Sharing the warmth at Higham Hall this Winter

Camp coffee time at St. Bega's church near Higham hall! Now...who has the matches?

Dispelling the myth that the Winter is not a good time to paint outdoors, we all enjoyed a superb drawing and painting week at Higham Hall recently sharing true friendship and creating some really expressive art together - even the sun shone for us!

It was Perfect timing really with dry weather for our Ashness Bridge drawing trip 2 days into art break with dramatic mist over distant Skiddaw beyond Derwentwater seen from our vantage point, creating some atmospheric distant soft light for us all to draw.

Choosing to draw the Winter view from Ashness Bridge (one of the most celebrated and iconic views in The Lake District) in comparison to Summer or Spring, the  view was very different with space between all the trees void of foliage showing a much more distinctive view. 

Working with pure line and tone with charcoal and mixed black and white media was perfect to interpret all the subtleties in the landscape. 

Following a short but in depth initial demonstration to get everyone started and see the different media in action, it was great to see how quickly everyone got into their stride to draw and paint the view in their own special way. 

A surprise trip around the head of Newlands Valley on our return was well worth the detour to see the majestic fells, snow line and high mists in this beautiful dramatic Lakeland valley on such a great day.

With regular stops for photo opportunities not to be missed many formed the basis of students work over the next couple of studio days - fabulous!

Our second outdoor sketching and drawing trip to St. Bega's church along the far shore of Bassenthwaite Lake couldn't have been better planned. The weather was perfect - warm and Sunny, more like an early Spring day really with some great work and fun painting outdoors had by all! 

On our way back from lakeshore at Bassenthwaite Lake there was another trip in store for everyone - a short skip and a hop up the old Carlile Road with some great views over looking Skiddaw from a very different viewpoint - fabulous light!

With several evening demonstrations showing lots of different techniques for different subjects (not just Lakeland Landscapes) on Canson professional papers it was really great to share lots of techniques for black and white media for many different subjects.

Another fabulous art break at Higham Hall with lots of happy memories for all of us creating great works of art learning lots of new and exciting art techniques. 

Our happy evenings exchanging stories in the bar and emails and contact addresses by all at the end of the course and fun had by all throughout was the perfect conclusion to another successful art break at Higham Hall. 

I'm back again in March '15 for another great art week. I'm looking forward to meeting a new art group for another thrilling art break!

£999! Calling all artists!

Quick response needed while this great offer lasts!

'Dalvaro Art' do it again! 

Consistent with their generosity and 'customer first policy' Dalvaro Art, the well renown and respected art holiday organisation near Valencia in Spain are now offering their luxury all inclusive art holiday with me from 11-18 June at a superb price - just £999!

Early booking strongly advisable as this is a temporary offer for a limited period only and could be withdrawn at any time.

What's included

• Free airport transfers each way from Valencia or Alicante

• Light meal and artists equipment welcome pack on arrival

• Fully inclusive 7 night stay in twin or double rooms, all en-suite.

• Breakfast, lunch and evening meal, with drinks, are all included with the cost of the holiday.

• A fantastic week of painting with fully equipped air conditioned studio and outdoor painting experiences using lots of different media with with Robert

• Minimum 25 hours tuition per week

• Full use of garden, tennis court, swimming pool and all amenities throughout your stay

• Fully inclusive trips out to the local villages, historic town Benigánim, within beautiful agricultural land complete with orange and olive groves - perfect locations for painting.

What's not included

• Airfares are not included

• Travel and medical insurance not included

This holiday is well situated for walking, hiking, cycling, photography and so much more and so, for any non-painting partners, this is a great chance for you to explore this special region of Spain as well!

How to book this exclusive offerTo book your place on this new and exciting mixed media luxury art holiday in the heart of Spain, please visit www.dalvaro.co.uk or email Loli Alvaro (your host) at lolialvaro@telefonica.net

For any further details please call Robert on 0113 2252481 or visit http://rdcreative.co.uk/art_holidays

Passionate about pastels

A little while a go I received a call from the SAA (Society for  All artists) asking me to road test some of their new and much improved own brand SAA pastels.

Here is the result...a full and comprehensive article in this months 'PAINT' magazine - the regular publication issued by the SAA to all its members. 

The article features the true benefits combining these very useful pastels with other known brands.

Here is a close up of the painting featured in the article in the different stages...

 ...and the finished painting

SAA pastels really do have a rightful place to be considered as a quality product and at a very affordable price the full range of 75 very useful colours (3 new recently added) is most certainly worth buying!

For more information about the Society of All Artists  and 'PAINT' magazine and the benefits of membership please visit http://www.saa.co.uk

June 2015 Coastal creations with Canson at Calverton 

'Patchings' Art Festival at Calverton Near Nottingham promises to be even bigger and better this year with the return of Canson for this years event from 4 - 7 June '15!

As one of their leading UK Ambassadors, I'm proud to take part this year with 2 sponsored workshops (in association with 'The Artist' magazine to which I contribute regular articles to), on Saturday 6 June teaching expressive mixed media techniques on the wonderful and responsive Canson fine art papers.

There will be one workshop in the morning and another in the afternoon.

PRICE FOR EACH SESSION
The cost of each three-hour session is £50(inc VAT)per person and includes one to one and group art instruction, Canson paper worth over £60(rrp), PLUS free entry to Patchings Art, Craft and Photography Festival for the day, worth £9.50

Your generous selection of Canson fine art papers will include a 12 sheet A3 Mi-Teintes Touch Pad, a 30 sheet A3 XL Mix-MediaPad, a 12 sheet 30x40cm Moulin du Roy NOT Pad and a spiral-bound 40 sheet 14x21.6cm Mix-Media Artbook, worth over £63(rrp).


The morning and afternoon seascape workshops have already received a great deal of interest and promise to be really popular so early booking is highly recommended so you do not miss out!

For more information and to book your place, please visit www.painters-online.co.uk/workshops
If you don’t have internet access please telephone Sophia or Dawn on 01580 763673

For more information about Canson papers please visit www.canson.com

'New blue' article now in print

For followers of my series of articles in 'The Artist' magazine all about colour, 'Cerulean Blue' is this months feature.

This is the 4th article from my very useful colour palette which include 13 very useful colours containing earth colours, hot and cool colours and within are traditional colours and new and exciting colours recently created for todays artists as well.

There are so many colours available for todays artists to choose from it can be a bit baffling to know which to choose - especially if you are a beginner.

This series of articles on colour should be able to help you understand colour options a little better so why not sign up to this amazing magazine and discover much more! 

There are lots and lots of other exciting articles to read too by many leading artists filling the pages with inspirational hints and tips, in depth discussions, art news and events...and more besides. there really is something for everyone to learn, whatever your style of creative direction.

'The artist' magazine is available form all leading newsagents or available online by following this link
http://www.painters-online.co.uk/Magazines/The-Artist/April-2015/Issue/_is279

A new era of creativity with Canson

Featured painting

Deep shadow and bright sun - Bempton Cliffs, East Yorkshire Coast

20 x 20 inches (51 x 51 cm)

Mixed black and white media on canson Moulin Du Roy 'Rough' 300gsm (140lb) 100% cotton watercolour paper

It's now official - I am proud to announce that I am now a fully registered Ambassador for Canson - the beautiful and responsive top quality professional papers made in France.

The company produce many, many high quality papers for all sorts of creative artists but it is the fine art papers (obviously) that I will be using and more than helping to promote...because I believe in them! 

The featured painting above is just one of a brand new series of paintings created on the Canson select papers I use and will be featured along with many others created on Canson papers in our joint exhibition 'All Creations Great and Small ' at the North York Moors Visitors Centre at Dandy, near Whitby from 16 April - 4 May '15. We have a meet the artists day on Saturday 18 April from 10.30am until 4pm and I will be demonstrating in the afternoon using Canson Mi-Teintes 'Touch' pastel paper (free to watch) so you'll see at first hand just how responsive their papers can be!

This painting 'Deep shadow and bright sun - Bempton Cliffs, East Yorkshire Coast' was created using lots and lots of different black and white media  (to include Nitram charcoal) on 'Moulin Du Roy' Rough 300gsm (140lb) - a  100% cotton internal and external surface sized paper with a superb and unique rough surface really is allowing me to push the boundaries of my own work into new and exciting areas. 

As my work gets ever more expressive and experimental - especially with mixed media and this paper is always first out of the draw!

For further information about the full and extensive range of papers available created by Canson for all of today's artists visit http://en.canson.com/canson/fine-art

More exciting news working with Canson coming soon!

Carbon admissions

I have to admit, since discovering Nitram charcoal, my creative direction and everyone else's who use the new innovative charcoal, has taken a turn for the better in 

Lots of new and exciting ways.

A little while ago I was asked by Dr Sally Bulgin (chief editor) of 'The Artist' magazine to which I contribute regular articles, to trial and write about the new Nitram Charcoal created in Canada yet following an old age tradition invented in France.

The above informative article all about Nitram charcoal is now available to read in the current issue of 'The Artist' magazine, available form all leading newsagents or to buy on line by following this link
http://www.painters-online.co.uk/Store/The-Artist-Subscriptions/_cat35

A little more about Nitram
Nitram charcoal is created by using solar power to direct the energy of the sun to fuel the burners to make this clean, easy to use charcoal in weight, softness and size and degree of hardness. 

The process is altogether more wholesome and cleaner and kinder to the planet and the end result is a charcoal with a beautiful velvet quality unlike any other I have ever used throughout my professional career as a creative Artist  which spans more than 22 years! 

All my students love Nitram charcoal - who wouldn't when it is produced in so many different hard and soft variations and thicknesses and sizes helping to create even greater creative gestural strokes and marks with confidence! 

For more information about Nitram visit http://www.nitramcharcoal.com/