Hello all followers of the WSSA Johannesburg Branch! Hope the cold is not keeping you from painting? The new "Aquarelle" newsletter is now up on the website so please, grab some coffee, snuggle up and read the latest happenings and exciting news around the Watercolour Society of South Africa.
Follow the link above!
Keep cosy and paint up a storm..... we have the Artful exhibition approaching!
Friday, June 17, 2011
Tuesday, June 14, 2011
Updated Calendar of Events at Manor Gallery
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Monday, June 13, 2011
Alma Voster - Tonal Values Presentation.... Amended!
NB.
Just a small addition to the requirements for the Digital Presentation which Alma will run on the 25th June. Each artist is to please bring their own little portable table to paint on.
Friday, June 10, 2011
ARTFUL Exhibition 23 June
A new exciting All Media Exhibition is being launched at the end of June. Please diaries the date.... Submissions must be in on the 21st June. We look forward to seeing all our watercolourists who work in other mediums besides watercolour who wish to showcase their work. For more info on this wonderful exhibition, please contact Kerry at the gallery. (011) 4657934.
Wednesday, June 8, 2011
Tonal Values Workshop - Alma Voster. 'The foundaton of any good painting'!!!
Alma Foster will do a digital presentation at 9.30am on the 25th June at the Manor Gallery illustrating tonal values and their influence in any painting, followed by a practical workshop to put it into practice.
This is a must for beginners and even advanced artists will find something new and interesting in the presentation.
Entrance is free for members, so please join us for a wonderful workshop.
Space is limited, so first come first served!
Contact Kerry at Manor Gallery to book a place (011 465 7934)
REQUIREMENTS FOR ATTENDEES:
All the usual watercolour paraphernalia.
A stretched sheet of good watercolour paper (not smaller than A3).
Some drawing paper.
Black ink (Quink or Indian ink or FW Acrylic ink) or even black watercolour or black acrylic paint.
Reference material with good light and shadows (lights and darks) - any preferred topic.
A notebook and pen.
There will be some notes and examples for members attending the workshop.
We welcome all members to join us for a fun filled day!
Tuesday, June 7, 2011
ARTFUL Exhibition - 23rd June
It is with pride that we announce a fabulous new exhibition called ARTFUL which will be held on the 23rd June. We realise that our faithful members also enjoy painting in oils, acrylics, charcoal, pastels, etc, hence this exhibition which is aimed at those artists who work in other mediums as well as watercolour, giving you a platform to showcase your other beautiful paintings.
If you would like to enter this 'ALL MEDIA' exhibition at the end of June, may we suggest you get your brushes out NOW! If you aren't a member of the WSSA yet, please ENROL here and become a valued member of the Watercolour Society of South Africa (WSSA) for as little as R300.00 a year. A quick access link to the ARTFUL entry form can be found HERE.
Please diaries this date and get your submissions in on the 21st June.
We are so excited about this exhibition as it forms the foundation to the introduction of an inspiring event later on in the year.
Hope you can all join in!
If you would like to enter this 'ALL MEDIA' exhibition at the end of June, may we suggest you get your brushes out NOW! If you aren't a member of the WSSA yet, please ENROL here and become a valued member of the Watercolour Society of South Africa (WSSA) for as little as R300.00 a year. A quick access link to the ARTFUL entry form can be found HERE.
Please diaries this date and get your submissions in on the 21st June.
We are so excited about this exhibition as it forms the foundation to the introduction of an inspiring event later on in the year.
Hope you can all join in!
Sunday, June 5, 2011
Richard Rennie Jr. Presentation on Giclee Prints
An Abstract print of one of Richard Rennie Snr's paintings.
This last Saturday morning we held a wonderful presentation by Richard Rennie (Jnr) together with Richard (Snr). We had a nice turnout of 23 attendees in the Gallery at Norscot Manor, and the presentation kicked off on time at 10:00 am.
Dave Croad, Johannesburg Branch Chair does introductions
Richard (Jnr) talked eloquently about the technical aspects of Giclee printing. The advent of ink jet printing by Epson revolutionised the printing industry, but while "normal" ink jet printing uses only 3 colours plus black (the CMYK colour system), the process has evolved into one where any number of pure colour inks can be used to spray onto virtually any surface in ever more microscopic dots resulting in very high resolutions. The term "Giclee" pronounced "Zhee-clay" is derived from the French word for "squirt" or "spray". These inks are of such high quality and colour-fastness these days that they carry guarantees against fading of up to 500 years!
Richard Rennie Jr. presenting his Giclee prints to members and guests.
One of the biggest advantages of Giclee printing over traditional offset-lithographical printing is the setup cost. Offset litho printing needs long runs (1000+) of each print to make the unit cost affordable. While the inks are more expensive for Giclee printing, the setup costs are relatively small enabling small runs (of say 10 only) to be cost-effective. Once the high quality photo image has been stored in the system, the cost each single extra print is the same. This is an enormous advantage for artists who may not be sure how well any one print will sell. As a very rough guideline, Richard indicated the cost of a Giclee print made from a full-sheet watercolour would be in the region of R400 to R600 depending on the paper used and the amount of time required to "photoshop" out any marks, imperfections etc. Smaller sizes would be correspondingly less.
Another important consideration is the ability to print onto virtually any surface, enabling oil painting prints to be printed onto canvas, or watercolours to be printed onto smooth or rough cold-pressed watercolour paper, resulting in extremely realistic prints, hard to distinguish from the originals. The Rennies showed this to great effect by comparing side-by-side a Giclee print of one of Richard's watercolours with the actual original painting. Many of us guessed wrongly about which was the original!
The quality and the maximum size of the print obviously depend on the resolution of the digital photo image of the painting. Therefore, especially for prints larger than A4 size, a very specialised high resolution camera has to be used together with very sophisticated lighting. Fortunately for us, Richard (Jnr) has access to this type of equipment, and is able to offer us artists a total solution including photographing the painting, digitally correcting any blemishes etc., storing the image in his archive for any future use, and printing any number of prints to any size and on any surface.
The subject of copyright, exclusivity and ownership was also discussed, but that is a huge debate on its own. We might discuss it in future posts or even perhaps have a further presentation about it too.
Richard Rennie has left a catalogue of his currently available Giclee prints in the Norscot Manor Gallery (the catalogue is a work of art in itself!), as well as some examples of actual prints, some of which are for sale.
An example of a Richard Rennie Snr's watercolour printed by his son Richard Rennie Jr.
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