There was quite a full house for John’s demo. He and his young son Peter set up early. They brought in many pictures, some large and framed, some wide and narrow, some unframed for sale at very reasonable prices. In fact, the club bought his demonstration piece for auction later in the year. There was an excellent cross section of John’s work. The overall theme was Mornington Peninsula, the style, realist oil impressionism.

He is self-taught basing his development on studying closely the work of other artists. He advocates buying art and studying it closely. He is still learning. He now shares his knowledge generously with a local group at Sorrento. They learn from each other. You can see his influence in their exhibitions. His work is recognisable from its thick impasto areas and strong brush marks contrasting with smooth washes in sky and sea. He is intrigued with texture.

His bio is very interesting. Maybe we could get him again and hear his many stories.

He had prepared a narrow board of mdf about four feet wide on which was outlined in purple a halfmoon bay with a stretch of sand. The shape of the board was appropriate to the wide expanse of water and sand. He was very well prepared having the narrow board clamped to an easel anchored on a table so the work area was at shoulder height for him and his loaded palette was projecting right below it.

Clearly a handyman. He used to do his own framing but these days gets a framer to do it. That’s what it’s like when you start to get a decent price for your work. The mdf board was undercoated on both sides to prevent curving. You can put some gesso on if you know where it will be suitable in the picture. The elements to focus on are composition, colour and tone. The best focal point is often where thirds of the area intersect. With colour, warm colours advance and cool colours recede. 

He began blocking in shapes, not in any detail at this early stage. Keep walking back 10 feet or so to check the effect. You get mud when you are not sure, so make your mind up away from the picture. His brushstrokes were decisive and confident. Vary their direction. Colours were mixed on the palette, not always getting them right first time. Paint was applied in various ways, big brush, small brush, palette knife, paint scraper, fingers, flicking.

By afternoon tea it was all blocked in with not much texture, after that he went in with thicker paint, even a pile of old scrapings for rough cliff areas. A bit of jewellery, seagulls, masts, distant people. Then he put it in a frame to get the final effect. It worked really well. A very popular demonstration.

 Thank you John.

Report by Colin Browne

You can view a fast-motion video of John demonstrating on the WAA Facebook Page

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