JUNE 2018 MEETING:

Demo by Robert Jeffrey “Architecturally Inspired Painting”

Thursday, June 21, 2018

Growing up on a farm and claiming British ancestry, Robert Jeffery has always had a love of history and architecture.

He is equally inspired by old barns, castles, and turrets. “I paint what I like,” he admitted as he began his demo of an old dilapidated barn.

Jeffery always draws his subject three or four times before putting it on watercolor paper. “By the time the brush hits the paper the painting is done,” he claims, though he may spend over 40 hours on each painting. “The preliminary drawing is drudgery in a good way, “ he explained. “Then the act of painting is enjoyable.”

Before he begins, he does a color study, noting where the light is coming from. Jeffery mixes his paints on the paper, favoring indigo, cerulean, alizarin crimson, thalo blue, burnt sienna, burnt umber, cadmium red deep, and purple – all fresh paint squeezed out on a butcher’s tray.

“It’s hard to ruin a watercolor as long as you have good paper and good paint,” he believes. ‘I blot, scrub, wash, lift. It all creates layers and textures.”

Robert Jeffery was a fine arts major in college. His career has included commercial art, graphic design, and illustration.