Sally reports back from Craft snippets at Upper Riccarton Library which featured guest artist, Therese Boustead. The next Craft snippets event is on Wednesday 25 September with artist, Ira Mitchell.
This month we had the pleasure of listening to Therese Boustead talk about her journey into art.
A quick background
All through school and university and throughout her career Therese never had the opportunity to do art. While working there was the opportunity for subsidised classes and Therese tried cake decorating and flower arranging. However, there was never the time to pursue any of these interests.
While working at the university, Therese moved into refurbished offices with no decoration, just white walls. Four years of looking at bland white walls was enough, and Therese went to an oil painting workshop. She bought some cheap canvases and learnt how to do abstract work using big brushes and palette knives. Her artistic endeavours certainly brightened up the workspace.
Journey into watercolour
Therese’s journey into watercolour started with a trip overseas. Not wanting to be a tourist, Therese searched online and found a workshop for watercolour artists in Barcelona. There was only one other student in the group. They stayed with the artist for a whole week, everything was provided, paint, easels, and canvases, and they would walk around Barcelona finding places to sit and paint. This freedom meant that Therese became comfortable painting in public and is not bothered by people stopping to look and watch.
On her return to New Zealand, Therese experimented with colour, composition, sketching, and depth. Therese learned about negative painting from watching a video and painted fruit around the garden, practising how to make things three dimensional using shadow and shade. Negative painting is where you paint around an object.
Then it was time for another overseas trip and yes, not as a tourist, but on a painting workshop. This time to Portugal painting people, where Therese found that it was not her favourite genre.
At home a favourite pastime is watching and listening to birds, and they have become Therese’s main subject. Add to this a photographic trip to Fiordland, Milford, and Te Anau that provided the opportunity to take lots of photographs of birds. When painting, you can change the environment they are in, how they look, whether their wings are in or out, where and how they sit. Therese is always combining elements and thinking about the composition of the work.
Therese was starting to get used to watercolour now and enjoyed how fast it dried and how portable it is. Everything can fit in a small bag. From here it has been about lots of practise and developing her own style.
The watercolour process
The main difference between watercolour and oil is how you paint the light. Look at a painting and think what is the first thing you see. It is where the light is. With oil and acrylic, you do the dark colours first and finish with the highlights. With watercolour it is the opposite, you keep the white free and work on the shadows and dark.
Therese starts with a rough sketch using a sketchpad. You can’t rub out on good watercolour paper; it ruins the paper.
Once she is happy with the sketch, Therese transfers this to good quality watercolour paper.
Once you have your first layer of paint on the paper you can lightly sketch then rub out if needed.
Therese does not use a lot of colour, it is all about blending the colours to make other colours. One painting of quail only uses two colours. Therese is always experimenting with colours and blending. Layers of paint are built up and dark colours are applied last. Don’t use more than two colours when mixing otherwise you can get mud brown and colours you don’t want.
Therese always starts with the eyes of the birds and is very fussy about them. The eye needs to be expressive and tell a story.
Recently Therese has been experimenting with splash pictures and she showed a series of pictures of a Kingfisher splashing on the water.
Tools
Therese buys her Schmincke paints from Gordon Harris. They are very expensive, but you only need a very small tube, and you don’t need many colours. They are bright and transparent.
The paints are transferred from the tube into her painting tin. Therese then waits three days for the paints to go hard. Therese showed two painting tins she has. One small and portable, the other larger that she uses in her studio. The tins have sections for the paints and a middle part for mixing colours.
There are certain colours that Therese loves and has to keep replenishing. Some colours in her tin have never been replaced, they are hardly used. Get to know what colours you like. Therese’s favourite colours are quinacridone gold, cerulean blue, Prussian blue, viridian green, and opera.
The paper is very important, and Therese uses Arches and Saunders, purchased from Melbourne.
The brushes are synthetic, extremely fine-tipped, and purchased from England.
Therese does her own framing, after learning how to do it at an evening class many years ago. The cost of framing means that it is a much cheaper option to do it yourself. The wood is from Crawfords Moulding in Belfast. There you can buy the wood in 2.5m lengths and cut it to suit.
Branching out into jewellery
Last year Therese wanted to buy earrings with birds on them and couldn’t find any. It dawned on her that she had all these images, so why not use them. So, about a year ago Therese started to make her own jewellery. Therese started with findings bought on the internet but wanted to use sterling silver. Therese went to a leadlight workshop to learn how to cut the glass and a Silversmith course at The Tannery and started making her own sterling silver jewellery using her own bird paintings.
And finally...
If you want to take up painting, Therese encourages you to do so. Go to a class or find a class online and do it. The tutors know what you need to use and how to do it. They have all the tools, techniques, tips of the trade, and more.
In her own words, Therese said ‘lower your expectations’. Start simple and don’t expect a major masterpiece your first time. Think of it as a learning curve. Do a leaf, use the yellow and blue put in some red, make your own green. Use colours to get depth. Then think where the light is and what is in shadow. Find what works and what doesn’t work. Don’t be afraid, and importantly don’t worry what others think. Have no fear, think about what you would like to do, then set about having a go.
Someone asked Therese how she decided on which artist to work with in Barcelona. She thought “which country in Europe would I like to visit and looking at the artists, which paintings do I like”.
Therese belongs to Arts Canterbury, artists supporting artists. Keep a watch out for their next exhibition.
Therese has a studio at home and once a year opens it to the public. Y-Art Open Studio will be open Saturday 18 to Sunday 26 January 2025 (full details on the website). In January Therese’s husband’s dahlias will be flowering and visitors can enjoy the garden as well as visiting the studio.
Latest craft titles
Angela put together a list of the book and magazines on display.
Items shared at our July gathering.
Craft classes
Online resource: Creativebug
Also, if you fancy trying out an online course, you might like to check out Creativebug. You will find unlimited access to thousands of art and craft video classes.
Local providers
Other great places to find classes around Ōtautahi include the WEA, Risingholme Learning, and Papanui High Adult Education.
See our CINCH database for more craft class options.
Our next Craft Snippets speaker is another artist, Ira Mitchell, on Wednesday 25 September.
Add a comment to: Craft snippets: Watercolours with Therese Boustead