GUEST EVENING 'My Paintings', Richard Basker
Wed, May 4th 2016 at 7:00 pm - 8:30 pm
Richard, a member of our Club, paints with watercolour. He will be showing his work and talking about the technique.
Our speaker was club member Richard Basker. Prior to the meeting he had set up an exhibition of his water colour paintings. These were for sale and he advised us that he would donate 60% of the sale price to Rotary charities.
He thought it likely he had inherited his interest in painting at the age of twelve from his Mother who had also been a keen amateur artist. He had attended a course lasting twelve weeks but felt he had shown little improvement. However following a painting holiday there had been some improvement. Over the years he had found that painting had helped him take his mind off work problems.
Countryside views were his favourite subject to paint. However he has found that the landscape can change in a very short time. For example the tide can go out, the sun can go in or a wind can spring up. These can make the view look totally different from when the painting was started.
Richard likes painting with water colour though it can be a more difficult medium than oil. An oil painting can be painted over but this is not possible with water colour. It is very difficult to make any changes at all to a water colour painting. The only possibility it to run it under the tap!
To start painting the artist requires a wallet of paper, a tin or tray of paints, some water, a pencil, an eraser and some brushes. The best brushes are made from sable but these tend to be very expensive. One can paint onto wet paper or onto dry paper. These create very different effects. Masking fluid can be very useful. It is possible to make small corrections using tissue paper. Careful use of a toothbrush can be made to illustrate a large number of very small items for example, pebbles on a beach.
Following a question from the floor Richard had two paintings held up a described the techniques he had used to paint them.
Members and their guests all agreed that Richard’s paintings were of very high quality. A vote of thanks was given by John Sellars not only for his interesting talk but also his generosity in giving most of the proceeds from his picture sales to Rotary charities.
He thought it likely he had inherited his interest in painting at the age of twelve from his Mother who had also been a keen amateur artist. He had attended a course lasting twelve weeks but felt he had shown little improvement. However following a painting holiday there had been some improvement. Over the years he had found that painting had helped him take his mind off work problems.
Countryside views were his favourite subject to paint. However he has found that the landscape can change in a very short time. For example the tide can go out, the sun can go in or a wind can spring up. These can make the view look totally different from when the painting was started.
Richard likes painting with water colour though it can be a more difficult medium than oil. An oil painting can be painted over but this is not possible with water colour. It is very difficult to make any changes at all to a water colour painting. The only possibility it to run it under the tap!
To start painting the artist requires a wallet of paper, a tin or tray of paints, some water, a pencil, an eraser and some brushes. The best brushes are made from sable but these tend to be very expensive. One can paint onto wet paper or onto dry paper. These create very different effects. Masking fluid can be very useful. It is possible to make small corrections using tissue paper. Careful use of a toothbrush can be made to illustrate a large number of very small items for example, pebbles on a beach.
Following a question from the floor Richard had two paintings held up a described the techniques he had used to paint them.
Members and their guests all agreed that Richard’s paintings were of very high quality. A vote of thanks was given by John Sellars not only for his interesting talk but also his generosity in giving most of the proceeds from his picture sales to Rotary charities.
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