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May 2020: Lockdown Acrylics Demonstration with Phil Creek
Thanks Chris for these photos and for the write-up. An experimental demo using Zoom, this demo worked well. We missed the social buzz but over 20 of us were able to join Phil virtually in his studio as he worked on an acrylic painting of boats on the beach at Beer using a photo and a couple of previous paintings as reference points. Photos were taken using screengrabs, a selection of which are shown here. Since the camera angle rarely changed we present these screengrabs in a sort of stop - animation format. |
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This is how it looked on our screens - with a glimpse of Phil's paints)
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A classy bit of technique here. (That's a back-handed complement - ahem!)
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Working in his garage, Phil painted on Amperdsand archival quality hardboard primed with an off-white brownish gesso layer, mostly using a 1" flat, though later finer details on cabin windows etc were with a 1/4" flat, with a rigger used for numbering the boats and the finest details.
Phil doesn't draw his paintings but plunges in with some structural marks using /cerulean blue and cobalt, and yellow ochre, worked fairly spontaneously and with thin paint. He normally works downwards from the top so, sky first. And then repeats in a second downwards sweep of the painting, trying to use as few strokes as possible in the early stages so as to achieve the big broad shapes. As for painting pebbles on the beach at a later stage, Phil's advice is Don't try! It's almost impossible. But you can use a toothbrush judiciously to carefully splatter and simulate the effect [see final picture below]
Phil's palette towards the end
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An earlier version
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After completing the demo, Phil continued to put a LOT more work into the painting, as can be readily seen at the still not-quite-finished stage shown below [from 2 days later]
