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!