After a bleak winter’s month it was very pleasant to have some sunshine to come out in. Daffodils were out. Spring was on the way. And we had Ev Hales to talk to us. Great! Ev’s reputation as teacher, tour leader and artist is fantastic. Her current obsession is watercolour and the focus was on figurative painting. Her choice of subject is often an odd scene which resonates with her. She paints to please herself, not according to tradition. She is very productive, not only of paintings but books and pictures which follow her idiosyncratic mind, loose fast works with plenty of darks in the background. She passed around a stunning range of samples of her work accompanied by a captivating dialogue describing her travel experiences. She is taken by, not the standard tourist attractions, but by daily life in far off lands. See this one “Cobbler in Turkey”.

Today she would paint a woman making mulberry jam in Turkey. The woman worked on a huge cauldron over an open fire, stirring with a huge paddle. It was quite dark apart from the fire and the woman’s heated face. 

 Like good teachers reading a picture story book to kids she works upside down so that the audience has an uninterrupted view of the work piece – and makes them feel sorry for her if she stuffs it up.

The brightest part goes down first. “If it’s not scaring you it’s not bright enough”, she said.

She used a broad Chinese brush, a hake, which was like an extension of her hand. Using the side of the brush. This was the basic wash. To let it dry she worked on a second version while waiting.

She uses non-staining pigments so that she can lift off if required, eg. For the steam over the cauldron. She said “Some colours scream ‘I’m here!”, meaning the strong modern chemical colours like phthalos, quinacradones etc. So she does not use them. She doesn’t like opaque colours as they make mud when mixed. You should mix colours on the paper for freshness, not on the palette.

With brushes she prefers not sables which hold a lot of water, but those that spring back after you lean on them. Synthetic fibres. Bunnings brushes are quite good.

After the break she felt it needed a pattern of darks to get a feel of the scene. To her they are connected musically. So she made a big puddle of darks. No black or Paynes grey, but mixes such as burnt umber and ultramarine. Not too much water in the brush. Don’t keep dipping into the water jug. She worked with two brushes in hand, one for pigment, one clean to soften edges or to lift off. She gets the big dark areas in and not much fine detail.

She ran out of time but would finish it off at home. An amazing amount of content in an hour and a half. There was a lot to learn in a very entertaining afternoon

Report by Colin Browne

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