Monday 17 October 2011

WHITE ORCHID ACRYLIC DEMO

Went across to the western extremity of Norfolk nearly into Cambridgeshire last week to do an acrylic demo for an art group. I took my favourite pot and white orchids, but the rest of the painting is made up including the lace cloth, window, shadows and turning the back wall into a corner to create two tones to give variety. All these things were created as I went along with no preconceived ideas.




Showed them so many different techniques, I never finished the painting completely that evening and due to insufficient drying time was unable to do the final glazes and subtle changes in tone and composition. However a quiet weekend enabled me to complete it.... oh! yes including changing the table from straight to circular, creating a corner to the room, softening the shadows ... all as follows:



Here are some close ups so you can see the different techniques I showed the art group members.


Textured pot: I created the pot shape with palette knife and modelling paste and whilst wet pressed on confetti/sequin waste strip of holes. When dry (used a hair dryer which they found quite amusing) I applied normal acrylic paints in layers of glaze thinned down with flow enhancer to ensure the pattern showed through:




I created the lace with white and Turner's yellow acrylic paint and painted darker holes in lace pattern, then added three layers of different coloured glaze to create the soft shadow.



Finally, here is a close up of one of the orchids.

Their chairlady rounded up the evening by saying it was very rare to have acrylic demonstrated in 2 hours and all they had learned would give them encouragement to tackle this medium. The buzz words to go home with were 'be more adventurous' and 'love colour - any colour not necessarily what was in front of them' .... or something like that!

7 comments:

Christiane Kingsley said...

Joan, I wish I could have been at that demo! You certainly shared some fascinating techniques with the group and your results are gorgeous. My daughter has asked me to paint her a large acrylic abstract...I think your sequin idea would be great for it...although I have to admit that I am a real beginner as far as acrylic is concerned:-(

Marie Theron said...

You did so well Joan, to tackle a truly complicated subject and making the skills attractive for others. I love the combination of techniques...never boring the eye!

debwardart said...

How much fun this one is! Love the texture on the vase. Very brave of you to do a demo "on the fly"! But a great success, I'm sure the group loved it. (I like seeing the detail work).

Joan Y said...

Ooo! I love the orchid. I need to buy myself some acrylic paint. Your artwork reminds me how much I miss it. I really gotta be more adventurous! :)

RH Carpenter said...

The lace is great but the texture on the bowl is just super! I enjoyed reading how you created it and would never have thought of doing that, not being an acrylic painter.

Sandra Rowney said...

Good to read how well the demo went. Dare we sketch the horses tomorrow?

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