As this mere observer found out today, there’s far more to setting figures in a landscape than it seems. First up, Salwa gave us a short introduction about the stuff she’d be using and how she’d be working. Then on a piece of Tara 70 canvas taped to aboard, along with a couple of photos in her left hand and stick of  charcoal in her gloved right hand, she was straight into sketching the three children, who’d become the focus of a seascape, set on North Wollongong Beach.

From amongst lots of figures in one of the photos she selected the girl at left, as well as the one in the middle, and the other girl from the second photo, with overall construction based on the first photo. A better sense of what’s happening is introduced by adding the bucket. And a few other considerations come into play at this point such as: - •

Are the figures plausibly posed?
Are the figures proportioned appropriate to each other as well as to their surroundings?
Whence the light source, hence shadow placement etc. (From the right in this instance.)

A critical look at the sketch in a mirror, satisfies her that all is as it should be. With a few flops of a piece of rag over the sketch, she eliminates excess charcoal. Then she dips paint with a fine round brush, rapidly over-painting the softened outlines - but a whole lot thicker than I’d expected at any rate. Then again, Salwa’s delightfully full of surprises.

What little medium she uses, she dips not from the jar, but flicks mostly from her palette. Art Spectrum oils are her preference, Neef her choice of brushes. For this exercise, her palette is basically one blue, two yellows, two reds, burnt umber and a white. Right-handed, she holds the brushes by the tip of the handle most of the time, yet with not a hint of shake at the painty end … well not that I could see anyway.

Another check in the mirror and blocking in commences, starting with the standing girl, her skin tones surprisingly darker than I’d expected. To the mirror again and not happy, she blends back deftly with rag on finger. “It’s important to have lots of rags”. Then on to the other girls, still with the deep body colour, focusing as well on the faces and costume details.

Yet again to the mirror. “It’s okay!”

It’s time to look at the larger picture. The focus turns to sky and water now. A bigger brush this time and a couple of minutes staccato brushwork reveal sky and ocean.

Salwa’s brushes are moving faster, yet deft as ever, as she flits from filling in all the negative spaces, detailing the kids’ foreground interests, and coming to grips with the skin tones, as well as highlights. A few energetic swishes of a slightly deeper blue and ripples appear in the surf. Equally energetic, foreshore greenery, nicely greyedoff into the distance, heightens perspective and several lightning-fast dips’n’strokes later, the residential nature of North Wollongong Beach is beautifully suggested.

Salwa’s use of the palette knife was spectacular, indeed almost too quick for me to appreciate what had happened. Indeed, all that detail of the foreground mounded sand, as well as the shoreline trees, happened almost like magic as far as I was concerned! And despite the all too deep skin colour at the start, her way with oils had that well under control. Anyway it was at this point that Salwa had decided it was finished.

However the need for a figure further back along the beach was suggested. Undaunted, Salwa obliged by rag-blending bits of the shrubbery with shoreline and quickly adjusting it to resemble a hatted lady, waving seemingly to someone out in the surf. And it was this very hint that so nicely reinforced, the need to be on guard, always ensuring fidelity of horizon and vanishing points in landscapes.

Thank you so much Salwa for an excellent presentation.

- Neal Hicking.