Demonstration with Don Waters

12 July 2014 / Exhibitions . Workshops

The Logan Art Gallery invited Donald James Waters to to hold an Arts Talk and demonstrate the way he was developing his paintings for the ‘Arcadia’ Exhibition. The exhibition is free to see for anyone visiting the Logan Art Gallery.

Don explained that he likes to personalize his paintings by starting to write about his feelings on the day onto the canvas. He then continues to draw with charcoal and builds up his drawing around his writing without having anything special in mind. He lets his feelings guide his drawings.

During this demonstration he asked the audience to call out what they can see in this first lines and answers like ‘wine glasses’ came back. Don picked up on the suggestions and added a bottle, some cheese and grapes , seemingly creating a still life. He added some more lines and circles and then turned the drawing 180 degree. Then he asked the audience what they could see now.

This time answers includes things like ‘a horse’ or ‘faces’ or a ‘cityscape”.

To fix the charcoal drawing on to the canvas, Don explained that he will spray a mist of Glazing Medium onto the canvas before applying acrylic washes in the primary colours yellow red and blue. The washes are made of acrylic paint mixed with gloss medium glaze and liberally applied onto the canvas.

Don will continue to explore all possibilities of his painting by still turning it around 90, 180 or 270 degree to see what other possibilities he can discover in this work

His experimentation with his drawings opens up so many possibilities and he doesn’t restrict himself to any direction until he is satisfied. This can mean that he might change this painting many more times before he will be happy with the result.

Watching Don creating the above sketch really inspired me to try his approach to a painting. All in all it was a worthwhile afternoon spent with Don Waters at the Logan Art Gallery