Our July workshop saw Lindsey Cole provide a ‘Summer Hedgerow Workshop in Acrylic’ for the Chandlers Ford Art Group.
She provided comprehensive preparation instructions prior to the event to ensure that little time was wasted on the day.
Lindsey began with a detailed demonstration of the techniques we were to practice including working with acrylic washes and inks and allowing them to run on the prepared painting and find their own way. She continued to add to her demonstration piece as the day progressed so that everyone had a chance to see and then follow along.
The participants worked the new techniques into their own finished pieces to produce a large array of work come the end of the day.
An enjoyable Workshop from which we all went home exhausted!
Stephen Foster’s workshop on 13th May was his second this year, and presumably just as much enjoyed by us as it was for our predecessors!
This was entitled ‘Spontaneous palette knife landscape/seascape painting’ and Stephen gave short talk beforehand on methods and materials, showing examples of his work. Then he picked one to demonstrate the techniques of using a palette knife on a prepared board.
Looking from a distance, the way Stephen blurred and moved the paint around to create clouds and trees was amazing. It was even more amazing, as I saw later, his spiky trees emerging from the clump were really just rough squiggles in the paint when you looked closely. His clouds showed the scuff marks on the board, too, but from a distance, they looked fantastic.
Despite the word ‘spontaneous’ and Stephen’s advice that if we wanted a reference, to look at it once, then put it away, quite a few people carefully drew out their landscapes and proceeded to fill them in. Maybe they were being more spontaneous with their paintwork than usual. They were certainly more beautiful than mine, which I thought were a mess. But then this was my first workshop with the group, and the first time I’d used acrylic paint in nearly twenty years. Thank you to my table mates Bev and Valerie for making me feel at home, and also for helping me get the paint caps off!
Although we’d been around the room and admired each others work, we also got a critique at the end from Stephen, who went through each painting and made useful comments. I think they were useful learning points for us all, anyway. And I came away with plenty of ideas about painting with a palette knife that I hadn’t had before.
Thank you to Stephen, and to Bev for organising it. A good time was had by all, I think!
Laurence Belbin at Chandlers Ford Photo June Ferguson
43 members and 12 visitors were thoroughly entertained by Laurence Belbin on June 22nd.
Comments included:
All came together, he is such a fabulous painter.
Would love to do a workshop with Laurence!
Laurence explained how The Lanes project had come about; selecting various views of the lanes in his area, and painting them through the seasons. He gave very useful tips on selecting light and shade in colours that really create the seasonal differences.
Adebanji Alade set up his area for the demonstration. As soon as he seemed finished, members and guests gathered round to pick his brains before the event started. And despite two hours of pearls of wisdom falling from him as he worked, they gathered again at the end of the demonstration, reluctant to miss a thing.
