Let the sun shine in.....

Recently influenced by the beautiful weather, I was determined to create a new painting class subject and sat browsing through some holiday photos for inspiration. I flung open the double doors of my studio and let the sun and heat stream in - I put my new CD on the player, turned up the volume. I made myself a lovely glass of cold pineapple juice. Out came the paints and off we went. It almost takes me as long to record each stage in my note book as it does to paint it. But - my notes are vital if I want to re-create it as exactly as I can. If any of you are familiar with Joyce Ortner, you'll know that's the way she works too. She even suggests keeping a 'recipe book' for al the colours that you mix, which is a great idea too. Anyways - I leave you with Cor Phew. You can see a larger version of this painting in my class subjects gallery.

Landscape, foliage and blending Oil Painting Brushes

The 1 inch and 2.5 inch Bill Alexander landscape brushes are proving a very popular tool. Most students who use them in class have purchased their own for home use. My class brushes have really been put through their paces since I introduced them into classes nearly 6 months ago. They clean up well and are as soft today as they were on day one. We've all found that we are using my soft goat hair blender brush less and the large Alexander landscape brush more as it really does a good job of removing those brush marks. It's a 'mighty' tool, as Bill would say, much too big to dip into tins of white medium. I find it easier to tip out the medium into plastic trays and pass around the class. It actually ensures you don't load too much into your brush in the first place. At just £20 (which includes postage and packing) for the two brushes, these will last you quite some time. If you look closely, you'll see Bob Ross using these exact same brushes in his first recordings of 'The Joy of Painting' programmes.