Another successful portrait workshop

Last Sunday, I held another portrait day workshop. I am pleased to say it was a great success with students coming from all around Suffolk, Essex and Cambridgeshire.
After an initial warm up session, people set to work in the medium of their own choice, from charcoal or pencil to watercolour, pastel and oils.




Our model, Flo, the daughter of a friend, was superb. For the whole day, she sat like a rock, barely batting an eyelid. What a relief from those models who constantly twitch, let their eyes or their head wander. Or even fall asleep!





On the day, my function was merely to advise and offer comment, as well as do the odd practical demonstration.

Prior to this, however, I had the pleasure of doing a pastel portrait of Flo.


This portait was done with a combination of hard and soft pastels as well as conte chalk, particularly useful in capturing the delicacy of her hair.

Demonstrations to art societies

This last month has been incredibly busy with portrait commissions, teaching , and also giving portrait demonstrations to art clubs and societies.

The latter can be great fun, particularly if it is a society you have visited before. Rather like meeting up with old friends and continuing an ongoing dialogue. The banter can be energizing. I do encourage the audience to ask questions and make comments. There is nothing worse than standing out there to the sound of silence. At a recent demo, one person commented that it was actually a "performance" as well. To produce the artwork is one thing, but you also have to keep the audience engaged , entertained and amused. More and more do I find myself turning into Billy Connelly!

Above, is an oil portrait demo I did for Clare Art Club. This was done in about one and a half hours with lots of palette knife work and large brushes. No time to fiddle around. The subject was David Gilbert, President of the club. He is a larger than life character and a great subject to paint!