This image, from my memory of a lochside holiday in Scotland a few years ago, was painted without reference to drawings or photographs.
The oil painting evolved following a tuition session on the colour wheel and in particular, using a harmonious colour scheme. This creates a pictorial unity and feeling of calm. Distance in the picture is created by a closely tonal range of predominantly cool blues and blue-violets, juxtaposed against the increasingly warmer and stronger tonal contrasts of warmer blues, blue-greens, greens and yellow-greens.
A visit to Venice always inspires me - the light, colours, reflections and textures - it’s like living in a painting! This is a large preparatory charcoal drawing for a future work in oils.
The atmospheric, early evening light was very attractive but I was particularly interested in the strong shapes and tonal contrasts of the gondola against the more subtle tonal ranges of the water and architecture.
I started the drawing by dropping charcoal dust onto the paper and manipulating it with my fingers to ‘sketch’ in the main shapes; then more dust was added and pushed around to begin blocking in tones. Putty rubbers were used to lift out shapes and areas of ‘light’, and to create textural marks. Willow charcoal and charcoal pencils were used for final strengthening of marks and tones.
A recent oil, this time executed ‘en plein air,’ using palette knives. It was a very hot day and having quickly blocked in the main shapes of the composition with washes, the use of the knives speeded up the painting process and created luscious textures.
The simple arrangement of the tree line and subtle changes of the rich greens in the landscape are complemented by the inclusion of strategically placed reddish ochres
Charcoal drawing on grey toned paper. I wanted to capture the diffused afternoon sunlight that created such wonderful subtleties across Helen’s figure.
The light in the studio changes fairly quickly at this time of day, so I had to work swiftly. A series of counterchanges (i.e. lights against darks); the use of lost and found edges, and variation of the tonal density and character of the line, all helped to re-create the play of light on and around the figure. It was tempting to introduce white to enhance contrasts of tone, but careful modelling with the charcoal finally allowed the mid tone of the paper to evoke the desired lighting effects.
Course dates
3 Sept - 10 Sep 2011
Laraine Simpson is a Fine Arts – Painting graduate of London’s Central School of Art & Design (now Central St. Martins) and has many years teaching experience, as a tutor for the Open College of the Arts (OCA), in Higher Education, Adult Education and privately. She is highly regarded as a perceptive, patient and encouraging tutor working with beginners and advanced students alike, her main aim being to teach people to ‘see’ the relationships of line, tone, shape, colour etc which are fundamental to drawing and painting.
Laraine’s structured approach to developing creative self expression equips students with essential practical skills and techniques supported by relevant theory. Experimentation with their chosen media is an important part of the process through which students are encouraged to develop their own style and consolidate their new skills, facilitated by lots of individual tutor attention. Laraine works in oils, pastels, watercolours, and a variety of drawing materials and provides tuition in a wide range of media including all of the above.
Her main inspiration is the interplay of light on surfaces, particularly the human form (portraiture and figure work) and landscape. Other favoured subjects include architecture and equestrian work. Her work ranges from a fast, loose and free gestural approach to a more measured and evocative tonal style. She has exhibited widely and has work in a number of private collections.
