Spring Flowers and Still Life Workshop – March 15th, 2021
Does this feel familiar to you?
…feeling inspired by the beauty of something, only to find a few hours later that your work falls a long way short of the picture you had in your head?
That beauty that first inspired you to start a new piece, well…you can’t see it in what you’re making.
I know that feeling well. Truth be told, we all do.
So what do you do?
What if, when you hit that point, you had a clear idea of what to look at first to fix your painting?
What if you could get past that hurdle and feel the enthusiasm and inspiration of your original idea come back?
Imagine if you could get past the difficult stage, and focus instead on translating the beauty that you see into your work, so that other people could see it there too.
How would that feel?
Wouldn’t painting then become again the calming, meditative, private space it’s meant to be for you, instead of a battleground of frustration and doubts?
Obviously that won’t happen overnight. And if you truly care deeply about your work, some level of doubt and frustration will always be there. That’s a sign that it’s meaningful to you.
But it doesn’t have to be your whole world.
More progress, less pain
What I have for you is a clear, calm and meditative approach to the parts of painting that will help you make the most progress.
Through working carefully and slowly, starting strongly with a clear statement of form, light and colour, I’ll take you through an easy-to-understand process for demystifying the building blocks of good painting.
Exploring spring flowers and small still life objects, in a series of subjects over 6 weeks, you’ll learn how to:
- Simplify the form of the flowers to make them come to life
- Simplify the colour with in depth tutorial videos on how to mix the colours for each piece
- Paint freely and expressively – but in a calm, careful and focused manner
- Develop your edges to create focus and suggestive depth
Full price: $199
$169 before midnight March 12th with the coupon code “earlyspring”
When
15th March to 19th April 2021.
We’ll be starting on the Monday 15th of March and running for six weeks.
Each week there will be one live session (usually on Mondays) at 6PM UK time (10AM Pacific, 1PM Eastern)
What’s included
- The workshop will inlcude 6 live, online sessions, one per week, and supporting videos on specific aspects of the process.
- Practice exercises will also be provided if you want to develop any of the specific skills further – particularly on composition.
- Mixing videos will show you exactly how to pre-mix the colours for each subject
- Access to the Workshop facebook group where you can share your work, your journey with other workshop atttendees, past and present. This is a really special group of people who will support you and cheer you on.
- As always I will be providing beautifully arranged and shot reference photos to work from.
- A full materials list will be provided well before the start.
- Calm and carefully crafted, step by step instruction
Cost
The cost for the whole workshop, without discount, is $199
Sign up before midnight March 12th for “early bird” discount pricing and pay only $169.
Just add the coupon code “earlyspring” at the checkout for the discount (or click the button below which applies the discount automatically) – expires on March 11th at midnight UTC! (Don’t forget to check that time in your own time zone)
What will I need?
I recommended this list of paints from Michael Harding. Using the same paints means that our mixes will be much more accurate. This is important, since paints from different manufacturers can vary widely:
- Titanium white
- Bright Yellow Lake
- Cadmium yellow Lemon
- Cadmium Yellow
- Yellow Ochre
- Quinacridone Rose
- Green Gold (the Williamsburg one should be fine though and is cheaper)
- Transparent Red Oxide
- Raw Umber
- Ivory Black
Brushes: A selection of soft synthetic flats, around half inch and smaller. Rosemary’s angled eclipses are perfect. Winsor and Newton Sceptre Gold series 606 are great too. One or two hog bristle brushes, half-inch and smaller.
Surface: I’d recommend Ampersand Gessobord panels, a few at 10 x 8 inches and a couple 12 x 9 inches will probably be useful too.
Medium: We’ll be iuusing linseed oil + the solvent of your choice (gamsol is fine) for laying down a couch (thin medium layer) which we’ll paint into.
Questions
Will the live sessions be recorded?
Yes, all sessions are immediately available to replay when they’re finished. After the workshop is finished, they will all be edited and uploaded to the main workshop site, where you will be able to watch or download them whenever you like
I paint in acrylics, can I join?
Yes, but the materials list will specify a list of oil paints from a specific paint maker (Michael Harding). If you work in acrylics, I can’t guarantee that all your mixes will work the same as mine.
How long will each session be?
Average is two to three hours. We do take breaks!
Will I get feedback on my work?
I do usually try to give some feedback through the workshop but attendance numbers are usually too high for me to guarantee it. If this is really important to you, let me know – I may offer some additional group crit sessions at an additional cost if there is sufficient interest.
I don’t use facebook, can I still join?
Of course! Emails are sent out with links to all the live sessions, which are hosted on my own website.