[BAS Newsletter] Feedback and exhibitions

[Adrian Fowle]

Some notes from Friday and details of EXHIBITIONS to ENTER

We raised £415 for St Christopher's Hospice from the sale of Christine 
Mallion's art materials. Thank you for your generosity. I hope you enjoy 
using your purchases as much as Christine always seemed to. A few books 
were left which I shall take to any charity shop which I can park near. 
The remaining usable scraps of art materials I shall find good homes for.

Our demonstrator,  Lewis Hazelwood-Horner, is a member of the Council of 
The Royal Society of British Artists, oddly abbreviated to RBA
www.royalsocietyofbritishartists.org.uk/about-us/officers-and-council/
He was encouraging us to submit works for their forthcoming open 
Exhibition - see
www.mallgalleries.org.uk/call-for-entries/open-exhibitions/royal-society-british-artists

Bromley Art Society's Exhibition at Ripley will take place 26th March - 
26th April 2019. Instructions and handing in form can be found on our 
"old" website at
http://www.bromleyartsoc.org.uk/story/ripley-2019-instructions.
Our exhibitions last year were a fantastic success. More of the same 
please.

Jules Pew is exhibiting at the Candid Arts Trust - theme The Absurd. If 
you would like tickets to the  Preview evening 15 March 7-10pm please 
contact her jules.pew at gmail.com

----

I had the impression that Lewis had not given many talks to art 
societies - there was a slight hesitancy to his approach. Nevertheless 
he provided several fascinating insights. He is one of few demonstrators 
we have had who have talked about continuing the work afterwards, so it 
was not just a pastiche for our benefit. He talked about using a "Black 
Mirror", unfortunately also the name of a film. However it seems also to 
be known as a Claude Glass - see en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Claude_glass. He 
was going to use his switched off mobile phone screen, which sounds like 
a nice trick although he did not do it in the end. He painted with a 
very straight arm and discussed the use of an extra long brush handle 
too, which gave him an odd stance when painting. He was quite careful to 
stay in the same position once he started, to avoid shifts in the 
perspective.
Lewis was painting in oils, which he thins with turps and dammar 
varnish. He selectively varnishes his paintings to highlight areas (ie 
some are left matt and others are glossy). He also uses what I think was 
called Liberon wax, which he buffs to a shine (www.liberon.co.uk) These 
methods seemed to me to be at odds with his wish to ensure longevity for 
his works. He used some very interesting colours, including one called 
Cadmium Purple or possibly Cadmium Red Purple. This has the same 
pigment, known as PR108, as the more common bright red Cadmium. He told 
us that he sometimes uses sandpaper on a painting which has dried, to 
smooth the surface and deepen the shade before he continues painting. A 
canvas might not stand up to such abuse, and he dislikes the way 
stretched canvas bounces,  so he often uses a primed wood panel.
If this all sounds a bit fussy - have a look at his paintings! He is a 
young artist to watch I think.

-- 
Adrian Fowle
Chairman, Bromley Art Society