Painting for Pleasure by Sylvia Brown

MORPETH ROTARY PAINTING FOR PLEASURE

Sylvia Brown, retired teacher and well known local artist, joined her husband, Rotarian George, to talk to members and guests about painting for pleasure. She insisted that everyone can paint and everyone should try. Give a child some paint and paintbrushes or coloured pencils and they will always be entertained. 

Her Uncle Joe was one of the famous ‘Pitmen Painters’ of Ashington, she always loved painting and drawing and wanted to study art at university. However, her miner father thought she should train for a ‘proper job’ and that led to an application for teacher training at Hull. She was very happy to find an art college close by, where she studied fine art, textiles and fabrics at weekends. A study that proved to be very helpful for her teaching career. 

Family and work life were busy so it was not until early retirement that she had a chance to give time to painting. She enrolled in an art class for adults at Astley High School but wanted more. She helped to set up a very successful art group that is still running. They found premises in an old school at Earsdon and sought inspiration at Seaton Delaval Hall. They were invited by Lord and Lady Hastings to visit any time on condition that they put on an exhibition of their work at the end of the year. The exhibition went on for a week and attracted many visitors. It was the first time she ever sold a painting and that was to Lord Hastings. The annual exhibition is still an important fixture for the group.

Over the years George and Sylvia have had some lovely holidays but always with a link to art. There were visits to galleries, art exhibitions and special places, like Monet’s garden near Paris, the Sistine Chapel and Salvador Dali’s studio. Even a family visit to Australia made contact with local artists. Sylvia was requested to send her picture of the Courthouse in Morpeth, New South Wales, which she did and it now hangs on the Courthouse wall at the other side of the world. 

Sylvia explained the main types of painting material and demonstrated them with examples of her work. Aquatone is an easy method for outdoors, using watercolour pencils and a pad. A quick sketch can be made to take home and finish off, but it is not easy to cover up any mistakes. Acrylic is the easiest to paint with as it dries quickly and can be painted over. Oil squeezes out of the tube like cream and you can dash it on, but it may take a week to dry. One image was a collage made without paint or brush using small pieces of torn paper. 

She brought some small paintings she had printed as greeting cards and presented them to President Arif Shahab to be sold in aid of his appeal to help Pakistan flood victims. She hoped that her listeners had been entertained and would now be ready to have a go at painting for pleasure.