Seascapes and Lighthouses Art Course - October 2018

Original gouache painting by Jean 2018

I have just completed a four week art course on painting Seascapes and 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 or house, perhaps a boat into the composition to show how tall and wide some 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 and the results of the course can be seen below:

Original acrylic painting by Diana 2018

Original oil painting by Jo 2018

Original unfinished pastel painting by Mandy 2018

Original oil painting by Gordon 2018

Original oil painting by Jo 2018

Original painting by Liz 2018

Original pastel with texture by Mandy 2018

Original oil painting by Jo 2018

Original oil painting by Jean 2018

Original unfinished acrylic painting by Kevin 2018

Original oil painting by Meryel 2018

Original oil painting by Simonne 2018

Original oil painting by Jo 2018

Original pastel painting by Mandy 2018

Original oil painting by Simonne 2018

Original unfinished acrylic painting by Maria 2018

Thank you to all those who made the course a success and for sharing their work on this post.  

If you would like to join any of my future courses or have one-to-one tuition please contact me using the blog form below. New Courses begin again late January 2019.

Happy Painting!

Lee 🎨

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 Night Skies - May 2017



Laraine painting her night sky composition

This was the first time I had run a course on painting night skies.  As research beforehand i took photographs of coloured pieces of card at different times on a sunny day starting at 10am and ending at 9.30pm.  The pieces of card were the primary colours of yellow, blue and red. This was to determine the effect of diminishing light on the coloured card.  Through the series of photographs it was clear to see that as the day drew to a close the coloured card became cooler in colour. Most interestingly at 9.30pm the yellow card was only just visible, the red card had completely disappeared and the even stranger was that the blue card was still visible.

On the next night I took photographs of the scene which we were going to paint in class.  I took these photographs as before at various times of the day - from 2pm, 5pm, 7pm and 9pm.  The results were as expected that as there was less light there was less colour. The one taken at 5pm especially had become washed out as if devoid of colour, but in contrast the one taken last of all at 9pm had taken on an atmospheric appeal of muted purples, indigo blues, highlighted by pinpricks of light from the pier.

The paintings created by the students are shown here.  These were on the whole successful and were a very good lesson in mixing extremely subtle shades and tones of the same colour.

Original painting by Laraine 2017

Original painting by Andrew 2017

Original painting by Kate 2017

Original painting by Liz 2017

Original painting by Rosemary 2017

Original painting by Peter 2017

Original painting by Doreen 2017

Original painting by Sandra 2017

Thank you to all the students who took on the challenge painting night skies and for allowing me to share their work on my blog.  This was an amazing class to teach and I am sure you will agree the paintings are very accomplished.

If you would like to join one of my courses or have one-to-one classes please contact me using the blog contact form below.

Happy Painting!

Lee 🎨

Painting London Life - February 2017

Original painting by Jean 2017

I recently taught two open medium painting courses on the subject of London Life (or other major cities).  The classes included students who were new to painting as well as experienced artists.  Some students used conventional oils, water mixable oils and acrylic paints.  It was a difficult subject to tackle as even my experienced students were to realise.  This was because of the combination of architecture (straight lines, perspective) and figures.

After starting with a few of the basics on perspective and proportion of figures, the students prepared their canvases and boards. They went onto to create some very successful paintings at different levels, but everyone learnt a lot along the journey!  Please take a look at their wonderful work....

Original painting by Gill 2017

Original painting by Kate 2017

Original painting by Laraine 2017

Original painting by Liz 2017

Original painting by Michelle 2017

Original unfinished painting by Pam 2017

Original painting by Pam 2017

Original painting by Peter 2017

Original painting by Peter M 2017

Original unfinished painting by Sandra 2017

Original study by Sue C. 2017

Original painting by Sue C. 2017

Original painting by Sue 2017

Original painting by Vicki 2017

Thank you to everyone who took part in these classes. You all made them a great success! 

Thank you for allowing me to show your painting off on this blog post and also a big thank you to Nina and Geoff whose work is not shown.

If you would like to join any of my future classes or would like one-to-one lessons please contact me via the contact form on this page. 

Happy Painting!

Lee 🎨