Demo, Sharon Hurst 27 April 2019​

Sharon Hurst is a very popular artist and workshop leader based in the South West. She will be familiar to any member of the SAA for, amongst other things, her romantic (and ever so slightly, temperature-raising) portraits of fantasy characters (men and women)! Much influenced by album covers of the 1970s, the fiction of JRR Tolkein and the work of pre-Raphaelite painters such as Burne Jones and Millais, her work echoes the current popularity of the genre as seen in Game of Thrones, Harry Potter and other fictional worlds. However, the demonstration she gave of her watercolour skills was an object lesson in how to explain and demonstrate art techniques and will have been of value to anyone using the medium – regardless of subject matter. Sharon set out her methods and techniques in a wonderfully clear manner – using humour, historical facts, colour theory and much other asides. Her personality shone through. In particular, the detailed demonstration of her methods for building up multiple glazes to add convincing depth to skin tones will have been of great value. She even convinced this committed oil painter to look out his watercolours again!