Colourful! Vibrant! Entertaining! Wow! – Just some of the exclamations made during Jantien’s demonstration using mixed media on her visit to Frome Valley Art Group on Friday 20th January. To an audience of over 50 members and visitors, her relaxed approach wowed us all, keeping everyone enthralled throughout the two hours.
Jantien started with a simple 2B pencil drawing of a semi-abstract drawing before drawing over with hard lines some of the main buildings. She then proceeded to scrunch up pieces of various coloured tissue paper before smoothing them out in flat sheets. Applying stationers’ PVA glue to the whole of the canvas, she then laid the tissue sheets onto the glue, along with pieces of newspaper and corrugated cardboard in several places on the picture in a collage technique to create texture and interest then put the canvas to one side to dry. In true Blue Peter style, she then produced another canvas she had prepared earlier of the same street scene to continue the demo.
Working on a well-covered table, Jantien dripped acrylic ink in several colours over the tissue paper, creating a vibrant pink and yellow sky, tilting the canvas this way and that. Again this needed to dry and so again, Jantien swopped to a further canvas previously prepared to this stage. Acrylic paint was applied to this using a wallpaper seam roller to bring to life the buildings and roofs in a loose style. Windows, doors and frames were painted on using cut-up credit cards, a railing fence added by painting a strip of corrugated cardboard and pressing this against the canvas – a technique that was both quick to do and effective, and bit by bit, a painting that at first appeared to be a mess transformed into a delightful street scene that could not help but make you smile, the image proving painting can and often is more about colour and texture and less about finer detail and perspective.
The final element of the demonstration was the inclusion of figures added using a paintbrush – the only time one was used (with the exception of pasting on the glue in the initial stages). Simply “carrot” shaped black marks highlighted with a little colour to intimate a jacket there, a bag here, hair or hat, and even a dog to bring the final image to life. What could one say other than the painting worked and if I hadn’t seen it with my own eyes, I would not have believed it. A treat to watch and certainly some techniques and tips to try out in the future.
So, thank you Jantien, for travelling all the way from Abergavenny to be with us and we sincerely hope you will visit us again.
This fascinating lady with an interesting story paints in numerous styles and techniques which can be found her website: https://jantienart.co.uk/ She has videos on Youtube, can be found on Facebook, and runs workshops and classes from her studio in Wales.
FROME VALLEY ART GROUP 