MIKE SAMSON

Demonstration in OILS 07.11.2017

                       Watch our slide show to see Mike's lively demo!

 

Mike explained that his point of interest at present was the autumn colours and that he had been visiting the London Parks.  He then showed us a picture he had completed recently and explained that he was going to do the same image but on a different size board.

 

As it is a miserable evening he was going to cheer us up with the vibrant autumn colours and some rapid painting!  He said he would normally paint on site when he could and this previous painting had taken 2 ½ - 3 hours the week before last.  “My drawing colour is violet grey” he told us “and I start with a nice horizon.  I don’t use very much turpentine or white spirit so it’s pretty much a dry brush technique and you don’t get much smell that way”.

 

He had started with an MDF board and given it about 3 coats of gesso and tinted the final coat with some raw umber. “I find this a really nice colour using this as an underpainting.  It also helps to accelerate the drying process” he told us.  The focal point was to be the golden section.  “Our viewer’s eye leads down there” he told us explaining a little about perspective.   His brushes were old and loved and didn't need to be expensive he told us.

 

As he worked he explained where the light was coming from and that he was putting a further tree in the picture for variation and compositional balance.  As the main drawing was now done he looked at blocking in the big areas.  So starting with the sky he got some colour in, mixing cobalt blue with titanium white.  “If you paint in acrylic the principle is very much the same” he told us making the sky a little lighter toward the horizon.

 

Cadmium yellow going in next – an orangey one and a lighter one with a bit more of the cobalt blue it gave a good grassy green colour.  Someone asked Mike about his palette and he explained it was a Sommelier one and how useful it was even though it was fairly expensive.  But he had admired them in the past and seeing this one treated himself!  It’s main feature was that it was hinged through the centre enabling an ‘en plein air’ artist to fold it over without the two boards meeting and therefore allowing the paint to stay as it was put on the palette for use again later.

 

Next the darker colours went in.  There wasn’t a technical reason for working in these colours apparently, it was just a personal preference.  He was putting in the shadowy colours at the back and using a violet grey that he loved using – “you can blend it in nicely” he told us.  “There’s going to be a bit more autumn colour now – I’m not putting it on thick but it does seem to be drying fairly quickly”.

 

He suggested that he felt it was quite important to have a few figures in the picture.  So he firstly marked them in with a cobalt blue.  “Putting them in fairly early just to get a rough idea of where they want to go.  A little more purple shadow on the trees.  A little raw umber now.  I try to stay with the big brush for as long as I can as soon as you pick up a small brush you start to fiddle.  So I’m staying with this as long as possible.  The brush is not giving me much control but it’s just giving me random marks where I need them.”

 

Next he moved on to some bright colours and a slightly smaller flat brush.  He was using cadmium red and yellow ochre mostly, giving some varying degrees of orange.  “Just gently pull the colour down randomly over the texture of the board.  It will get developed and tickled up as we go.”

 

He explained that he used oils without turps or white spirit most of the time but he had used just a little bit of turps right at the beginning but from the on just dry brushed on the paint or “Tickled on” as he called it.  He was using autumn colours in what appeared to be a fairly random way.  “I leave out the ugly trees and so on and work on the main compositional elements” he told us.  In answer to a question about how did he know how big to make the people he explained that the horizon is the line of sight and people’s heads will always cross over that line and the legs will get shorter the further away they are.

 

“In the case of animals you have to see what the animal is referenced against.  For example a cow by a fence will be bigger than the fence.  You should vary what they are doing as well – some will be grazing and some lying down.  Give your figures a bit of movement and you don’t have to be too detailed – you can suggest a second leg.”

“I don’t clean the brush off in turps just use the rag.  For me this is the best time of the year.  Cadmium yellow and cadmium red and light red and burnt sienna.  I’ve been using whatever I see.  My brush marks are rather random – just push the brush around.  Roll the brush and you won’t pick up too much of the green underneath.”

 

“This rolling technique (see left) is only really applicable for oils.  I’ve trained myself through working outside to work at speed.  Very different approaches for watercolour.  You have to be far more controlled.  You’d be working light first and then getting darker.  I generally work in two halves.  The underpainting first and then the magic comes along in the second half.”

 

 “Now I’m sort of sculpting the tree.  Just working on the bark.  A little dark here and light down here.  Got to think about the counterpoint here.  Little bit of Underpainting White (Winsor and Newton).  This is really fast drying.  The Daler Rowney is not fast drying).  This is a bit like putting polyfiller on – it’s giving me a nice texture.  It stops the   lighter colours from blending in and getting muddy.  So it will brighten the picture when I apply the lighter colours on top.

 

The second half of the demonstration saw Mike sharpening the tones up and as he said “making it a little more believable with a little bit of tidying up!”  He had been asked what make of oil colours he used to which he replied “Winsor and Newton or Daler Rowney – all sorts!  I don’t use additives like turps so it’s not smelly”.

 

 

“I’m putting a bit of life into it now.  Working my way down a little again. Lemon yellow – viridian green and underpainting white – gives you that lovely green.  The underpainting white has dried already.  This lasts for half an hour and then it dries.  So I get through a lot as it dries on the palette.”

 

He was continuing the rolling action with the brush.  Again in answer to a question he explained that he would wait till he got home to clean the brushes and use a little white spirit and then wash them with washing up liquid. “I have plenty of brushes so that I can use one with the darker colours and one with the lighter colours” he told us. 

 

“This underpainting white is a bit like tippex for painters.  He was covering the previous underpainting with the lighter green and some of the autumn colours – it had made the work dry enough to put the colour over the top.

 

He was now using some strong dark colours – “cobalt blue and burnt umber give a nice strong colour near to black – then viridian and red give a nice strong brown” we were told.  His trusty tool was a ruler.  It would act as a rest for the brush when dragging colour on.  He had got rid of all the white now.  Then he applied a little colour to his figures.

  

Talking about colours he agreed that Naples yellow could be very diverse according to different manufacturers – in particular the French make one which is very different in colour apparently.  He mixed up some darker colour for the figures in the distance – “they make the guy in the foreground stand out a bit better.”

 

So now the magic was really starting to happen – a little bit more orange – then some nice light greens coming in from the side – a bit of green on the bark of the tree.  “Don’t put too much detail in the back” he told us – “it gets in the way of the main attraction in the front!”

 

There was a question about the board he was using and he explained that it was MDF.  He would buy a big sheet for about £6 and get 16 useable boards out of that.  One of the attractions of using this was that he could cut a picture down in size if a part of it wasn’t working well for him. 

 

The next question was about varnish.  No he didn’t use it.  Varnish was there originally to protect the paintings and give them a longer life. “Nowadays quality has improved so much and so has the air quality in homes –we’re no longer burning coal etc.  It’s a personal preference – and varnish does help if you paint dark pictures as it helps pick up the light.  Painting in this style doesn’t really need it.” he told us.

 

Finally he was adjusting the tones and double checking with his original drawing.  Standing back again and adjusting where necessary.  He added a few more figures and some tiny bits of colour here and there and again adjusting the colours where the light was hitting the grass.  He used a little bit of his favourite and very expensive cobalt violet – he was using it as a bit of shadow in among the orange and boy did it make these opposing colours zing!  And then the framing moment – which was also useful to transport a painting that was not quite dry he told us!

 

It was a very successful evening enjoyed by all, thanks to Mike!