DECEMBER MEETING - Snow Scene or Light

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1 DECEMBER MEETING - Snow Scene or Light Wendy started the session with Joseph Wright ( ) and h i s o i l painting entitled "A Philosopher giving that Lecture on the Orrery, in which a lamp is put in place of the Sun" (1766). Wright has been acclaimed as the first professional painter to express the spirit of t h e I n d u s t r i a l Revolution. Nancy s choice was the Book of Hours commissioned by the Duc du Berry and painted for him between 1412 and 1416 by the Limbourg Brothers. A book of hours is a collection of prayers to be said at canonical hours. We were intrigued with the detail contained in this illustration of February and the amount of lapis lazuli used - a very expensive pigment. The book currently resides in the Musée Condé, Chantilly, France.

2 Glennis wasn t able to attend but sent her choice of Monet s The Magpie for us to discuss. This oil on canvas depicts a solitary black magpie perched on a gate. The painting features one of the first examples of Monet s use of coloured shadows which would later became associated with the Impressionist movement. The painting is located at the Musee d Orsay in Paris. Denise had discovered this painting whilst looking for s o m e t h i n g e l s e a n d eventually tracked down the details. It is by Norbert Goeneutte ( ) and was his first exhibit in the Paris Salon of The Boulevard de Clichy under Snow is oil on canvas and located at the Tate Gallery in London. Val wanted to make a difference and brought in some paintings by Erich Stegmann ( a truly remarkable painter who lost the use of his arms through polio when a child and taught himself to paint holding the brush in his mouth. This watercolour is entitled Deer in the Snow. Truly inspiring!

3 Brian spoke of Monet s series of village paintings (which include The Magpie ) but also introduced us to Thomas Wyck, a Dutch artist, and his Frost Fair on the River Thames painted The Thames in London was completely frozen for two months with ice reaching a thickness of 11 inches. The river was wider and slower and the old London Bridge had narrower arches allowing the water to freeze in the much colder winters. Jan treated us to several paintings but her favourite was painted in 1919 by Rockwell Kent: View from Fox Island, Alaska. Kent was a contemporary of Edward Hopper and lived in the USA from 1882 to Andrea chose Peter Bruegel s The Hunters in the Snow, and oil on wood panel painted in This is another very detailed painting showing villagers in the distance cooking, playing hockey and curling on the ice

4 JANUARY Meeting - Painting Techniques Denise started off our discussions with Joseph Albers ( ) a German born artist who taught at both the Bauhaus and Yale. He is mostly known for his experiments in colour relationships, for example making one colour appear as two by placing it against different background colours. This segued nicely into Pointillism which was Glennis choice. Once again Glennis was unable to come along but had sent her research into Seurat s oil on board painting of A Sunday on La Grande Jatte Seurat ( ) first painted a layer of small horizontal brushstrokes of complementary colours later covering it in small dots also in complementary colours. These marks appear solid and luminous when seen from a distance. Barbara brought along examples of Eric Ravilious work. Born in 1903, he was a wood engraver, designed transport posters and liked to paint familiar things in an unfamiliar way. He was a great sketcher and encouraged his students at Eastbourne College of Art to go out and sketch. He bought the two caravans depicted here (fever vans from the Crimea) for 15 and set them up as his home and studio. The cottage on the left belonged to Nancy s aunt, the artist Peggy Angus who was a great friend of Ravilious. Ravilious was employed as a war artist and unfortunately lost his life in 1942 when the aircraft he was in crashed off the coast of Iceland.

5 Nancy followed with a short explanation of fresco which is painting wet pigment into wet plaster on a wall or ceiling so that when dry the painting is an integral part of the building. She also gave us many examples of mosaics, many of which can be found locally - this example is at Lopen. Roman slaves cut small cubes or tesserae from the local stone. The tesserae could also be made from brick, tile or glass and laid on mortar over compacted rubble to form a picture or design. Brian is engaged in research on Horblotton Church where this example of sgraffito by Heywood Sumner ( ) is displayed. Here, two differently coloured layers of plaster have been laid and the design scratched out. Sumner was part of the Arts & Craft movement and used this form of decoration in many churches throughout the British Isles. Andrea was fascinated by Jan van Eyck (c ), probable founder of the Flemish School of painting. This beautifully detailed painting is on board covered with animal skin glue and ground chalk to form a completely smooth surface on which the artist painted The Arnolfini Wedding in oils rather than egg tempera which would have been the normal medium used at this time. Van Eyck used several thin glazes to achieve the glowing colours. The mirror on the far wall captures an image of the artist and becomes an important witness to this marriage as well as adding depth to the painting. Last but not least, Jan researched different methods of putting marks onto supports. Here is a plait of extruded oil paint which can then be put onto the canvas in various ways and used to make texture. Another intriguing idea was to attach a pen top to an electric toothbrush and allowing the ink to be scattered onto the paper.