Marion's Landscape Painting Newsletter - MAR 2011

WELCOME to my March newsletter, Hooray! Spring has finally arrived here in the UK and we can enjoy the striking colours of daffodils and crocuses. In my garden it is satisfying to spot new fresh buds on plants. It is time to awaken our colour pallettes and capture the signs of life around us. Remember to make some time to sketch outside. If you are going for a walk take your camera .. I am sure you will find plenty of inspiration.

Quality or Quantity?

Over the last few weeks I have had time, somehow, to visit some local galleries and exhibitions. The question which kept coming into my head was do artist always aim for quality over quantity of work? I am sure we’ve all been in art groups where members produce good, but not, exciting paintings week in, week out. Every few months I think we all need to reconsider the quality of the work we are producing.

At a recent demonstration, I watched, of ‘Encaustic’ painting the artist was producing a good quantity of pictures in a short space of time. I know art is a very personal thing but when at the tea break the artist put out some small paintings for people to buy…… there were more paintings the same as they had demonstrated. Sadly this was disappointing. The artist had, it seemed, gone for quantity not quality; it is a choice which we all need to consider.

March's Product

At a recent exhibition I saw some very exciting mixed media portraits. I think what grabbed my attention was the amazing colours - really vibrant and alive and some were fluorescent. It is my guess that some of painting was created with felt-tips. Felt-tips are a fantastic art material for these reasons:

1. They are very controllable you can create extremely precise lines and marks

2.Permanent felt-tips allow you to do washes of colour over them

3.They will create marks over collage

4.Pastels and acrylics will work over felt-tips

5.They come in a large range of colours and sizes of nib.

6.They are very transportable so great for sketching

I recently bought a set of UNI permanent markers and they are great. For finer lines and greater detail SHARPIE produce some excellent pens and one is even retractable.

A Few Other Things

I really hope you have enjoyed reading this newsletter and it has encouraged you to concider your work with some degree of scrutiny.

I have fun writing this newsletter but please let me know if there are any areas you want me to discuss. Please use the contact page on my website ... www.exploring-landscape-painting.com Also please tell your friends about this newsletter and get them to sign up.

BE INSPIRED, BE CREATIVE!

SBI!