CHERRY Lyons is Vice President of Devon ArtSociety, and her aim at the January meeting of Newton St Cyres Art Group was to show us a variety of ways in which to add texture and interest to a painting.

She showed us her sketchbooks and scrapbooks, which contained examples of her experiments with different media and textures.

She used acrylic paint and acrylic ink, on a painted board. A simple composition of a seascape was first sketched out and a horizon line marked with masking tape.

She then added texture paste (home-made) in various places where there would be rocks, rough sea and headlands. She also provided the recipes for this paste.

While this was drying, she painted the sky and sea with a palette knife, using a variety of marks and strokes, and blended it using a soft rag.

Two headlands were formed with collage - pieces torn from another painting - attached with Florist’s glue, which dries quickly, then painted over, to show the difference between one in the distance and the other nearer.

Rocks in the foreground were applied in the same way, and she had sand, bits of shell and other small found objects in a container and stuck these to the foreground.

A piece of coarse netting pressed onto the wet paint on the rocks added texture.

While demonstrating Cherry passed on a wealth of tips and advice. She encouraged us to experiment and be bold.

It was clear that many interesting effects could be achieved using these ideas which would be difficult to achieve by using just a paintbrush. 

Jenny Hallam