PEDRO CANO

In the Ricote Valley there is a village called Blanca which is the birthplace of an artist called Pedro Cano. He works in America but is very loyal to his native village in Spain where he has built a museum where his work, and that of other artists, can be seen.
I was very impressed with his paintings so please do google him and have a look at his paintings. I cannot describe them and could not do them justice in words.
I am not easily impressed but I really like his work.

Spain

here is a view in the Ricote Valley, Murcia, on the left you can see water, and also a large pipe which raises water by some clever system high up to allow irrigation and water storage. Apparently Franco was very keen on building reservoirs and water systems. Seems sensible to me. Most Spanish homes have bidets. That's because Franco's brother had a bidet factory.

and here are some palm trees beside the sea. I think it was Gandia, Valencia.

SUMMER SCHOOLS

all the Summer Schools are going ahead. You have the information, just ask if you need to know anything else. Paul's Lino Printing will be on Thursday and Friday 3rd and 4th July, as scheduled, but remember that, by negotiation, other dates are available too, so just give us a call....01603 872441, to sort out days with Paul.

For those of you who are coming to Gressenhall or Natural Surroundings I will talk to you about equipment, and will give a sheet of (what I think are) HELPFUL TIPS for outdoor working, since if you haven't done it before it can be a bit daunting with many choices to be made.

There are of course still places on all the Summer Schools,  I try to organise things which are a little different from what we normally do, and which will give you the  chance to try something new. The LIFE DRAWING day, Monday 28th July, is going ahead, and we have the same model at the same venue, Marsham Village Hall. I couldn't make up my mind whether to have someone different, but chose the same model because if you came to the first LIFE DRAWING day you can then build on the experience you gained. Life drawing is a wonderfully intuitive way to improve your drawing and artistic practise, so do take advantage of this day if you are at all interested.

Home from my Hols!

Well I am home from my holidays and of course we had a fab time, weather patchy, lots of swimming, sleeping, eating and drinking. Very little site seeing, in fact probably the laziest holiday I have ever enjoyed!
I will put some pics up so you can see where we went.
Looking at the paintings below, from just before half term, I am thinking that I will be asking you to continue with this harmonising colour theme, in search of refining the subtlety of your colour use. Its not often that we are in a position to toy with colour in such a playful way, and I really like the idea  that your drawings move far away from the source material, and become paintings that stand or fall in terms of good, powerful and interesting composition and careful and thoughtful use of colour.

Continuing still life work!

and so some exciting work here, using multiple images and harmonising colours.....

and here you can see some of the process involved.....

we look forward to seeing what happens next!

MONDAY AFTERNOON

so here are some stunningly effective charcoal drawings from the Monday afternoon PORTRAIT class. I am so glad I decided to lengthen the class time to 3 hours, so worth while, and our models have been great so far. I am trying to get a different model each time, and the new challenge every lesson pays off, just look at the results.

and here is the work from the second lesson this term,

and here is work from today, 19th May, when the work was straightforward to start with, and then the time scale changed, to five minute and ten minute poses, and we played about with the idea of staggered images, and how exciting they look too! Materials were ink, homemade and bought, with pen or just balsa wood stick pens, and water colour, and the odd bit of black or white chalk pastel for emphasis. The directness and energy of these images is really powerful, its amazing what you can do by just changing the rules a little!

HOORAY

I think all the Summer Schools are viable, and here are the dates just in case you have lost your information, and of course there is room for more of you on all of the courses, so just tell me if you want to come...

26th and 27th June at Natural Surroundings, Bayfield Hall, near Holt,

3rd and 4th July, here, Lino Printing.

17th and 18th at Gressenhall Rural Life Museum, 

and LIFE DRAWING, with the same model we had before, at Marsham Village Hall on the 28th July.

Obviously there will be loads of help on the day, and I always prepare a sheet of 'helpful tips' for the landscape courses. I know some of you are only able to do one of these days, two is best but one will do. If the course is viable from my point of view it doesn't matter if you only do one day, its just that two days lets you produce proportionately more work for the effort you put in!

Any queries just let me know or give us a ring.