NEWTON St Cyres Art Group members enjoyed a demonstration in watercolour by Kari McGowan on July 28.

Kari is a well-known and accomplished artist based on Dartmoor, and runs classes as well as contributing articles to magazines.

She had decided to tackle the difficult challenge of painting in greens, and had prepared thoroughly by sketching, and experimenting with mixes of various yellows and blues (definitely no greens straight out of the tube).

The subject was a twisted tree by a stream. She reminded us to focus on the point of the painting and not be tempted to put the same amount of detail everywhere.

Using Saunders 200lb Not and plenty of water, and the pencil sketch with some masking fluid already applied, she worked with a variety of brushes, and a spray bottle, to build up her painting, with the minimum of fiddling, preferring to let the paint do its own thing, and keeping a sharp eye on the dampness of the paper so that the paint could still move.

The result was a pleasing mix of foreground detail, and vaguely-suggested background.

She clearly feels passionate about painting and conveyed her enthusiasm to us. A very enjoyable evening.

Jenny Hallam