This painting was made as a live demonstration piece for my art class in Hoylake earlier today. It was painted in water-mixable oils on A4 Winsor & Newton canvas-textured oil paper. It took me something like an hour to paint.I don’t like the colour of the shadow in the background, but there isn’t always time…
Tag: oils
It’s One Way to Paint
Held at the Community Centre in Hoylake, Wirral, the majority of my weekly painting classes commence with a brief demonstration by myself. New students often have a tendency to approach the creation of artwork as though ‘painting by numbers’ i.e. ‘draw it out’ then ‘colour it in’. My demos are not intended to be prescriptive;…
Where’s Bert?
This painting, made in summer 2016, depicts a Humboldt penguin colony. It is based on reference photos taken on a trip to Gweek Seal Sanctuary in Cornwall on a beautiful summer’s day in May 2013. Three of the penguins occupy themselves on dry land whilst their friend takes a dip. The painting was made in…
Learning from the Old Masters
While normally strongly discouraging my students from copying directly from published copies of other artists’ work without purpose, I do encourage them to experiment with approaches to painting. Practical, directed learning is beneficial if it provides illumination into alternative ways of working. A study of the work of an Old Master painter offers this opportunity….
Over-ambition and Over-expectation
Prior to painting workshops I endeavour to produce example paintings. Photographing such work throughout their production, I then compile step-by-step guides for students to help them through the reproduction of the painting. In doing so I hope to demonstrate a logical path from start to finish and hopefully introduce students to some new ways of…
Drawing Upon Life 