Watercolorist Michael Killelea to conduct demo at GO ART! on April 9
The Batavia Society of Artist is hosting artist Michael Killelea from 7 to 9 p.m. on April 9th at GO ART! inside Seymour Place, 201 E. Main St., Batavia
Killelea is going to demonstrate how at add a figure or animal in a completed watercolor painting to add interest and help the composition.
Non-members welcome for a $5 fee.
"Painting en plein air has some obvious drawbacks. One problem is that compositional flaws sometimes aren't clear until some time has passed. Since landscapes or buildings rarely move they make great still life subjects.
"But they can sometimes seem a bit lifeless, so adding some live thing often makes sense. I try to keep the “add life” idea in mind as I paint, even if I don’t incorporate it as I paint. I do that by adding an animated figure of some kind, even after the painting is done.
"I look for a place to add that figure in the composition like birds, animals or people. In watercolor that might mean scrubbing out a particular area to add a figure, or adding a darker figure into a light area.Obviously the figure can be positioned anywhere for maximum impact, and that’s what I’ll demonstrate."
He is an artist, author, teacher and traveler whose "exquisite watercolors" from a trip to China were featured in American Artist's "Watercolor" magazine.
This Long Island native currently lives among the cows, cornfields and farms of Western New York where he divides his time between painting, teaching and lecturing. But he paints anywhere and everywhere, at home and around the world.
Killelea is a signature member, on the Board of Directors, and Secretary to the American Society of Marine Artists (ASMA). He’s also a signature member as well as program chairman for the Niagara Frontier Watercolor Society, and is a signature member of the Buffalo Society of Artists.
He paints weekly with the All Weather Gang in Genesee County. Killelea is a graduate of SUNY Farmingdale and has attended Pratt Institute and the School of Visual Arts.
His artwork is in numerous private collections and is featured in two books he wrote and illustrated about Long Island's rural North Fork. Killelea's work and biography have been included in the Smithsonian Institution's Library for the American Art Museum/National Portrait Gallery and have become the basis for a permanent file on him there.
Below: Killelea's "Potter Lumber."
