Think LIGHT and the Shadows

My father is a Chinese artist, and when I was a child he showed me how to draw and paint Chinese style.  Later, he arranged lessons for me with his tutor, a Chinese style master, who eventually said to me, “In the future it won’t matter how good you become, you will still recall my style, so you must go out and draw, and study from real life”.  Looking back, I am very glad I followed his instructions.

I studied art and went to university in Canton.  As part of the art course, I would spend anything from 15 minutes on a loose study, drawing from memory, to 100 hours doing a detailed study.  It was a very good but, at times, a very boring way to learn.

COLOUR MIXING

My Chinese tutor explained about complementary colours and warm and cool colours, but he did not teach us how to mix colours because, as he said, “To most people black and white tonal value drawings are similar, but their feeling for colour will be different.”

So I studied the Old Master Impressionists, and did a lot of experimental painting from real life, and eventually I understood how to mix and use colour in my own painting.

SOME TIPS

My advice is, learn from your tutors, but don’t follow their style, then you will have a very good future in your art.

Do not just paint what you see, use the subject as the key to paint what you feel.

It doesn’t matter what style you use, the painting will not come together without the appropriate drawing skills.

I also think painting from real life always gives a truer atmosphere for colours, and more ideas to develop the painting whether it be a seascape, landscape, wildlife, figure, street scene, interior, garden scene or still life.  

When you work, think LIGHT and the shadows will make everything beautiful.

THE DEMONSTRATION

I use both oil and watercolour to paint, it depends which I think is the better medium to represent a particular subject.  Still life is very good exercise, you can work in the studio and fell comfortable as you finish the painting.

Recently I was admiring some beautiful hydrangeas in my next door neighbours’ garden and they kindly gave me some to paint.

I always look for different size subjects because it makes a more interesting arrangement.  When it came to the colour design I felt that some “warmer” coloured objects were needed to offset the blue flowers, so the reddish basket, copper jug and china were introduced.  The resulting set up is as you see it in the photograph.

The first impression of the subject is very important.  When I work I always forget the detail and transfer my felling about the subject onto the paper as quickly as I can.  The only way to do this is to focus on shades, colour and values.  I use simple strokes without playing too much with them.  It is very important to provide reflection, light and colour because this is what all the subjects in the painting relates to each other.  Then I build up the detail for depth, but make the details in the focal area sharper than the background.

Most students in my classes ask which colours I mix to make certain colours?  I am very happy to tell them, but I think that mixing colour is very personal and not too difficult providing you understand the colour rules – complementary colours, and warm and cool colours.

Do some experimenting on a piece of paper, the better you know your palette the better you will be able to understand why you use these colours, and what the colours can do for the painting.  Instil this in you mind!

Don’t be afraid of wasting paper on your experiments.  How much effort you put in determines the amount of reward you will receive.

ABOUT THE ARTIST

Ben Ho was born in 1962 in Canton, China.  He studied at the Canton University Academy of Fine Arts. His works were exhibited in the Fine Arts Exhibition of the Canton District Culture Gallery.  In 1988 he emigrated to New Zealand and has become a New Zealand Citizen.

From 1993 to 1996 he won 11 art awards in New Zealand, including the Otago Regional Council Art Award, and the KG Fraser Award at the Royal Easter Show Art Awards.

His paintings have been purchased by collectors from New Zealand, USA, United Kingdom and Australia.

Ben’s work can be viewed at the Studio of Contemporary Art; the Gifford; Franklin and Downtown Hilton Galleries, Auckland; the Dawson Gallery, Rotorua; the MacGregor Wright Gallery, Wellington; Rosslyn Gallery, Dunedin and the Chapel Gallery, Queenstown.

Ben Ho has exhibited in the Asian Pacific Watercolour Painting Exhibition in Taipei.  

He teaches at the Mairangi Bay Arts Centre in Auckland and to many other different art groups in Auckland and around New Zealand.

[ Home ] [ FAS ] [ Artlinks ]