art courses

Free & Loose Botanical Drawing

Free & Loose Botanical Drawing

Develop a loose and dynamic approach to drawing botanicals, using simple line and colour combinations, pen, pencil and paint.

Learn how to read the foliage and structure of the subject then create rich texture, form and detail in your drawings by making expressive marks with a brush, pen or pencil.

Artists are WEIRD

Artists are WEIRD

I think everyone’s a little weird – even though most of the time we try to hide it. But artists are especially weird. I mean, it’s a bit looney-tunes to get really excited about a dribble of paint, or a torn edge of paper or a smudge next to a lump. Those are some of my pet loves, I wouldn’t mind betting you could match mine with a few of your own.

Do You Have A Hero?

Do You Have A Hero?

I’m taking more time to mix colours that are ‘right’. Suddenly I hear a chorus of “What exactly is a ‘right’ colour?” Of course, there is no such one colour. A ‘right’ colour is one that looks absolutely gorgeous next to the colour around it. I’m not being haphazard and just seeing what appears – I’m thinking, what exactly do I want?

Building Layers with Mixed Media

Building Layers with Mixed Media

How do you integrate drawing and painting techniques in your artwork? Watch how I vary wet and dry media with differences in types of paint application. Working in this way holds my interest in the process and delivers variety to work with going forward.

Painting with Total Abandon

Painting with Total Abandon

The journey from difficulty and confusion to clarity and joy. That’s the path we are all on with our Art. We are all at different stages of that path – some at the beginning bogged down among the weeds, and others further along emerging into openness where the path widens and the walking is more easy. We can kind of see the way forward – a bit.

How to Start a Painting

How to Start a Painting

Some people agonize over starting their paintings, which is a shame really because it’s like setting off on an adventure – but the best sort of adventure. You don’t have to scale heights, get wet, lost or hungry, you don’t even have to leave home. But you ARE venturing into the unknown with very little idea of what will result from the experience.

Photo Transfers

Learn how to do Photo Transfers.

Materials used: Heavy Gel Medium onto Laserjet Photocopy on photocopying paper

Then Soft Gel Gloss to stick the Photo-skin to the painting surface.

Perspective

Perspective

How do you achieve Perspective in your practice? I’m not talking perspective achieved by ruling lines and identifying vanishing points. I’m talking about how you keep a healthy balance between the good and the not so good that happens along the way in your Art Practice.

Questions to ask...

New Beginnings...

New Beginnings...

I also really enjoyed letting loose with drawing and using dry media a lot more in my paintings when I was working on the large sized paintings. This added a playful looseness which I really liked and prevented me working in a straight-line towards finishing when after each painting session I would draw and scribble over the painting. Coming back into it the next day I would cover a lot of the drawing over but the little remnants that peeped through were really fun suggesting a naivety which I liked.

Finishing a Painting II

Finishing a Painting II

Follow the final moves as I bring this mixedmedia painting to it’s finished state. This painting integrates photocopied images with paint and collage.

Is there ‘Precious’ in your Studio?

Is there ‘Precious’ in your Studio?

Finally, the insistent call of the outside world drags us away and we close the studio door on that tangled grid-locked mess of paint, hope, and self-belief. As we square up to the dishwasher and the dusting that secret smile is now a nagging sense of dread. Am I good enough? Why can’t I figure this out? I’ve killed my precious ….

Finishing a Painting

Finishing a Painting

Watch the finishing stage of this mixed media painting with photo collage. In this video I demonstrate how I finished the painting, analysed what it needed and made final changes.

Learning to make Art without Fear

Learning to make Art without Fear

So how do we get the confidence in the beginning when we don’t know that much? We have success. How do we have success when we’re beginning? We need bite-size chunks, roadmaps, guides – frameworks that keep us on track, keep us safe while allowing us to make decisions and learn.

My Why - Why do I paint and Why do I teach?

My Why - Why do I paint and Why do I teach?

When I was growing up there was no such thing as a ‘why’. Well, we didn’t know we all had one or at least there was no drive to examine our motives and find out. I remember doing quite a lot of motive examination directed by the nuns – but I always fell short and found myself counting down to the next confessional to cleanse my soul.

Stop trying to finish your paintings?

Stop trying to finish your paintings?

the more I know about my practice the more I realise it’s important not to THINK about finishing while I’m painting, and actually to defer finishing for as long as I can.

How A Self-Doubter Became A BELIEVER

How A Self-Doubter Became A BELIEVER

At what point did I decide to stand up, fluff up my feathers and start squarking? (Is that a word?) On reflection two momentous events happened that woke me up. Firstly, my father died.

How To Create Irresistable Texture in Your Painting

Arriving at the final destination so soon in a painting’s journey deprives it of a history and depth in character which only a more lengthy process will give. A painting that is cut short of this process has a ‘thinness’ or a flat feel about it. What you see on the surface is all there is. When a painting has texture it delivers so much more and can be irresistible when the viewer moves in close.

10 Tips for Painting BIG

10 Tips for Painting BIG

Recently I have started 4 new paintings. These babies are BIG!! Well, they’re the biggest paintings I‘ve ever done. Initially I was a little nervous about starting them as this was foreign territory. I tried not to dwell on the volume of expensive paint I was going to consume, so to quell that nagging fear I ordered another bucket of gesso. That would get me started. I bought myself a couple of wider bigger brushes and I bought a squeegee so I could move the paint around the canvas quickly with one swoop. I was concerned with economy & efficiency you see.

Criticism and Creativity – Can they Co-exist?

Criticism and Creativity – Can they Co-exist?

When I was 11 it was my legs, in my teens it was my freckles, my boobs – or lack of, my teeth, certain aspects of my parents, our religion and the family car. In my 20’s still the boob thing, lack of career direction and my inability to hook a decent man. My 30’s saw the concern about the man intensify.. In my 40’s it was a general lack of organisation, uncontrol of my two young children – (yes, I managed to find myself a man.) My 50’s has been all about my internal thermometer control and sleep – both far too erratic. What has all this got to do with Abstract Painting?