It's always been my policy to be as open-minded about new things as is humanly possible. Now, sometimes that is not particularly easy. I think that many of us get set in our ways and a little bit reluctant to move away from habits that we have developed over the years. I know this has happened to me on several occasions where my own stick-in-the-mud patterns have been firmly implanted in my brain and the resistance to new things has created an almost mule-like stubbornness.
Over the course of time, however, I think (and hope) that I have managed to move myself away from this mindset and become more accepting of things that are offered as new techniques, new styles or anything, for that matter, that is unfamiliar.
While we all work very hard to improve and enhance our current skills I think it's very important that we keep our mind open to new techniques and new ideas as they are presented to us. As some of you may know I've been painting with oils and occasionally with acrylics for the last 50 or so years and it was only recently that I decided to branch out into gouache and maybe even dabble in watercolour. Both of these particular media are very strange to me. I am not at all used to the kind of techniques and even the brushes that you have to use for watercolour or gouache so it's a bit of a steep learning curve . Considering that I have never subscribed to the idea that you can't teach an old dog new tricks and have become more receptive to throwing over the traces in search of new challenges, it’s quite enjoyable, though occasionally frustrating. I am however, determined to get the job done in this particular area of art with great enthusiasm.
Now obviously,my first efforts have not been sterling. I'm still working out what I can do with the paint and I'm still working out what surfaces I can use to paint on, which are a bit different from the way I've been working my whole artistic life. In one respect, my own determination to get out of my comfort zone is propelling me to try new things with the medium. As I have never been very pedantic about following the rules (which has constantly gotten me in trouble with the bosses throughout my life), I just do what it seems right to do with the paints and the brushes to get the effect that I'm looking for. I've already had some longtime watercolour and gouache painters tell me that I'm going about things wrong, or that I should be using a different technique but my opinion is basically that if it works and it makes it look the way I want to then the heck with the rules.
One of the things I've been doing which suits my thoughts about how things should look is preparing a sheet of water colour paper or board using a combination of gesso and something like a yellow ochre or burnt sienna acrylic in order to create a toned ground. I put the gesso on with a reasonable amount of fairly coarse brushstrokes so that it gives almost an oil paint quality to it. I suppose that's a throwback to the way I've always painted so it's so looks a little bit more familiar. I know a lot of people who paint regularly using gouache do so on very smooth boards which results in a very smooth look to the painting. I like to be a little looser than that, so having a bit of texture to the board with the brush strokes in the gesso ground works for me.
In any event, for the foreseeable future I intend to be experimenting a with different effects that I can get using various media including gouache, watercolour and acrylics; trying to get away from the strictly oil painting side of things and see what develops.
The painting I’m working on at the moment is being done with gouache on a surface called HyPro. Thick, almost card like paper that is texture like canvas on one side and smooth on the other. It has the ability, if soaked, to be molded into 3 dimensional shapes. When I lived in Jeddah, where art supplies were scarce, I used to soak it and stretch it over canvas frames. When it dried, it shrank and gave a very taut surface. I only have a few sheets left now and Grumbacher doesn’t make it anymore, so I’m rationing it out. I’ve toned the smooth side of the surface with my gesso and acrylic mix.
Still quite a ways to go, but as I say, it’s a learning process. Fun though.
The painting is a fairly close shot of a Tiger Moth cockpit with the pilot and passenger getting ready for a flight. It’s a composite of some old pictures that were taken back in the 80s when I was flying out of Redhill with the Tiger Club. I’m certainly learning as I go and have to repair some areas where I’m still getting used to the characteristics of Gouache. Still, it’s fun and instructive. As someone once told me, ‘if you don’t make mistakes, you can’t learn and progress.’ Anyway, we’ll see how it turns out.
The Guild of Aviation Artists Online exhibition is still available here: https://www.artsteps.com/view/609a5d9fc9ff690aecd4e643
For those of you with iPads, you can also download the Artsteps App from the App Store. It’s faster and more stable than viewing it in a browser on the tablet.
The exhibition will run for a while yet so you still have time to view and hopefully purchase some examples of the finest aviation art around.
Ta ta for now.