I took full advantage of this unusally warm weather and last Thursday we went out into Hornchurch Country Park to paint the landscape. There's a lovely spot just past the visitor centre, which was luckuily out of the wind, where you find yourself underneath a large sky. It really is beautiful.
Just like a typical English day it was lovely and sunny and then we got some gorgeous moody clouds move over above us. Luckily the weather held out for us all to finish our paintings.
If you've never experienced it, painting outside is a great experience especially with a great group of learners.
A couple of my students belong to West Horndon Art Group and invited me along to run a session. So at the beginning of the summer I went along to teach a session on Skylines.
They're a really lovely group and the work they produced was incredibly varied and talented.
Here's my skyline of London, painted in a traditional style, starting with the darks then adding highlights and then the mid tones.
I had such a great time with them and was delighted when they asked me back to do another session last Saturday, this time on Street Scenes with People.
I wanted to paint a really quick painting as the session is just for the morning so I went for a more modern Impressionist style using a flat brush. So in preparation I painted this landscape with sun bathers first which I really enjoyed painting in oils. I couldn't believe how quick it was either, less is more!
Then I wanted to prepare a street scene and having just come back from France I wanted a French scene and started on this portrait one. There's far more detail so it was taking me longer and it was feeling a bit too busy so I zoomed in....
and had a go in acrylics. Which is working better as a composition. I painted this super quick as well but it turned out in a more traditional style than expected. That's the great thing with painting and art you just never know how it's going to come out!
West Horndon Art Group are based in the Village Hall and meet every Wednesday and Saturday mornings. For more info check out their website:
http://www.westhorndonartgroup.org.uk/
If you belong to an art group and would like me to come and teach a session just get in touch at kirsten@iaminspired.co.uk. I teach a wide range of media and subjects including drawing, pastels, oils, acrylic, and watercolour.
