Fiona Hooper
10th January 2026
Fiona is well-known to several of the members and was warmly welcomed to our first meeting of 2026. She paints a wide range of subjects, but today was demonstrating her technique for painting landscapes in oils using knives. She demonstrated the difference between palette knives, which are flat handled, and painting knives which have a kink in the handle, to keep the painter's hand away from the canvas. She showed us her selection of knives (see below) plus a variety of other 'tools', including pot scourers! Fiona then talked about her paints, saying she likes to use a limited palette which helps to maintain harmony in the painting. For this demo, she used Crimson, Cobalt Blue, Aureolin Yellow, Raw Umber, Venetian Yellow Orange and an Alkyd Titanium White. The Alkyd White helps to speed up the drying time, when mixed with the other colours. She said working with knives uses a LOT of paint, so be generous. She works straight from the tube, with no medium.
She lightly sketched out her composition with a 'magic pencil' that has a red, blue and yellow point, and used a photograph as inspiration, but not following it exactly. Fiona does not always completely mix in the different colours on the palette, as it gives an interesting texture when applied to the canvas. When painting with knives, she usually works from the background forward, in this case, starting with the sky and mountains. As she painted the snow on the mountains, one tip she gave was to add a tiny touch of yellow to the white, to make it brighter.
Next Fiona worked on the conifer trees, using the edge of the knife vertically to suggest their distinctive shape. As with most of our demonstrating artists, Fiona recommended standing back from your painting often, to see how it is working and she said 'be prepared to make changes'. But she also said art should be FUN, so don't get too anxious about it!
After the river and foreground had been added, Fiona painted in the large tree. Another suggestion: when putting a tree (or other large object) in, either have part or all of it showing but do not have it just touching the edge. She dabbed the paint with the tip or side of the knife, for the tree branches and smaller areas of vegetation and emphasised that you must remember to wipe the knife after every dab, as it will pick up any underneath colour. While working, Fiona explained some of her methods for slowing down the drying of squeezed-out paint, such as popping it in the fridge for a short time, or using clove oil on cotton wool (who knew?) with the paints in an air-tight box. But there is a warning here - do not let any of the clove oil get on the oil paint, as it will never dry if this happens!
Fiona explained her techniques throughout the demonstration and answered members' questions. Many in the audience were keen to talk to her during the break and at the end, in order to gain more of her valuable advice.
