Christine Russell - Short Courses

Please note that you can find out more about Christine Russell, who led our recent workshop, from her website www.art-christinerussell.co.uk She had copies of her interesting 2016 programme of short courses at the our workshop. These are to be held at the Laurels Studio, Stone, Nr. Berkeley, Glos. At the moment the programme is not on her website but I'm sure it will appear soon. If you cannot wait, telephone her on 01454 269268.

Christine Russell: Workshop - Still Life in Pastels

Workshop in progress

For our November workshop, held in the Memorial Hall at Wellington Heath, Christine Russell set up four different still lifes. That meant we had just three people painting each one with soft pastels. Christine began the session with a rapid but helpful demonstration to show how she would tackle one of them. We were advised to use a fairly abrasive paper or board and begin by using a pastel pencil for an initial drawing to establish the composition.

The pictures that follow show a few stages in her demonstration and are then followed by images showing what the workshop participants achieved. Many had little or no experience of pastel painting and yet the results for everyone were good.

Drawing using pastel pencil

Val Ridler: Light & Atmosphere in Mixed Media

Inspiration

We were pleased to welcome Val Ridler as our demonstrator in November. The inspiration for the painting was a photograph taken in Greece.

Her support was mount-board to which she had applied three coats of a gray primer. She brought it pre-prepared with the scene simply drawn and hand-made paper added to give some texture to the rocks.

Note how she has painted the sky with brush strokes running at a diagonal angle. She used watercolour paint in the main but often added a touch of white gouache.

These two images show something of the development of the painting.




Later white pastel was added to hint at a little cloud and to give some highlights in the water and wet sand. Various blues and purples were added to sky, rocks and sand.