WINSOR AND NEWTON..... DIFFICULT BOTTLES!

If you have had trouble with the Winsor and Newton bottles, mediums that is, for use with the Artisan range of water mixable oil paint please look at my 'older blogs' at the bottom of the page because there are instructions there for exchanging the product.

second week of term.....

So we have been practising different effects this week, my aim being to try to encourage you to loosen up, to relish what watercolour can do, to enjoy the things that just 'happen'...I will photograph some of the ongoing work next week, and post some pics up here for you to see.
You oil painters have been producing beautiful academic drawings of just a few of the fascinating tools from my shed. This precise work will pay dividends with your painting as that underlying sense of shape and three dimentionality will be evident in your paintings, and they will look much more credible.

and here are some of last weeks and this weeks  drawings, and a photo of our dogs for good measure.

USEFUL STUFF......

I can't remember if I mentioned to all of you that if you are doing Wacky Watercolours next week you will need some water colour practise paper. We will be working small but having several go's at the different exercises, and you don't need to use your best paper for this. If you can't find any, then good cartridge paper will do instead, it shouldn't cockle too much on the scale on which we will be working.
If you have any 'nice' flowers in your garden then bring a few along, just to add more variety to the work we will be doing. Don't forget to look up Shirley Trevena for more ideas.
If you are in the oil painting group we will be drawing again, but difficult items this time, man made precise objects......

just a bit of HOMEWORK

well this is just to remind you of my latest scheme..... I believe that  part of my remit is to give you skills to fit you for then doing whatever you want to do, so to this end I am giving a title as a 'subject' for you to paint. So for the first five weeks of term, if you want to, you could use this as the stimulus for your own painting at home, when you can make decisions about how and what you do and how you treat the idea, and then, if you want to, bring it to show us the lesson before half term. And then after half term I will set a different idea for the latter half of term, (or you might suggest something)

So the subject is AUTUMN TREES, AUTUMN COLOURS. You could interpret this in many ways. The obvious of course, is some pretty autumn coloured trees, and that is fine, but why not see if you can dream up a slightly more original approach? try to bend the concept to something specific to you, and perhaps to something a bit more exciting and original?

Don't forget to have a look at the old posts at the bottom of the page as I will start getting rid of these soon as there will be more of your wonderful work to show!  

September at Cawston.....

so here is a last look at the wall with what I think is a fascinating juxtaposition of organic landscape with severe and linear collaged cityscape...I have to take it down on Monday to make way for the new terms work.

And then below you can see just a few of the beautifully crafted drawings which are the start of this year's work. I enjoy the way you can turn everyday ordinary objects into stunning and attractive 'art works'...

just watch this space to see what else we do....

NEW YEAR

See you all tomorrow, hope you all enjoy the term!.......

NEW YEAR

See you all tomorrow......

NEW TERM

Just to mention that the first lesson is always drawing, straightforward drawing, so you will just need a 2b pencil, and some A3 drawing paper, cheap paper is ok, though its good to have some nice cartridge paper too, so much nicer to draw on. Then we will be looking at water colour materials, in preperation for the first half of term, or for the oil painting classes, another week of specific drawing practice, looking at particular ways of approaching a drawing, and then some colour work....call me if you need further information. I will be away for three or four days with my daughter and new baby, but you can still ring the number and get in touch with one of us. Because I have to be busy for a few days I have postponed the Weybourne railway summer school, and am disappointed as I know you are too, so I will be let you know when I can re-arange it.

LAST TERM

I kept forgetting to add this picture on to my blog for you to see, it is a painting by Brueghel the Flemish painter and the task was for each person to enlarge and then duplicate a couple of the squares I gave them. Then we put them all together to make up the whole painting, only about half size I'm afraid though. Its a good exercise because apart from the skill of enlarging an image, always useful to be able to do, the colour matching and mixing improves paint handling skills, and your awareness of colour mixing possibilities.

and the painting is fascinating because if you look closely, (and my goodness you can learn a lot by copying a painting, and looking as closely as you then need to do ) there is so much going on, and each little scenario tells the story of a saying or proverb, like the man, bottom left who is 'banging his head against a brick wall', or the woman on his left who is carrying a bucket of cold water in one hand and a hot coal in tongs in her other hand, showing that she cannot make her mind up about anything!