Maldon Art Club (MAC)
Geoff Thorpe Pastel Demonstration – 3/2/15
Geoff travelled with his artist partner Rosie from their Harwich base to the Plume for this MAC pastel demonstration. Geoff explained that his purpose in being with us was for us to have fun and hopefully inspire us, because we are all fortunate to have a “gift”. (He may not have thought that if he had seen one or two of the writer’s efforts that didn’t get past the waste paper basket!)
Being a midlander, Geoff’s alma mater was Lichfield School of Art. He said that at the end of his course it was somewhat unfortunate for him that his parents wanted him to get a “proper job”! He became a C & G trained plumber, something that formerly provided regular employment but art became his job and passion. Geoff considers that he works quickly and simply and doesn’t use spray fix on his pastels because he uses Canson Mi-Teintes paper and double mounts his work. Like a lot of artists, Geoff believes that spray fix dulls the pastel colour – his favourite pastels being by Unison.
The members were given a choice of subjects for Geoff to paint and we chose a headland scene, something he did without the aid of a photograph although he admitted that it was a familiar topic, given that he lives on the coast. Geoff spoke with a strong voice and clear diction that helped the 28 assembled MAC members hear very clearly how he was creating his lovely picture.
The painting was developed by first building the clouds, reminding the members not to make them look like individual pieces of cotton wool but to join them as can be seen from the photos below. It is probably fair to say that a number of the assembled members were surprised about some of the vigorous strokes Geoff made with the pastels. Pieces regularly broke off and shot across the room! During his humorous and entertaining demonstration he provided the members with a number of seascape tips, including:
· in a seascape the horizon line often becomes stronger in the afternoon
· try to create the headland using strokes in the vertical plane
· try using a limited number of colours (repeated through the painting)
· if dark tones are used in the middle distance use lighter tones in the foreground to balance the image
· don’t exit water courses into a corner of the picture – exit it an inch or so inward or higher than the corner
During the demonstration Geoff shared with the members a story from his childhood and the fact that had it been slightly different, he may have had a very different lifestyle. He lived in the village of Hammerwich near Lichfield and ran errands across the local fields. Had he dug around in the soil a bit or had metal detectors been invented then, he may well have discovered the “Staffordshire hoard”. The hoard comprised 5.094 kilos of gold, 1.442 kilos of silver and 3,500 cloisonné garnets from around the 7th century. Take a look – he would have been a very wealthy man had he discovered this lot!! http://www.staffordshirehoard.org.uk/about
The picture developed into an excellent pastel painting as can be seen from the photo stages below. It is a measure of how much the members enjoyed the evening that a number were of the opinion that it would be good to have a Geoff undertake a MAC pastel workshop or attend one of Geoff own tuition days in Harwich.
Len Joyce
Vice Chairman MAC
please see the following pages for photos