Hot? Cold? Windy? Wet? We tackled the weather

We didn't get a very enthusiastic participation from members but also know that some are ill or unable to put brush to paper at these tiresome times.

So here are the interpretations that we received.

Maureen starts us off with 'a break in the storm' where all dash out to enjoy the freshness of damp air.

Watercolour.

Ann Puren gives us the glorious glow of a sunset over the sea. 

End of a warm day?

Windy, breezy? Either way you can feel the wind in Maugie's painting on a fine sunny day.

Marcelle has brought out some of the disappointment of this year's Tour de France which was marred not only by rain, but by cold weather.

Oils.

John's witty interpretation of a storm in a teacup.

Fiona sticks with sunny and hot! She tried to bring this feeling out through colored pencils.

Hold on to your hats: the wind is howling and the rain is coming.

Ann Puren gets us running indoors to shelter.

More climatic misery (though you'll not need to water the gardens) from Maureen who has got a landscape almost obliterated by the heavy rain.

Watercolour

But there is pleasure in the rain if you are dry: John gives us a multimedia interpretation of rain.

And we'll end this blog by a painting by a couple of rather more famous painters.

JMW Turner's 'Storm'.

And for something a bit brighter and warmer - Gauguin's Tahitian landscape

Weather

The thermometer in our car reliably registered 35 degrees at 11am this week as we set off for a hill walk. Oooph! That's hot! (You have guessed this was not in Fish Hoek...) and so our walk was shorter than planned. The countryside looked gorgeous as the greens were, well, very green and the sky, very blue. It was beautifully sunny but a bit too hot for a walk at that hour!

I started wondering how you convey the idea of hot and sunny in a picture. How do you get that dimension over to the viewer who is not there?

Or cold, and chilly, for that matter. Or any of the many weather conditions and our perceptions.

Hot, sunny, warm, cold, rainy, chilly, damp, wet, misty, snowy. 

We had some great rainy pictures from members last year. Remember? They captured rain and the bleakness of cold weather so well. Look closely at how it is done.

Cold colours, sharp lines to indicate rain, angry brush strokes, reflections on a wet road, the clothing on the figures - all these bring the weather condition out well.

So, warm, hot, wet, rainy, snowy, misty... these are all weather condition we come across with both pleasure and irritation - but how do we put them across to others through our paintings?

It is not just the image and whether the leaves are on the trees or whether the sky is blue or grey or whether the figure is huddling under an umbrella or wrapped up in a scarf. As you see from the above cold and rainy paintings:

    It is a question of hue, and strength of hue. 

    It is the choice of cold or warm colours

    It is HOW you apply your colour or strokes

    It is the amount of different colours (as opposed to a minimal palette) used. 

    It is the shape of the subject under the weather conditions.

    It is the imagery such as the choice of clothing, leaves on trees, bare branches, trees bending under the wind, dark or light fluffy clouds etc.

The picture below - all blues and grey to complement the white snow - almost brings shivers to your skin.

Whereas the choice of right warm colours in the picture below smacks of warmth.

And when there is no colour?

How do we know it's hot?

The sharp shadows produced by blocking strong sun from the sunny sides of the figures, the type of clothing. 

And another warm subject just down the road...

... that tells the story through the intense colour we associate with summer.

So, this challenge is about weather.  Take an aspect of it and try, really try, to bring out the effect of the weather. Take time by thinking first, and planning. Then get to it!

Send in your pictures by the 25th of July. NOTHING BUT NEW PICTURES will be included. No recycling. This challenge is about doing a painting now.

Send you painting(s) to noninichols@gmail.com by 25 July or zwets@mweb.co.za

Happy painting and drawing.

We're late, we're late ... but ...

Firstly, I have to apologize to Marcelle who took time to do a great charcoal portrait sketch - and I believe she is continuing over this in acrylics - and it got obliterated from my last column by my haste and incompetence. There was a white patch where it should have been... but you don't want to know the tekkie details, I'm sure. Apologies Marcelle.

However, other folk have been sending in late pix (don't artists have calendars to mark deadline dates?!?) so it is a moment for put together an apology, and include a few more works.

Anne Puren sent in a a delicate and attractive rendition of an old photograph of her maternal grandmother (just above) - and she really missed the autumn deadline but sent in another lovely painting of vines: see further below.

Maureen had already submitted drawings by deadline date but took the bull by the horns (I'm guessing she didn't sit still so did you do it from a cellphone photo Maureen?) and decided to tackle a sweet young lady in watercolour and did a pretty good job.

Despite what our favorite local watercolour artist Hazel Soan says, watercolours are not easy as they have 'a mind of their own'.  It is a brave artist that takes out his watercolours for a portrait, so well done Maureen.

As I joked previously, I also attempted a watercolour selfie - not finished but included to amuse you. Unfortunately I appear more like Margaret Thatcher than me - not a look I'm happy to cultivate. I remember another Cape Town portrait artist telling me try not to do open mouthed smiles and 'never do teeth' as you always get them wrong so taking her advice I glossed over them (but the space is too white, I know).

BUT, I shall try again with another portrait - after all non permanent watercolours can be washed almost completely away leaving your paper ready for another work.

And so to late arrivals.

Anne Puren sent in this lovely vine, above, where the tints of autumn are starting to touch the leaves. There was no mention of the medium but it is a very competent work.

Lastly, a lonely red apple from Maugie.  Thank you everyone.

I'll leave you with some beautiful portraits painted by Hazel Soan to inspire you all. 

Do note that Hazel does live demos on Zoom from time to time. 

She did a fabulous one (free of charge! nogal!) yesterday on painting wild animals in Africa. Check out information on her website. www.allsoanup.com or follow her on her own Instagram pages which are not only a way to hear about demos but are full of really useful info.

Posting our Portrait Challenge

This has been fun! We may not all be Singer Sargents or Rembrandts, but it seems there is a much enthusiasm among some of FHAS members. More than one portrait was submitted by some members and all are included here.

Portrait or self portrait? There were some very brave and entertaining attempts at self portraits so, well done. It isn't easy coming to terms with wrinkles, scars and bad hair days not to mention light and shade, but our members rose to the occasion.

However, it is not only a question of accepting our character lines; most subjects have firm ideas about how they look and the artist runs a fine line between getting a likeness that is blessed by the sitter and being able to do a realistic yet artistic work. Maureen pointed this out when her 'sitter' wasn't too happy with the result that Maureen herself liked! You can't win them all, can you!

What medium works best? You'll see that drawing media were most popular. Pencil, pastel and crayon: they are the easiest to control. There were some acrylics and oils too - again fairly forgiving media. But watercolour? 

Collectively we shied away from this and I believe to do a recognizable portrait in this medium requires courage (or an intimate knowledge of which colours can be lifted if an error happens). Ann Z was the only one (correct me if I am wrong) who submitted some portraits in watercolour - she's good at this and has done a number of them over the years.

As you blogger, I set myself the challenge of doing a self portrait in watercolour. A visitor to the house kindly identified me from the finished work ... but my husband did not! Enough said. 

But I found the challenge a great one and did another work in pencil (on the wrong kind of paper) which is passable and I learned that one can't just pick up a scrap of paper from the back of the cupboard and expect pencil, or crayon, or watercolour, to be perfect on it. A good lesson learned: choose your support carefully.

All good works take time. Sometimes, as really famous minimalist artists will tell you, the time is spent thinking rather than wasting effort on coloring away at bad, ill-conceived works. But all works - especially portraits - require consideration and though before the first daubs are put down.

Are you enthused to try a portrait now? 

An easy way of starting portraiture is to use a photograph and create a grid over it to break it down into sections and ensure the proportions are correct. So, if in your A4 photo, you might want to break up the image into 4cm blocks.

Alternatively (and the great masters didn't have this great technique) you print out a picture and rub a 2B or 4B pencil over the back and then with an HB pencil or even an H, you trace the outlines of the defining areas of importance (eyes, eyebrows, mouth, ear, top of head, beauty spot, chin etc etc etc) on to your paper. It's the easiest way to ensure features are proportionally correct. After that, the rest is up to you!

You may have seen a couple of the images below previously but they are good examples of FHAS members' works.

And so to the works in no particular order.

Ann Z, portrait 

Maureen 2

Ann Z 2

Ann Z 3

Anne Puren 1

Anne Puren 2

Noni 1

John S 1

Rob 1

John S 2

John S 3

Noni 2

Maureen 1

Maugie 1

Maugie 2

Noni 3

Ann Z 4

Apples and Autumn

 While awaiting the contributions for the PORTRAIT challenge (and we have some really interesting submissions already), we are catching up on the Autumn and apple theme.

Who can resist the vibrant colours of new apples? Those greens and reds, yellows and goldens. And when they are fresh, crunchy and tasty, they don't last long in the bowl. 

As we all know, when inspiration is not in great abundance, a bowl of fruit or peppers can provide an excellent challenge for their vivid colours, their three dimensionality and the reflection of colours from one object to the next. Add a bit of sharp side light and ... voilà  - a good composition. 

Don't deride it: Cézanne made some great painting with his weekly shop for fruit and veg. See above. The key is to be bold!

Anne Puren starts us off with her vibrant apples. Is this acrylic or oil?  Not to worry as the result is great and a good sense of three dimensions.

Fiona uses colored pencils to do this line up of apples.

Maureen couldn't wait and took a bite of her apple before the watercolour was finished. Great lighting, Maureen!

A quick(ish) rendering of apples in a bowl - to prove you don't need hours or an overworked subject to pass the message.