for the head and body and explained the need to use interesting brush strokes. White and yellow were used for highlights, and green with raw sienna for the top of the head. To convey movement, Jamel advised blurring the body strokes into the background colour.  

Lion – up close and personal
The final subject of the day was a lion’s head or, to be more accurate, it’s face showing an intense gaze. By the time we got to this painting, the end of the workshop was in sight to time was fairly limited.
This exercise involved using a paste applied to the surface of the board to create a textured base, spreading it fairly roughly and randomly with a palette knife creating. This textured foundation really helps to produce a realistic effect for the lion’s hair. Jamel used a variety of colours for this painting: raw sienna; burnt sienna; burnt umber; and neutral grey. His finished version was impressive, as you can see from the image. 

Jamel’s workshop definitely stretched us, but it was also hugely enjoyable and many of us learnt new techniques to put into practice in the future. You can see the artwork we produced during the workshop on a dedicated gallery here.
​
To find out more about Jamel’s work, please take a look at his website:  https://www.jamelakib.com/index.html

On behalf of Lacock Art Group its chair, Joy Tickell, went back to school in early December to present a voucher for £175 to Lacock Primary School to spend on art materials.
 
The money was raised from the profits made at the Group’s exhibition in November, which was held at Lacock Village Hall, where members of the art group also meet on Thursday nights to draw, paint and learn techniques from one another. The voucher is redeemable at Artway in Melksham and given by the members of Lacock Art Group as a gesture of support for the local community.
 
Joy presented the voucher to two children from the ‘school council’ during the school’s celebration assembly when children were presented with certificates in recognition for a range of achievements and accomplishments, such as good performance and being helpful.

Joy said: “I explained a little about LAG, the exhibitions we hold and how that, as we had enough money in our bank account, we could donate the profit of our November exhibition to their school. It was a lovely occasion. The children were amazed and appreciative of the amount we donated, and it was a pleasure for Lacock Art Group to be able to make this donation. I hope this will also encourage some budding junior artists!”
 
In fact, two of the children excitedly declared their knowledge of Lacock Art Group via their Nan (Karen McGreevy) and Mum (Victoria Cleverley), who are both current members of the Group and skilled artists in their own right.
 
Our thanks go to personnel at Artway who were very helpful in producing an A4 sized voucher for Joy to present to the children (above).

Getting started
Catherine returned to Lacock Art Group in November 2022 to explain and demonstrate her experimentally loose watercolour style in a painting featuring colourful, abstract lake reflections. She also showed us how to create atmosphere as well as maintain bright colours by merging real colours directly on the painting’s surface in a controlled cascade. 

Catherine began by explaining that she used to paint in oils but now paints in watercolour predominantly, which is why she uses 'thick, juicy' paint. Bright colours are a hallmark of her paintings. 

Painting process
Her typical approach to a painting is to start with the focal point of the scene and develops it from there, using photos of landscapes for reference. When choosing water as a subject, Catherine pointed out that still water is easier to paint than fast moving water like crashing waves, waterfalls or rapids, due to there being less white space which makes it easier to control. 
 
When you’ve selected the scene you want to paint, look at the photo closely to find the way in to the focal point. For instance, is there a winding river that leads the eye, as in the example photo above?

To get started Catherine does a sketch outline, putting in shadows and other notable features. She tends to use Daniel Smith paint – they are often quite granular and it’s interesting to see how it contrasts with transparent paint. Moonglow is a good example; a purple grey, which is very granular in texture.

​Once the sketch is down on paper, Catherine wets the focal point area first using lots of water, letting it drip down the page. Due to volume of water applied she uses a watercolour board – watercolour paper that’s glued to card backing board; not only does it cope well with a lot of water it doesn’t need stretching. All good art suppliers stock watercolour board. 

In common with many watercolourists, her technique involves applying layers of paint to build depth and colour. The scene chosen for this demonstration has reflections in the water and Catherine recommends painting the trees and their reflections at same time. A useful tip to check whether the reflections are right is to turn the paper round ie if painting in landscape view, turn the paper to portrait so the reflections appear horizontally on the page. 

Another tip she gives is to twist and turn the brush to make organic shapes rather than punching or stabbing the end of the brush onto the painting. She uses a flat brush for most of the painting. Allow this layer to dry a little and then add more detail. 

Colours are key
Catherine loves to use bright colours, in particular turquoise which is a frequent feature in her paintings. Other colours she often uses are Sap Green, Raw Sienna, and Cad Yellow. Cobalt Turquoise, by Windsor & Newton, is another of her go-to favourites; a very opaque, acidic colour, which she uses to attract attention. 

Colour scheme is always so important in a painting, she believes, because as the artist you really need to like the colours to like your painting. She suggests mixing turquoise and yellow to produce a wonderful lime green. 

You can use the lifting off technique to remove unwanted drips and to reveal white. At the demonstration Catherine used a No. 5 rigger and a ‘stumpier’ brush to lift off paint. If you have any excess paint left on brush don’t discard it; you can use it elsewhere on the picture.

Watercolours dry lighter in colour than they look when wet, so take care not to over-correct the colour when the paint’s wet. If necessary you can lift off later to achieve the right depth of colour. 

In this painting Catherine uses Moonglow for the waterline, applying it quite darkly. As you paint in more detail, reduce the ratio of water to paint to thicken the mixture. Again, you can lift it off later if it’s too dark; this lifting off technique can also be used to produce a softening effect. 

To create the effect of ripples in water, use end of a flat brush to cut into the paint, removing thin, horizontal lines of paint. Catherine showed how she uses a long rigger brush to paint tree branches – the rigger has a bounce to it that’s harder to control, making it an effective tool for painting features that don’t require a perfectly straight line. You can also use negative painting in spaces between branches to make them stand out. 

When this layer of paint had dried, Catherine rubbed out the pencil lines and from this point on recommended keeping additional detail solely to the focal point area of the painting. 

​To bring the whole painting together she often applies a unifying wash, which dampens down the distant view and blends elements together. For example, bring blue in from sky and wash it over the trees to get a single colour. 

Catherine says she often walks away from a painting when it’s finished, returning to look at again with fresh eyes a couple of days later when you can see any problems in the painting. 

Catherine's demo was well-attended with an audience comprising art group members and guests, who fully engaged and asked some good questions. Our thanks to Catherine for delivering an excellent, informative, instructive and informal demonstration, which was very well-received by attendees. We look forward to her returning in the future.

By Glyn Overton

Pastels bridge the gap between drawing and painting whilst giving an extraordinary freedom with colour and mark making opportunities. They often open up for students a much greater understanding of mixing colour and the relationships between them as the colour is laid directly onto the page and unless blended too much they don’t tend to go muddy unless that is your intention. They sometimes give the impression that they are difficult to use but that couldn’t be further from the truth. You can overlay light over dark, blend colours to mix on the page, create exciting marks by using a variety of inventive techniques and generally have much more fun than with other painting techniques.
They come in a variety of forms, hard pastels, soft pastels, pastel pencils, oil pastels and water soluble pastels. 

Soft pastels
Pastels are made from ground pigment and a blender which holds the particles together, the soft pastels having a higher intensity of pigment to inner giving very intense colour and because of this they can be inclined to crumble. The range and intensity of colours, however, will give your work a very painterly outcome. Examples of these are made by Unison, Schminke, Daler Rowney and the better makes will give you stronger colour and a creamier texture. ​

Hard pastels
These are made with more blender and less pigment making them useful for defining detail. They can be used to complete a whole picture though it will be a slightly slower process. I often recommend the “Inscribe 64” box to people starting pastels as this box gives not only the bright colours but also some beautiful subtle colours which give your work a much more natural impression whilst in the early stages of learning to mix pastels. 
They can be used to give linear qualities by using the strong straight edge and fine detail with the corners. 
Conte pastels also fall into this category and were my introduction to pastels as a teenager. They also come in a range of natural colours so you can imitate some of the Renaissance drawings in chalk.

Pastel pencils
Several firms make these, the easiest to get hold of are probably Derwent, Conte and Stabilo. I use the Stabilo ones as I find they work well over soft pastels to give outlines and definition to fine areas. You can just draw with them on their own and I often use them for quick life drawings and sketches outdoors as they are easy to take with you. They come in a huge range of colours and a box is always a good suggestion for Christmas and birthdays! 
The honeysuckle (below) was completed at Lacock Art Group meetings over three evenings and is entirely done with pastel pencils. They are extremely useful where there is a lot of detail as in the Shambles picture in York (below), and worked well for the wet pavements.

Oil pastels
I often refer to drawing with these as like drawing with lipstick as they have quite a sticky, greasy consistency. They can produce some beautiful strong, pattern based images on their own or can be diluted with white spirit or turpentine to give softer results, demonstrated in the pictures below of the pumpkins and the churchyard.

,Water soluble pastels
These also have a waxy consistency, like oil pastels, but if you brush over the drawing with water they can give an even, transparent wash. By varying the amount of water, a damp brush can soften the drawing whilst resting some of the linear quality and once dry you can return to the work and add more drawing if required. These are examples of oil pastel resist with water colour pastels diluted with water. 

Techniques
Pointillism
It is quite fun to build up an image just using dots, mostly to create an optical mix of the colour. This is an example taken from a very small photo 5cm square, which I enlarged to 25cm square in one of my many efforts to stop working in so much detail.

Dashes and dots
Beginning to think about using appropriate marks to achieve textural effects, whether to create fur and feathers, rust and decaying surfaces, or stone and moss on buildings. The marks you make suggest the feel of the subject matter, as shown in these three examples.

Portraits
A variety of different pastels and techniques can be used when creating portraits. Soft pastels make blending easier and can be used in conjunction with pastel pencils for greater detail. Pastel pencils on their own are useful for quick sketches and life drawing. Either soft pastels or oil pastels can give a much stronger and bolder approach. These are some examples of differing techniques.

Methods of working
Pastels are much more like oil painting and acrylics than watercolour. I tend to start by thinking about what is in the background, like the sky and distance and then gradually coming forward in the picture, finishing with the foreground and main detail. This also applies to the use of colour, keeping softer and bluer hues in the background and building intensity and brightness as you move in the foreground. Light colours can be worked over dark much as in acrylics and areas not working can be removed either using a soft putty rubber or rubbing with a soft cloth. It is quite easy to build up an area again. 
​I block in the background colours first and then work through the layers, as shown here.

Mark making skills
Very much like all mediums, mark making skills are paramount. How can I make fur look different from a rough stone wall, or still water with reflections, or a bramble hedgerow? The answer can usually be found in the sort of marks you are making. Learn to play with the pastels. You don’t have to draw as though you were writing with a pencil. They can be rolled or used with the long side to block in large areas, twisted, heavy marks, soft marks, delicate pushed lines for twigs, smudged to create gradation and reflections, imprinted to leave the surface colour of the paper, and softened using a paler colour over the top. Just play and see what can be discovered. Here are some examples of mark making to help inspire you.

I hope you have found this introduction to pastels informative and wish you success and enjoyment as you explore their use in your art.

Join Lacock Art Group's demonstration on 24 November

Catherine returns to explain her experimentally loose watercolour style through colourful, abstract lake reflections. She will show how to create atmosphere as well as maintain bright colours by merging real colours directly on the painting’s surface in a controlled cascade. Later she will use paint straight from the tube on top (a legacy of her oil painting days!).

Catherine is a Member of the Society of Women Artists, a registered SAA Tutor and was recently appointed as a tutor at the Royal West of England Academy Drawing School. She has exhibited with the RWS and RI in London and regularly at the Bath Society of Artists annual show.  

This demonstration takes place at Lacock Village Hall, East Street, Lacock SN15 2LF, and starts at 7pm. Please arrive in good time so that we can begin promptly. 

Open to non-members

Catherine's demonstration is open to non-members for a £5 fee payable at the door. However, to help manage numbers on the night, it would be helpful if you could use our general contact form or email us at [email protected] to let us know you plan to attend. Thank you.