Nineteen members met on a very hot Saturday for an acrylic workshop with trees run by artist and tutor Joe Norris. Workshops in the last few years have been soft pastels, watercolours, and inks, so for those of us not used to acrylics it was great to use them again under tuition. Joe was a very patient tutor, informative on the acrylic colours we used gave us many tips during the day which will be useful for further paintings.

Joe brought along paintings of landscapes with trees that he has painted previously for us to see his style and use of colours.

Here’s his website for further info and contact details if you’d like him to visit another art group… https://joenorrisart.co.uk

We painted one picture before lunch and one afterwards. We started by painting our acrylic paper and boards with raw or burnt sienna then not drawing the image but diving straight in with a mix of indigo and yellow to define the shapes of the trees within the landscape. Joe walked around to give advice as we added lighter greens to our paintings and then the grass area. Most of us hadn’t heard of ‘sky holes’, painted on trees to give reference to the sky, but we tried this technique using white and alizarin crimson or red. We also used palette knives and old credit cards to add texture to the foreground.

Here’s the art group working hard, nicely cooled by the air con. Thank you for the photos, Joe.

We all used the same reference image but every painting created had its own unique feel. Some of us didn’t have time to paint the bluebells but we will paint them at home using a mixture of white, purple and blue.

For the second picture we used the same paint colours to paint trees with a path meandering through them. This time the light was ‘contre-jour’ meaning ‘against daylight’, with the camera/artist facing the primary light source with the sun shining through the trees in front of us. After painting the trees and path we dabbed on white and yellow paint for the sun with a fingertip and then used dampened kitchen roll to lightly spread the paint across the painting for the light effect.

Again it was interesting that we all used the same reference photo but every painting was different. Some could have been painted early morning, midday or in the evening and some were of very mysterious woods.

At the end of the session we put our paintings along one wall and Joe gave us helpful critiques of how we had painted during the day.

We thoroughly enjoyed this workshop with Joe as he patiently taught us with his knowledge. Thank you for coming, Joe, we hope to have you back again!

Well done everyone, you worked very hard for hours and took home two almost-finished paintings.

Look out for the next newsletter on 1st July. Our next session is on Wednesday 8th July from 7-9pm.