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!

AND HERE ARE A FEW MORE DETAILS....

WACKY WATER COLOURS

I am busy sorting out my ideas for the coming term. Its quite a challenge to design as I try to make the project informative, stimulating, not too daunting and with the possibility of you following your own ideas from my starting point. Also I want the work to be different from what we have done before, or perhaps building on previous work and ideas. Anyway here are a few details of a water colour I have been playing with during the last few days.....

Winsor and Newton Impossible to open Bottles

I have been in contact with Winsor and Newton re the Artisan water mixable oil paint mediums bottles with 'childproof', and for 'childproof' read 'human proof', lids. People in my classes have hacked or carved off the lids and had to decant the product into a more usable container. What a waste of time, and of product too of course. I didn't get much joy from W and N, two out of office replies only, but Jacksons, my favourite catalogue company stirred them up a bit. Anyway the upshot is that Marla Morrison,     ustechhelp@winsornewton.com    will give you a replacement if you contact her, or she says that if you return the bottle to the place where purchased it will be replaced. There was an 'issue' with the tops, now cured she says, and if you look for a five digit horizontal code in small writing on the back of the bottle the new and supposedly openable caps it needs to end in 25, so its worth checking that whenever you buy these bottles.