Societry members see some ‘sacred cow challenging’ moments

There were raised eyebrows at Seaton and District Art Society’s latest meeting when demonstrator Colin Brown’s prepared draft picture and subject photograph, were both placed upside-down on his easel.

This was the first of several ‘sacred cow challenging’ moments about to follow.

He began by explaining: “Working the wrong way up at this early stage allows me to concentrate on the important blocks of dark and light and ignore the details within the scene” - in this case, Venice’s familiar Basilica di Santa Maria della Salute. Another surprise followed as he applied squeezes of different acrylic colours directly from the tube on to a wide brush, then filled in the painting with rectangular panels of varying striped colour. His method is actually very simple and neatly solves the painters’ familiar problem of acrylic paint drying out too quickly on the more conventional pallet.

The painting was then allowed to dry and turned right-side up for completion.

He stressed: “When painting familiar scenes, it is vital to get the silhouette absolutely right.”