February 2022

Leisure Painter

The UK's best selling learn-to-paint magazine

Leisure Painter2 min read
Welcome
With winter well and truly here, what better time is there to settle in the warmth of your home or studio, pick up your favourite art materials and be creative? From wintery landscapes, flowers and animals to draw and paint, to practical advice and e
Leisure Painter1 min read
Leisure Painter
Editor Ingrid Lyon Contributing Editor Jane Stroud Editorial Consultants Diana Armfield RA, NEAC (Hon), RWS, David Bellamy, Tim Fisher Design Alison Renno, Sarah Poole Online Editor Dawn Farley Digital Content ManagerAnna Lewin anna.lewin@warnersgrou
Leisure Painter1 min read
Next Month’s Highlights
• Consider containers: inspiration for painting still lifes with flowers • Step-by-step winter landscapes using watercolour and acrylics • Confident colour mixing: how to work with a limited palette • Explore loose and lively techniques to paint an o
Leisure Painter3 min read
Letters
Barry Sullivan wins this month’s star letter prize. He will receive two new Saunders Waterford Rough pads, courtesy of St Cuthberts Mill, worth over £64. The prize will be despatched by St Cuthberts Mill. We will share the winner’s name and address w
Leisure Painter2 min read
Diary
■ SPWMO Open Painting Competition 2021 The winners have now been announced in the second annual Open Painting Competition 2021 organised by the Society of Painters in Water-Mixable Oils (www.spwmo.org.uk). Entries were invited in two categories: amat
Leisure Painter4 min read
Exhibitions
The Laing Art Gallery in Newcastle upon Tyne is currently showing a major exhibition of 20th century British portraiture. Featuring over 85 oil paintings, drawings and prints, the exhibition has been divided up into five themes: The Artist’s Studio;
Leisure Painter4 min read
Painting Project
When you are inspired by any subject the desire to start painting quite often overrides any thought of planning. To give yourself a better chance of success, each stage should be planned before you begin. Just because snow scenes are generally more t
Leisure Painter5 min read
Make Your Mark
Stuck in a rut with your painting? Are you doing the same-old, same-old every time? Why not learn a new language? The language of mark making. Recently, a student commented, ‘I hate mark making for the sake of it’. I found this strange, to say the le
Leisure Painter2 min read
Art Clubs
The Bury Art Society was delighted to be able to stage its annual exhibition in 2021 at the Bury Art & Sculpture Museum, thanks to the support of the museum’s staff who also organised the public vote. Anne Fryer’s work (above) was chosen by the publi
Leisure Painter2 min read
Painting Project
■ Surface • NOT 140lb watercolour paper, taped on a board 16½x11¾in. (42x30cm) Brushes • Rounds Nos. 8 & 5 • Wash brush Winsor & Newton watercolour tubes • Cerulean blue • Ultramarine blue • Transparent yellow • Raw sienna • Alizarin crimson • Peryle
Leisure Painter5 min read
Say It With Flowers
Flowers have been painted in many different ways and in almost all cultures throughout the history of art, but today’s artists are especially fortunate in having a far wider choice than previously – once-exotic blooms such as azaleas can now be seen
Leisure Painter4 min read
Luminous Colour
Egg tempera is simple and easy to use. Last month, I explained how to make egg tempera and what materials were needed. In this article you will see the steps I took to paint kudu antelope in egg tempera. The following demonstration will also show som
Leisure Painter7 min readVisual Arts
Frosty Morning
There is something magical about frost. It covers the ground like a thin white veil and turns all the bright colours to beautiful greys. It shimmers and sparkles with the first rays of sunshine then disappears and quickly melts away. Frost doesn’t ha
Leisure Painter4 min read
Beginner’s Watercolour
● Winsor & Newton Cotman watercolour tubes: Ultramarine, light red, raw sienna and burnt sienna ● Stephen Coates Spearhead No. 8 Round brush ● Pro Arte Prolene No. 2 Round brush ● Bockingford NOT 140lb (300gsm) paper ● Palette or tray for mixing ● Dr
Leisure Painter6 min read
Let’s Draw
● Graphite pencils – HB, 2B, 4B, 2H ● Watercolour sketchbook – 160gsm paper ● Eraser template shield ● Pencil sharpener ● Putty rubber ● Tortillon In last month’s issue, we began this drawing series with the simple exercise to use shading and erasing
Leisure Painter5 min read
Explore Watercolour
In this my second article in the series, I’d like to talk about subtlety, in observation as well as in recording, since we must be able to see and recognise before we can paint. Paris Pluie (above) shows some ways of bringing a little more finesse in
Leisure Painter9 min read
Grey Wolf
Let me introduce you to Misha (above), who was one of two grey wolves based at Paradise Wildlife Park in Broxbourne, Hertfordshire. Misha shared her home at the park with her best friend, Tatra, and I fell in love with both girls the first time I lai
Leisure Painter5 min read
Perfect Partners
Pen, ink and watercolour is one of the most versatile of techniques. It is useful to watercolourists as an extra tool and, for those who prefer drawing, it is a way to work with watercolour painlessly. In this article, I want to look at ways of worki
Leisure Painter6 min read
My First Painting
For 16 years I taught a watercolour painting course to passengers on P&O Cruises. Early on I realised that many of the passengers who joined the course had never painted before or, at least, not since they’d left school, many years before. ‘I can’t e
Leisure Painter7 min readVisual Arts
The Moods Of The Sea
Last month we looked at painting calm, smooth sea, where the trick is to keep the gentle waves looking smooth with the use of subtle blending. Painting a more agitated sea, as it breaks on rocks, for instance, or as it comes up a steeply shelving peb
Leisure Painter6 min read
Try Something Different
I am a watercolourist at heart, but I’m always on the lookout for other water-based media to include in my repertoire of mixed-media work. Although it has similarities to watercolour, Brusho has its own quirky and delightful properties. A big advanta
Leisure Painter2 min read
Online Gallery
WWW.PAINTERS-ONLINE.CO.UK Artist, Averil Rees, has overcome devastating health issues to painstakingly re-learn to draw and paint again. Here she shares her story with us and shows that perseverance can have remarkable results as her beautiful painti
Leisure Painter3 min read
Books
Visit www.painters-online.co.uk/store and click on the link to books to buy the latest practical art books available from LP’s online bookshop. There’s also 20% off all Search Press books in our bookshop this month! As part of the Draw 100 series fro

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