It’s been taking me increasingly long to complete paintings, a good example of which is a 20” x 30” painting of some water lilies which took me around 6 months from start to finish between February and August this year. As an antidote to this sloth-like working pace, I set myself a challenge this week…
Author: simonbirtall
I am an artist and art tutor based in Merseyside, UK. I paint in an Impressionist-influenced technique in oils or acrylics on canvas and make drawings in pencil, pen, pastels and more.
Four Ducks in Search of Adventure
Over the last four years I have donated work to two ‘Stars on Canvas’ art auctions in aid of the Willow Foundation, a national charity raising money to facilitate special days for seriously ill young adults. More on the foundation can be read here: http://www.willowfoundation.org.uk. Participating artists are asked to complete a work of art…
Three Sunflowers in a Glass Vase
I started running painting workshops from our home in the Wirral recently. To date the structure of each workshop has followed a similar basic pattern, with students attempting a copy of an ‘old master’ painting in the morning, followed by the painting of a new work from life (or photographs) utilising the same approach during…
An Art Demonstration: Painting Dennis
A friend of mine, Dennis Spicer, recently asked me to look after one of his art classes for a couple of weeks whilst he took a break. At the end of my first class sitting in for Dennis, I was asked to demonstrate my working technique to the students the following session. As most of…
Art and Stress
I am sometimes surprised at the extent to which it is assumed that painting and drawing is a relaxing pastime. I generally find it quite the reverse. My brain often struggles to process the many simultaneous decisions that it is forced to make each moment working on a piece of artwork. I find this process…
Drawing Upon Life 