Autumn Glow Watercolour Class

Last week we enjoyed our Annual Autumn Watercolour Class, this year we did a beautiful autumnal scene with a cascading river coming through some golden woodlands.

A great opportunity to use and mix some fantastic autumnal rich colours.

(If you need to buy any new watercolours, don't forget we sell Claire's own range of watercolours in our Online Shop her Autumn Berry colour in particular was very popular at this class). 

Claire demonstrated the positioning of the trees and river winding it's way back through the picture, then followed this with some masking fluid, mixed with sand, to create the rocks and edges of the river.  We used a Saunders Waterford thick paper which could handle everything we threw at it today!

Whilst everyone was building up their layers of paint and atmosphere I was busy creating lunch, today we enjoyed a crusted cod fillet on a bed of lentils, beans and red peppers served with piles of delicious roasted vegetables.

Dessert was pears cooked in a beautiful rose wine syrup, served with lime, yoghurt and toasted coconut.

Here are the beautiful finished paintings from our Autumn Glow Artists, well done everyone.

Next term's dates will be on the website shortly, ready for you to book.

Venice Watercolour

Another great painting day this week

Yesterday we held a Venice Watercolour class, it's always been a popular subject over the years.  Click on the links below for past years' work.

2017

2011

2010

Claire demonstrates in a step by step style, explaining the layout, the paints required and helps everyone throughout the day.

She was delighted with everyone's drawings yesterday

Our days are always great fun, especially yesterday with the naming of our gondolier Giovanni!

Below is our gallery of Venice ....

At the end of the day, Claire mounts the artwork and we have an exhibition, it's always amazing to see everyone's different version of the painting.

We enjoyed a lunch of salmon, goats cheese & basil, served with sesame broccoli and this superfood salad of rice, red rice, black rice, wild rice (!) red and white quinoa, with mixed herbs and veg.

Followed by a delicious apple crumble

A Room with a View Watercolour

Our 'Room with a View' Watercolour class had some lovely images from St Ives in Cornwall.

We were looking at images taken from a higher view, a different perspective to paint from and a useful technique to learn if you are on holiday with your sketchbook.

The images here are when dawn is breaking in St Ives over the town and church

There are some beautiful skies here produced by some very clever washes and a lovely perspective of looking down on the town and tops of trees

These two are of the harbour, looking down into the bay, at this perspective you catch the sea behind the pier and the houses which is a lovely addition to the painting.

Watercolour Greece

A beautiful and bright painting to start the new term 

Santorini in Greece

Claire simplified the composition with limited colours and tones

Showing hints of buildings using just basic brush marks

Beautiful skies from the first wash

We are looking forward to our next class with Claire on

Wednesday 10 October which is

Autumn Leaves Watercolour

with texture

Stunning jewel colours of Autumn

9:30am - 3pm

£80

Last few places remaining ....

A Winter Scene - Watercolour Class

Every year our Winter Scene watercolour class sells out so quickly, we have to put on another one, it's really popular.

Claire finds beautiful images, this one is from the Cotswolds, and shows us that winter is not just white snow, there are colours and reflections to be found too.

Some of our artists, use their painting to print as a Christmas card or to give as a gift.

For this painting, Claire used SAA watercolour paints, starting with two very useful colours Potters Blue and Cobalt Violet, both opaque colours.

These were used to create a wash before she moved on with one of her own paints, Honey, perfect for the Cotswold stone of the buildings.

We used some great heavy paper by St Cuthberts Mill (based in Somerset) called Saunders Waterford, it's a 300lb weight, and is great at holding the washes.

It is endorsed by the Royal Watercolour Society

Other colours used during the day were neutral tint and for the shadows a mix of burnt sienna and ultramarine.

The shadows in the snow were created by making a very watery potters blue and cobalt violet mix.

Claire had a new pen with her today called Posca White Pen, it is a liquid watercolour pen, basically paint within a felt tip pen, it stays wet so you can move it around on the paper, but when it drys it is permanent.  It was very useful for helping touch-up snowy areas, especially as we didn't use any masking fluid today. 

Thanks everyone for coming, the paintings are beautiful.

For more information about this gorgeous village in the Cotswolds, click on the link below:

Lower Slaughter