A Windy Seascape Watercolour Class

Back to the paint palettes today for another Windy Painting class, today we focussed on Seascapes.

We spent time applying masking fluid and also some fantastic texture paste for the rocks.

Like yesterday's class, we had to think about movement with each brush stroke.

Our first wash involved putting an orange and yellow sky to create some lovely "lights", then later on once it had dried, we went over the top with darker blue and purple shades, but alllowed some of our lights to peep through.  It was a really good effect.

After lunch we worked on our waves, very tricky!

The colours we used today were great, especially the blues and greens that we mixed for the seas.

Bookings are being taken for next term.

A Windy Day Watercolour Class

We had a lovely day today painting Windy pictures.

As we painted we always had to think of movement and direction. 

The colours and details are great on these paintings.

You can feel this man pushing himself into the wind and rain.

Lindsey from Newbury based "The White Horse Flower Company made these beautiful flowers for the lunch table, I just gave her the brief "Windy"!

We are looking forward to Windy Seascapes tomorrow!

Summer Term Watercolour dates announced .....

Here are our Summer Watercolour dates:

Tuesday 29 April

Cricket on the Green

Wednesday 30 April

Beginners Bluebells

Wednesday 21 May

A Celebration of Sunlight (Andalucia)

Friday 6 June

A Lazy Day on the Thames

Wednesday 2 July

Summer in the Med (Boats)

Thursday 3 July

Summer Sunshine (Landscape)

The classes run from 9:30am - approx 3pm

All of our art classes cost £70, this covers all of your materials, including high quality paper, a 2 course home-cooked lunch with a glass of wine and refreshments throughout the day.

Booking details can be found

here 

Cornish Harbour Acrylics

We had an excellent day today, painting Cornish Harbours with acrylic paints.

We worked on canvas boards for the first time and everyone enjoyed working on a new surface.  

Claire spent the first hour demonstrating applying the first layer of paint, before everyone set to work on their own paintings.

We used brushes, pallette knives and flat brushes (and even the edge of an old credit card, particularly useful for lines).

There was a lovely vibrancy to everyone's work today.

(Touching up a masterpiece before our gallery at the end of the day).

Summer Term dates will be announced shortly, but in the meantime bookings are being taken for Beginners Bluebells, see the blogpost below.

New Class Coming - Beginners Bluebells

Wednesday 30 April

9.30am - approx 3pm

£70

Our next Beginners Class is going to be themed Bluebells, they are beautiful to paint and Claire will help you paint them step by step in Watercolour.

This class is for anyone who hasn't painted in years, or has never tried Watercolour, or who has been to one of our Beginners classes before and wants to try painting Bluebells.

Claire will talk you through the various paints, brushes and papers before you get started.  There will be plenty of time to experiment and have a play before starting the painting.

All your materials are provided and there is a 2 course lunch with a glass of wine included.

Refreshments are served throughout the day.

Due to the weather this year, I'm not sure when the Treetops Bluebells will be out, but fingers crossed they will be pretty and blue for you to see.

If you look at the blog index on the right hand side, you will see BLUEBELLS, if you click on there it will show you other Bluebell classes we have done over the years.  It's definitely been one of our most popular classes.

Bluebells

To book please email or call

Emily

A Little bit of Perspective......

Yesterday's Watercolour Class was themed Perspective, after some requests for some drawing help and advice at previous classes.

It can be quite complicated in drawing and can lead into dangerous mathematical territory, but Claire's plan was to simplify it and to start with focal points and vanishing points.

Above is her talking the group through horizon lines!

Claire chose Venice, one of her favourite cities to paint.

With the narrow canal, buildings either side, and windows and shutters galore, it was a really good drawing exercise.

The drawings (using a ruler) took most of the morning and wore away many erasers!

But they looked fantastic, and with a bit of help from Claire the drawings reached a really good stage by lunchtime.

Claire and I did comment that due to the concentration it was the quietest class we have ever had! 

After lunch, it was time for the watercolours to come out

and for the washes and detail to follow.

The finished paintings were amazing, so much atmosphere, colour and Venetian feel.

It was a long day for the artists but I think they went home having achieved a great deal.

After all the stormy weather yesterday, the lashing rain and dark skies, it was lovely to get out this morning (mainly to check for tree damage) and see the snowdrops and the sunshine.

See you after half term.

Beginners Watercolour Spring 2014

It's been a busy week, yesterday we had a Beginners group for Watercolour.

Claire puts nervous artists at ease with her gentle encouraging manner, and they all produced amazing works of art by the end of the day.

The morning is spent talking about and looking at different papers, brushes and paints, your tools are very important in helping you create the best possible masterpiece.  Claire particularly emphasises the quality of paper.  We use alot of St Cuthberts Mill paper, either Bockingford or Saunders Waterford, it has a lovely thickness, quality and finish to it, it can absorb all the water and paint we throw at it too!  Best of all it's British, made near Somerset. 

Today's class was a pretty landscape which is a good subject to break down into stages for beginners.

After everyone had had a good play with paints, water and flow, Claire started them off with the first wash, which was to create The Sky.

If you get a great first wash, it really helps the rest of the painting develop.

  

The buildings had already been sketched onto the paper and the paints were mixed to help create the mountains in the distance, the paint gently merging into the water to create a really strong mountain (or hill) scape.

A touch of Rose Madder, on the door, creates a focal point. 

In the foreground you can add flowers, a road, pathway or some foliage.

At the end of the class, Claire displays the paintings in lovely mounts and creates a gallery for us to admire everyone's work.

It was a great day with some fantastic paintings!

We look forward to welcoming you back for more watercolour classes.

As mentioned, here is the link to Claire demonstrating painting Poppies on YouTube

Poppies