Workshops

Still Life

Still Life provides such a wonderful opportunity for painting, because there are everyday objects around us, wherever we are. A great passion to ignite in all artists!

Each session in this series of standalone workshops will focus on a different aspect of the pastel painting of still life. Improving our observational skills in terms of lighting and colour and developing our artistic eye. Then learning how to complete the painting using pastels.

The first workshop will look at Painting Coloured and Clear Glass, the second Bottles and Fruit and the third Flower in Glass Vase.

Pastel Session

This is a single 3 hour session intended to give you a taste of pastel techniques if you are a beginner or new to this medium, or to focus on a particular subject or techniqiue if you are a more experienced artist.

If you are not sure about joining a workshop, this is an opportunity to have a one-to-one to see what pastels are all about, to get a feel for them before committing to a workshop or course.

A Pastel Session is a fun idea for a birthday present or ideal to concentrate on for example learning or improving pastel mark making, landscape or still life.

I also offer the sessions for 2 people at a reduced price, please see below.

Learn to Draw and Learn to See

Using both line and colour, we will observe natural and man made objects from life in the studio, spend time in the orchard and also, weather permitting, at Caen Hill.

I will show you how to achieve accuracy, whilst developing your observational skills to understand form in order to represent it convincingly. An essential element of art in all mediums and disciplines you choose to practice.

Pastel Taster

This is a fundraising event in Ash Studio at The Mind Tree Café to help support the vital work they do in promoting well being activities for all the community.

Art Movements

Post Impressionism

Post Impressionism was a French Art Movement from c.1886-1905, which was reacting against painting in a naturalistic way, as practised by the Impressionist painters. Artists such as Paul Cezanne, Paul Gauguin, Vincent van Gogh, Georges Seurat among others, were finding a more individual response to their surroundings, which experimented with the effects of colour, shape, composition and technique. The tradition of realism was of much less importance than painting as a visual statement of expression.

Cubism

Cubism was an early 20th century art movement, which began in Paris around 1907, with artists such as Pablo Picasso, Georges Braque, Juan Gris and Fernand Léger. Typically the subjects of landscape, still life, figures and portraits were deconstructed and reassembled as flattened shapes or facets. They may or may not have a resemblance to the original subject, often incorporating an experience of the whole subject, seen at once rather than a single viewpoint.

Abstract Expressionism

Abstract Expressionism was an art movement developed in America 1940s-1950s, which explored mark making and the technique of applying colour to surface by unconventional means, for a totally abstract or non-representational result. Artworks might capture a mood, feeling or visual sensation and we start to see “Untitled” being given to works of art. Two main areas for discussion are: Action Painters such as Jackson Pollock, Willem de Kooning and Franz Kline and Colour Field Painters such as Mark Rothko, John Hoyland and Morris Louis.

Landscape Project

The idea here is to help you move your pastel painting onto the next stage, encouraging you to develop your own project and introduce more originality into your work.

Think about your personal passion in landscapes and choose a theme. What is your favourite element within a landscape? Maybe it's clouds, maybe it's trees. When you go for walk, what grabs your attention?

Then you need to gather together your resource material. So you will need photographs and sketches, which illustrate your theme. Maybe you have books or magazines on the theme. Or you might have been to an exhibition and been inspired by a particular painter. Perhaps you came along to one or more of my famous landscape painter workshops. All of this will be useful.

I would also like you to bring 2 pieces of your favourite work, which you have previously made. We can then discuss why you have enjoyed these particular pieces and this will help us develop and define your style.

You can tell me if you have a favourite technique or a particular technique you have tried and want to perfect. Perhaps there are certain paper surfaces you want to try. This is your opportunity to tell me what you want to achieve on your pastel painting journey now you are no longer a beginner.

I will help you put together a plan for the project, but we will keep it open enough to allow you to experiment. I'll be there as a facilitator, providing colour, paper and technique advice. In between the workshops, if you want to do any work and show me, I can provide a mini critique by email.

All your resource material must be yours, so it is unique to you and your own project. This is all about you finding and creating your own style. Then at the end you will have a body of work, which is totally original to you.

This promises to be really exciting!

Pastel Techniques

This course is just as suitable as a refresher for an artist who hasn't touched their pastels for a long time or has always wanted to have a go at painting with pastels, as it is for an absolute beginner.

The idea of these workshops is to develop a student's dexterity and skills with pastels and a variety of papers.

During the course I will cover all techniques, basic to advanced and experimental mark making. Mark making being a fundamental building block in art and is how you begin to express emotion and movement.

We will explore scraffito, liquid/pastel under painting, blending and knowing when to stop to allow a pure mark to shine through, basic colour theory and when and how to use different pastel paper textures, including specialist papers for their expertly designed surfaces.

At the end of the course, you will have all the information on papers and techniques you need to start to practice on your own and be able to slot into any of my other workshops.

Colour Theory 1

When you are using paint you can easily mix your primaries and see how they make some secondary colours. Whereas pastels are all powder, so we have our colours made for us already.

But we still need to know what's cool, what's warm, what's light, what's dark & everything else. So really understanding the different emphasis of colour theory for pastels is a vital part of painting with and using them and is why I have developed this sequence of 3 full day workshops.

In the first workshop, we will look at how to identify colour and how to create it. For example we will look at something like the colour beige and if we imagine just our primary colours, a black and a white, how are we going to actually physically make beige?

We will explore a colour's temperature, tone and purity. Whether it's a vibrant, dull, bright, subdued, saturated or desaturated colour. Essentially, we will deconstruct the colour, so we know how to re-create it.

A great opportunity for beginners or experienced artists, who simply need a refresher, to gain, or renew your knowledge, experience and confidence in using colour, knowing its construction.

Included in the cost of the course is a set of 18 pastels. Primary, secondary and tertiary colours I have picked out from the colour wheel. There are 12 colours which make up the colour wheel and I have also included a black, a white and 4 greys to use throughout the course of 3 workshops.

The Colour Wheel set is a beautiful selection and will complement any pastels you may already have.

Colour Theory 2

An essential element of colour theory is colour relativity.

In this second workshop, among other practical exercises, we will observe a simple still life subject, experimenting with a variety of colour palettes to witness the changing relationships between the chosen colours.

Students will need to have attended the Colour Theory 1 workshop and we will use the Colour Wheel set of pastels from the first workshop.

Colour Theory 3

How do we make use of colour theory in our pastel painting practice?

In this third workshop, from your own photo or sketch, I will guide you through the process of using your knowledge of colour and technique to create a balanced and expressive piece of work, liberating you from the static procedure of simple copying.

This will open up your artwork generally for further development.

Students will need to have attended the Colour Theory 1 and 2 workshops and we will use the Colour Wheel set of pastels from the first workshop.