Watercolours With Life Spring Workshop 2010

Thank you to Jane for sending me a few images from last weeks Watercolours With Life workshops. The week flew by so quickly and  I think I can safely say we all had a wonderful time.

I should explain I never share photographs of anyone in my  sessions without their direct permission so you will only see paintings.This makes everyone in the class feel far more comfortable with the focus purely on painting rather than who is doing what with a camera. I also ask for  everyone to kindly not use cameras while the sessions are in progress as it can be really distracting to anyone who has come to watch and take in what is happening without the constant flash or interuptions needed to gain good shots. Even so it is lovely to have memories to share so here are a few images that Jane kindly took and I must admit I am fascinated to see myself in action as I rarely get that chance!

This is from the Flowers,Flowers and More Flowers Workshop. We  were looking at negative painting, varied brushstrokes, use of cool and warm colours and use of light. My hand obviously moves quickly  from the action in this shot.

The next image wasn't a demonstration to the class. I sat with individuals in an afternoon period  of the second Watercolours With Life  workshop last week showing how to paint a number of subjects so that everyone had something they could work from as an idea. This was a market scene in France with a figures walking in sunlight. The hint of how to start and work away from this point keeping clean fresh colour was the main objective of this very quick little study.

Figures in a Market Scene in France, a quick study.

At the end of a full week you can imagine how tired everyone was so the final relaxed painting day at my cottage for those who had travelled such a long way to see me was casual. I sat on the grass to avoid standing and painted freely. This cockerel was such a lovely way to unwind!

You can see paper laid across a section to protect it from splattering which was taking place to create texture in the top corner of this piece.I was also sprinkling salt to show what it can  do.

It really was a fantastic week and I can't wait for next year to come around so we can repeat it but with even more excitement involved!

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