demonstrations
Monthly meetings are held on the first Wednesday of the month, except January, at which visiting, well-known artists give demonstrations. Members and visitors are welcome to these demonstrations, for a small entry fee of $5 members, $7 non-members. They are held at Castle Glen Community Centre, 157 Ridgecrop Drive, Castle Hill (at the rear of the carpark at Knightsbridge shopping centre).
2023 Demonstrations - Wednesday 7.30pm
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1 February
Mellissa Read-Devine "New Matisse Acrylics & Printmaking Kit" Mellissa will demonstrate how to make impressionist mixed media paintings using ink, charcoal watercolour and chalk pastels with the silk screen and Matisse Print Gel. In addition, she will show how to use Derivan Liquid Stencil—a revolutionary new screen printing technique—in both paintings as well as traditional silk screen media on a variety of surfaces. |
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1 March
Dario Falzon "Misty Morning at Yarramundi" in oils Dario will show how he captures impressions of the landscape and the challenges of the light shifting when painting outdoors as well as showing the materials he uses. He is inspired by finding the beauty in scenes all around him. Dario is a traditional realist painter, primarily working en plein air with oil paints, and using brushes and knives in multiple ways to create an impression of the surrounding landscape. |
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5 April
Jan Cristaudo "Colours and abstraction in the Landscape" This demonstration takes the viewer on a visual journey that evokes the allure of the outback and the feeling of connection to a landscape that is unknown to many. “Colour has always fascinated me. It is the first thing I see, then comes shape and form. As an abstract artist I use colour to interpret the way I see the world.” Jan has a distinctive style using oils on canvas to interpret the subject. |
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3 May
Christian Holmes "Still Life - Oils" Christian Holmes is a talented artist with a keen interest in classical drawing and painting techniques. Christian will demonstrate how to simplify the drawing process using a limited palette to achieve nice light effects and harmony. |
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10 June - Saturday 2.30pm
Tanya Baily "Expressive Watercolours" Tanya is an award-winning artist working exclusively in transparent watercolour across a range of subjects. She won the National Watercolour Prize in 2019 and is an elected member of the Australian Watercolour Institute. Tanya exhibits in Australia and internationally. With reference to two or three different landscape images, Tanya will demonstrate how to be more expressive, experimental and loose with your watercolour paintings. She will demonstrate a range of her favourite textural techniques working in wet as well as how to use the transparency of watercolour to build texture and beautiful colour in glazing on dry. |
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8 July - Saturday 2.00pm
Robyn Langford-Brown "Botanicals in Watercolours" Robyn is a Botanical Artist painting in watercolour and is a long-time member of the Botanical Art Society of Australia. Her work has won awards and has found homes around the world. “Every day is a new experience of the wonder of this great land of ours to be explored and try for a visual record of it”. During the demo Robyn will explain what is botanical art with the use of transparent watercolours, limited palette and tonal graphics. Botanical art starts with accurate drawing of the specimen for proper identification, and excellent rendering of it in watercolours on good paper to finish as a beautiful illustration of the plant. |
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2 August
Luke Kelly "Beautiful Birds" Luke is a self-taught painter who’s inspired by Australia’s natural beauty and boisterous wildlife and has an ongoing obsession with painting Australian parrots. He’s exhibited in galleries across NSW, was awarded first place in the global online competition “Art Wars” in 2017, has been published in the book by Outback Creative. Luke’s painting style has evolved in response to his appreciation for the photography technique of Bokeh – which creates the effect of soft out-of-focus backgrounds bringing attention to the subject. Luke finds that acrylic paints achieve the intensity of colour, sharp lines and soft layering he desires in his pieces. |
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6 September
Tam Cao "Drawing in Charcoal with Pastel" Tam Cao is primarily a landscape and portrait artist. He studied at the Julian Ashton Art School from 2008 to 2012 and was awarded the John Olsen Scholarship in 2010. In this demo Tam will draw a life portrait with a model to instruct his portrait practice. His aim is to represent the model while impacting the drawing with emotion. |
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4 October
Marian Blakeney-McMahon "Printmaking with a Gelli Press" Where printmaking meets technology and creativity - learn some new techniques. Gel Press printing is a new type of printmaking technology that enables artists the freedom to experiment or combine different facets of their creative expression within the process to produce thoughtful, original works. The Gel Press is a reusable soft silicone gel plate that allows artists the option to create amazing monoprints without a press. The Gel Press is perfect for creating original artworks by incorporating various techniques such as painting, mixed media and collage. |
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1 November
Dominique Millar "A History & Demonstration of the Chalk Drawing Medium" Dominique is a graduate from the Julian Ashton Art School and teaches visual art. He will explain the historical context of the chalk medium then demonstrate in 3 chalk pencils - trois crayon - as can be seen in image of 2 carp on a coloured paper, which will show the full breadth that the medium is capable of. |
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2022 Demonstrations - Wednesday 7.30pm
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2 February
Christopher Vidal "Blue Mountains Landscape in Oils" Christopher Vidal, a Sydney artist who loves to paint the landscape as well as other subjects in oils and acrylics. His style of painting is contemporary realism influenced by classical painters and by recent impressionists. At age 13 he studied classical drawing in Malta, then pursued a career as a medical scientist and researcher, eventually moving to Australia permanently and then becoming a professional artist. He produces a continuous stream of new works and commissioned paintings, and his works are found in private and corporate collections in Australia and Internationally. |
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2 March
Yolanda Seach "My Journey to Abstraction" Yolanda will give some background on how abstract art started, showing examples and describing her journey from realism to abstraction. There have been many influences along the way and through experimenting and having a go she is amazed at how much it has helped her more traditional painting. |
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6 April
John Rice "What is Plein Air painting about" or "Secrets of Plein Air painting" John is an energetic outdoor painter who works almost exclusively in oils and is stimulated by the strong light of the Australian landscape. His work stems from direct observation during “en plein air” painting trips throughout the Blue Mountains, the Hawkesbury and the Central West of NSW. Recent painting trips have been to Sardinia, Bordeaux, Tuscany and Central Australia. John has won many awards for his artworks and has held fifteen very successful solo exhibitions and numerous joint exhibitions. |
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4 May
Mariana Ariza "Watercolour Seascape" The ocean and the coast is a beautiful and dynamic subject. It provides us with wonderful colours and interesting shapes. Watercolours are a wonderful medium that, like the ocean waves, have an innate spontaneity. By trying to find that balance between looseness and control, a seascape might be born! |
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1 June
Florence Ilacqua "Loose and Spontaneous Watercolour" Florence is a Sydney based artist, who works in a varied range of wet and dry media - watercolour, pastel, acrylic, pen and ink, charcoal and oil, often incorporating them in a variety of subjects. Of the above, her favourite is watercolour and ink, which allows the freedom of expression and spontaneous energy to work without limitation. |
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2 July - Saturday 2:00pm
Kevin McKay "Urban Landscapes in Oils" Kevin McKay is an urban landscape painter who works en plein air and in the studio. His work depicts eerily empty streetscapes, where the stillness of classical form and the drama of light is found in the everyday. He will demonstrate the initial stages of sketching in a composition and blocking in with oil paint and show how formal abstract considerations forms the basis for good realism. |
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3 August
Dario Falzon "Early morning at Yarrumundi" - Oils Dario will be demonstrating a scene that was painted plein air, and will explain his technique plus the various processes and materials used. Dario is a traditional realist painter, primarily working en plein air with oil paints, and using brushes and knives in multiple ways to create an impression of the surrounding landscape. |
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7 September
Lisa Shepherd "Magical Cyanotypes" During this demonstration you will discover the historic alternative photographic process of cyanotypes which were extremely popular during the Victorian era. It is a cameraless photographic process using UV light on sensitised paper to produce blue and white images. The process is now being used by both photographers and artists worldwide with no limitations for final outcomes. "Every time I expose a new artwork I am thrilled with the results and no two pieces are ever the same" said Lisa. She has experience in a wide variety of mediums and has specialised in cyanotype printing for over 5 years now. |
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5 October
Mellissa Read-Devine "New Matisse Acrylics & Printmaking Kit" Mellissa will demonstrate the new Acrylic paints by Matisse and also the new Printmaking kit which can be used to make cards, etc. With a paper screen printing kit you can make many copies of your artwork – paper bags, handmade cards, wrapping paper or art prints using silkscreen printing is so simple! This kit comes with everything you need to start and you also get four primary acrylic colours and print gel perfect for silkscreening on paper. |
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2 November
Hiren Patel "Painting an Atmospheric Urban Landscape in Oils" Hiren grew up in India but now lives in Australia and paints professionally, exhibiting both here and overseas. Most subjects are urban landscapes and are based on the idea of light and mood forming a composition. Using this technique he can transform a mundane streetscape into visual poetry. |
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