'Can I ask a favour?', said my student.

I spoke often last year about painting on the small side. Today I painted one of the smallest oils I've done so far. One of today's students asked me if I would paint our painting subject for her on a very small scale. She provided me with a tiny little canvas and explained it was to be a part of a project she was working on.

And you know me, I do like a challenge, so I happily gave it a go. The only difficulty I had was the canvas was extremely absorbant, drying the oil out in seconds, making the blending awkward. But I have a few tricks that sorted that out quite easily. What do you think of the micro version of 'Peach Dawn'? Quite cute, isn't it.

New Class Dates

Today is a catch-up day and I don't mind the rain when I'm stuck in the office all day long. With several supply orders being delivered today I know I'm not going to miss the delivery man too. Catch-up means website work and consequently I've just updated my class timetable page and added a few more dates and a few more painting's. Accounts are the next thing to be brought up to date, then the phone calls for other sundry bits and bobs. I quite like days like this - although I wouldn't want them too often......it reminds me of my full time office days too much.

Back to work.......

The holiday break has been great - and so has the weather, which was a welcome bonus. It's back to business as usual now though. Student Sue and I have kicked off the week by working on her second portrait lesson. All the colours have been added over the underpainting, many facial details have been completed, we've worked the background and started on the clothing. I'm fully confident this can be totally finished off on one more lesson. The portrait lessons are taught in 3 hour blocks and will continue until the painting is complete. Each block is £45 (weekday rate) and the price includes everything you need to make the portrait. It's a great way of working, with classes running (normally) from 10am till 1pm. Other times can be arranged if needed. Next summer I will be running evening classes from 6pm to 9pm to suit those of you who work full time. For more details on portraiture classes CLICK HERE

Lowell Speers - Seascape DVD

I have a seascape project on DVD that I've been eager to paint. Last weekend I enjoyed painting along with Lowell Speers and learned some new tricks into the process too. Now my task is to adapt the composition so it's a suitable painting project for my students. I will go ahead and paint it all over again on a much larger canvas, incorporating some slightly different brushes to ensure we get good results. I particularly like the way Lowell puts together his foreground wave and the method he uses for the wave foam is new to me. Very clever indeed. His clouds are added using a different technique too so it was really interesting to learn new ways for the sky as well. If you too would like to try Lowell's seascape project from the comfort of your own home, the DVD is available HERE at just £9.50 incl delivery. If you'd like a more 'hands-on' tuition, keep an eye on my class timetable as it will feature as a new class subject pretty soon.

Art Group

I decided to take my sketch pad along to (a very cold) art group session today. I had an unfinished sketch that I started last year and I felt in the mood to work some more on it. Plus, the pad and the pencils fitted neatly into my handbag, which was more than convenient. As I started to blend the graphite with my fingers I immediately wished I had brought my pastel belnding stumps along as my fingers were too big an area to get into the smaller nooks and crannies. (No innuendo's necessary.) Alison, sat opposite, handed me a cotton bud and it was the perfect tool to polish and soften. Throught the meeting we often get up and walk around to see what everyone else is doing. Quite a few ladies passed remark about my project today, wondering who the live model might be. (I wish.) As I've been working on this fella I've considered it an exercise in lights, darks, blending and shape, but one lady has made me view this pose in a completely different light now. When Diane saw my project her first words were 'I wonder what he's looking at?' And the rest of the table came up with several suggestions. Now I can't look at him without wondering the very same thing. Any ideas?