Jocelyn Maughan and Robin Norling were very gracious hosts for our studio visit to their Gallery at Patonga. The skies were heavy, but we were lucky to have little rain for our ferry ride from Palm Beach and arrived at the Patonga Wharf to see the fishermen, always a popular subject for Jocelyn to paint.
Their Gallery and storage areas are a treasure trove of drawings, paintings, precious art reference books and 000’s of sketch books, which all reflect two very creative lives. Both were extremely generous with their wisdom and time, with Jocelyn exclaiming ‘photograph anything’. It’s all part of their community spirit and commitment to imparting knowledge gathered over a lifetime of painting and drawing. Both have a very ‘old school’ approach to painting, always planning and considering the design of the composition, with several trips back to a plein air site and for Jocelyn, several plans of the grouping of her figures.
Jocelyn always carries her sketchbook, 6B 3ml and 2B .07ml retractable pencils, small graphite block and kneadable eraser and endeavours to ‘draw something everyday’. Jocelyn also spoke about the Grisaille method, which she enjoys very much. A technique used by artists Rubens and Van Dyk 400 years ago, it involves laying down a dark grey ground ( a mixture of viridian green and alizarin crimson) on a white surface. Whilst still wet, you make the light areas by wiping away the darks to the white surface underneath, and then you can add darks again, drawing lines with a fine brush. This technique gives you an awareness of tonal and design balance and you can make adjustments to the composition and drawing at the same time.
On Jocelyn’s website www.jocelynmaughan.com is information about her Publications and a 7min video made by Robin’s son.
We were all extremely grateful to Charmaine for her organization of the day and to Jocelyn and Robin for their hospitality.
Caroline Oesterheld
