I found this artist by following a link on Jackson’s Art Supplies Blog pointing to an article about Pat Tinsley, a British mixed media artist – where the hint on Shirley Trevena as a “Risk-Taking Watercolourist” was. I like risk taking and think it would be good for me, so I followed up and was off my feet about what I saw then.

Shirley Trevena’s a contemporary British watercolour artist in her fifties or sixties I’d guess. Her style is very interesting for me, and I’d love to learn how to use watercolours like this. I love the intensity of the colours and find the compositions very interesting. I spent much time looking at the paintings in the article and also on Shirley Trevena’s website. I can’t even say which of the paintings is my favourite, I like them all. This was just after I had finished my series of green bottle mixing studies and it made me realize how much I still have to learn.

There are also DVDs and books by the artist. I watched the trailers on YouTube, and I think demonstrations like these are really missing in the OCA course materials. It is one thing to read the instruction “be experimental” and something else to watch an artist using colours in an experimental way. I find the videos highly instructive, not because I want to copy someone else’s style but to be inspired from seeing what’s possible with the medium. I had the same impression from looking at the videos presenting Chris Forsey’s work about whom I wrote in an earlier Blog article. I’ll probably treat me a DVDs for Chrismas, because it’s such a pleasure watching, and I think I can learn a lot from them.

Shirley Trevena also participated in the Patchings Festival with a demonstration. It might be a good idea to search for Art Festivals in the New York area, maybe something similar is available over here as well.

Sources

Jackson’s Art Blog presenting Shirley Trevena http://www.jacksonsart.com/blog/2013/11/29/getting-to-know-risk-taking-watercolourist-shirley-trevena/

Shirley Trevena Web Site http://www.shirleytrevena.com/

Patchings Art Centre, Organizers of the Patchings Festival http://www.patchingsartcentre.co.uk/

Selected paintings by Shirley Trevena, titles in the order of appearance:

– Blue still life with black screens
– Brown jug of magnolias
– Red flowers on a black table
– Red-r red Amaryllis
– Table top with blue vase

Blue still life with black screens

Brown jug of magnolias

Red flowers on a black table

Red red Amaryllis

Table top with blue vase