Lectures


 

 

 

Limiting and Expanding Your Palette

A Lecture for Schools, Colleges, Art Clubs

Some artists avoid fully understanding the qualities and properties of the paints they use. Many more are becoming aware of the importance of knowing all about the nature of the pigments on their palettes.  This lecture has been devised to benefit those who are 

interested in gaining more knowledge about the performance of their paints.

 

Content:

The performance and limitations of commonly used pigments

The selection and use of pigments for a variety of palettes

Taking the guesswork out of mixing

How to pay more and spend less!

 

Objectives:  

To enable participants to:

Purchase paints with greater understanding

Reject pigments of limited performance

Mix pigments more skilfully

Recognise the benefits of using reduced, limited and complete palettes

Use paints and other materials safely

 

Who for:

Beginners who feel confused by conflicting advice and daunted by the vast array of paints available.  (One supplier offers a range of 780 artists’ quality watercolours, 557 artists’ quality oil paints and a watercolour tin with a capacity for 48 paints.)

 

Improvers who have found their feet but feel they would like to choose pigments with more confidence and enjoy a greater scope in mixing.

 


Paintings to Appreciate

These lectures are aimed at developing an appreciation of paintings by looking at the use artists make of colour to create the illusion of three dimensions, the use of space and other compositional techniques as well as general interest.

The lectures are accompanied by slides showing paintings by a variety of artists. 

Tone, Temperature and Intensity
This lecture looks at the way the great artists arranged colour and tone in their works. Artists shown include: 

Boudin Chardin Claude Corot Courbet Pissarro Rembrandt Turner Van Gogh


Portraits, Landscapes and Figures
Portraits spanning four centuries, and landscape and figure painting across three centuries feature in this lecture. Artists shown include: 

Constable Degas Millet Morisot Rembrandt Reynolds Rubens Titian Watts de Zurbaran

Paintings, Scandals and Gossip
A glimpse of personal insecurities, complex sexual liaisons and unlikely secret CIA deployments form the basis for this lecture.  Artists shown include:   

Vanessa Bell   Cezanne   Gainsborough   Giacometti   Gwen John   Monet   van Ostade   Pollock   Rauschenberg Renoir   Sickert   Toulouse-Lautrec   Whistler


Society, Seascapes and Saints
A celebration of secular, sacred and commemorative works in a variety of figurative and fabulous styles. Artists shown include: 

Chardin Cuyp Durer Gainsborough Ingres Manet Raphael Stubbs van Eyck Velazquez Vermeer

Perspective in Paintings

This series considers the early understanding of perspective and its eventual application to buildings, to people in the built and natural environments, and to skies. Artists shown include: 

Canaletto Constable Gainsborough Hobbema Hogarth de Hooch Pissarro Poussin van Ruisdael Uccello 

Art of Oak 1

A rich mixture of landscapes, seascapes, portraits and interiors feature in these British paintings from the mid 18th to mid 19th centuries. Artists shown include: 

Bonington Constable Crome Gainsborough Hogarth Moreland Reynolds Scott Stubbs Turner Wilkie

Art of Oak 2
Continuing the theme of paintings by British artists, this series shows works from the mid 19th to mid 20th centuries. Artists shown include: 

Coldstream Dyce Etty Grimshaw Hunt Landseer Lowry Millais Orpen Spencer Turner Waterhouse Wilkie

Out of the Middle Ages
This series looks at the way in which artists portrayed the world, and their beliefs, from the Middle Ages to the Renaissance. Artists shown include: 

Andrea del Sarto Botticelli Bronzino Ghirlandaio Giotto di Bondone van der Goes Leonardo Masaccio Raphael Titian

 

Paintings of England

By popular request, another look at English artists and their paintings featuring works from Hogarth to Lowry.  Artists shown include:  

Bevan Constable Crome Hunt Augustus John Lambert Palmer Reynolds Stubbs Turner Morris Wilkie

 

Symbolism in European Art

This fascinating series of slides unravels symbols and devices from the worlds of mythology and emblematic imagery and enables us to decode the hidden meanings concealed in biblical, mythological, apocryphal, and allegorical paintings.  Artists shown include: Botticelli Bronzino Canaletto Correggio Crivelli Fragonard Giordano Leonardo   Michelangelo Rubens Tiepolo Tintoretto 
plus Hogarth’s six satirical moralizing paintings; ‘Marriage A-la-Mode’

 

Paintings of France

The second half of the 19th century marked an important and revolutionary period in the development of art in France. Accompanied by examples of works from the 17th and 20th centuries, this series covers paintings from the Barbizon School, through the Impressionist to the Post Impressionist era. Artists shown include: 

Cézanne Claude Corot Daubigny Degas Derain Van Gogh Sisley Manet   Millet Monet Pissarro Renoir Theodore Rousseau

 

Celebrating Ordinary Life

This is a collection of mainly 19th century English Genre paintings depicting scenes from the daily lives of ordinary people. Artists shown include:  

Arnesby Brown Bastien-Lepage Clausen   Gore   Guthrie   Moreland Parsons   Small   Lady Stanley   La Thangue   Tuke   Walker   Webster

 

Paintings of Russia

This stunning collection of portraits, seascapes, landscapes and figures from 18th, 19th and 20th century Russian painters contains images comparable to, or surpassing, the very best of European works. Artists shown include: 

Aivazovsky   Arkhipov   Brullov   Flavitsky   Kramskov   Nitkin   Polenov   Repin   Serebryakova   Shishkin   Tropinin

 

Desert Island Paintings

I am often asked what my favourite painting is and the answer is there is not just one. This selection of slides is taken from some of my other lectures and represents a collection from which I would choose eight to take with me if I were to be stranded on a desert island. A sort of visual Desert Island Discs! Artists shown include: 

 

Andrews   Bramley   Broome   Boudin   Cassatt   Church   Courbet   Fergusson   Forbes   Goeneutte   van Gogh   Guthrie   Kemp-Welch   Peploe  Pissarro   Sargent,   Shishkin   Stone  Turner

 

Paintings of America

American painting shows the influence of the Impressionists, the Pre-Raphaelites and Russian artists. But there is also a distinct American style to appreciate. This lecture, in two parts, takes a broad view of the vast range of traditional and contemporary talent from the 19th and 20th centuries. Artists shown include:

 

Part 1: Alexander   Benson Bradford   Bierstadt   Brown   Cassatt   Church   Farny   Garber   Gerhartz   Gonske   Grelle   Harmon

 

Part 2: Homer   Hopper   Inness   Johnson   Knight   Metcalf   Potthast   Richards   Rockwell   Sargent   Sheeler   Sloan   Spencer   Steele

 

Not the Golden Mean

The Golden Mean, or Golden Section, has been a guiding compositional principle for artists for more than two millennia. Here we see how more recent artists have used other techniques to offer pleasing compositions. Artists shown include:

Andrews  Barnet  Blake  Briscoe  Buffet  Clough  Coldstream  de Grey  Hammershoi  Lavery  McCulloch  Mondrian  Nevinson  Power  Sage  Sheeler  Sowa  Tissot  Waterhouse  Whistler

 

The Glasgow Boys and the Scottish Colourists

Following the great Scottish Romantic painters, a diverse group known as The Glasgow Boys revolutionised painting towards the end of the 19th Century. As the group dispersed, four artists who were to become known as the Scottish Colourists became their natural successors. Here we enjoy their range of styles. Artists shown include:

The Boys: Crawhall  Dow  Guthrie  Henry  Lavery  Macgregor  Mann  Melville  Nairn   Paterson  Stott   Walton 

The Colourists: Cadell  Fergusson  Hunter  Peploe

Paintings in Hertfordshire

This lecture examines examples of some of the many fine paintings held in public ownership in Hertfordshire and aims to encourage you to explore and enjoy the works with more knowledge and understanding.  Artists shown include:

Hales  Kemp-Welch   Moreland   Ratcliffe  Sadee  Turner   Whydale and many others

Still Life in a New Light

Still life is a frequently underrated genre, and yet commonplace things can be charged with energy and great power.  Here we see a mixture of imaginative and radical arrangements employed by masters, contemporary painters and students showing a stunning array of styles.  Principal artists shown include:

Benson   Bonnard   Brooker   Buffet  Cadell  Carra  Cezanne  Chardin  Gris  Heda   Mondrian   Morandi  Nash   van Gogh  Vlaminck

Toilers, Tillers and Tailors 

Artists from around the world have found a rich vein of inspiration in people at work and this series of slides looks at 19th and 20th century examples of the genre.  Some of the images will be well known, others less so.  Artists shown include:

 

Ancher   Andrews  Baskakov   Bastien-Lepage   Bellows  Garber  van Gogh  Ginner   Hopper   Lavery  Mundy   Nevinson   Picasso   Power   Repin   Rivera   Rockwell   Sargent   Tissot   Tschudi   Wadsworth

 

Moments of Serenity and Song

A companion lecture to Toilers, Tillers and Tailors, this lecture considers aspects of leisure, reflection and relaxation. Artists shown include:

Angers   Appleton   Chase    Clausen   Corot   Fergusson  Homer  de Lempicka   Munnings   Orpen   Power   Renoir   Rossetti  Sargent   Shagall  Spencer   la Thangue   Tissot   Wright

Greenswards and Flowerbeds

Formal, informal, public or private.  Grassy banks, flowering borders, wandering paths or leafy trees.  Lily ponds.  Vegetable plots.   Gardens are a constant source of inspiration to painters and here we see their results.  Artists shown include:

 

Allingham   Benson   Broome   Cezanne   Chase   Clausen   Elliott   van Gogh   Graves   Hassam   Lawson   Levitan   Manet   Monet   Moran   Palmer   Parsons   Peralta   Pissarro   Renoir   Rousseau   Sargent   Shulz   Stone

 

 

An Interesting Decade

The 1880s marked a shift in attitudes not only towards paintings but also the painters that made them.  Young painters were suiting themselves as to what was to be painted and how the paint was applied.  Mature, considered styles intermingled with bold and vibrant spontaneity.  Artists shown include:

 

Alma-Tadema    Anquetin   Beraud Boudin   Bridgeman   Bunker   Cezanne  

Chase   Curran   Duveneck   Edelfelt   Gauguin   van Gogh   Grimshaw  

Herzog   Homer   Lavery   Morrisot   Pissarro   Sargent   Shishkin Steele  

Toulouse-Lautrec   Vail   Watts   Waterhouse

Note: These lectures are under constant review and are therefore subject to minor variations in content

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