Upcoming Autumn Courses and Painting Churches

Unfinished acrylic painting by Geoff 2018

The last four week course of the academic year was held at All Saints Church Hall in Ryde. The course was called Painting Churches, Abbeys and Cathedrals.  Some Learners opted to do inside scenes whilst others chose to concentrate on the exteriors.  As you will see all the paintings are very successful and they range from impressionistic paintings, to abstract and experimental to very tight detailed depictions.  

Original sketch by Helen 2018

Original acrylic painting by Helen 2018

Original acrylic painting by Gaye 2018

Original oil painting with mixed media by Lolly 2018

Original oil painting by Meryel 2018

Original watercolour by Maureen 2018

Original oil painting by Pam 2018

Original oil painting by Jean 2018

Thank you to all the artists who shared their work in this blog post.  The course would not have been such a success without you!

UPCOMING AUTUMN ART CLASSES:

4 week 'Cliffs, Sand & Sea' (open medium) Starts Friday 21st September 10 to 12.30pm at Northwood W.I. Hall (village hall), Cowes, £70

4 week 'Lighthouses & Seascapes' (open medium) Starts Thursday 27th September, 
10 to 12.30pm at Bembridge Village Hall, Bembridge £70

1 Day 'Still life' (open medium) Friday 19th October 12.30 to 4pm at Ryde All Saints' Church Hall, Ryde, £35

4 week 'Painting Expressive Autumn Scenes' Starts Friday 9th November 12.30 to 3pm at Ryde All Saints' Church Hall, Ryde, £70

(Further courses and workshops to be announced)

If you would like to joint any of the above art classes please contact me via the blog form.  Beginners welcome. One-to-One classes are also available.

Happy Painting!

Lee 🎨

Painting Scenes from Abroad - June 2018 Art Course

Original oil painting in progress by Pam 2018

My latest course has recently just finished.  This was the exotic sounding 'Scenes from Abroad.'  All ten students rose to the challenge and provided paintings of scenes from as far afield as the Seychelles, Croatia, Spain, France and others.  

Although some these wonderful paintings are unfinished you can still get a sense of atmosphere, colour and vibrancy.  The results of the course are shown below:

Original pastel painting by Mandy 2018

Original unfinished acrylic painting by Kevin

Original gouache painting by Jean 2018

Original oil painting by Susan 2018

Original pastel painting by Mandy 2018

Original unfinished acrylic painting by Diana 2018

Original oil painting by Gordon 2018

Original acrylic painting by Trudie 2018

Thank you to everyone who shared their work on this post and also to the rest of the group.  You all made the course a great success!

If you would like to join one of my courses or have one-to-one tuition please use the blog contact form.

Happy Painting!

Lee 🎨

Painting Lighthouses - May 2018

Original Oil Painting by Liz 2018

I have just completed a four week art course on Painting Lighthouses.  We started by looking at and discussing famous lighthouse paintings ranging from Carl Blechen to Edward Hopper. 

We then talked about creating a sense of scale and how to go about doing so within the composition.  This can be achieved in a few ways - the best way is the most obvious which is to either put a figure, house or tree into the composition to show how tall and wide many lighthouses are.  As well as looking at scale we looked a reflections on the water surface and also in mixing up general sky and sea colours.  

It was a very successful course which I will be running again in September in Bembridge. The results of the course can be seen below:

Original Oil Painting by Liz 2018

Original Acrylic Painting by Trudie 2018

Oil Painting by Susan 2018

Oil Painting by Peter 2018

Original Oil Painting by Sandra 2018

Unfinished Oil Painting by Andrew 2018

Original Oil Painting by Laraine 2018

Original Oil Painting by Pam 2018

Thank you to all those who made the course a success and for sharing their work here.  Thank you to Brian and Anne whose work is not shown here.  You can see my effort at painting a lighthouse on my previous blogpost.

If you would like to join the next Painting Lighthouses Course please contact me using the blog form below.  

Upcoming courses for June are as follows:
4 Week Course - Painting Churches, Abbeys and Cathedrals - at Ryde All Saints Church
1 Day Workshop - Painting Still life Using a Limited Palette - in Bembridge

Happy Painting!

Lee 🎨

The Process of a Painting - The Lighthouse (New Beginnings) by Lee Papworth

Original oil painting 'The Lighthouse (New Beginnings) by Lee Papworth 2018

This post is all about the process of creating a painting. In this case I am using oil paints.  The finished painting above was created to coincide with a painting course entitled 'Painting Lighthouses.' I started with an idea of what to paint and researched my subject.  Then I purchased the correct size of canvas for this painting.  DO NOT treat this part of the process lightly as it is vitally important to choose the right size support (canvas/canvas board) for your work and not try to fit your work into the wrong size/shape of canvas.  I produced numerous sketches from my research and a few are shown below:

From the sketches I worked up the watercolour sketch seen below:

My next step was to prepare my canvas.  I put the stretchers in the corners of the canvas using a hammer (when buying a canvas you must make sure that it comes with stretchers which are small triangular pieces of wood).  The stretchers keep your canvas taut and increase the longevity of your work.  

 Next was to put a ground on the canvas (a base colour to work from).  A ground can be any colour - traditionally they would have been earth colours such as burnt umber and raw umber.  I say they can be any colour, but please bear in mind that whatever colour you use will influence the colour of the paint you directly apply on top of the ground and thus effect the harmony of the overall painting.  With my ground I chose to use yellow ochre which I liberally applied and then used a technique called 'tonking' to remove excess paint and leave behind a mottled surface. The photographs below show how I used newspaper to remove the excess paint (tonking):

I then started blocking in the final composition onto the canvas:

Next I started the actual painting by adding the sky.  Note how the warm ground influences and complements the blues of the sky:

At this point (session two) I decided to roughly paint in the main colours and forms.  

I then started building the painting by adding details.  See the photographs below to watch how the painting develops into its final state:

The last photo is my finished painting 'The Lighthouse (New Beginnings).'  It took eight sessions - roughly ten hours work - to complete.  I also took a photo of my palette to show you my process of colour mixing and that you should always mix up your paint using a palette knife rather than your brushes as this will save damaging your expensive brushes.  

If you would like to join one of my art courses or have one-to-one tuition please contact me using the blog contact form.  The next two courses are in May and June.

Happy Painting!

Lee Papworth 🎨

All photographs and images copyright of the artist Lee Papworth 2018

More Painting Mountains and Valleys....plus Upcoming Art Courses!

Maria working on her painting

After the success of the first course Painting Mountains and Valleys, I decided to teach it to a different group.  Just as with the first group the challenge was met very successfully with a range of wonderful paintings that encompass methodical realism, Impressionism and a painting from the imagination.  When you look at the paintings below I think you will agree they are all very successful!

Original acrylic painting by Maria 2018

Original oil painting by Liz 2018

Original oil painting by Meryel 2018

Original oil painting by Meryel 2018

Original acrylic painting by Trudie 2018

Original oil painting by Brian 2018

Original oil painting by Gordon 2018

Thank you to all the students who took part and made the course a success including two students work which is not shown above - Geoff and Jean.

Upcoming Painting Course: 'Scenes from Abroad'

My next course at Bembridge Village Hall is another four week open medium painting course called  'Scenes from Abroad.'  This starts on Thursday 10th May, 10-12.30, Bembridge Village Hall, £70.

It can be a scene from (any country) France, Spain, Italy, America, Egypt or the Channel Islands if you like - the world is your oyster.

Whether it's a painting of a famous building or monument, a busy market place, local people in cafes or it can be a portrait of one person, a stunning landscape, a seascape or a cityscape. The choice is yours.

So get rooting through those old or new photos of holiday trips abroad or perhaps you once lived abroad and have lots of wonderful photographs from there.

One to one classes are available in all mediums and all subjects.  

To join any of my courses please contact me using the blog form below.

Happy Painting!

Lee 🎨