OIL PAINTING DEMO BY COLLEEN HAMER

PRESENTED BY NORTH COAST ARTISTS

6/11/2016

2016

ALL WELCOME TO AN ART DEMONSTRATION IN OILS ON 11 JUNE BY RENOWNED ARTIST COLLEEN HAMER

ALL WELCOME – NORTH COAST ARTISTS presents renowned artist Colleen Hamer AWSSA, who will treat us to a demonstration in oil painting on Saturday 11 June from 9 a.m. to 12 noon.

Colleen is no stranger to North Coast Artists. She is highly regarded and a long standing member who served on the committee from 2010 to 2012 as Speaker Convenor. She is an art teacher, an exhibition judge and an Associate of the Watercolour Society of South Africa. Generally speaking, Colleen has made a large contribution to the development of art and artists. Her paintings can be seen in private collections in SA, Australia, Canada and in the UK.

Come and see Colleen in action - we promise it to be an exciting and inspiring morning as you watch her at work as she manipulates colour, texture and form, resulting in a pleasing composition on canvas to delight the senses … a demo which we’ll all come away from having learned something.

North Coast Artists are also fortunate to have yet again and by popular demand, Dr. Alexander Coutts, who will give a short talk and presentation before Colleen’s demo and before tea break on Van Gogh and some of his better known paintings.

Tea, coffee and snacks are served during the break, which is a great time to mingle and meet fellow artenthusiasts. The venue’s address is 2 Newport Avenue, Virginia. (Entrance just after Danville High School) in the Church Hall. Visitors (R40) - refreshments included. For more information see our Facebook page ‘North Coast Artists’.

An interview with Colleen Hamer … “I qualified as an art and English teacher and taught at various schools for 28 years. The last 19 years at the Fulton School for the Deaf in Gillitts was exceptionally engrossing, stimulating the passion to aid communication through language, but also through art. Teaching delightful hearing impaired pupils was exceptionally gratifying. My own artistic output during those years was geared mainly towards educational visual aids.

In 1997 I decided to devote my time to art, exploring and developing my interests and skills. Although I teach art and run my own workshops, I have participated in numerous painting workshops led by artists whose works I admire.

Watercolour painting was my first love and from my teenage years, my favourite choice of medium was almost exclusively watercolours. The numerous books on watercolour techniques and Richard Rennie's workshops were inspiring. I have been an Associate member of the National Watercolour Society of SA. since the mid1990s. For five years I was secretary of the local branch of WSSA,

followed by two years as branch chairman. I still belong to the local watercolour society and participate in their Saturday morning painting sessions on the first Saturday of each month.

Currently, I’m painting mostly in oils, but often make use of acrylics paints or acrylic inks, sometimes together with oils in mixed media paintings. Sketching, especially brief line drawings of people relaxed and unaware of my observation, is a favourite pass time. Painting with brushes is my favourite method, but making use of other tools makes for interesting marks and often attractive accidental embellishments. Palette knives, scrapers, turps sprays, torn bits of masking tape, items that can be used as templates and printed and texture pastes- all may be utilised from time to time to create differing effects and added interest. I'm attracted to a wide variety of subject matter. It is usually the quality of the lights and contrasting darks, or the beautifully glowing colours, that grab my attention. My subjects include figure studies, portraits, florals, domestic animals, birds, seascapes and landscapes. Photographs are my main source of reference, although I enjoy sketching and painting from life. Whatever the inspiration, I aim to produce drawings and paintings that are expressive and seem to be spontaneous and loose.

For many years I've been a member of three Durban based art groups, namely The Highway Art Group, The North Coast Art Group as well as The KZN Watercolour Society. I have served on the committees of each of these groups and participate in their exhibitions. Occasionally I demonstrate for at a group meeting and am sometimes asked to judge before juried exhibitions. I also belong to THE KZNSA Gallery.

I was privileged to be commissioned by Dr Robin Whitburn, a lecturer in History Education at the UCI Institute of Education, in the United Kingdom to do the cover design for a historical reference book. This book entitled "Doing Justice to History (Transforming Black history in secondary schools)" has just been published, with part of a painting I did as the cover design.”