Upcoming Dates for Watercolour Classes

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Yellow Field (watercolour 20x30cm) £150

MASTERCLASSES

All masterclasses 10am-3pm £45 (discounts for returners). This is an intensive day for those who prefer it to weekly classes and all or some materials are included. Maximum of four per group.

Masterclass 1 is for anyone new to watercolour painting, whether you’re a practising artist or starting out. Materials included. Friday 15th July (one space left); Saturday 16th July (one space left); further date to follow (four places)
Masterclass 2 is a follow-on day OR for those who have some experience of watercolour painting. Materials to supplement your own. Saturday 2nd July (full) & Friday 22nd July (two spaces left)
Masterclass 3 (coming soon!) is for those with more experience and will focus in more depth on advanced techniques and on my own particular approach. Bring your own materials, specialist materials provided.

How to book: send me your preferred class and dates via the contact form below.

PRACTICE SESSIONS

Practice sessions are suitable either for those who have attended a Masterclass or who have some experience of watercolour painting but want to develop their skills further (not suitable for complete beginners). If you would like to come for informal tutoring for up to 3 hrs in a small group, let me know via the contact form below. Bring your own materials  (water containers and supplementary materials provided). 10am-1pm or 1pm-4pm £15 (dates coming shortly)

OTHER CLASSES

There has been some interest in a series of weekly classes, so I will be trying these soon, dates and prices to follow. Let me know if you are interested. I also tutor groups as a visiting artist, so please feel free to ask for details via the contact form below. If you would like to book a class in my studio for your group of up to four, do get in touch as I offer special rates.

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Wirral Open Studio Tours 2016

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Edge (watercolour 2016) framed £350
Yellow Field (watercolour 20x30cm) £150
Yellow Field 2 (18x30cm watercolour) SOLD

Tomorrow I open my studio for the first time – in previous years I’ve shared or been in a venue – I’m feeling  both excited and anxious to get everything in order. Three of us are opening in New Brighton: Breda Whyte, Neal Dawson and myself, luckily all within a stone’s throw of each other in the Magazines area.

Not only are our studios open, but there is plenty to add to your visit: Vale Park, historic Magazines area, pub, vintage shops cafes etc, promenade and beach. That’ll give you a nice break before continuing your tour to other artists across Wirral – you can download a brochure with maps here: http://wirralart.com

 

Blue Moon Gallery

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Sea Sky (2016) watercolour 30x30cm framed £225
Burton Marsh (watercolour 2015) 20x20cm framed £110
Pond at Summertrees (watercolour 2015) 20x20cm framed £75
Return 2 (watercolour on paper 2014) image size 55x20cm, plus frame £140
Return 1 (watercolour on paper 2014) image size 55x20cm, plus frame £140

Five of the nine watercolours I’m currently showing at Blue Moon Framing & Gallery 182 Telegraph Road Heswall Wirral CH60 0AJ – Blue Moon, managed by owner Sue Webster, also sells cards, prints, sculpture and jewellery as well as being a popular framing hub. http://www.bluemoonframingandgallery.com/home/4578835022

Watercolour Masterclasses

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Students practising their skills, February 2016After many requests to run classes, I have now opened my studio twice a month for up to four students per session. Although I intend to run short courses later in the year, for the moment I’m focussing on intensive days, starting with watercolour as that is the medium most artists feel is difficult.

In fact I find watercolours fascinating, and after initial difficulty (I won’t post my early attempts) it is much like learning to ride a bicycle – a shaky start but worth it for the wheelies in the end. There is a practical science to the combination of water, pigment, surface and implement. Once these are grasped, possibilities open up. Therefore I run my classes with lots of experiments combined with encouragement, reassurance and a few learning ‘anchors’ to prompt the memory and focus the nervous mind on the basic principles. Students then learn for themselves how these operate without too much talking from me.

Masterclasses will run on the second Tuesdays and third Saturdays of each month 10am-3pm and must be booked in advance (using the Contact form below). There will be plenty of individual tutoring, demonstrations and all materials are provided for you to try. Cost: £45 (including refreshments, but bring a packed lunch).

People can attend just one or several as they wish, and I will indicate whether the session is Initial, Returner or Improver. Masterclasses are open to all levels of artistic experience, so you are free to choose which level of watercolour level you are at.

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Liverpool Urban Sketchers exhibition at Lark Lane Art Works

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Preview: Friday 10th July 5-8pm Exhibition: until Sunday 2nd August at 5pm. Sketch Crawl: Saturday 11th July from 11.30am – Lark Lane Art Works, Liverpool L17  Further Details

I’ve been out with Liverpool Urban Sketchers since the start of the year. I have to say that drawing buildings was akin to sticking my head in a vat of boiling oil, but, like trees and water, I knew that pushing against my limits is always rewarding in the end.

View Along Hope St (pen & wash on A4 paper) 2015

View Along Hope St (pen & wash on A4 paper) 2015

Liverpool Urban Sketchers is part of an international movement which began in Seattle in 2007. Their motto is “See the World, One Drawing at a Time” and all work is done on location rather than from photographs. http://www.urbansketchers.org

Duke St from Parr St, Liverpool (pen & watercolour on A4 paper) 2015

Duke St from Parr St, Liverpool (pen & watercolour on A4 paper) 2015

It is great fun meeting up with others – 10am on the first Saturday of the month at a different location each time – and then sharing our work over lunch. I was quite shy about drawing in public spaces but knowing other artists are around makes it so much easier. Artists come from all backgrounds and disciplines. Some are experienced, others are not, and I have learned a great deal.

Thank you, Mr. Muldoon, Poets & Players

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Poets & Players Competition 2015 - highly commended and winners with judge Paul Muldoon http://poetsandplayers.co/competition/poets-and-players-competition-2015/

Poets & Players Competition 2015 – highly commended and winners with judge Paul Muldoon

Professor Paul Muldoon is a fine poet and fellow Ulsterman, so I couldn’t resist including ‘Ulster Grill’ in my selection for this year’s Poets & Players competition, which he was judging. I thought it might at least give him a wry smile but certainly didn’t expect it to be a winner, being short and fairly sparse. I can only say I am delighted to receive third prize and feature on Poets & Player’s website. http://poetsandplayers.co/competition/poets-and-players-competition-2015/

Ulster Grill

Three breads, two puddings, sausage
stuffed with grain, an egg on top

and a careful rasher of bacon
laid with grace. A tray of tea follows,
breaking the silence with its little bell

and always you are asked: Is it enough?
Would you like some more?

Along the coast
from this butter-scented room
in a small town with seven castles,

through three loughs, a city
and a pinball of glens and arches

you’ll be asked the same questions: Is it enough?
Would you like some more? 

Soda and potato, wheaten and oats,
blood and guts, sunny side up.

Comments from judge Paul Muldoon
3rd Prize: ‘Ulster Grill’ by Janine Pinion

witty take on the “sunny” attitude of a beleaguered nation set against their diet of “blood and guts.”

And here’s the video:

Williamson Open Exhibition 2015

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Friday 10 Apr 2015 to Sunday 10 May 2015. The painting above is called ‘Marine Life’ and is a mix of watercolour, acrylic and emulsion prints. For a while I have been thinking about the totality of my experiences when out walking, so that a single scene is insufficient to say much about a whole walk, although brilliant for drilling down into an experience. In this case, I’m bringing together a number of facets of walking around Wirral. It’s an experiment and one which terrified the life out of me, since I decided to created it during the week before handing in for the show. It could have gone horribly wrong, but it sold.

New Paintings In Progress

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I’m aiming to refresh the display of my work that Alex Corina has kindly been showing at his gallery, Lark Lane Art Works. It’s a lovely space in a busy bohemian street, out of the city centre but in popular L17 close to Sefton Park. Here’s a taster of what’s to come.

This is new work on a slightly larger scale, now that my home based studio has grown bigger too. I should have frames and sale prices soon.
IMG_1740-0.JPGfrom ‘Coast’ Series

IMG_1825.JPGfrom ‘Wave’ Series

IMG_1804.JPGfrom ‘Dark Fell’ Series

Surrendering to Paint

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IMG_1809-0.JPG
Detail: Bow Wave (watercolour) work in progress

It’s happened again tonight, a delicious madness that ends in tears which merge, often literally, with the paint itself. I find myself on the other side of the room from my easel, not really sure how I got there, heart racing, gulping air and crying out. It sounds painful and in some ways it is, but it’s become a regular and welcome experience in my new work about the sea.

I suppose it could be like drowning, raw and visceral. I think painting the sea means touching the power of it and the cycles of tides and living species submerged in it through a process of examining what it looks and sounds and smells like, what it means, the stories it carries, the stories I carry, and so on.

Then there’s the technical stuff I really love – a flick of masking fluid here, some broad welts of squid-ink there, a fat hogshair brush or a sword-cut sable. I feel like a surgeon under my spotlight, selecting a series of precision tools. I’m slicing in, not knowing what I’ll find, checking I’ve got all the right settings, checking all the records I’ve gathered which culminate in this operation. I’ve painted this wave before but it’s not the wave I’m painting – I’m searching for something in the experience of this bow-wave; it’s not what I set out to do but it’s how I discover whatever it was that subconsciously drew my attention.

The paint runs and merges. I have a new brush, a filbert with whiskers which tickle the thick paper and send little snake tongues of acid yellow into a blend of phthalocyanine, alizarin and paynes grey. Across the lacy swirls of masking fluid it settles into small muddy dots on the surface and with a slap of lamp black the underside of the wave makes its presence known.

At once the feeling is of both power and vulnerability. The lacy spray of seawater/paint catches me unawares and I’m at the mercy of both the sea and the art itself. Against all the complexities of managing daily life this feels elemental and necessary!