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Shadow colour
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Message
Posted
I feel Hake painting is easy compared to painting a loose watercolour like Edward Wesson .just me but I find it hard to paint after him. yes Ron Ranson .who I have great respect for. was a good artist who showed an easy way to paint , most of his followers either use his style, or can get close to it .while being ordinary like me. after seventy years I am still struggling to do a painting that satisfies me ,, I could never sit and paint the same thing day after day weeks at time trying to find perfection .and then put it in 
a show . for £20 quid .
a show . for £20 quid .
Posted
Problem is that we’re all self-critical, so whenever we’ve finished a painting, we can always see all the faults. I suspect that even the masters felt the same. I find a few things help: 1) Getting other peoples’ opinions (via the Gallery, although saying something is “lovely” doesn’t always help -especially when you know it’s not ( I know I guilty of this myself). 2) Putting the picture away and looking at it much later - this seems to help to pick out the good things. 3) Comparing your pictures to others - trying to identify what could be better. 4) Trying again - with a different approach, but only after a while. Repeating too quickly means that you often repeAt the same mistakes.
Posted
Super watercolour AlanO, I invited the late Ron Ranson to do a demo at our art club back in the 80s.
We had a great turnout as expected, what a charismatic character he was, enthusiasm in abundance!
I’m not overly keen on the Hake brush personally, I have got a couple of sizes and have painted with them, a bit gimmicky for me, but in Ron’s hands he made it look so simple, which it isn’t!
He had no formal training, and started painting later in life, but he had great marketing skills, setting up a residential course at his home on the beautiful Wye Valley.
Later, he would make his home in the States, teaching and demonstrating his method of painting with the Hake.
Edited
by Alan Bickley
Posted
I feel Hake painting is easy compared to painting a loose watercolour like Edward Wesson .just me but I find it hard to paint after him. yes Ron Ranson .who I have great respect for. was a good artist who showed an easy way to paint , most of his followers either use his style, or can get close to it .while being ordinary like me. after seventy years I am still struggling to do a painting that satisfies me ,, I could never sit and paint the same thing day after day weeks at time trying to find perfection .and then put it in
Posted
I think Ted Wesson had a set of rules he used in his watercolours
I would no want to go through them on the forum. still it seems I can tell a true Wesson when I see one,,,and if I
do one that looks to near his.. it vanishes from view , because some one has complained and so they should ...
I think art should be enjoyed and not taken to serious ,,,,,,, like. me mam used to say ."never think that better than any one else . ;the heads big enough so go and get ten pounds of king Edwards in the cap fromt corner shop .
Posted
A lot of this comes down, at least in part, to what you're used to. I know a lot of people find the hake so difficult that they give up on them - nearly always because they don't read the guidance available, and try using the brush fully charged with water: well - a sopping wet hake is about as useful as painting with a dish-cloth. Watch Alan's videos when he uses a hake, and you'll see how it's done; or Steve Cronin's, or Lois Davidson's, all available on YouTube. I'm very fond of my hakes, but I don't use them for everything - they're my 'a change is as good as a rest' type of brush - I don't think they're inherently superior to others (apart from being so very inexpensive by comparison with sable) but they're fun, and liberating, to use.
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Posted
Probably not quite on topic , but I remember whilst at Southampton Art Society a while back , a lady gave me a useful tip - if you've been working on a painting for a while you dont necessarily see your own faults - hold it up to a mirror , sometimes a fault may be more obvious as you will be seeing it in a different way .
Steve