AWS News, August 2016, Page 1

The July meeting of the Auckland Watercolour Society

Our July 11th meeting was a great success - first up was Roy Boston taking the critique and there were a lot of paintings to comment on - the challenge was "At the Lake". Our members found the subject stimulating as there were 20 paintings for Roy to comment on. The comments were intended to be constructive with thoughts on how the painting could be improved rather than whether the painting was of any particular standard... Roy was very supportive of our artists and the paintings as can be seen from the photos were super. Next up was myself doing a demonstration on how I would do a landscape. The members were given a very simple reference to paint and at the end of the session there were some very colourful works which is the essence of painting along with a demonstrator. Take the ideas offered and enlarge on them. A very pleasant afternoon...

JM

Next meeting

The next meeting will be August 8th 1pm at the Glenfield Memorial Hall, Hall Road, Glenfield, with program items on the topic of drapery. Please bring along paper and painting materials. The challenge topic is "An Auckland Landmark (manmade)".
The next challenge topics are:

August:

An Auckland Landmark (manmade)

September:

Portraits

Chairman's Column

At my recent trip I had the opportunity to visit the Art Gallery in Birmingham, the hometown of Edward Burne-Jones, an exponent of the late Pre-Raphaelite school. On display there is his Star of Bethlehem, with 2.5 times 4 metres the largest watercolour of the 19th century. The painting is certainly an example of meticulous representation of various materials in drapery, all adding to the serenity of the scene. The other day I came again across Frances Hodgkins' Fisherman sewing a sail. Just a few brush strokes capture the heavy cloth of the sail and the modest workman's attire of the fisherman. What a range of possibilities lies between and encompasses these two works - another reminder of the flexibility of our medium of choice. Gerald Weber

I am in danger of forgetting I am primarily a Water Colourist - if you want me at my best & most profitable and prolific encourage me to return to them...

Frances Hodgkins, 1936 in a letter to her art dealer,
cited in the recent exhibition at the Auckland Art Gallery.