Paul Gadenne who was a former member of the Faversham Art Society - we were really happy to welcome him back to do this workshop with us.  Paul then took over and told us how the evening would be composed.  We were going to get started on a base colour on our paper/canvass and then the slide show/presentation would take place.  The reason for a base colour was not just a tradition with artists like Edward Seago but was also very practical.  With a colour like burnt sienna the warmth would show through in places and using white when we started on the clouds would be easier to see.

 

The lights dimmed before some of us had finished but when the lights went back on surprisingly we were all ready with a beautiful warm brown-orange tint on our canvasses. The presentation showed us pictures of Edward Seago and also many of his pictures.  Apparently he was the quintessential English country gentleman with a briar pipe and a tweed jacket!  As a child he was given some water colour paints and he found a love of art and especially a love of his part of the English countryside in Norfolk.  He had been an invalid for much of his childhood and as such spent a long time lying on his back studying the clouds.  His art predominantly shows at least two-thirds of the canvas dedicated to clouds, and is impressionist in style.  He was known as the English Impressionist!

 

He was lucky enough to get patronage at a young age having won some acclaim through exhibitions, and during the war held the rank of Major as a war artist.  He work was wonderfully mature even when young and the war pictures especially have tremendous atmosphere.

 

He won patronage from the Royal family and the Queen Mother was a particular fan.  So much so that she would come along to his exhibitions the day before it was open to the general public and buy one or two of his best pictures for herself.  Apparently Seago decided that the only way to preserve his work for the exhibition would be to give her pictures for Christmas and for her Birthday and this way he overcame his ‘problem’.

 

Other members of the Royal Family were interested in his art and on one occasion Prince Philip asked him on board the royal yacht in order to get his help with his own art endeavours!  Apparently either he wasn’t a very good teacher or Philip a good pupil and eventually he Philip gave up and ended up watching Edward at work.  Prince Charles, himself quite an accomplished artist had lessons with the great man too when Seago was in his 60s!

 

There were photographs in the slide show showing the Royals with him and one picture showing him on his boat looking at St Bennet's Abbey!  Our subject for the evening!  He liked to paint from his boat and St Bennet's Abbey was one of his favourite subjects.  Apparently he travelled extensively and sailed and travelled through France and Italy – there were some marvellous pictures which illustrated places like Honfleur, Venice and street scenes in Paris and even the Far East where he had also travelled.

 

He designed a statuette of St George killing the Dragon and this was gifted to the Royal Family and has been transferred to every car the Queen uses.  Our demonstrator was particularly lucky to see this for himself on a visit the Queen made to Canterbury fairly recently!

 

So although we had been thoroughly entertained learning about Edward Seago the time had come for us to start to paint.  We started with the same low horizon that Seago would have used at least two thirds down from the top.  Paul told us that we should be careful with our colours and to use ultramarine as the basic blue colour for the sky on this picture.  He explained that this blue lightened with white and mixed with the same burnt sienna that we used for a base coat would make a very good grey which we could also use for our clouds.

 

He explained the technique and soon we were all enjoying ourselves covering our canvasses.  Amazingly although we were all working at the same picture we all had very different translations of the same theme!

 

After the coffee break we started at the bottom of the picture where all the detail was.  Gradually we were transforming it into a Norfolk scene – the last details of people and sails finally lending a sub focus to the picture – in this instance the sky was definitely the focus even if the Abbey was the focal point!

 

And there we were!  All the time Paul was demonstrating and then moving around and among us offering advice and encouragement.  A splendid evening – thank you Paul – we look forward to seeing you again!