panorama
Official Newsletter of Brighton Art Society Inc.
Issue 294
FROM THE PRESIDENT
I hope all members of Brighton Art Society have had a
happy Easter and are enjoying the term break.
On Monday morning 30 March 2015, the Bayside
Cultural Tenants quarterly meeting was conducted at
Bayside Corporate Centre. The convener was Sonia
Turnbull – Arts and Cultural Coordinator. This meeting
replaces the Brighton Town Hall Tenants meeting and
is intended to strengthen Bayside’s focus on the arts
being conducted within the municipality.
There were 11 persons in attendance, 4 represented
Council and the others were from Sandringham
Historical Society, Brighton Historical Society, Black
Rock House, Brighton Theatre Company, Beaumaris
Theatre Company, Beaumaris Art Society, Brighton Art
Society and Brighton U3a.
Council officers outlined their respective roles, including
the leasehold manager Sally, who advised us that our
tenancy was a priority for Bayside. We were all asked
to outline our society’s aims and structure. It was quite
a surprise to see and hear our other partners outline
their group activities.
There was no mention of Consultant Michelle Reid’s
recommendations on her investigations that were
conducted last year. I gather that there is interest being
shown by Councillor Alex del Porto in the Courthouse
being used as a restaurant, but this is uncertain at this
time. Council moves very slowly.
However, we had a meeting with Mark Patterson from
Bayside City Council yesterday (14/4/15) and other
tenants from the Precinct, and consultation is afoot!
Enclosed in this issue is a poster detailing the dates of
proposed meetings.
Liz, who represented our neighbour: Brighton Historical
Society, has suggested that a sensor should be
installed in the lift lobby/stairwell to turn on lighting.
Often when they are leaving at the end of the day, they
are not aware that classes may be still being conducted
and turn off the lights, or they have not been turned on.
Regarding Bayside City Council’s policy regarding the
arts, it is interesting to read their latest newsletter –
“Let’s Talk Bayside: April / May”. The Gallery below us
on the ground floor is hosting the inaugural Bayside
Acquisitive Art Prize. The 34 finalist works (from 478
entries) will be exhibited on 2 May with the official award
ceremony and exhibition opening on Thursday 7 May
2015. If there are any of our members listed among the
finalists it will be interesting to know, as the People’s
Choice Award includes a prize of $1,000.
Stuart Hunter
President 2015
APRIL 2015
Alan Rawady’s Tasmanian Art Adventure
Ross, 21st- 27th March
Alan, past President and Life Member of AGRA, was a
long-time tutor at BAS, and many of us have benefited
from his extensive knowledge of drawing and
watercolour.
Over more than a decade, Alan and his wife Helen have
run an annual week-long art safari somewhere in SE
Australia. Current and/or past members of BAS, Gail
Barton, Alex Bell, Margaret Duke, Betina FauvelOgden, Darryl Flynn, Brian Pleasants, Barbara Allen
and myself who have enjoyed those excursions, but
many other art societies are regularly represented.
There are five elements to their art adventures:
 A welcome on the first evening with chicken and
salad and refreshments.
 A daily 9am meeting of the troops (there were 12
of us in total), where Alan gives a demonstration of
the media, (watercolour, brush and paper) with
particular relevance to the local landscape. Alan
prepares an A2 board with colour swatches of a
number of colours that we might use for
landscapes. As well, but some variations of
outcome that different brands of watercolour
produce.
 Alan also shows colour combinations that we might
use for the facades, walls and roofs of the local and
outlying buildings. As expected, there are plenty of
questions and answers back and forth, so that we
go forth into the day well-armed and enthusiastic.
 A daily 5pm ‘show and tell’ where there are plenty
of “ooh’s and aahs” as artworks are displayed –
some with panache, and others with reticence, but
all members have an eye for mutual inspiration.
 As well as nightly barbecues or pub meals, we
have a concluding evening meal and get together
at a local establishment.
We journeyed to Ross, in the middle of Tasmania, after
arriving at Devonport on the Bass Strait ferry on Sunday
morning, while others made the journey by aeroplane
and hire car. Alan and Helen were already at the motel
to greet us.
The weather was fine and warm, so we walked around
the township, and mingled with the (other) tourists
browsing through the half-dozen antique shops and tea
shops.
One such bakery-take-away was voted
“Australia’s best ‘new business’ for 2014”, and they
were doing a roaring trade. Ross, we were to find out
later, is the home of the Tasmanian curried (or not)
scallop pie, and they are delicious!
Ross, the centre of a merino wool producing area, has
a fine stone three arch bridge over a small creek with a
substantial flood plain. The water level in peak flood has
been at the level of the crowns of the arches. When we
were there, with the creek barely flowing, the level was
about 2 m below that.
There are a couple of fine churches and charming
colonial residences, a world war 1 cannon at the war
memorial, a wool and craft museum, and a 2 storey
hotel, the “Man o’Ross” – all subjects for painting!
Barbara was straight into the watercolours, but I thought
that an ink rendering of the bridge might be a good
choice.
We each sat in a folding chair, and despite the
occasional buzz of a wasp, proceeded to the task. I
would have expected that Lloyd Rees, a master of
pencil landscapes, had drawn many of the sights
around Ross. However, in the literature, we could find
no works of his in this area.
Ross Bridge looking South (2)
oil
I attempted an oil landscape using the approach of
under-painting with ultramarine and burnt sienna,
followed up by colour when the underpainting had dried
somewhat. This allowed me to paint the keystones over
the top of the darker mortar between them.
The Bridge at Ross, looking South
pen & ink
Barbara was able to dash off some watercolours of the
buildings in the main street and the hills and paddocks
to the north and west
A discussion with Stephen Doyle and Clive Sinclair
might resolve the issues that most of us have. Do we
move toward Clarice Beckett or Lucien Freud – do we
paint or do we draw??
The next day we went to Oatlands, a town further south
on the road to Hobart. With such a name, naturally it
has a huge windmill and museum on the hill top for
grinding cereals. The main street has many coffee
houses and similar establishments. The approaches to
the town from the north through the hills and valleys are
a painter’s dream with stands of poplars by the
roadside, and eucalypts on the slopes beyond.
Church Street colonial residences
The weather became inclement the next afternoon, so
we drove to Bicheno on the east coast and were back
in Ross by tea-time. In Tasmania, everything seems to
be less than a couple of hours away. The forests in the
hinterland are stunning – even the young trees are
pencil straight with ten metres of clean trunk before the
first branches. The views from Cranbrook and Apsley of
the mountains to the south toward Coles Bay are
magnificent
As luck would have it, the day we departed Ross was a
glorious autumn day - mid twenties and not a cloud in
the sky!
Hills to the west of Ross
watercolours
Later in the week, the weather turned windy from the
north and then we knew that we were in for a change to
cold and wet conditions as the wind swung west
LIVE MODELS FOR DRAWING CLASSES
We suggested that although our plaster model Hedley
is always available, as the end of term approaches,
there’s something exciting about having a real person
to draw, rather than earthenware jugs and vases.
Elizabeth Paszko asked BAS member June Jackson to
demonstrate for her Wednesday morning group with
Monique as a model. June is noted for her vibrant
pastels (see the portrait of Brian Pleasants in the foyer).
Artist unknown
artist Louise Turno
Elizabeth Paszko, June Jackson & Monique 1 & 2
Ruzalka’s Tuesday afternoon drawing group is
progressing well, according to Raz. She has a few
philosophic comments about her Tuesday afternoon
group:
“ Joy is the sweet voice, joy is the luminous cloud
All colours a suffusion from that light ”
Samuel Taylor Coleridge 1732 – 1834
Drawing is a pleasure that grows with skill. Observation
a practice both nourishing and fun, for the mind and the
hand can work in concert to form and create. Pleasure
can be found in skill and beauty in the mundane.
The model was Michael
Our group is about observation, skill-building,
experimenting with materials, formats, scale, and
colour. It is about linking the acquisition of those
observational skills so that the group members can feel
assured, confident, content that beauty is within their
grasp or at least attainable on the page.
As a group we have explored the rules and techniques
of: colour, composition and looked at the abstractions
that are the foundation of form.
In class we have addressed terminology, hue, shade,
tone.
We have experimented with materials and setting up
comfortable work spaces and considered issues of Art
History and the legacy of Observation.
As a group they all have been growing upon and
building the foundations required to produce
representational illusionism, i.e, capturing the 3D and
turning it in to a 2D replica.
If you desire to learn skills, talk about Art and Society,
practice making Images and are content to fail at times,
please come along on a Tuesday afternoon to draw a
variety subjects in all sorts of materials.
And the artist was Helen Dean
THE GREAT MAY PAINT-OUT POSTPONED
We will have to postpone the event because of other
commitments and springtime will be the ideal space in
the calendar.
In a couple of months’ time we will have the details for
you.
FINANCIAL MEMBERSHIP
Our membership rules are that we pay our membership
for the calendar year when we join the Society initially.
When we renew our Annual Membership we are
expected to do so early in the calendar year.
We must be financial members:
 if we are attending tutored or untutored groups
 If we are nominated for Committee
 If we enter artworks in our Annual Exhibition
If your address label on this issue of “Panorama” has an
asterisk on it, or your e-mail version has some similar
coding you may not have paid your Annual
membership.
If you choose not to renew your annual membership,
you will not receive further issues of “Panorama”.
DAGMAR CYRULLA DEMONSTRATION - 15th MARCH
THE BALANCE OF CRAFT AND CONCEPT
The first tube of pigment she took up was a Harding’s
Indian Yellow-Red. After waxing lyrical about its
lusciousness, she squeezed out a measure and
covered the entire surface of the paper with its golden
glow. With a cloth, she then began to wipe back the
highest tone areas.
Adding a little Italian Red, she commenced blocking in
of the areas of darkest tone. She observed that it was
always important to establish the extremes of light and
dark at an early stage.
Dagmar began asking what our curiosities might be and
what we hoped to glean from this session with her.
In some ways she was more comfortable talking about
her working method and priorities than in painting
before an audience.
She had brought along an ipad and a series of small
books with photographs documenting her work,
accompanied by notes on the relevant colour palette of
each to which she frequently referred, holding them up
to illustrate a point she wished to make.
However, as is commonly the case with these
demonstrations, most insights are gained by the
opportunity to observe the artist actually at work with
their materials and imagery. The spoken commentary
can be a valuable adjunct to this, but witnessing the
process of working frequently offers greater insights.
She had taped a small sheet of ‘canvas paper’, perhaps
30x40cm, to the wall below a photograph of slightly
smaller dimensions which she would use as her source
material.
After the first wash of Indian Yellow-Red
Discussion of the use of photos as a source of imagery
followed and they are obviously a common starting point
for her. Whilst admitting that she considered herself a
lousy photographer and therefore always took multiple
random photos of things that interested, subsequently
hoping she might be able to select one which came
closer capturing the meanings she felt the subject
matter possessed.
On occasion she does also work from live models,
although bad past experiences led her to caution us
against ever taking on any commissions which did not
allow for multiple sittings.
Drawing is also a critically important part of her working
process, whether this is from life; from photographic
sources; or from the analytical studies of master works.
Barbara, Tricia and Ann admire the reproductions
In reflecting on the question of ‘why I paint’, Dagmar
observed that when she first started out, she felt that
this could be readily answered by working toward
mastering the craft of painting. “At first I thought it was
about learning ‘how to’”. Over time she has moved to a
view that the most important thing is what one wants to
say as a painter. “Examine your purpose. What are your
priorities?”
She showed us a photo of one of her paintings of an
older man (her father in law) and a young child, (her
nephew) sitting at opposite ends of a long settee. Each
was independently immersed in his own reality. The
man slumped over as a result of the Parkinson’s
disease engulfing him, the small child looking
obliviously off in the opposite direction, perhaps
entranced by a television screen flickering outside of the
picture frame.
She commented on this as being the picture’s narrative.
This was where its purpose and meaning lay and by
inference, this was its greatest import. In a way it made
it seem rather a clichéd observation. However, the
reality of the picture conveys this existential isolation in
a powerful way.
Flipping through the reproductions of her paintings in
the published book of her work she had brought along,
it seems that often when there are two or more figures
in one of her paintings, they occupy the space of the
picture in quite isolated ways. She renders the
psychology of this persuasively.
However, as much as she expressed an ultimate priority
for this question of narrative meaning (concept) in her
painting, I would argue that her concern with the craft of
painting is an equally important ingredient of her work.
It was this that we were able to witness, albeit in a
limited way in the small unresolved picture produced in
the session, but it was this that offered the freshest
insights of the demonstration.
As mentioned earlier, Dagmar says that she always
keeps a record of the colour palette used in each of her
pictures and in general, this is always a ‘limited palette’.
However, it is by no means a consistent one. Though
there may only be two or three colours (and their tonal
variants) used, the colour ‘key’ of any particular picture
is distinctive and can vary radically from one image to
another.
Interestingly, she said she sometimes paints precisely
the same picture in varying colour keys and showed us
reproductions of the same image rendered first in an
acidic green mood and subsequently in something as
contrasting as a red/gold key. The ‘meaning’ of the
image can be fundamentally changed, but it is changed
by means of a quasi-academic analysis of tone/colour
arrangement and combination.
Although, the small painting remained incomplete on
the day and Dagmar herself said it was not a success,
she fully engaged the BAS audience and the experience
was as always rewarding.
LYNTON DAEHLI
CLIVE SINCLAIR
Clive is having a joint exhibition with Kathie Mathes at
Quadrant Gallery in Hawthorn until 2nd May.
STEPHEN DOYLE
Steve had an exhibition of oils at Without Pier from 22nd
March to 5th April.
BRIAN PLEASANTS
Dagmar remarked upon the importance she places on
‘transcribing’ masterworks. She showed us examples of
her drawings/colour-studies from Gericault and
Poussin. She said that much can be learned about
composition and colour use from this practice.
Dagmar also expressed a passion for Velasquez and
made the observation that, “Velasquez is just ‘mark
making.”
This comment reveals the tension between painting as
craft and/or concept. What is the tone; colour and
shape of each piece of paint he has placed on the
surface?
Velasquez’s famous portrait of members of the Spanish
court of Philip IV, known as: “Las Meninas” to which
Dagmar referred, has been the subject of much critical
analysis over the centuries since it was painted. To
reduce it to an exercise in ‘mark making’ may sell it
somewhat short. However, there is no question that the
importance of and the brilliance with which each bit of
tone/colour is chosen and laid down on the surface, is a
fundamental ingredient of its power.
When we are analysing an image, Dagmar suggested
that we always look at the forms in the context of their
surroundings. The negative spaces are as important as
the positive volumes.
Dagmar said that when working on large paintings, she
sometimes just masked off an area of the picture to
work on in quite an arbitrary way, treating it effectively
as an abstract arrangement of shape and colour.
We need to overcome our assumptions about what
forms are like and just observe what they actually are.
Keeping our eye moving across the full surface of a
picture, giving equal importance to every bit of it,
whether it comprises a part of the main subject or just
the incidental surrounds can assist us.
Her ‘wet into wet’ painting method also contributed to
this. The defining edges of the two figures in the painting
she worked on were always in a state of flux. She
exhibited no nervousness about the boundaries, but
constantly adjusted them by pushing and pulling the
point at which the positive form and its negative
surrounds met.
It was three times lucky for Brian Pleasants, as he had
success with his three entries to the Warranwood Art
Show. This is an annual event staged at the Rudolph
Steiner School in March. Brian has had success there
in previous years and entered three of his large aerial
views of Melbourne’s CBD. Two were sold but more
important for Brian was being awarded “Special Mention
2015” by the judge Kendrah Morgan of the Heide
Gallery. By all accounts Kendrah said the work was
unusual in concept and very well executed.
Annee Kelly’s tenth workshop to Italy
Dates are changed to 26th August to 13th September 2015
COPYRIGHT & PANORAMA
Barbara and I were visiting Elizabeth Paszko’s pastel
group one morning last term, and I noticed that Desmeir
Holthouse was using a postcard to work from. It was
“Paris on a Wet Afternoon” from a series of views of
Paris streets in the early 1900’s. I had been fascinated
by Baron Haussmann’s town planning of that city, but
more intrigued by artists like Caillebotte (“Paris –Rainy
Afternoon”, and the “Floor Scrapers”), and now Cortes,
who painted 100 such street scenes.
I wanted to use an image of the postcard in Panorama
to show that the artist used one-point perspective
carefully
The horizon was about 2m high, the street was level,
and the vanishing point was about one-third in from the
right. There were trams, horse-drawn carriages,
shoppers and shop-fronts.
You can look at it on the internet – “Leon Cortes –
painter of Paris street scenes”, but I can’t show you the
image unless I pay the owners of the copyright a
considerable fee! I mentioned to them that this was for
educational purposes, but they said that no fee waiving
was possible.
I can’t even show you the e-mail correspondence
between the Australian agents and myself – it’s not
reproducible without their permission.
Vanishing Point
 Mood
 Composition
When you view street scenes like these, consider the
way the painter presented the objects and the people.
If the vehicles were metres closer or further away, or the
foreground figures placed differently, would the
outcome be better?
My point is that if or when the artist does re-position an
object, its size should change in sympathy with the laws
of perspective. And remember that perspective is only
one element of an artwork. Every photograph that
deserves trashing has perfect perspective – it’s some
other element that makes it worthless.
Fred Allen .
Schematic of a painting
= horizon
= individual people
=
= crowd
Individual people should fit within a head height limit and
a ground level. A crowd is more amorphous and with
smaller people hidden, head heights are more uniform,
but the visible feet will lie along a line, and the crowd
forms a triangular block.
Vehicles look like shipping containers, and their roofs
will generally lie well above head height, although a
present day car’s roof is about head height. Wet
afternoons and evenings give an artist flexibility and
visual credibility. Wet pavements provide marvelous
reflections masking actual feet levels, allowing the
viewer to be comfortable with what the artist presents.
A few drops of subtle colour flicked randomly creates
the impression that the viewer is actually present in the
rain!
As older adults, we accept that a horizon is 1.2m to 1.6m
high according to whether we are sitting or standing –
we’ve seen it that way for decades.
If we were illustrating a children’s story, just think about
a child’s perspective – how often is a child hoisted to our
eye level? On other than special occasions, their
horizon height is half of ours. Take some photographs
with your camera at thigh height and see how
comfortable you are with the result.
The digital camera is a device that renaissance artists
knew nothing about, and their knowledge of perspective
was minimal. We have this little machine that will
produce a myriad images, each faithful in capturing a
perspective view, yet how many of those images should
be trashed? Probably 99.9%!!
Why? Because the only image that is worth saving has
{insert your own adjective (excellent, pleasing,
fashionable, artistic, striking)} :
 Format
 Point of interest
 Colour balance
 Tonal contrast
2015 ENROLMENTS
Most groups are well attended, and we have waiting
lists for Stephen Doyle’s Monday morning Group 1;
Clive Sinclair’s Wednesday afternoon Group 7, and Vivi
Palegeorge’s Friday Morning Group 10. .
For those reading “Panorama” for the first time. please
don’t forget the untutored groups – we are including
them on next term’s enrolment form, not because they
are an enrolment per se, but it’s a piece of information
that should be included.
Monday 7.30pm – 9.30pm
Life drawing,
Tuesday 4pm – 7pm
Life drawing and
Portraiture
Thursday 1.30pm - 3.30pm
Life drawing
4pm – 7pm
Life drawing and
Portraiture
Saturday 2pm – 4pm
Portraiture.
Barbara Allen
Class Coordinator 9553 6852
PATRICIA TOLSON IN RECOVERY MODE
Patricia tripped and fell near her Armadale home as she
returned home after another successful day of sales at
her exhibition in the Malvern Art Society gallery.
Unfortunately Pat caught her toe on a raised pavement
a couple of days before the show closed.
She was taken to hospital with a broken hip and other
injuries, and then moved to the Caulfield Rehab centre.
Pat’s home has been earmarked for a clearance
operation to make way for a new park by her local
council so there was a need to “sort things out” in
preparation for the eventual move.
Pat, like many of us, had accumulated works completed
over a number of years and was able to put them on
display for a two-week exhibition in March. She sold an
unprecedented 13 paintings that could be a record for a
BAS member. Certainly wasn’t an unlucky number for
her
At the time of writing Pat was still in care in the centre
that is located on Kooyong Road in Malvern.
RODNEY EDELSTEN WINS
Best Portrait/Figure at the Deniliquin Rotary Art Show
Best Pastel/Charcoal at the Kenneth Jack Drawing
Exhibition
Studio Model
Alinta
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APRIL 2015 EDITION
Brighton Art Society Inc.
PO Box 2234, Brighton North, 3186
PRINTPOST APPROVED PP 32785500003
POSTAGE
PAID
Brighton Art Society Inc
STUDIO Level 1, Bayside Arts and Cultural Centre (formerly
Brighton Town Hall) Wilson Street, Brighton 3186
Phones; Office - 9553 8506 Enquiries – 9553 6852
Web address: www.brightonartsociety.com.au
POSTAL ADDRESS. PO BOX 2234, Brighton North 3186.
Dates to remember:
28th March
Term 1 ended
22nd April – 23rd April
Ev Hales watercolour
Workshop
27th April
Term 2 begins
Sunday 3rd May
Lewis Miller live model demo
Wed 1 & Thur 2 July
10am - 3pm
Life Drawing workshop with
Linda Robertson
Sun 5 & Mon 6 July
10am - 4pm
Portraits in Oil workshop
with Joe Attard
Saturday 25th July
Casserole night
2015 Committee
President
Vice President
Treasurer
Secretary
Enrolments &Membership
Studio Manager
Demonstrations
Classes
Workshops
Exhibitions
Panorama
Historian
Librarian
Im.past president
Stuart Hunter
Fred Allen
Tom Rowston
Lynton Daehli
Barbara Allen
Patricia Anderson
Frank Schaefer
Rod Edelsten
Barbara Allen
Wendy Lawrence
Ann Black
Fred Allen
Lexi Cooper
Janine Wallace
Graeme Crossley
9593 2723
0418 065 077
9592 5780
9592 9926
9553 6852
9553 5441
9525 7036
9553 6852
0407 318 794
9598 7626
9553 6852
9555 9316
0414 686 936
9532 6101
Email your contributions to [email protected]