THE beautiful weather on the day of this year’s Keighley Show attracted several new names to the art section.

These even included a four-year-old child.

Keighley Art Club received two second prizes – Mick Ford’s Seascape and my Peacock Feather. The three first prizes were all landscapes.

A 2018 calendar is to be attempted by Keighley Art Club, which should feature our own members’ works.

Artist Bruce Mulcahy has returned to the club with his speciality medium, Gouache.

His own studio is in Dewsbury and he can teach privately or stage demonstrations for local art groups.

Mostly he prefers to paint “En Plein Air”, in order to react directly to the colours, textures and light of the moment, as these do alter continuously.

His work has been shown at the Mall Galleries in London, at the Manchester Academy of Fine Arts, at Leeds City Gallery and in the House of Commons. He trained at Newcastle.

When he visited us, Bruce gave us tips on using Gouache, which he uses at full strength, though he did stress that this happens to be his preference and there are other methods.

Starting with a rough pencil sketch, his base painting was in shapes, with the darkest first.

Next, he added all the sections which require the same or similar shades of Gouache, which is an opaque watercolour, with white chalk.

His paper was 200LB, 425GMS weight and was smooth watercolour type paper. Nylon brushes were used.

Bruce also used lots of tissue to keep his brushes as clean and dry as possible to ensure the Gouache was not diluted.

He normally buys larger tubes of white Gouache to allow him to dilute colours without degrading the quality of the medium.

Unlike with other media he does not paint skies or backgrounds first.

Instead, dark shapes are produced, and once they are dry he paints light colours over them.

He advised us that Gouache colours become lighter as they dry.

Bruce showed how rows such as window frames should be painted, explaining how features such as decorative scrolls, signs and other details are portrayed by over-painting in light colours.

He showed us his tree painting, demonstrating that Gouache background can be added at the end of the process.

For example, his Salts Mill and St Mark’s Square paintings involved the sky being painted at the final stage, creating nice, clean lines.

Any leftover Gouache does dry out, but it can still be used with water to form watercolour paint.

Completed paintings should be protected in frames and with a mounting board.

Canvasses should not be used, owing to the woven surface which would show through the paint.