Burnside Painting Group - Social Nights

The Burnside Painting Group Inc
Established 1963

Social Nights

Social nights are held in St Matthews Homes Activities Hall, usually monthly,
where talks and demonstrations are presented by well known artists.

Upcoming Social Nights

8pm Wednesday 24th March 2010

Brian Dobson, a water colourist and plein-air painter will do a demonstration for us.

8pm Wednesday 28th April 2010

8pm Wednesday 26th May 2010

8pm Wednesday 23rd June 2010

Painting of the Quarter

8pm Wednesday 28th July 2010

8pm Wednesday 25th August 2010

Phyllis Kopp Award

8pm Wednesday 22nd September 2010

Painting of the Quarter

8pm Wednesday 27th October 2010

8pm Wednesday 24th November 2010

Painting of the Quarter

Previous Social Nights

8pm Wednesday 25th November 2009

Alan Ramachandran did a watercolour demonstration.

Alan gave us a cheery watercolour demonstration with plenty of advice on techniques.

8pm Wednesday 28th October 2009

Peter Chaplin gave a demonstration and display some of his work

About 30 people attended our Social Night on 28 October to see multi-award winning artist, Peter Chaplin, demonstrate watercolour technique.

Peter studied at the South Australian School of Art and become a graphic designer, before turning in 1992 to fine art, working mainly in oil and his first love, watercolour. He has been inspired by landscapes in Adelaide and the Fleurieu Peninsula, Melbourne and Europe.

Peter provided many useful tips on how to produce fresh and vibrant work:

be precise with your drawing but aim to keep your work free and fresh;
plan your attack - create mood and drama through strong directional light and shadow
leave white paper showing through to emphasise highlights
control paper and dampness, using wet in wet or dry brushing as appropriate
be positive with your brush work - be bold and don't scrub
practice practice practice! Try and try again until you get the results you want

Peter showed step by step techniques to produce this vibrant watercolour painting of a house interior, providing plenty of inspiration and information for all present.

We thank Peter for a most enjoyable and interesting evening.

8pm Wednesday September 2009
Suzanne Gummow

Sue Gummow has taught art in Schools, TAFE Colleges and Universities since 1972, raised a family, and has recently completed a Master’s degree. Above all, she is a practicing and passionate artist. She enthusiastically and energetically showed us her work as a quilter, drawer and painter. She described her exercise of doing a drawing a day for a year; her viewpoint that art should be two-thirds research and experiment, one-third execution; the need for documentation of every thing; and the importance of the ‘Three Cs’ : culture, collection and colour, in the process of producing art works in any form.

8pm Wednesday 26th August 2009
John Hamilton

John Hamilton discussed and demonstrated his style and the three stage process he uses with painting in acrylics. His graphic arts background informs his first stage of creating a strong design base, eliminating unimportant detail and establishing shape. He uses photographs extensively, and often uses a projector to assist transferring images on to the canvas. He uses a limited and consistent palette when painting. John was generous with tips and advice on his technique and his pragmatic and no-nonsense approach to his practice of art was empowering to many in the audience.

8pm Wednesday 22nd July 2009
Gary Lee-Gaston

Gary Lee-Gaston talked on his sketching, style and work, then gave us a demonstration on portraiture.
He stressed the importance of composition and
the necessity to "do it from life" to capture the essence of the subject.

8pm Wednesday 27th May 2009
Ian Hamilton

Ian Hamilton talked of his passion with bowers and bowerbiirds and the relationship to his art practice. He then talked to us about the development and meaning of the Mildura Palimpsest, a triennial art event that he initiated and directed four of them. He showed images of and explained many palimpsest installations and other works.

8pm Wednesday 22nd April 2009

John Whitney kept us enthralled late into the night with the story of his life as an artist: the constant travelling; the relentless sketching in pen and ink, in pastels, in coloured pencil; his movement between media; the documentation of his work; and the involvement of community as he developed his reputation as a mural artist. We were exhausted. Thank you John.

8pm Wednesday 25th March 2009

Tiffany Beasley (Chief moderator of Design in the SA Secondary Schools Assessment Board) discussed the differences between Art and Design with many references to student portfolios and the processes the students need to go through in their study of design.

Tiffany (left) with our secretary Stella Vanska

8pm Wednesday 26th November 2008

Painting Demonstration by
Alan Louis Ramachandran

The last Social Night for 2008 was a great success. We had nearly 40 people in the audience, a pleasing number of whom were our guests. The artist, Alan Ramachandran, demonstrated a watercolour which he completed in 1 hour, while teaching us many useful hints as he went along.

8pm Wednesday 22nd October 2008
Visual Presentations by students of Art History
Perry Snodgrass & Ruby Chew

(1) "Pre-Raphaelites" By Perry Snodgrass Click Here

(2) "Jenny Saville -Contemporary British Artist " By Ruby Chew Click Here

8pm Wednesday 24th September 2008

Painting
By Therese Williams

Therese held us entranced as she told us about her early career in films with the ABC, and then her seven years working as a set and costume designer for The Australian Opera and The Sydney Theatre Company. Most of us had no idea how the stage sets were prepared or the huge scale of some of them, or of the life of an artist in that situation.

She had brought along about eleven of her oil paintings which she had completed or was working on at the Adelaide Central School of Art. She explained the whole process of planning and painting her current large work of her daughter playing the double bass, for her subject “Tonal Realism.” We were sorry when the evening ended.

8pm Wednesday 27th August 2008

"Gouache & Pastel - mixed media"

By Roe Gartelman

Roe Gartelman is a country girl, thwarted in her childhood ambition to train as a Vet, trained instead in art and practiced and taught ceramics and sculpture until a car accident prevented the heavy lifting of this art form. She then turned to painting, trained at the Adelaide Central School of Art and is now a successful full-time painter.

Roe demonstrated for us her techniques in mixed media where she uses ink, charcoal, collage, acrylics, shellack .... to produce (in her words) "relationships between objects accentuated by tone and colour contrasts, together with rhythmic line and pattern in nature".

8pm Wednesday 28th July 2008
Visual Presentations by students of Art History

"Mary Cassatt - A Rare Female Impressionist"
By Perry Snodgrass

"Expressionism"
By Ruby Chew

8pm Wednesday 28th June 2008

By Deborah Trusson

Life began at 40 for Deborah Trusson when she rediscovered her love of all things creative. She felt she had ‘come home’ when she found the Adelaide Central School of Art and joined with artist colleagues at the school and the nearby pub. She openly described for us her journey of self discovery and self worth through her art. And showed us many examples of the skill that won her a finalist place in the Archibald Portrait Prize.

8pm Wednesday 28th May 2008

By Sheila Whittam.

Sheila introduced us to philosophical and intellectual approaches to
concept development in the practice of art.

8pm Wednesday 23rd April 2008

By Kathleen Munn.

Kathleen Munn says she has been continuously re-inventing her art since graduating as a Bachelor of Visual Arts in 1988. She showed many examples of her current art incarnation, explained some technique and shared her goal of creating works that exude serenity. She describes her works as landscapes that occupy “contemplative space”.

8pm Wednesday 26th March 2008

Elements of Composition

By Carey Dunning

Unity (also known as harmony) is probably the most important concept when looking at art. It means that the elements of the . artwork look as though they belong together. If the various elements of your work are not harmonious they will appear separate and unrelated and your work will lack unity.

Ways to achieve harmony: You need "agreement" between the elements of your work. Easy ways to effect this is with the use of repetition, variation, proximity and probably most importantly -continuation.

There are few of us who do not like others to look at our work. To attract attention we can catch the viewer's eye by the use of a focal point. This can use elements of your composition to direct the eye to one point, for example placement, contrast of colour, lines, size, shape, isolation, even arrows. Sometimes an artwork can contain secondary points of emphasis that have lesser value. Too many, though, will lead to visual confusion.

A focal point is not always necessary, look at many of Jackson Pollock's works. An allover pattern can create an atmosphere of ambiguity and puzzlement or create a mood.

To me one of the most important elements of composition is balance.

In assessing balance we always assume a central vertical axis.

This acts as the fulcrum on a seesaw, the two sides should achieve a sense of equilibrium. When equilibrium is not present, a feeling of unease or dissatisfaction results. At times this can be a useful tool to create tension. Symmetrical balance is the easiest to create but usually produces a static effect. Asymmetrical balance is much more common. It can be achieved by balancing with size, shape, texture, colour, importance, directing of the eye, and pattern. Crystallographic balance is an allover pattern.

A sense of rhythm in an artwork reflects a sense of movement. A repetition of shapes such as tree trunks or sand dunes can create a feeling of potential movement. Rhythm is a basic characteristic of nature and very much a part of our environment. Art and architecture often use alternating pattern and sequence.

Scale is essentially another word for size but we still need to reference it to some other object. For example a big dog means little if we do not know the size of an average dog. Proportion refers to relative size- size measured against other elements or against our mental standard of norm.

We can use scale and proportion for emphasis. Christ is often depicted as bigger than those around him. This is termed hieratic scaling. A contrast of scale can lead to surrealism as in Magritte's bedroom scenes where the comb is the height of the wall. Large and small scale can be combined for dramatic effect as in Degas dancers where a woman who is close watches dancers on stage. The Golden mean; width is to length as length is to length plus width, is Still used. This proportion is pleasing to our eye but also found in many growth patterns in nature.

It is not necessary to study the elements of composition to create satisfying artwork. Most of us understand them intuitively. But knowing a little about them can, I think, help us to share and discuss work with more ease.

Wednesday 21st November2007
Talia Delaney
"Wilderness Art in Watermedia."

On Wednesday 24th October 2007 Ronald Gibbings-Johns gave a demonstration of painting still life in oils.

September 26th 2007 saw Gerhard Ritter give us a demonstration of lightning fast portrait painting, hints and tips and amusing anecdotes.

The August 2007 Social Night presentation was given by Bev Bills who gave us a wonderful insight into the work of an artist who practices her art for it's own sake and, as she says, "in a diversity of media including weaving, handmade paper, spinning, felting, printing, writing ....". With such a tactile array of works it was a privilege to have the opportunity to explore and handle the minutiae of some of her work. A lovely experience.

On 25th July 2007 members and their friends were treated to a charming informal presentation by Lidia Groblicki. The evening included a woodcut and print demonstration, loads of hints on technique and anecdotes from her long and eventful life.

On 2nd May 2007 Boris Franco gave a demonstration in watercolours.

About twenty five members and guests turned up to see this watercolorist give the demonstration. Boris arrived with a collection of his paintings, examples of the different techniques he uses. We placed these on the easels and propped up on overturned tables on the stage, creating an interesting backdrop for his presentation.

He uses various weights of paper and before he starts, stretches the paper. This is done immersing the paper in water then taping it to a board to dry.

He pins his paper to a piece of Caneite board (or a board soft enough to use drawing pins). He places the drawing pins in strategic spots e.g. centre of the paper, horizon line and the golden section. These are used as quick reference points.

He mixes three small jars of Aurora Yellow, Permanent Pink and Cobalt Blue colour with water ready for his sky or to quickly dilute for the rest of the painting. Cotton wool buds are used with acrylic paint or gouache to highlight the finished painting.

Boris shared many secrets and techniques and kept his audience entranced with his presentation.

-Perry Snodgrass

Boris was born in Venice, migrated to Australia in 1954 and took up painting seriously in 1969 as a member of the Henley and Grange Art Society. He has tutored in oils and watercolours for over 10 years.

In March 2007 Andris Jansons did an interesting and humorous slide presentation of examples of his work over the years showing the development and wide range of a talented self-taught artist.

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