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Kevin Scully

11th January 2025

There was a packed hall, on a very cold and frosty afternoon, for the demonstration by Kevin Scully of a landscape in acrylic.  He had a photo of a hilly, rural scene to refer to.  Someone suggested it might be Wensleydale!   

Kevin outlined his background and former career in advertising and publishing, then talked about how he usually approaches his work.  For acrylic, he likes to work on 3mm MDF board, which he then gives a couple of coats of gesso and a roughly painted covering in a neutral colour.   He first drew the outline of his composition in ordinary coloured pencil, and then went over this line in thin paint, before working on the different areas of the landscape in first layers of colour.  He explained his choice of different makes and brands in different media as he worked.

As this was a rural scene, there was a lot of green, and Kevin used a tube of green, changing its hue with touches of yellow, red or violet.  He said the manufacturers had gone to the trouble of mixing a good green, so why not use it!

He pointed out that you should not put too much detail in the foreground of a landscape, as the focal point is usually in the distance.  He said the priorities in a painting should be: 1 Composition, 2 Tonal contrast, 3 Colour. 

His second layers of colour were added with a larger brush and he kept varying the direction of the brush strokes, leaving some of the original colour underneath to show through.  He finished by working across he whole painting, adding depth to shadows or highlights to the tops of the wall.  He added a few spots of the same colour in different places on the painting to tie it all together.  

Everyone enjoyed this demo and there was a buzz in the room during the tea-break and afterwards, as people wanted to talk to Kevin about his work and look closer at the finished piece.

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