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7th November 2025: Painting oils, en plein air, with Alison Whateley
Thanks, Penny, for these photos and for the write-up. Julie Dunster is an academician of the South West Academy of Fine Art and Applied Arts , who is an oil painter with a love of plein air working. She uses photos and tonal sketches in gouache on site. Her demonstration for OVAS was from a photo that she took on a Devon beach of a child playing near the sea. Julie’s materials included a primed MDF board , hog hair and synthetic brushes , and Gamsol as her solvent. Julie covered her board with a thin wash of transparent red oxide , and once it was almost dry she started applying the oil paint from her mixed up piles of paint in the tonal range from her sketch (using a limited palette of colours). Her main points of technique included being aware of the direction of the light ,always keeping the darkest darks and lightest lights in mind, and where to place the main focal point of interest in the picture. Julie began the painting by blocking in the subject (the child), remembering the light and dark side , and the shadow shape. She then moved onto the shingle and the water using slightly thicker paint, looking carefully at where the light was on the wave. Good tips were to use the brush horizontally to set the paint on the surface, and to twist the brush for different directions, reserving the lightest whites , perhaps mixed with a touch of yellow for the end of the painting. To strengthen the image Julie paid attention to the shadows under the child, darkening the shadow under the edge of the surf, and placing some texture into the pebbles with a painting knife. Julie’s demonstration showed us how to approach painting a subject like this that could move quickly , to achieve a believable image with the least amount of detail in a relatively short time scale. She also reminded us of the importance of asking permission of people to take photos or painting their pictures, especially in the case of children. We were encouraged to give plein air painting a go! |
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A typical wonderful example of one of Alison's completed artworks
