Artists’ sweet harmony of pastels and painting

A LANDSCAPE painter and a portrait artist who met while playing in an orchestra will be returning to the Old Fire Station Gallery in Henley next month.

John Whittaker, a retired primary school teacher, and Hil Beavan, a graphic designer, exhibited at the gallery in Places and Faces three years ago.

They will be showcasing their latest creations in More Places and Faces at the gallery from Thursday, August 14 to Tuesday, August 19.

John, who is married with a son and three grandchildren and lives in Tilehurst, says: “I got to know Hilly through the Crowthorne Symphony Orchestra. I have been playing in the orchestra for about 14 years and that’s how I came across her.

“We just got talking and the subject got to art and, at that time, I wasn’t aware what an amazing artist she was. During the pandemic, she rekindled her artwork and began doing a lot of portraits.

“We did an exhibition a few years ago but prior to that I had exhibited at the gallery with two other artists but they weren’t keen on doing it again.

“So, having realised Hilly did these amazing portraits I asked her if she would like to share the space.

“It's more fun if you’ve got somebody else alongside you. Her art is completely different to mine, there’s not going to be any clash or anything. It’s two different types of art under one roof, so there is more for people to look at.”

John started sketching years ago, going on to pastels. He then did an evening A-level art drawing class at Reading Tech.

“I’ve been doing art on and off as a longstanding interest and hobby and I just love going around and looking at art and so on,” he says.

“I have a few favourite artists and my art reflects those so a well-known artist, Claude Monet, I love his paintings particularly and Van Gogh.

“There’s an artist near where I live, called Nick Schlee, and I love his paintings as well, so you can see little bits of influence of those artists in some of my paintings.

“I love oil painting because you can just enjoy the freedom of the brush and the colour and the combinations of colours and so on.

“It’s quite an old-fashioned way of art, some of it is quite pictorial and some of it is impressionistic. I just enjoy seeing what I can do and when you start a painting, you don’t always know how it’s going to turn out.” A cello player, John also composes his own music.

“I used to be a primary teacher for many a year and then when I retired I did quite a lot more art than I had done previously, it’s something I really enjoy doing alongside music.

“So I’ve got two big irons in the fire there and I like poetry and word-setting.”

Hil Beavan, who plays viola in the orchestra, is delighted to be exhibiting with John again.

She says: “John is the most easy-going, lovely, modest person I’ve ever met.

“He plays the cello very well, to a good standard, and he composes music.

“I’m going to a recital in London with music that he has written for a singer and there’s going to be poetry as well.

“I went to a quartet concert in Aldworth in West Berkshire where one of his pieces was played and we’ve played them in the orchestra. And then he paints so he’s multitalented.”

Hil, who lives in Hare Hatch, ran a graphic design studio in London from 1979 to 2014 with her partner from art school, Anthony Lawrence.

She says: “When I bought my house I really did not mean to buy an enormous garden. I’d lived in an upstairs flat in Putney with a pot plant for
22 years, but having got the garden I love it and I am learning still.”

During the coronavirus pandemic, Hil joined an online drawing group, where people from around the world created “15-minute portraits” over Zoom.

“The group really enjoyed the drawing so much that we just all carried on,” she says.

“Obviously there’s a bit of a floating population in the group but we normally have about 30 to 40 people. We do a bit of a show and tell at the end, which is really lovely. They are such a supportive group.

“I’ve never quite worked out who knows each other in real life, but we all enjoy the international side of it and drawing people in Uruguay and Paris. We’ve got quite a few people from America at the minute.”

Hil likes to sketch using just “cheap” A2 pads and pastels.

“They’re very cheap pastels, but I prefer them,” she says. “They’re seven quid for 48 colours, something like that so it doesn’t matter, which I think helps me just detach from, ‘Oh, somebody is going to see this’.

“This Wednesday, I started off in black and white and then the second person that sat, she had this particular lighting that made her skin look quite orange and pink and it was too wonderful not to grab the pastel.

“When I draw, I don’t look at things as parts. When I was drawing that woman, I started by drawing a very strange shape, a purple shadow, which was on the edge of her nose and eye and I just started in the middle and jigsawed it out. That’s why quite often things aren’t quite in proportion or I have moved an ear or something. It’s more about looking at shapes, rather than thinking, ‘that’s two eyes, a nose and a mouth’.”

Hil comes from an artistic and musical family and her sister, Jenny Beavan, is a triple Oscar winner and won best costume design for A Room with a View in 1985, Mad Max: Fury Road in 2015 and Cruella in 2021.

“I’ve only ever done one oil painting and that was of Jenny,” says Hil. “I might borrow that and bring it, it’s only a little painting but I was quite pleased with it and I gave it to her for Christmas.”

l More Faces and Places, by John Whittaker and Hil Beavan, is at the Old Fire Station Gallery from Thursday, August 14 to Tuesday, August 19, open from 10.30am to 4pm daily. Paintings, prints and greetings cards will be on sale. For more information, visit whittakerartist.uk