THE speaker and demonstrator for the August meeting was Ron Law, whose topic was pen and wash painting.

Even though his paintings are widely exhibited and admired, John explained that because of his enthusiasm for drawing, he thought of himself primarily as a draughtsman rather than a painter.

He passed around a number of his sketch books and these confirmed his preference for drawing landscape, topographical and marine subjects.

John had prepared a pencil sketch of a boatyard scene on a stretched sheet of Saunders Waterford paper. He explained the sketch was necessary to establish all of the elements of the composition accurately - the line drawing would be made with waterproof ink which is permanent and does not lend itself to corrections or modifications.

The obvious tool for an ink line drawing would be a pen but John dislikes the resuls they give and favours the looser, more expressive line given by various sharpened sticks.

As he worked on his line drawing, John described his methods and materials further.

His ink was not a dense black indian ink but a mixture of black and brown acrylic ink which was slightly diluted to enable a degree of lifting out when wet.

He worked with a limited palette of colours and normally used flat washes without reliance on numerous overlaid washes.

The demonstration painting rapidly reached completion with John explaining how he adjusted the tonal values and introduced modelling into some of the wash areas by lifting out some water colour.

The result was a very successful painting which was further enhanced when it was removed from the drawing board and placed in a mount and frame.

He completed his presentation by encouraging members to draw at every opportunity and to use reference sketches with imagination, not reproducing scenes slavishly but adapting them to produce a satisfying picture.

The next meeting will be at St Luke's Memorial Hall, Evesham Road, Headless Cross, on Wednesday September 6 at 7.30pm when Tim Nash will discuss and demonstrate Tricks and Techniques with Water-colour and Acrylic Inks.