Demonstration Mirror
DAC members who regularly attend the Club's indoor meetings will be familiar with the mirror which is used for demonstrations by visiting artists, and occasionally by club members conducting workshop sessions. Those who are not familiar with it may find this description of interest, and perhaps encouraging if they have been deterred from attending demonstrations because of the difficulty of viewing the work being produced.
The mirror was devised as a unit which is readily collapsed and transported, for use in any hall suitable for demonstrations to groups of up to sixty people. Its design was prompted by the problem of providing a clear view of work in progress when an artist works on an upright easel with their back to the audience, particularly when using watercolour, which requires the painting surface to be only slightly inclined from the horizontal. The mirror itself is made of acrylic material for safety reasons, and it provides for adequate lighting of the working area.
The mirror allows the artist either to stand or sit (according to preference), facing the audience throughout (thereby facilitating communication), without obstructing the view of the audience by standing in front of an easel. The working area, including a support for the painting, is over six feet wide, and two feet deep, and thus allows plenty of room for palette, brushes etc. The audience sees the work the "right way up", although left and right are transposed.
As indicated above, both the artist and the audience benefit, particularly for watercolour demonstrations, and the audience can view the palette and materials the artist uses, as can be seen from these images of a recent demonstration by Liz Seward Ralph.
(Note: by clicking on one or other of the two images on this page, you can see an enlarged picture: then click on the X to close them.)
This picture illustrates the extent to which the demonstrator's materials and reference photographs (in this case she was working with water-soluble pastels and acrylic inks) can be seen in the mirror. The same breadth of coverage could not be provided by a fixed video camera which would focus on just the painting in progress, even if the lighting conditions allowed a sufficiently large image to be projected (and if the Club was able to afford such equipment).
Because of the advantages of using the mirror, the club encourages demonstrators to use it, although it is recognised that professional oil painters may prefer to use an upright easel, but even they may be prepared to consider using the mirror as a means of showing their colour-mixing and painting technique.
Demonstrators are therefore invited to indicate whether or not they are happy to use the mirror, when making arrangements to visit the Club.
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