AWS News, December 2016, Page 1

Notes from the November Meeting

The topic of the November meeting was mixing greens. First we looked at a simple solution to create good medium saturation landscape greens: mix Ultramarine Blue and Nickel Azo Yellow (PY 150), a modern yellow that we have encountered already a couple of times. It is often simply called Transparent Yellow, and for a good reason: it is really transparent. It can be sourced from most of the large brands. Why is it hard to mix a realistic landscape green? One needs much more yellow than blue, and the green should be relatively muted. Ultramarine is a very good blue for that purpose. The mixture with Nickel Azo Yellow can be further muted with Burnt Sienna or intensified with a bit of Phtalo Blue.

Roy has found two videos that reminded us that there are of course a lot of other possibilities. My recommendation: always keep the fundamentals of the colour circle in mind if looking for a good green mixture.

Chairman's column

Roy has created for us a wonderful slide show of the Auckland Watercolour Society Merit Awards 2016. You can find the show here. It presents all the paintings shown in the exhibition and culminates in all of our award winners.

1st prize: Summer in Sorrento by Ginette Wang	2nd prize: Glenbrook Tracks at Dusk by Claudia Slaney	3rd prize: Summer Harvest by Sheryl Davis

The committee thanks all members for re-electing the team. We all are grateful that Kathie Shaw has accepted the position of president of our society! A special thanks goes to all of our members for contributing so much to all the different activities. And of course we have again a diverse list of challenge topics for the next year, thanks to the excellent proposals that have been sent through.

I hope you all find ample of time and inspiration for painting during the summer, en plein air and in your studio, while traveling or at home. Rita Angus once noted: 'Art is essentially simple and an expression of emotion. The first duty of the artist being to find beauty in everyday life, to express this for the benefit of all mankind, which is the basis of all art.'

I wish you all a Merry Christmas and a peaceful New Year.

Gerald Weber

Our Challenge Topics 2017

Contact Information for the Society

Officers

Committees

Management committee:

Kathie Shaw, Gerald Weber, Joanne Mortimore, Chris Ashton, Roy Boston, Sheryl Davis

Meetings committee:

Pat Rainsford, Tom Stout, Ginette Wang, Roy Boston, Sheryl Davis

Exhibition and workshops committees:

Joanne Mortimore, Chris Ashton

Website:

Gerald Weber

Website contact: (info@watercolour.org.nz)