VACATION MODE

We have sun again.

Last night we were at the Delta Fair, lots of mud, and lots of characters to sketch, but, alas, no pencil or sketchbook! No camera either. Gesture drawing is another area for me to expand, to shake the shyness, and put down my scribbles for future reference, or simply for the drawing itself. Is there a sketch group meeting in Sarnia? Could I start one? It doesn't look likely that I will get to the painter's group here, since their days and my availability are not in sync. Maybe August.

Our Summer Family Time begins this Sunday with the arrival of our son Steve and his family. If any art happens, it likely will be with the grandkids or perhaps, a sketch or two of them as they fish, swim, play. Duane arrives also and by week's end Mark and family will be here as well. The art room here has been dismantled, the table folded up and paint & shelf moved to our room.

Painting will be outdoors only. Without sun, no painting!

I have begun another small oil painting, as shown in its present state at the side of this paragraph. The first photo above is a photograph of the side area of our cottage property where the firepit sits. The second photo is a very small drawing [half a postcard in size] which I drew from memory, with watercolour crayons and blended with water, a few weeks ago.

The oil painting is being developed from this watercolour sketch.

The camera and the sketchbook are standing by, ready for the vacationing change of pace.

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TODAY A FACE

I do love working with oil. It has magical powers that transform.

Here is yesterday's faceless image with features. I think this is the image in my mind's eye, not the image in the mirror!

NON-OBJECTIVE 2006

On the drive home yesterday, I busied myself with cleaning up my document files on the laptop and came across the file "Workshop Notes".

Carole Barnes Workshop 2006,

Non-Objective Painting, Acrylic

St Lawrence College

Painted after this workshop.

NOTES:
· Acrylic Painting: paint gloss medium on surface first. This allows for removal of acrylic to white and carefully to previous layer. Can put on medium with credit card instead of brush.
· Keep water in work.
· Work in Series – find out what style is more personal.
· More one understands design = better painting
· Rubbing Alcohol can remove acrylic.
· Put mark down and then take part of it away.
· Wonder what happens if…..
· Create chaos and pull back in – tame a bit.
· Content=uniqueness
· How do I get what I feel when I paint: Select/Personalize/Exaggerate
· Slant shadow rather than strait – changes depth.
· Think of space in layers.
· End of day paint with left over paint onto newsprint, newspaper, etc. - can be used to determine lights and darks.
· Flat shapes = fun
· Dead painting? Use flashlight to highlight areas and determine value changes to bring painting to life.
· Keep some mischief in your soul.


Some suggestions for painting
1. Paint month of January
2. Paint a mood – laughter
3. Change brush marks
4. Cut paper in half lengthwise
5. Work in Squares
6. Change tools used. Put away favourites.
7. Change paper
8. Add medium to watercolour
9. Paint without a brush
10. Texturize
11. Hold brush differently
12. Collage


Symbols:
· Triangle = Goals & Dreams
· Circle = Wholeness
· Square = Stability
· Corkscrew=Growth
· Cross = Relationship

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PORTRAIT & PONTYPOOL

The challenge to the 6+1 group, has encouraged an attempt at self-portrait. I gazed into the mirror and spent a good deal of time trying to get the eyes right, then the mouth and then the shape that encloses them. The hair is easier for me. I put in some of the lines that are the badge of age but which seem to belong to another, a grandparent perhaps. Then, I stood back and looked at this 'woman'. Close to the image I saw in the mirror, but not the image I carry in my mind's eye. A friend looked it over and we agreed that there was something wrong, but she pointed out that what I sketched was a mirror image, the image I see each day, but not the image she sees when she looks at me. [This was just a scrap of paper that was nearby, the sketch size about 3 x 4 inches.]

We were away visiting friends for a few days and went to an outdoor play near Millbrook. Sitting nearby, I saw a woman who seemed familiar and eventually we met and realized we had shared the same Renaissance course a few weeks before. What are the odds?

The play was based on the history of Pontypool and the rain held off except for a few minor sprinkles. Off in the field, the introduction to the play, a horse and buggy with two bearded men, slowly approached the main area where the story was being narrated. Afterwards, we drove over to Pontypool to find the pond mentioned in the play and to see if anything remained of the historic days. The pond was there, but the train station and other buildings mentioned in the play are gone.

Home again and eager to paint with oils, another portrait seemed appropriate. I used thinned ochre and a small brush to sketch the face I saw in the mirror. This time it smiled. That must have been offputting, cause the eyes and mouth definitely belonged to someone else. Perhaps the head and hair are close. Is a faceless portrait still a portrait?

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Maybe cartooning would be more successful.

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COOL

No rain. Sun! Getting obsessed with the weather. Cool to Cold this morning.

I spent the early morning on the computer checking out paintings by JMW Turner. Atmospheric ones particularly impressive and moving for me. Tate supposedly has over 500 of his works. Will I ever see them all? - not likely in person, but in books, on the computer, etc. I am obsessed by this man and his work.

The latest jpg.magazine arrived in my mailbox and I gave it a quick lookover, that is, before getting caught in the Photo of the Day and its photographer.
The Photo: "Happy Go Lucky Fish"
The Photographer: D.A.Wagner.

That wasn't enough, of course, and I visited his blog too: http://blog.dawagner.com/
If I had highspeed connection here in the woods, I would still be reading his blog and admiring the photographs.


I will need to go back to check out the other items in JPG Magazine which included a Story Challenge [story and photo of favourite photographic equipment], Multiple Exposures, and the new Photo Challenge, "Silhouettes".


Silhouettes = create a unique mood & mystery; use form and light; require a keen eye for composition and an understanding of light.



I'm off to try a self-portrait, do a few cards, and maybe take a walk down to the dock at noon [when the heat of the day is at maximum!] and sketch something down there.

A lazy, if not hazy, day of summer.

AFTER An ART BREAK

Wow! A week ago, the Renaissance course ended and back then I was so keen on taking a plein air week of oil painting that would have started on Monday. However that didn't seem such a good idea by Sunday and the week has been filled with family and friends. This morning we awoke around 5:45 to the thunder dunders of a passing storm. All the dogs, our two guest dogs and our own, were huddled close by assuming we could protect them. Now at 8:00 a.m. the trees shine with moisture and the ground is slowly absorbing puddles. The sun promises a good day.

Artistically, this week has been quite slow. The JMW Turner book arrived at the Delta Library, a thin book but informative, per my cursory glance. I went back to David Friend's book because I have this urge to really understand colour and think the exercises he suggests are fantastic but I have not yet started them. I love colour and it works for me, but there seems to be a lot I am missing. A book on Colour also sits on my table and beckons, but I am ignoring it. I think I am in summer mode and 'on vacation'. And with that , the wind shook the drops of rain off the leaves and the sun is pouring in the window where I type.

Today's read of the Art News Blog was interesting.

[Not the gory yukky stuff about Road Kill Knitted Stuffed Animals.]

-There is a Raphael - The Woman with a Veil which will be shown at the Portland Art Museum, Oct-Jan.

-VanGogh Cheese? Also Rembrandt?

-Some interesting ergonomic stools [prizes] are shown along with a few Artist's workspaces and studios.

-Also a list of FBI Top 10 Art Thefts..... a Caravaggio, Nativity with San Lorenzo and San Francesco, two Van Gogh's and others.

http://www.artnewsblog.com/index.htm

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Our young Artist friend John Climenhage of Peterborough is celebrating his newly appointed position of Artist in Residence at the Prince of Wales School in that city. Not only is he thrilled with teaching the children, but also he will have a studio at the school. John had a grant to teach at schools in Ontario a few years ago and he came to Sarnia, to St. Christophers, for a week two consecutive years.

From Peterborough Examiner: "Also at Prince of Wales was John Climenhage, a popular area painter who is moving his studio into the school to become the “artist in residence,” ...
Climenhage applauded the program and said he’s thrilled to have a hand in making children excited about art.
“This will help students build self-esteem and give them an opportunity to move ahead,” said Climenhage, who has two children at the school. "

John's Website: http://www.fivepingallery.com/Site/home.html

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BEAUTIFUL WOMEN PROJECT

Cheryl-Ann Webster

at Arthur Child Heritage Museum

Gananoque, Ontario

Can't get to Gan, visit the sculptures at the following website:

http://www.beautifulwomenproject.com/Clay_Sculptures.html

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Renaissance SPACE RULES

Remaining Renaissance Notes:

Space Rules:
* Perspective - create architectural space, illusion of distance for Exterior and Interior space
- aerial - two tones close on the value scale, dark next to dark, light next to light
- high contrast/high colour, strong complementary colours
- create foreground
eg St Catherine stand out from the background, indicates not of this world, not real.
* Overlapping
* Progression of size - Big=near, Small=far
* Position on Picture Plane - Down=close, Up=far
* Foreshortening, Modeling of Form through dark and light contrast
* Use of Drapery to create illusion of 3D architecture
* Transparency, front of and under
* High Contrast & Framing
Geometric Shapes-Sharp edge=come forward
Organic Shapes-Soft edge=recedes
-Reversing space rules: intense colour in background as in foreground. 20th C purposely reversed space rules to tell you picture plane is flat, is a painting.
No longer say, dark goes back, light goes forward....only in relation
-Painting flesh, a suggested formula
Process of painting darks and then lights over a toned canvas
Map out shadow areas [burnt umber, burnt sienna, very dark thinly applied for transparency]

REVELATIONS FROM THE RENAISSANCE - DAY FIVE

The last day of this course, over too soon. The photo is of the last part of our day when we brought our paintings together on easels. By the end of this week we were to have learned the Space Rules of a renaissance painting. We shared the particular rule that had been helpful and used in our paintings. There is more work to do to bring the canvases to completion.



My painting seems dark from a distance but there are areas of brightness in the foreground, where the message is presented. A message of HOPE for humanity. A young woman, full term pregnant, sits alone on a chair. She is dressed in blue, the colour representing spirituality. A large Christmas Tree occupies the left forefront of the canvas, for me a symbol that represents family. Outside the glass domed hallway can be seen smoke stacks issueing black and stained smoke from coal fires. In the distance, three male figures are walking toward the dark hole at its end, to be swallowed up by the universe.


We were to start our painting and let the story unfold. My thoughts had run to the book I'd recently read, Children of Men by PD James, in which the male sperm was no longer viable and there had been no births for over twenty years. One woman became pregnant and offered hope for new generations. It is more complicated than my telling of course, and in doing this painting, I also remembered the concerns of the native population near home that is concerned with the low incidence of male births.

The technique I used was Aerial Perspective, using two dark colours close together on the colour scale. As I began this process, it did not seem to be working, but after pushing the paint around and moving into the mid-ground, the sense of distance became clear.

There are copious notes to add but they will wait for another day.

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REVELATIONS FROM THE RENAISSANCE - DAY FOUR

Because I stopped to paint a postcard, I left the cottage just after 8:30. At the end of the cottage road [almost 2km] I did my usual turn right and saw that the road construction crew were back at work. A sizeable chunk of the road surface had been removed but I was waved through without delay. Then, I realized that I was not wearing my glasses and would need them for painting, so turned around and headed back. This time I had to wait at the construction area while a pedestrian talked to the man in the machine and blocked my way through, probably about 3-4 minutes, but other traffic was lining up on the other lane too. Got back to the cottage, found the glasses and headed out again. This time at the end of the cottage road, a milk transport passed slowly and came to a stop at the side of the county road, just past where I waited. This time, I turned left and took the country roads to skirt the construction, and arrived at the college about 1/2 hour later than usual.

Everyone was busy at their easel when I slipped into the room. My canvas awaited attention.

Yesterday I was able to get the drawing transferred and add some of the shading.

Shading added using a mixture of yellow, red and burnt umber in lieu of the burnt sienna I was unable to purchase.

Completed the background and mid-ground aerial space and the painting was now unified.

Colour. Since my canvas was wet, I had a mini lesson from Andrea on how to apply the paint. First pick up some paint on one side of the brush only, then very lightly draw the colour against the wet paint. Little by little. Paint will stick to paint and the colour will transfer.

This is where the painting rests until tomorrow.

Andrea said, every square inch of the canvas is important. If any area is just randomly filled with paint, it will be obvious. Truly democratic. Each area as important as another. Would any previous painting pass that test?

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REVELATIONS FROM THE RENAISSANCE - DAY THREE

Four cars and two walkers on our cottage road this morning. Road repairs on Lower Oak Leaf caused minor slow down. Delighted to see 'my sheep' were out in the pasture again this year. This was my first sighting. Arrived few minutes later this morning and met Ursula in the parking lot. John brought in his Jackson-Pollock-like painting to show me his style this morning. I love it. No question it is like Pollock's work.

In plenary with Andrea, we had a brief discussion of our experience at the Gallery yesterday then talked about painting in the Renaissance era.

- Canvas toned with a warm mid-tone colour, ideally transparent, such as burnt sienna, raw sienna, yellow ochre, burnt umber, raw umber or a grey mix.
- Drawings on paper toned blue, greenish, pink, dark chalk, highlight white.
Master of Tonal Values and Contrast: Hi Contrast brings forward, Low contrast moves back.
- Oil painting started in Northern Europe, done on wood panel, planed, smooth, sanded, gessoed [not like today's], hard surface and sanding meant a reflecting surface. Paint was thinly applied with lots of oil. Today we can use prepared gesso, wood veneer panels, masonite or hardboard.
- Canvas for bigger paintings, light in weight, taken off stretcher and rolled, painting side out, to be delivered to person who commission the work, restretched at destination.
- Glue Size: rabbit skin glue size - soak in water, turns to gel, makes fibres impermeable to paint [linseed oil acidic and would eat fibres.
-Oil on copper = smooth, luminous

Cherish your Ground: whatever done to the ground equals different effects, personality, message of painting.


Learning Process of Painting in Renaissance
- Drawing loosely and lightly
- Underpainting = map out light and dark pattern. Systematic way of painting. Looking for shadow areas, thinly apply dark transparent paint.
- Work Dark to Light on mid value canvas. Colours are transparent by nature, already dark. Applied thinly will be dark enough.
- Add lot of oil medium to make flow, no brush strokes.

We transferred our sketch to our canvas. I had a private lesson with Andrea about oil paint and oil medium, colours, clean up, etc. and was surprised and pleased to learn how simple painting in oil has become. I have very old tubes of oil paint, maybe from my teens, certainly not more than twelve years later. I could not get burnt sienna at the school's book store so will have to attempt to mix something close.

Renaissance Workshop: Our model, Melanie, set up a pose, sitting in the position that I wanted for my painting, so I grabbed a chair, located myself where the pose suited my painting and began sketching. Another classmate brought a chair beside me and sketched as well. A few others were sketching from other locations. Her pose was great. When I was done, I returned to my seat. Melanie changed her clothes and her pose for variety, sometimes at the request of an individual artist. In one area of the room, Melanie and one artist were trying to get the pose correct and had some difficulty getting the placement. Later an artist called her to model her hand and later in the day, I needed her to model her foot in the way it was held in the earlier pose that I had sketched. Varied posing. She also went around to the various artists and to see if she was needed. This was in the manner of the Renaissance workshop. I was fascinated and had not brought my camera to record the activity. My artist neighbour loaned me hers and will email the photos I took when she returns home to Napanee and will appear in a later blog.
As I looked around the room and pointed the camera, I noted the model and artist setting up a specific pose. Others were ready to begin sketching as well. Some were at their easels transferring their sketches to their canvases. At the front of the room there was a discussion and slides of some Renaissance paintings on a screen. Notes were scribed on the chalk board. Lots of interaction. Lots of learning. Lots of work.

It was a slow start for me in the morning. At noon hour, I went to the dollar store and got baby oil, soap, cloths, screw top bottles (actually 2 different coloured baby bottles) to be used for cleaning brushes. My lunch was eaten in the car, in the sunshine, and I returned to our classroom, refreshed and ready to paint. When driving through the front parking lot at the college, I saw a rather large groundhog standing under the bumper of one of the parked cars. My presence sent him out of sight under the car.

I used burnt umber to get my earlier sketch and today's drawing onto the canvas. There were some adjustments to be made since I had placed the figure on the canvas in a different location. Balance was regained by adding two more male figures in the background. I needed my figure to be pregnant and Melanie found something to stuff under her clothes that gave that impression. The three smoke spewing stacks are in place as is the 'Christmas' tree. Tomorrow's task will be to add the darks and begin moving the paint around.

We closed the afternoon with a demo by Andrea.

• A toned canvas=unified field
• Emily Carr quote "Movement in Space"
• Create Space - complete whole painting in values, foreground, background, mid-ground
• Push paint around, no medium used, spread thin layer
• Create depth: underpaint dark [sink it first] then apply light

Some notes/thoughts/questions:
- What makes great artist's work great?
- How were all the pieces of the alter piece found?
- If something not right in a painting, is there something else the artist wishes to say. The artist knows what is right.
- Renaissance paintings - sex and violence.
- Angels with White wings appear in Victorian times.
- Artists use imagination, people, themes to say what they want to say.

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REVELATIONS FROM THE RENAISSANCE - DAY TWO

A bus trip to the National Art Gallery at Ottawa.

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We were outfitted with audio guides and ready for our self guided tour. [The Emporer of Japan was going to visit the Gallery in the late afternoon so we were rescheduled for departure at 4 pm.]

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With all the information given to us in our class and again during the bus ride and also the audio guide, we were pretty well prepared for this exhibition.

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I am fascinated by this brief glimpse into Art History.

Click on Title to visit National Art Gallery of Canada

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Art as Propaganda?

Artist has last say. Beware the Visual Artist, they are the only ones who survived the Inquisition!

Some of What we saw:

Works of Masters of Renaissance - oil on copper, silver, marble, wood and canvas. Drawings in red ink, stylo, black chalk, lightened with white chalk. The work of the masters was rich in colour, high in contrast.

- Raphael: portrait of Bindo Altoviti, oil on wood panel, smooth application of paint

- Micehangelo drawing in chalk for Sistine Chapel

- Buonaccorsi, Judgement of Zalaeucus, detached fresco

- Drawings in pen ande brown ink with white heightening on pink, greenish or blue prepared paper with ink washes

- Herman Posthumus, Landscape with Antique Ruins 1536, oil on canvas [aerial perspective, brown and aqua colour, narrative focus]

- Vasari's copy of Raphael's Pope Leo X and Cardinals

- De Rossi called Salviati, 1550, portrait oil on marble tondo with carved wooden frame and tassles

- Theotokopoulos, El Greco, Boy Blowing an Ember to Light a Candle, 1570, oil on canvas

- Elsheimer, The Flight into Egypt, 1604 oil on silvered copper

- Paul Bril. Landscape 1598, oil on copper. [Aerial perspective, foreground, middle ground and background. Space rules.]

- Annibale Caracci, Vision of St. Francis , oil on copper, two copper strips added on each side, 1597.

- A video showing restoration of a damaged work on display.

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- The Petrobelli Altarpiece 1565 by Paolo Veronese. An exquisite piece of large oil portraiture and drama.

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- Thomas Nozgowski, American Abstract Painter. Thirty years of his work. Quite refreshing after the heavy renaissance work.

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"I believe abstract painting will reach its highest potential when it turns "homely" and, freed of any philosophical justification, becomes just another way to lay down paint and to think about what is true and what is beautiful."

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Click here to see more about this exhibition: http://www.gallery.ca/nozkowski/en/

Art History Notes:
Raphael: Posterboy, strong influence through Century; died 1518 at age 37; Huge Workshop - drawings, staff prepare work on canvas; influential style
Rome 1503-1603 reflects secular struggle, socially poor people, city of violence, struggle of kings; seat of Papacy, political pwer, care of souls, exploration.
During century: re-establishment of Papcy in Rome. Protestants. Counter Reformation: redefining docrine, weed out priests who were corrupt, etc.
Inqusition and Censorship born.
Significant role of Art: patron=Popes & Church. Venerated Role of Artist; equal to princes and clergy, identity as individual artist.
Classical Humanism & Scientific Naturalism [Discovery of America, world opened; new and curious, under inspection; human anatomy; Classical Greek - "Man is of all things"' Puts man at the center of all the universe and puts Pope as representative of God. Spirit of free inquiry.
Revelled in perspective, anatomical discoveries, full expressive possibilities.
Forms and techniques placed viewer in specific place, window into world, whole of picture in eye and mind of viewer, no lack of certainty how presented; tremendous regard for human personality.
- saints no longer generic icons
- desire for personal prestige in arts, personal prestige of the artist
- artists start to sign works
-Drawings became important as paper more readily available.
Georgio Vassari: beginning of art history, art theory. Cult of artist - celebrity, was to become ideal of modern artist.

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REVELATIONS FROM THE RENAISSANCE - DAY ONE

This day started much too early. A thunder storm rumbled through here around 5 a.m. and I ran out onto the deck and pulled the cushions inside. It poured, then moved on in short order, but I was awake. I completed the yellow ochre underpainting on my canvas and packed up the items required to take to today's course.



Shortly after 8 a.m. I was following a familiar route into Brockville. More traffic this time. Drove through the intersection where the police chase/barricade/shooting had occurred on Friday night and saw no evidence of the 'crime scene'.


We started with introductions and I am the only one from Sarnia! Pretty soon we were in the thick of learning and discovering what Renaissance backgrounds consist of, methods used to delienate space and their effects as well as significance of placement. Again so much information.




After a demo, we were given the task of drawing our own prepatory sketches, the design. These would represent a theme, concept or idea, and eventually, after many small sketches, a story emerged from my sketches.

Washes were then added to show values.

This one will likely make it to the canvas but still needs some more work. It is too small to add the detail and I will make another larger sketch. It was inspired by the story of "The Children of Men" which I read last week, and it has expanded from there. The shape may change slightly. Do you see the smoke stacks on the right? There is quite a bit of space in the foreground which I hope to fill when we have our model in class on Wednesday. In my drawing, she will be pregnant. More of the story, when it is done.

My Notes:
-Tony Urquart - Piles of Stones [shapes]
-Paul Clay - The Clay Universe
-Drawing took on value for the first time in the Renaissance
-Picture Plane: Architecture, Interior, Receding, figures, foreground, mid-ground, background, distance
-Sense of Depth - create perspective
-Figures occupy real space - foreground
-Value as perspective
-Foreground: high intensity, high light, high contrast
-Mid-ground: lower intensity, light and contrast
-Shape of figures has underlying geometry
-Sistine Chapel: iconography of ceiling read with layers of meaning. Michaelangelo finally got to do as he wanted - eventually. Made tons of changes
-Art as a Storyboard, Narrative, Billboard
-Manipulate space and figures to make statements of past in present - cross over
-Raphael - Architect & Painter - designed and painted from drawings - movement & balanced colour
-Paper becomes available at this time
-Dark line on far side of face, high contrast, creates movement.
-Architectural space - illusion of distance, use of perspective
-Appears as if one could step over the foreground and walk into the mid-ground and into the distance
-Perspective like tunneling
-Purpose of painting to imbed with higher ideal, to communicate
-Aerial Perspective - two tones that are close create distance
-Modelling, constrasts, overlap
-Values in mid-ground, less contrast
-To bring forward, high contrast, high colour
-Creating Space:Big=near Small=far
-Overlapping and progression of size
-Proportion may be sacrificed as long as credible
-Position on the picture plane: Down reads close Up reads far away
-Foreshortening: Modelling of form through 1d contrast, dark & light modelling
-Use of Drapery to create 3d, modelling and value contrasts
-Elements of Stage Set or Framing: features direct eye, geometric shapes=sharp edge, organic shapes=soft edges, recede
-Placement of Viewer: viewer's relationship to narrative
-Artists had voice and status, celebrity and equal to kings
-Employing Space Rules: to get feel of using devices that will give desired effect
Light/Dark pattern
-Can tie two figures together by joining darks
-In & Out, Up & Down, Side to Side

LOOKING BACK + TURNER, JMW

Another rainy day at the cottage and early morning computer file organizing brought me to the Sarnia Artists Workshop newsletter of February 2001. I found it interesting to read about the "Evening Edition", an opportunity to paint, etc and meet together through the winter months, that used to be at the Kinsmen Center on Thursday evenings. Pat facilitated this program and always provided welcome, coffee and sometimes someone, maybe Pat, brought in homemade cookies. I only attended the group a few times before there were changes. The city owned Lawrence House was reopened as the Lawrence House Center of the Arts and at that time, SAW, wishing to support this endeavour, tried meeting there for a year. There was no longer an evening program at the Kinsman Center and "Monday Morning Madness" at the LHCA took its place. This latter program was short lived. Still, there is no evening program.

Today, though the majority of painters are members of SAW, there are two groups of painters meeting at the Kinsmen Center during the day

I also discovered in my files, a copy of an article I submitted to the SAW newsletter back in 2001. Following is an edited copy:


When Passions meet:
Family History Research Leads to Artist Discovery: Synchronicity and Sketchy Connection

Egremont Road right here, near Sarnia. The word "Egremont" was the trigger. I remembered that many years ago, my grandmother had talked of Lord Egremont in context of her life as a young girl in Sussex, England. The research for this family connection led to the discovery and exploration of the watercolourist, Joseph Mallord William Turner.

The Lord Egremont, George Wyndham III, financially sponsored several emigrations to Canada in the 1800s, known as the Petworth Emigrations. One such group had settled at Adelaide outside of London, on Egremont Road.

George Wyndham preferred hosting friends at his home, Petworth House, to the fast life of the times in London. He was considered benevolent and fair in his dealings with the people of his jurisdiction. He allowed picnics on his grounds and annually offered a feast to include everyone. He was also the patron of the young artist Joseph Mallord William Turner.

Joseph Mallord William Turner (1775 - 1851)
Turner's life was devoted to painting...., over twenty thousand paintings, drawings, and watercolours. Subjects that lent themselves to dramatic effect particularly fascinated Turner.

By 1844, his work had become purely personal and intuitive. Scraped, brushed, and smeared, its purpose was to create sweeping movements and general atmospheres; to imply, rather than describe, both setting and details.

Turner would start not just one but a group of watercolours using the same materials and colour in all paintings. He would scratch out details with his sharpened thumbnail or the end of a brush, stipple over this with dry brush technique, or remove colour with blotting paper after immersing the whole watercolour in a bucket of water. Highlights were sometimes added in gouache. Soft edges were achieved with the use of a sponge. Turner was said to drive the colour about until he was satisfied with the result.

Many of Turner's figure paintings are associated with Petworth where, particularly in the years 1828 to 1837, Turner was a frequent guest of the third Earl of Egremont.

Turner websites:
http://sunsite.dk/cgfa/turner/ View Paintings Biography
http://www.hearts-ease.org/ Select Site Map/ Artists List/ T/ Turner/works or go direct to
http://www.j-m-w-turner.co.uk/artist/turner-methods.htm



[PETWORTH HOUSE – NATIONAL TRUST
A magnificent late 17th-century mansion set in a beautiful park, landscaped by ‘Capability’ Brown and immortalised in Turner’s paintings. The house contains the Trust’s finest and largest collection of pictures, with numerous works by Turner, Van Dyck, Reynolds and Blake, as well as ancient and neo-classical sculpture, fine furniture and carvings by Grinling Gibbons.]