Learning to See

Inspiration and practical advice for aspiring realist artists

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Daffodils and Willow Pattern

March 11, 2020 By: Paul9 Comments

Daffodils and Willow Pattern, Oil on Panel, 9.5 x 7 inches Currently at Auction I’m beggining to realise that I’ve fallen in love with painting daffodils. It’s partly because they’re such a challenge to paint. Keeping the chroma high and trying to show all the nuances of hue, all the slightly differing yellows, painting the

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Spring Bouquet, and the link between value and chroma

March 9, 2020 By: Paul8 Comments

The way I’m painting flowers now is a very good example of two things:

1. Painting representationally isn’t painting what you see

(Because usually, you can’t.)

2. How the Munsell big book can help you mix more expressive colour

Daffodils, why yellows are hard, and one way to approach them

March 3, 2020 By: Paul24 Comments

Flowers are hard to paint.

Yellow flowers are particularly difficult.

It’s the shadows.

You see, especially on high chroma flowers, it’s often impossible to get high enough chroma in the shadows. In paint, we lose chroma quicky as we go down the value scale.

The First Daffodils of Spring

February 28, 2020 By: Paul3 Comments

When spring comes to this part of the Cotswolds, the landscape is transformed.

There are two flowers that are responsible for this change, daffodils and oxlips. I love them both, they’ve come to mean spring to me since we moved to this lovely part of the countryside. 

I’ve been itching to paint some since I spotted the first one a few days ago.

New Painting: Green Squash – Tightness, Looseness, Control and Freedom

February 18, 2020 By: Paul12 Comments

Tightness in paintings equals a lack of emotion and expression. Tightness is bad.

Looseness equates to freedom, expression and emotion. Looseness is good. 

You hear this a lot.

Actually (and although I’m painting more loosely now) I couldn’t disagree more.

Tewkesbury Barons

February 12, 2020 By: Paul13 Comments

I read recently (I can’t rememeber where) a quote that went something like “your last painting will tell you what your next painting needs to be”.

That’s why I’ve kept this one in the studio for a while. It was telling me something about where I was heading, and how I might get there.

New Painting: Chaceley Kernels

February 7, 2020 By: Paul8 Comments

I didn’t know that apples could be an endangered species.

In fact, I realise now that I knew very little about apples before I met my friends the Brent-Smiths, who manage traditional English orchards at Day’s Cottage Farm.

In fact, I’m just beginning to realise how little I still know.

Teaching Studio Update: Finding the Perfect Space

January 24, 2020 By: Paul37 Comments

Today I’d like to ask for your help.

My teaching studio project is moving forwards. The big decision I’m facing at this point is the space itself.

I think it’s important that anyone who learns with me, and travels to do a workshop with me feels at ease in the space we’ll be working in.

Winter Squash

January 23, 2020 By: Paul3 Comments

This one started out as a demo on edge handling which I did as a live stream as part of our Threads artists’ community.

Somewhere along the way, a lot of the things I’ve been thinking about and working through lately came together in one piece.

The Four Ways of Learning to Paint – Which Fits You Best?

January 17, 2020 By: Paul48 Comments

My big project of this year is opening a permanent teaching studio.

As I move forward with it, I’ve been giving a lot of thought to different approaches to learning to paint.

I think there are broadly four approaches to teaching skilled representational painting these days:

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Hi, I’m Paul

I'm a (mostly) self-taught artist. I paint realism in oils, mostly still life. I share my work, my evolving process and what knowledge I've gained on my own learning journey here, in the hope that it might help you on yours.
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