The preparation was incredible. I opened up on Saturday and the upper gallery was set up like a theatre with rows of chairs (thank you to the Friday class). I had not anticipated this but Alan had made a four page illustrated handout with an abundance of interesting material to back up his talk, the papers all set out on the chairs.
I went into the childcare room and there were rows of tables set up and on each was a piece of Arches 300gsm with a neatly ruled pencil frame 9” X 5”. There were art materials as door prizes (courtesy of ArtShop.com), biros to use in his sketching session (courtesy of Monash Short Courses), example folders of his own holiday sketches, the lot. As I said to Dot, each of us experienced teachers, “Good preparation is the key to a good lesson.” There was no way he could fail.
And so it was. We had a huge attendance. We had to bring in more and more chairs. Dot had to explore the centre’s photocopier to make another 15 sets of handouts.
Alan said that his first choice for holiday sketches ‘en plein air’ was the humble biro. Use a good paper, such as Arches 300gsm. It’s better to use loose sheets rather than in a book or pad, because if you stuff one up you can toss it and you haven’t spoiled your book. (Ray Drayton showed me today a little book of about 50 little watercolours sketches he did from out his windows… He hadn’t stuffed up any of them, but he is good.)
Alan said to start with the focal point, which may be where the lightest light meets the darkest dark, and to work outwards. No hard-edged boundaries. Follow the sketch to where it wants to go. Don’t fiddle with it. Don’t correct it. Wrong lines don’t matter. Once you have the line sketch done, attack it with loose colour. Cool colours in the background, warm colours in the foreground.
He couldn’t resist giving some of his characteristic clues about drawing. For boats you start with an elongated 8 on its side. For moving water you do Z shapes with the brush. He has all these tips you can hang your hat on. That is another reason that he is a great teacher.
So after another great afternoon tea it was back into a re-arranged upper gallery, (thank you team) for holiday sketches in pen and watercolour, or to the childcare room for 9 X 5s. By all reports people tried one or the other and had a really satisfying experience. Dot and I had to go, but when we came back that evening to pick up stuff, an incredible clean-up job had been done. Thank you team. You all do a great job with these demo days.

Colin Browne, Secretary

During the afternoon tea break, Alan and helpers set up a double row of tables and chairs in the upper gallery and furnished each place with an 1/8th sheet of Arches 300gsm paper. The lower gallery had already been set up. Enthusiastic members cut short their afternoon tea to get started on their creation.

As a complete novice in watercolour sketching, I was keen to try this with Alan’s helpful advice at hand. Also, as a beginning water-colourist, I had never experienced the pleasure of painting on the famed Arches 300gsm rough. What a joy. I’m off to buy some at the first opportunity and as Alan said if the sketch doesn’t work first go, turn the paper over and do it again on the other side. Very economical!

Alan dashed around both galleries ensuring everyone had the materials they needed and providing photograph examples for those who didn’t have one. Working 2 rooms like this must have been very exhausting.

If there were any doubts whether this format for our monthly demo would be well-received, the photos below taken by Julia Mattea confirm that it was overwhelmingly successful.

Helen Halliday, WAA Newsletter Editor