AWS News, September 2016, Page 1

Report from the August Meeting

At the August meeting we had again a strong showing of responses to this month's challenge. Joanne was so kind to do the critique of the various wonderful vistas of Auckland landmarks.

Afterwards I had the chance to discuss the topic of drapery, a classic element in the visual arts. There are many subjects where we encounter cloth, sails, tarps or dresses with a variety of folds. We looked at a selection of watercolours by the artist John Singer Sargent (1856-1925). Considered an accomplished portraitist for his work in Oil, he also left over 2000 watercolours. He has a distinct style that combines acute observation with a fluency of the brushstroke, and he certainly had an eye for drapery. In the examples we looked at, many times a fold was expressed with a single confident stroke of the brush, evoking depth and richness with minimal means.

After a break Roy treated us to two videos deepening the subject. First a tutorial explaining how to draw important types of folds in drapery, and how they appear depending on the support of the cloth. A second video was on a painting of an American flag draped in a square frame for maximum effect of shadow and reflected colours. The afternoon ended with tea and coffee and a lively exchange of ideas.

Gerald Weber

Next meeting

The next meeting of the Auckland Watercolour Society will be on 12th September 2016, 1pm at the Glenfield Memorial Hall, Hall Road, Glenfield. Our speaker for this meeting is Graham Creamer who will be talking about and illustrating the topic "perspective". The next challenge topics are:

September:

Portraits

October:

Boats/Sails

Notices

Auckland Watercolour Society Merit Awards 2016 The 2016 AWS Merit Awards will start on 15th October 2016 at the Takapuna Library. Registration and receiving day is Saturday 15th from 10am until 1.00pm. No later please as we want the paintings up on the display screens before the library closes ready for when the judges come in on Sunday. Please review and sign the entry form, which details a number of important points. The opening night is on Monday 17th from 6pm. If you are able to attend the opening/prize giving we would be very pleased if you could bring some goodies and a bottle of wine to share with our guests. We will also be having a raffle basket and we need Christmas goodies to go in the basket. We would be very pleased if members could bring along to the September meeting a small contribution to the raffle - Sheryl Davis will accepting all donations for the basket. Grahame Longford has donated a painting to be raffled together with the goodie basket over the three weeks the art exhibition is on. There will be some entry forms available as well and we need minders for the show - a roster list will be ready for members put their names down to be volunteers as minders. For any questions regarding this exhibition please contact Joanne (mozart1@clear.net.nz).