Demo: Karen Welsh - Abstracting the Landscape
A thoroughly enjoyable demo, presented in an innovative way. Karen brought two of her large abstracts along with videos showing every stage of the painting process.
The first one was a a semi-realistic landscape of a valley, with a road leading to distant hills, past woodland and fields. She began by using a reference photograph. She sketched a scene in charcoal that wasn’t a copy of the photo but inspired by it. She then blocked in some colours using acrylic paint which she sprayed with water to achieve some movement and texture. (She used the spray frequently - she had added acrylic flow improver to the water, which prevented the usual dulling effects produced by adding water to acrylic - she recommended Liquitex or Golden.). She began a process of layering and adjusting the colours, adding texture and interest by using tools to scrape and spray to dilute and add drips. She didn’t make any attempt to reproduce the colours of the photograph, instead, she was guided by the memories and feelings inspired by the place.
Towards the end, she used a window card to check that the composition was resolved and balance was achieved in all areas. Where she used charcoal or graphite to add a graphic element, she explained that she could fix them using Liquitext spray varnish.
Her second picture was an abstract. Karen explained that her starting point was some paint experiments in tonal values in watercolour. Again, she layered her paint, using a squeegee to spread the paint and other tools to scratch texture along with her water spray to thin the paint and cause drips. She checked her tonal values continually, explaining that every adjustment changed the balance and flowed to another change.
It was a fascinating demo - at each stage we could compare what was happening on the video to the finished painting beside it. Karen’s enthusiasm was infectious! For her workshop on Saturday, 25th November, she explained that she would start with some experimentation on paper, then move on to working from members’ own references to produce abstracted landscapes. Acrylic or oils with pastels would be the best media but she would add to the club paint stocks so that acrylics would be available to everyone who wanted to have a go.
Contact Jen or book on the website if you would like to join us.
