OUR recent autumn exhibition at the Kingfisher Centre was very successful and proved of great interest to the public, who readily voted for their favourite paintings.

The award for the best picture overall went to Judith Sullivan, the best flower study to Barbara Winfield and the best in the under 16 class to Sophia Wall.

Our visiting speaker and demonstrator this month was Keith Fenwick whose subject was "Landscape in Watercolour".

Keith is well known for his instructional programmes on Sky TV and for his extensive teaching and publishing activities.

He started by describing his materials; he uses a heavy, unstretched watercolour paper which he fixes to his easel with masking tape.

His brushes are limited to a one-and-a-half inch hake for large washes, a three-quarter inch flat brush, a large synthetic bristle round brush and a rigger. He does not use masking fuid but does use masking tape when there is a distinct boundary between large areas of his painting.

He uses a quite limited range of colours but emphasised his liking for his blue tinted Paynes Grey and his Sap Green which he could modify to produce a wide range of greens.

As he painted his demonstration picture, Keith gave us his views on the technique of watercolour painting.

He thought that the best results were obtained by using the larger brushes and making as few brush strokes as possible. The relative wetness of the paint loaded brush and the underpainting was critical to the control of the paint and he often uses a warm air dryer to control the condition of his underpainting.

Conventionally, watercolourists work from light to dark but Keith thought that body colour could be used when lighter tones have to be added and for this he favours mixing white acrylic paint with his watercolour to create his body colour.

All these techniques were used in his two demonstration paintings, the first of a lake and forest landscape and the second of a mountain landscape.

Both scenes included rocks and water and Keith showed how the paint could be manipulated with a palette knife to form the rocks and wiped out with an absorbent paper pad to depict the rippled water surface.

The finished paintings were mounted for viewing and the audience applauded Keith for his impressive paintings and for his entertaining and informative presentation.

The next meeting will be at St Luke's Memorial Hall, Evesham Road, Headless Cross on Wednesday, December 7 at 7.30pm.

This will be a social meeting with mince pies and mulled wine and members are also invited to take part in workshop activities on the theme of autumn and winter.

Redditch Art Circle is supported by Redditch Council through Redditch Arts Council.