The Artist - UK (2021-02)

38 artistFebruary 2021 http://www.painters-online.co.uk

MIXED MEDIA

Elements of the landscape

Barry Herniman begins a new four-part series in which

he paints a diff erent element of the landscape each month, starting

with a moody sky in watercolour and pastel

W

henever someone knows

I’m an artist the fi rst

question they ask me

is ‘what do you like to

paint?’, to which my answer is invariably

‘landscapes’. Sometimes the follow-up

question is ‘and what medium do you

use?’ My answer is that my main paint

of choice is watercolour, although now

I have moved away slightly to other

media that are equally exciting in their

own right.

So, over the next four months I am

going to work through some of the

main elements of the landscape with

step-by-step demonstrations so that

you can see how I build up a painting.

And not only that, I am going to use

some different media to create these

elements in a slightly different way from

straightforward watercolour.

Mixed media and collage is very much

in vogue and you can produce some

stunning results with them. However,

there are those who do that so much

better than me, so I will stick with

exploring these alternative media in

their pure form.

Each month I will be doing a full

studio demonstration, working through

my painting process from start to fi nish

using different media. I will also be

doing a more simple ‘paint along’ that

will take about 30 minutes to complete

and get you into the swing of trying

something a bit different.*

Skies

The sky is the most magical element

of the landscape and is all around

us, so I am kicking off this series

with a wonderful wintry sky. All the

sky’s different moods impact on the

landscape. Ralph Waldo Emerson said

‘The sky is the daily bread of the eyes’;

this is so true – and even more so for

the artist.

For this demonstration I am using

watercolours and pastels together;

I love the way these two media

complement each other – especially

when painting more dramatic skies –

the watercolour being used for the more

subtle wash passages and the pastels

where I can mould the more dynamic

detailed forms.

Barry Herniman

organises and tutors painting holidays

in the UK and abroad and is available for

workshops and painting demonstrations to

art clubs. To join his mailing list for future

events email bazherrfl [email protected].

Barry’s Cloverleaf Paintbox is available

online at: cloverleafpaintbox.com. His

books Painting Mood and Atmosphere in

Watercolour and Painting Landscapes in

Acrylics are available at discounted prices

from our online bookshop:

http://bit.ly/3cw1AUX.

http://www.barryherniman.com

p STAGE ONE

Using my 2B pencil I drew in the main areas of the picture: the hill, foreground and

main cloud formations. Then I used some masking fl uid to block out areas in the

hills and clouds that I wanted to keep pristine white

MATERIALS

�Saunders Waterford NOT watercolour paper, 200lb

� Schmincke Horadam Artists’ Watercolours: Indian yellow,

rose madder, manganese blue, cobalt blue, ultramarine,

orange, manganese violet, quinacridone gold and helio

turquoise

� Selection of soft pastels: dark and light blues, blue/greys,

blue/violets, grey/green, dark greens, soft pinks and

white

� Paper torchon stick

� DaVinci Cosmotop round brushes, Nos. 12 and 6

� Masking fl uid

u

My pastel tray

I put all the colours

that I am using for a

particular painting

in a small plastic

tray, which I keep

for this purpose

DEMONSTRATION

Winter Sky over Galway