Tag Archives: art classes

Judith gets herself a watercolour shopping list

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I met Judith Whately many years ago on the recommendation of my friend Anne who had trained with her to become a Reflexologist. I too had wanted to follow this path and so was very excited to discover that Judith was still running the Academy for Combined Reflexology and that there was 1 space left for the next intake.

I studied with Judith and finally got the coveted title of MAR and have used this brilliant holistic therapy since with family and friends.

A few years on and I thought about mentioning to a few friends that I was now running workshops and Judith was among them.

With her very busy schedule as the Senior Lecturer in Reflexology at Cardiff Metropolitan University and Clinic Director of Something Else Therapy Centre in Merthyr Tydfil it was hard to pin her down to finally come for a watercolour taster with me.P1130724

She told me that years ago she had tried watercolour in a holiday setting and that it had left her feeling that she would never manage to paint in it.

As her morning progressed slowly but surely she realised that there were ways to manage the mercurial nature of watercolour and that beautiful effects could be attained quite easily.

Taking the watercolour brush for a spin

Taking the watercolour brush for a spin

She felt so excited and pleased that here she was - just a few hours on - being able to produce a poetic seahorse, watery reflections and other techniques that would allow her to progress at home.

After she left I was sending her a long watercolour shopping list feeling so pleased that she had been bitten by the painting bug.

Thanks Judith for being such an adventurous student and let me know when you have that smock and beret.

 

 

 

What you can do with some watercolour and paper!

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This week I held another Art Blossoms Painting Day (I refuse to use the word “workshop” as it conjures up images of people doing difficult and unpleasant activities and anyway art isn’t work!)

Mary showing the poppies who's boss!

Mary showing the poppies who’s boss!

Two sisters - Mary and Pam came over from Tonyrefail and Efail Isaf respectively to build on their watercolour skills.

This is a spare palette I took as I picked one of the ladies as my shadow painter for each demo - they painted along with me as the others watched us both

They had requested activities on flowers and animals and some general watercolour techniques on how to create a good composition from a complicated floral landscape scene.

Using the wet into wet technique Pam was soon creating poetic poppies

Using the wet into wet technique Pam was soon creating poetic poppies

For our flowers we did a magical blue himalayan poppy. Using wet into wet for the background we simply lifted out any colour that went over the flowers and then painted those in when the background was dry!

This is what you might get if you follow along with the demo in this post - good luck!

This is what you might get if you follow along with the demo in this post - good luck!

Here is the demo if you want a go and please - send me in pics of how you do?

Blue Poppy 1Blue Poppy 2The animal we painted was a simple greeny-yellow seahorse which allowed for loose and atmospheric painting of underwashes before tightening with accents and shadows as the painting dried.

Seahorses are delightful to paint in watercolour

Seahorses are delightful to paint in watercolour

Again - have a little dabble and maybe use different colours.

I like my students to paint an eye as this is considered a tricky subject and I want to show how to tackle it with ease. What do you think of their very first attempts below? Not bad at all if you ask me

After a brief eye demo by me Pam and Mary knocked out these two fab eyes:)

After a brief eye demo by me Pam and Mary knocked out these two fab eyes:)

We had a lovely day batting cat back and forth as we worked about watercolour, art, drawing, places we had visited in the world and despite the heatwave outside my north lit painting room kept us bearably cool.

eye dog alsatian

Thanks for coming Pam and Mary and I hope you continue to build on what you did during your day.

Art Blosoms final

If you fancy watercolour tuition and live in the South Wales Valleys area give me a call on 01443 791532 or email me at eastwitching@hotmail.com - we can sort out a day or half day tailored to your needs!