Our demonstrator was Mary Rose O'Connell.
The meeting was held in the Guild Hall, First Congregational Church (middle side door), Sanborn Street, Reading, Wednesday October 9th, 2024 at 7:30 p.m.
Mary Rose demonstrated her techniques for painting using Gouache.
We have some photographs of the event in case you could not make it there in person.
Mary Rose showed us a wall of small sketches that she does.
She uses these during her classes because she can do one in
an hour or so, leaving more time for the students to paint.
Sometimes, she will print out a source photo in black and white
to make the values more obvious in the subject.
When oil painting, Mary Rose will create a rough under painting using
Transparent Oxide Red. This is done as a rough value study.
She then adds color to the painting, often using glazes.
This technique is used for oil paintings, but not for the Gouache studies.
To get used to the pigments she uses, she makes Richard Schmidt color charts.
Getting back to the Gouache study, here is her setup.
She paints on D'Arche hot press paper for the smooth surface texture.
She uses traditional Gouache, not the newer acrylic Gouache.
She uses Rosemary Brushes.
Instead of doing a preliminary drawing Mary Rose started with structure lines.
She then added color notes to the painting.
She uses very little water to keep the paint opaque.
The goal here is to get the right colors in the right places.
The drawing comes later.
Here is the painting with the color notes added.
She is using this photo as the source material.
At this point, Mary Rose is refining the painting.
Continuing to refine the painting.
This is as far as she took the work.
The goal is to make a quick study, not to make a finished painting.
Mary Rose O'Connell is best known for her dynamic oil paintings of the New England coast. Other genres she has mastered are her sensitive portrait, still life, and landscape paintings. She paints in her studio and en plein air in a representational style. Classically trained in the Boston School Tradition, her work shows a strong grounding in composition and design combined with the color and light of the 19th century Impressionists.
Along with being a national award-winning artist, Mary Rose was a past recipient of the Charles Family Foundation, Cape Ann Museum, Copley Society of Art Fellowship. Mary Rose is a juried artist member of the Copley Society of Art, the North Shore Arts Association, and the Rockport Art Association. She has exhibited with the Oil Painters of America, the American Impressionists Society, and the Allied Artists of America.
Mary Rose instructs students in composition and design techniques using oil, acrylic, gouache, and drawing mediums. In addition to the technical aspects, the classes focus on color, value, and edge relationships within the paintings. She conducts workshops throughout the United States and in Europe
You can see more of Mary Rose's art at her website, https://www.oconnellfineart.com/