123 Days, Day 8 - Hilarie Lambert at Trenholm Artists Guild

It's Second Monday of the Month, and the beginning season of the 2014-2015 year for Trenholm Artists Guild, a local guild of over 100 artists, both professional and amateur, in the Columbia, SC metro area. I always enjoy the meetings because they are a perfect mix of socializing with my peers, and seeing a Demo by a well-known artist, usually from the Carolinas. Tonight was extraordinary with a program given by Hilarie Lambert of Charleston.

 

Hilarie told us that 99.9% of the time, she paints "Alla Prima".

1. Wikipedia says "Wet-on-wet, or alla prima (Italian, meaning at first attempt), is a painting technique, used mostly in oil painting, in which layers of wet paint are applied to previous layers of wet paint. This technique requires a fast way of working, because the work has to be finished before the first layers have dried."

2. Wet-on-wet - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

   en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wet-on-wet
   

   
   

We actually got to see Hilarie demonstrate this technique. She brought photo references, both color and black and white copies of Lilies, mentioning that she likes the black and white copy to see Values. First Hilarie tones the canvas "because a white canvas is obnoxious". In this case the canvas had a mixture of yellow ochre and cadmium red applied to it. She said that she sometimes also uses the sludge of paint colors that is at the bottom of the turpentine bucket, and after the "turp" is poured out, she uses a cloth to rub that on the canvas. She said it is a wonderful neutral.

Toned Canvas  

                                 The Photo Reference                                   

After toning, Hilarie loosely sketches the subject matter with brush and paint. She looks at her subject and reduces it to positive and negative shapes such as cones, spheres, triangles, etc... She then looks for the lightest lights and the darkest darks and starts putting in the darks. Next comes the lights using warms and then cools. She likes to paint in layers of colors because you can see some of the "underneath colors".  "You have to build the cake before you put the frosting on," she said. 

 

  

 

Time passed by too quickly as we, the members of TAG could have stayed all night watching Hilarie work her magic with paint and brush in a very short time. Yet it wasn't quite long enough as the meeting ended before she was finished. She promises to finish this painting this week and post it on her blog. We'll all have to look for it and see the finished results. 

http://www.hlambert.com/blog/

It was an informative and enjoyable night thanks to Hilarie Lambert and the dedicated, fun people in Trenholm Artists Guild.