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g'day viewers, my name's graeme stevenson, and i'd like to invite you to come on a journey of creativity and learning and adventure through the series colour in your life. there's an artist in every family throughout the world. lots of times there's an artist deep inside all of us as well. so grab your kids, your brothers, your sisters, your aunties, uncles, and mums and dads and come and see how some of the best artists in australia, do what they do. (music plays) (graeme) hello, kath.
(kath) hi, graeme. how are you? (graeme) good to see you. can i come in and have a look at what you're doing? (kath) sure can. (graeme) great stuff, lets go in. (graeme) g'day viewers, graeme stevenson here again. i'm at the home of kath castle today, and kath is an extraordinarily talented wildlife artist that paints animals, mostly birds (kath) mostly birds, yes. (graeme) in all forms of different mediums: acrylics, watercolours, (kath) oils. (graeme) oils. and she's won numerous awards, i mean kath's work is work is really, really amazing, very detailed - she's a realist artist but does some great
stuff. you're also working with a company called? (kath) maxwell and williams. (graeme) maxwell and williams, and they actually produce her stuff on a license basis on a number of cups and plates isn't it? (kath) cups, plates, placemats, coasters - things like that. (graeme) yeah, and a great way for the rest of the world to see what you do as well. kath is going to be painting a azure kingfisher for us today, and you're doing it in? (kath) i'm gonna to do acrylics today. (graeme) okay, that sounds great. we're going to, we're going to sit down with spend the day with her and watch what she does. so the azure kingfisher, whereabouts are they? (kath) mainly in eastern australia along, you mainly find them along riverbanks, and they burrow in,
nest in the side of the river. (graeme) they're beautiful little birds but aren't they? they're just quite spectacular. but we're going to sit down with her today and go through the whole process of how she puts one of her wildlife pieces together. so come along for the ride; it's going to be great. (graeme) well, kath i can see that you've got a photograph there of the kingfisher. (kath) yes. (graeme) now obviously you really do need great reference material when you do these. do you get a lot of your stuff out of books or off the net? do you take your own photos at all? (kath) i take a lot of my own photos. you need to know your subject as well. you have to actually see it in real life to actually know it's behaviour and just to get a good idea of what they're really suppose to look like. (graeme) and i've always noticed with photographs a lot
of artists when they paint, and i've actually seen this a number of times, you may have seen this as well, is that when people paint off photographs they use, the darks go very dark. (kath) yeah, it does. (graeme) and they forget that there's other spectral values involved in creating the form on canvas or board in comparison to say taking a photo. so that's an art itself in interpreting it. (kath) yes, it's just good to get to get out in the rainforest, or the bush, go to nature parks just so you can see what they really looks like in real life. (graeme) yep, absolutely. and obviously when you sketch the picture on, a lot of people do use graphs, which is okay there's not a problem with that. other people use projectors - do you?
(kath) we use those art projectors, there's all new ones that you can just yeah, just put a usb in there and project it onto your board. i normally just sketch it on paper first and then transfer it with tracing paper to my board, cause the drawing is one of the most important parts of the painting. (graeme) absolutely. (kath) yeah. (graeme) and obviously the board that you've got here, what type of board is that you've actually got it on? (kath) it's just a board with gesso on it. it's a very smooth surface. (graeme) yeah, let me pick it up. it looks like is it on masonite there? (kath) yeah, it's one that you get from the art shop. (graeme) so who actually makes that? (kath) i think its ampersand. (graeme) okay, ampersand makes them. but it's actually got a really nice, its very similar to a thing called vellun.
but it's got a beautiful surface on it and you're going to be using acrylics on this today? (kath) yes, i like the smooth surface so that you can put plenty of detail in. (graeme) okay. obviously once you've sketch it out, do you spray this? some artists do some artists don't. do you spray the board at all? (kath) i've given it a quick spray of fixative. (graeme) okay, and it just sort of stops because some times, particularly when you've got your lighter colors painting, if you're painting fine detail you'll find that the line will actually, the grey will be absorbed into the white, and if you don't want that obviously it's going to be a bit of a hassle for you. sprayed it - ready to go. (kath) yes, ready to go. (graeme) lets see what you can do with it then. (kath) well today i'm just going to use a very, very basic palette, (graeme) yeah. (kath) just to keep things simple. so i mainly use a
red, a yellow and a ultramarine. (graeme) so you pretty well just using the primaries. (kath) the primaries - mostly primaries and a few other, like for the blacks i'll use a green and a red rather that use a tube black. (graeme) sure, sure. (kath) just to keep it simple. (graeme) okay. (kath) yeah, so (graeme) what type of brushes are you going to use on putting this together? (kath) they're mainly all soft brushes, the big flat ones are for the backgrounds, yeah. not too small, i think the smallest is a number one (graeme) that's still pretty small isn't it? so you've got obviously on a swivelling board there as well (kath) yes. (graeme) to adjust your height. (graeme) and then you've also turned the picture even before we've started. (kath) i have, haven't i? (graeme) yeah, you've turned
the picture. but obviously what's the explanation for that? (kath) i just move it around a bit. yeah. (graeme) you're obviously allowed to, i mean it's a great way when you can actually turn the board all the way around (kath) yeah. (graeme) to be able to adjust particularly when you're on your curves as well. (kath) that's right, this boards great cause it lifts flat like that. (graeme) up and down, do what you need. (kath) it's great. (graeme) that's great. so what do we do now, just mixing those primaries? (kath) i'm actually going to start with um, get some of the tones in. (graeme) okay. (kath) so i'm going to do a, mix all the three colors together (graeme) yeah. (kath) and just get all the shadows basically. (graeme) okay. (kath) which you can use
do using something like paynes grey, or something like that. but i just like to keep it simple. (graeme) well it still i mean those colors will give you a reasonably dark set of colors anyway as far as paynes grey's concerned. (kath) yeah. (graeme) alright, lets see what you can do then. (kath) okay. (graeme) so straight away you can see viewers, that the color is quite dark. (kath) yeah. (graeme) it's not something something that you necessarily need to squeeze out of the tube to get a colour that's, or a darker color that's going to enable you to control a lot of your tints and tones as you go along. but you obviously got your rag there to draw moisture out (kath) yeah. (graeme) fairly
quickly if you wanted to. (kath) that's right, (graeme) yeah. (graeme) i'm always wiping my brush on it just to get the right level of dampness on the brush. (graeme) yep. (graeme) so in putting those darker details in, cause that really helps you understand that you're developing the character of your animal quickly? (kath) yes. (graeme) you really can see something developing quite rapidly instead of and some artists do it, do it the other way around but that's, that really sort of brings the animals out quiet quickly. (kath) yeah, i like in the eye i like to preserve the white bit for the little flash of light in it. it really makes a difference. (graeme) yeah. (kath) so at this stage you don't have to worry about keeping it
really neat, not to the final few coats - it's just basically blocking in the tones. (graeme) so in your, in your career you've won a lot of awards from what i can see on your cv. (kath) yes. (graeme) you've really done quiet well with the competition level as far as art is concerned. mostly exhibitions for wildlife or this, these are just general exhibitions? (kath) just general normally, general exhibitions. (graeme) sure. (kath) yeah. (graeme) dose the commitment with maxwell and williams take up a lot of your time now, or there is still time for you to do what you'd like to do? (kath) oh it's mainly just in blocks of time, i mainly do what i like to do. (kath) yeah. (graeme) okay. (kath) so just, you might be rushed off for a month or so, and then
nothing for six months. (graeme) sure. do you get out a lot with the, you've got two beautiful children, a boy and a girl. do you often get out with them into the wild to take photos of the animals at all? i know that the kids are very much into art themselves. (kath) they are, yes. but we seem to go out, we go out a lot in this area there's a lot of places to go to. this weekend we've got a trip planned to minyon falls, (graeme) yes. (kath) down the bottom which is about i think about an eight k walk. so plenty of opportunities for photos and getting some more reference material. (graeme) that'd be beautiful. it's the only way to do it and australia
is such a magnificent county. (kath) yes. (graeme) we've got such a diverse range of animals, beautiful animals as well. but you can actually see viewers really how that 's quite quickly just by putting those those tonal factors in, just with that one brush, that this picture's really starting to spring to life very rapidly. but then again you can see that there's a masters hand involved as well. it's one thing looking at somebody else do it, but then it's another thing that, to develop a skill and a technique over many, many years so that your hand eye
coordination knows exactly where that's suppose to go as well. (kath) yes. (graeme) so that particular type of board, it looks like it really grabs the paint extremely well. it looks like it's fairly kind to the brush as well. (kath) it is, it's a beautiful surface to paint on. it just, the brush just glides along and yeah, the paint sticks really well. (graeme) and do you, in saying that, you had gesso, but do you actually gesso this yourself again, or it's just really straight out of the packet. (kath) i actually did give it another coat but (graeme) you did? (kath) yeah, for this one. (graeme) because i find that i, when i paint myself it's generally three or four layers of gesso i'll put on because it just sort of tends to give this wonderful
plaster effect, and the paint just literally gets grabbed off the brush. (kath) yeah, when i use a canvas i definitely put, i'll probably put ten coats (graeme) there you go. (kath) on, and sand between each coat. (graeme) yeah. (kath) yeah, i like the smooth surface. (graeme) you can see in your work because it would be very difficult to get the detail that you get with the canvas itself, with the pattern in the canvas - it really tends to sort of poke out. there's a lot of artists that enjoy that of course. (kath) yes. (graeme) but with fine detail work it's a great idea to gesso as much as you can anyway. (kath) that's right, you just can't get the detail without it. (graeme) tell me a little bit more about your history? when did you start? i mean did you go to collage to do
this? when did you start, was it an early age? and what influenced you to start painting - particularly wildlife? (kath) ah, well i sort of grew up around art. my grandmother who was very big on art, as a child took me to a lot of galleries in sydney, and use to go out on day trips and take me out. my grandfather use to take me out in the bush and teach me photography. and my grandmother was always pointing out things to paint cause she was a painter herself. (graeme) wow. (kath) but first i wanted to do photography, so i went to tafe and did a major, did an arts certificate but majored in
photography. (graeme) yeah. (kath) but part of that course was doing art, design, and a bit of painting. and that sort of, i changed - by the end of it i changed. (graeme) yeah (kath) so went from there i worked in graphic design studios, and then after i had kids i left work and i've been painting ever since full time. (graeme) yeah, it's just wonderful. and your work, i mean you deserve all the accolades you get as well, because you're one of those women that's an artist, that's absolutely dedicated to what you do and you've really honed your craft into such an incredible place. i mean the admiration that people
because of it is very well deserved. (kath) yeah, thank you. (graeme) alright well i think we're going to let kath just work for a little while longer she's still putting down that, that one tone and she's got a little way to go yet. but we'll come back when she's ready to swap to some other colors and we'll see how she expands on this whole beautiful little azure kingfisher. (kath) i'm going to start with a bit of color now. i normally start with the eye: the window to the soul, as you say. (graeme) the window to the soul. (kath) yes. (graeme) a beautiful saying isn't it viewers. (kath) it sort of gives the, the eye is what makes it.
and if the eye's wrong the whole paintings wrong. (graeme) yeah, and it's, i mean watching you with this really limited palette, it's you know, i know it's going to develop - the viewers are going to be watching it of course. but it's just great to see all of that control with so few colors. (kath) it's just so, if you find that when you're starting out painting, if you use a lot of painting thats's were people get into trouble. (graeme) yeah. (kath) then it just turns into mud (graeme) yep. (kath) and at least everything will try in. (graeme) great way to control it, absolutely. (kath) yes. (graeme) it is so important just to simply take your time, i think it can be a very zen moment or you know a cathartic experience to do this. it's extraordinarily relaxing, i think
that's a great thing for the viewers to understand, is that this is really a way that if things are going wrong in your life, just sitting down and doing what kath is doing now is a wonderful way to get in touch with yourself on many, many levels. and you're a very, very calm young woman. in the time i've known you, very very calm, i don't think i've ever seen you angry. (kath) oh, don't ask my kids the same question, yeah. (graeme) look at that blue there. (kath) a beautiful blue isn't it? (graeme) i just love that. well that's why they call them the azure kingfisher. but um,
it's just sensational. and its the same, that's the ultramarine blue that was there. (kath) yes. (graeme) so it's the same blue that was there that you've just sort of really, really toned a bit differently for the darker, darker areas. (kath) yes, and zip in cerelean blue in there too. so i might add that a bit later, (graeme) okay. (kath) mainly ultramarine. (graeme) yeah. (kath) okay, lets mix up some what do you call that buff color is it? (graeme) yes its sort of like a like a raw sienna, (kath) yes. (graeme) looks very close to a raw sienna. (kath) except i'm going to use this. (graeme) it's wonderful.
and that's a good point too, is that as you said before, people use tonnes and tonnes of tubes of paint, and they buy everything under the sun. and the thing that you really need to do, particularly with what you're doing now, is just simply understand your colors. (kath) that's right. (graeme) learn to know what your colors are going to do (kath) just sort of know your color wheel basically, yep. (graeme) yeah. (kath) i'm not being to careful at the moment, not till the later stage, (graeme) yeah. (kath) just doing it - blocking the color in. (graeme) just block it in, sure. i've noticed that you've got these ah, which are beautiful, they've got the lichens all over them (kath) yes. (graeme) and they've got moss
and you can just see the whole character of the timber and the knots. (kath) this bit here, (graeme) look at that with the moss. (kath) that's what i'm doing at the moment. i'm just doing the darks so i'm going to pick out the highlights later on. (graeme) yeah, it's just wonderful. but obviously getting so close to your work that you really find out the anatomy of just about everything that's in there. it's just great; it looks wonderful, it really is. sort of just strap it around the edge, a little bit of moss just like that. great isn't it? (graeme) how much would a piece like this sell for, once it was finished and framed? (kath) probably about fifteen hundred. (graeme) okay, that's a great
price, i mean considering that we're only going over the basic outline with kath today. she'll go back and rework this picture for some days to come. but what about this magnificent piece on the wall here? the red tail back cockatoos - one of my favourite birds. what would a piece like that sell for, say in a gallery. (kath) in a gallery probably about five thousand. (graeme) okay, there you go. and there's weeks and weeks of work and obviously with a master artist like kath as well, you know, you're not just buying a picture, you're buying, you're buying the soul of the other human being as far as i'm concerned. but in saying that you know, obviously there's a lot of people that you know,
may want your work out there, but can't afford that. you also do produce limited edition, hand embellished reproductions as well. (kath) i do, yes, yes. (graeme) which is just another great way to obtain the work of this talented person. and what kath does is she'll obviously reproduce these, but takes a lot of time in actually bringing up the highlights of each individual print as it comes out. so none of them are the same, they're all completely different cause of the fact she work different areas within the print, so once again it's a great to get some of kath's work. under the feet. (kath) yes, the first time i ever
painted birds i did too many toes. (graeme) oh did you? they're birds that hunt with their feet for water. a lot of those birds have got two toes forward, two toes back. (kath) yes. (graeme) but obviously the other ones that hunt on land have three toes forward and one toe back. an interesting little bit of trivia for everybody out there. (kath) i'm just going to something on the background now. (graeme) okay. (kath) just block it in like this so it's quite a thin wash. (graeme) yeah. (kath) and just sort of criss crossing. (graeme) sort of cross hatching all the way across. (kath) so i'm still using the same three colors, they all tie in together there. (graeme) the brush that you're using at the moment has got a
bit of a curve (kath) a bit of an angle to it, yes. (graeme) on it hasn't it? a bit of an angle. (kath) yes. (graeme) that helps you to, particularly when doing the crosshatching? (kath) oh, it just helps when you're sort of along the edges like that. (graeme) sure. (graeme) and even i mean once again, just with the red and the blue there you can see how dark that color actually goes. (kath) yes, it does. (graeme) that's amazing isn't it? this is really what good arts about, it's about being able to reinterpret potentially what's either in photo or in nature. and enabling the viewer to see the animal in the way that it should be through the medium, of paint. (kath) that's right, and
sometimes you need to like tilt the head a bit more, or move the feet at different angles, and that makes a huge difference to the personality of the bird. (graeme) yes. (kath) it makes it look more alive. (graeme) oh, that's the cerulean. (kath) cerulean blue, yeah. (graeme) cerulean blue, okay. (kath) so i'm only going to use that in the blue part there (graeme) okay. (kath) and nowhere else in the painting. (graeme) okay. (kath) right, i'm just going to put some detail in up here now. (graeme) looking at this piece, it really is sort of fairly iconic for really one of the licensing images that you do, or a similar vein to the licensing images that you do in some of the other stuff as well. (kath) it could easily be used on you know, the calendar,
greeting cards. you know, i've done azure kingfisher on the mugs for maxwell williams in the past. (graeme) once again, obviously people being able to enjoy the work for what it is, not having just being part and parcel of something of kath's. and actually, i've actually got her latest piece here which is the original. she's got a bit of covering it over the moment but this that is actually the original for her next series of mugs that she's actually putting out, its the scarlett honey eaters. (kath) that's right. (graeme) which are just beautiful birds, you actually get them in the area she lives in as well, quite magnificent. you can see the detail in this particular piece - its just wonderful.
and also some of the other things, i mean you've obvioulsy done book coverings as well. living into the wildlife as you are, we've got this particular book here, and that is coxen's fig parrot. (kath) that was a painting i originally did for the caldera art prize, (graeme) okay. (kath) and the publishers saw that and thought it was ideal as it showed the flora and flora of the area. (graeme) yeah, and i just saw the the title remnants of gondwana, which is what the australian continent used to be called before it split up from pangea, about sixty million years ago. and kath also has ah, this is really part of her licensing, she produces
a number of i mean quite beautiful cups as well that are sold really right across the world. she's got quite a big following in south america as well. if you look at these, the superb wren and the major mitchell - or the pink cockatoo. both beautiful pieces of work, obviously these are collectables for people. but once again you can see this is not a matter of painting a picture and putting it on a gallery wall. there are so many other things that you can do with the images that these artists produce, and these are just some great examples. (graeme) and you can really start to see that little bird starting to come out of the picture; it looks just great.
see those very, very fine lines that just hint of the feathers. and as you said, kath you really it's really just a suggestion of the feathers isn't it? (kath) that's right. yeah, in the darker areas i won't do much at all, (graeme) yeah. (kath) and the light you know, i might just have a patch white rather than every individual feather. (graeme) yeah, i have seen people that ah, wildlife artists that paint them and they end up looking like they've got scales on them instead of feathers. (kath) they do. (graeme) so you've got to be quite careful in the way that you go about that. particularly in very detailed work like this, you've really got to adjust your
brush stroke and your light source all the time to build it to a place that you want. unless you're doing say impressionistic type work where really there's just a line that goes down, or a slash of color from a spatula, this one you build it and build it all the way through. well you can see now when you're continuing to put those layers on that it's really becoming quite smooth, and there's a lot of depth in the background. (kath) that's what i'm aiming for, just to create a distance in space, or spacey ness or something. (graeme) just in that little corner there, its just great.
you can see the bird coming out more and the background going back further. well viewers, we've spent a, just a wonderful day with kath. and as you can see, she's still in the process of putting this beautiful picture together of the azure kingfisher, which i think looks quite spectacular. and as you can see by the beauty of television, from this to obviously the finished product that you can see now, it's quite amazing what she's actually done. but, kath i'd like to thank you very, very much for having us along today. (kath) oh, thank you, graeme. (graeme) it's been a pleasure. if you would like to see more of kath's work,
you can come into the website at colour in your life dot com dot au and see kath's work. kath, once again as i said, is really part of what art licensing is all about as well, and you can come in and ask some questions about that, and obviously kath's work in the website. but it's been great, thank you very much, kath. see you next time.
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