Hello Art Essence members!

Maryborough Art Society, have arranged something special for local artists on the 29th and 30th October. 'Colour, Wonderful Colour', is an acrylic painting workshop with Carol Seeger. Similar to those workshops Carol has conducted in Canberra, this is about working with strong colour to have the subject advance and recede (aerial perspective) as well as the use of colour to describe tone. Working with still life and discussing composition with the underlying framework will also be an important element of the workshop.Cost is $50 full payment, or $40 with MAS membership discount. Registration and payment are required by Monday 24th October. For further information contact Val McIntosh on 41233754.

"2005 St Mary's College Art Show"

The tradition lives on…. 19th - 22nd October. St Paul's Hall, Adelaide Street, Maryborough. With Prize Money of $8,820 St Mary's College Art Show is on again after a break last year. Entries close on 14th October and entry forms are available from Wide Bay Gallery. With fifteen sections this competition has something for everyone.

We have had many requests to bring 'Scholammer' watercolour paper back into stock but have been unable to source it. We have been able to find a paper very similar in texture called 'Favini'. This highly textured paper is in 560 x 760mm sheets and is a 340gsm paper. It is a bright white paper with a 20% rag content, acid free, mould proof and suitable for all wet and dry applications.

Remember when you had those plastic model planes and boats that you used to paint with enamel paint.  In all probability you used those tiny tins of 'Humbrol' enamel.  Wide Bay Gallery now has a selection of those colours for the hobbiest and model maker.  In just 14ml tins they are great value at $3.35.

We have a great buy this month on Canson A4 Sketch Journals.  They are premium acid free cartridge at 110gsm and with 60 sheets with bright transparent covers.  Priced at $6.50 they are well below retail of $9.00.  So handy to use when traveling or doing quick sketches in dry media.

Just a couple of the many new products in stock this month.  Our product range is growing at a phenomenal rate - do your self a favor and come into store to fully appreciate the variety available to you.

This month I thought I might write about adding texture to your work whether it be it in oil, watercolour, acrylic or pastel. With oil the easiest way to add texture to an overall surface is to use the gesso being used to prime the surface. While the Gesso is wet dab it with a coarse sponge. The impression will be left in the gesso as it dries, or a brush dragged through the gesso will leave a heavily textured surface. Once the original surface is dry additional coats of gesso can be added to 'beef up' the texture. This style is ideal where a heavy overall texture is required.

For lighter texture my suggestion would be to use 'Liquin' while painting and if a heavier textured look is required use 'Liquin Impasto' formerly known as Oleopasto. Oil paint used directly from the tube, generally has the capacity to allow brush marks to be visible and this is the effect, which many people admire in oil works. Bear in mind that oil paint dries by oxidization not evaporation so heavy oil paint film will take a very long time to dry (up to 12 months is not unusual), so be sure that the paint on the outer surface is oil rich, not turpentine rich, or it will crack.

The effect of texture in watercolour can easily be achieved by using single colours that granulate naturally. Colours such as those I have in the following table will granulate and give the appearance of texture. If you wish to force a colour to granulate for a particular visual effect Winsor & Newton have a product, which will make any colour granulate or make the effect more pronounced on colours that granulate naturally. It is called 'Granulation Medium'.

Granulating Colours
Cobalt Violet French Ultramarine Cerulean Blue Pthalo Green Australian Grey Raw Sienna Hue Burnt Sienna Nat. Raw Umber Ivory Black Cadmium Red Rose Madder Gen. Potter's Pink	Flinders Blue Violet Ultramarine Blue Viridian Olive Green Perm Yellow Ochre Raw Sienna Natural Aust Red Gold Burnt Umber Lemon yellow Cad Red Deep Permanent Mauve Caput Mortuum Violet
The amount of granulation may vary between brands.

Winsor & Newton also have a product called 'Texture Medium', which is made for use with watercolour.  It can be applied directly onto the paper or mixed with the watercolour first.  Alternatively the new 'Favini' paper we have in stock will give a textural effect.

Texture with acrylic can be achieved in much the same manner as with oils.  That is the gesso substrate can be manipulated to allow a degree of texture either with a sponge or brush.  In addition a 'Modelling Compound' may also be used.

Made under the 'Atelier' brand, modeling compound can be used for building up impasto (textured) areas in a painting either before or during any stage in the painting process.  It dries to a white satin finish and remains flexible (handy if you are using on a loose canvas).  Also ideal as ground preparation for canvas, paper or other painting surfaces.  Modelling Compound may also be added to acrylic paint as an economical paint extender where texture is required.  If more texture is required add sawdust, sand etc.

Impasto Gel is designed to be mixed with acrylic to give it body and stiffness, making the paint ideal for more exaggerated textural effects. Impasto Gel will also give greater brilliance and transparency of colour and gloss. Its milky colour becomes transparent as it dries. An aside benefit is that it is very effective glue for collage.

Getting the effect of texture in pastel is probably the most difficult because the pastel itself doesn't normally have any body, nor can it be 'beefed up' with additives. It is possible to give the illusion of texture by wetting a brush and dragging through the work, this will certainly give a different texture and look to the original work. One way of texturing pastel is to underpaint with an acrylic, which has been given a character with brush strokes or modeling paste.

A Note from Joan

LOOKING AT ART

Last month we had look at the origin of the pencil, so this month I thought we should look at paper.  Our ancient ancestors developed communication that while ideal within their individual groups relied on the passing on of information to other groups by one or other individuals.  No doubt a little embellishment probably occurred in the retelling, and eventually a form of visual language such as we see in cave paintings came along.

Further variations took shape such as wood, skins, rocks, clay tablets, items that could be transported but carry some form of message.  For many years rolls of woven fabrics and sheets of vellum or parchment were carried from place to place though these could be quite weighty.  Most of us have heard of papyrus.  This was an Egyptian invention that involved splitting and flattening the stems of a reed that grew on the banks of the Nile.  The stems were then laid in criss-cross fashion and the cellulose in the fibre bonded them together.  The resulting mat could be stored flat and made into books.  This material was used by the Romans and Greeks and was a big advance on carrying around stacks of clay tablets.  The Greek name for this material was papuros; the English word paper of course comes from papyrus.

A material still in use today is mulberry paper, an invention of an ingenious Chinese.  It involved the pulping of the inner bark of a member of the fig tree, soaking this in water and allowing it to dry on a flat surface.  Further experimentation, again using pulping, or felting was tried with various other materials such as rags, silk and hemp.  All of these involved the beating and pulping of the material, floating the mass in water, skimming off impurities, sieving the remaining mass and distributing it onto cloth sheets and allowing it to dry.  These various types of paper worked very well and were much lighter to carry and easily stored.

The mother of invention soon realised that multiple sheets could be made by stacking mats of paper, one on top of the other, thereby allowing many sheets to be manufactured.  The secret of papermaking was a closely kept secret until two Chinese prisoners taken by the Ottoman Turks were found to be paper-makers and the use of paper became known throughout Europe.  With the invention of the printing press in 1453, the world could learn anything by opening a book.

Paper came into mass production in Europe with the invention of stamping machines, and the invention of various moulds in metal and eventually a machine manufactured by a Mr. Fourdriner of England created reels of paper by the use of endless belts carrying the pulp through various chopping, crushing, pulping, washing, pressing and drying processes.  Over a period of experimentation plant materials were replaced by soft wood.  This was due to a Canadian scientist by the name of Boyd Campbell.  Wood fibres contain cellulose and when pulped the chemicals involved such as carbon, oxygen an hydrogen react favourably with the type of glucose in the cellulose of the wood fibre and when pulped and dried create a strong sheet of paper.  This process was not discovered until the 20th Century.  Once hydrogen bonding was understood, paper chemists used this process to create every type of paper available today, simply by controlling the way in which the cellulose is pulped and chemically treated.  Today hardwoods are used for the making of paper.  An Australian discovered this process.  Perhaps that discovery could have been bypassed in the interests of the environment.

Perhaps next month we could investigate the early painters and how the made their materials.

Something Historical

George Morison (Born Melbourne 31/08/1861)

George Studied at evening classes at the National Gallery of Victoria in 1880, and then in Paris from 1890 - 93.  He worked in a photographic studio in Melbourne earning enough to live on.  With his friend, artist Tom Humphrey he joined the Heidelberg School and painted with the school on weekends.

On his fathers death in 1890 he received a stipend, which allowed him to travel to Paris where he joined with British artist William (later Sir William) Nicholson in a shared studio.  His Australian friends in Paris included Emanuel Phillips-Fox and John Campbell (later Sir John) Longstafff.  He studied with Lefebre and Bourguereau, and while in Paris went to Spain to study the works of the portrait painter Velazquez.

His money ran out with the collapse of the banks in 1893 and he was forced to return home to Melbourne.  He returned to photography and renewed his friendship with Fredrick McCubbin.

Life was not easy for George and he moved to Western Australia in 1894 where he managed a photographic studio at Bunbury.  Sojourns at Coolgardie and Menzies prospecting for gold followed until in 1896 he gained employment as a draughtsman in the Land and Surveys Dept in Perth.  In 1906 he was appointed assistant in the art section of the Museum and Art Gallery.  He became Curator of the Gallery in 1922 and held that post until he retired in 1942.

George Morison died in Melbourne in September 1946.

ARTIST OF THE MONTH

Our artist of the month in February is

Jackie Brennan

Jackie was born in Den Haag, The Netherlands and migrated to Australia at the age of three.  She grew up in country NSW and later moved to Sydney where she studied at Kogarah Technical College, East Sydney Technical College and Sydney University.

Jackie established a Fine Arts Gallery at Coolangatta and had her own Interior Design Company on the Gold Coast.  She was Queensland Convenor of the Society of Interior Designers of Australia and a judge for the Housing Industry Assn. 'Home of the Year Awards', before retiring to Maryborough two years ago.  As a professor of Design Studies at the Australian Transnational College, teaching RMIT accredited courses, she became a published and award winning author.

Challenged by 'art', once she has mastered a subject, Jackie moves on.  She never paints the same genre over and over so there is little prospect of her being stereotyped as a floral, seascape or landscape artist.  She says, "One week I'm into landscapes, the next week florals, animals, abstract, caricatures, yachts and marinas… I like to experiment with different materials and techniques.  I don't particularly like portraits….  They offer little commercial value, unless you do commission work: I prefer to select my own subjects".

Jackie grew up surrounded by fine European works of art that her parents inherited, so she admits to being a bit of a sucker for traditional oil on canvas.  When she has the time, Jackie drags out the oils and looses herself in a large canvas - sometimes for months, painting both from reference photographs and on site to capture light and detail.  At other times she tends to use graphite or watercolour, but at the moment is experimenting with coloured inks.

A very diverse painter in style and medium, Jackie is very approachable, so why not call into the Wide By Gallery any Thursday this month Between 9.30 - 2pm and chat with this amazingly talented lady.