LANDSCAPE IN OILS WITH AN ANIMAL - OPEN NOW

SUITABLE FOR BEGINNERS OR EXPERIENCED PAINTERS

The Landscape in Oils workshop is designed to take you through the entire process of how to paint an oil painting of a landscape step by step. I designed this course so that anyone can do it and get good results. What motivated me was that I had to be able to show absolute beginners alongside more experienced artists how to get there. This is just one way I paint landscapes. There are so many different approaches.

The method is designed to get you there fairly quickly and at the same time have you use different tools, processes and materials along the way so you can amplify your skills. Many of my students came into this live workshop saying they had not painted since in high school, or some of the intermediate painters said they had only used oils sometime - a long time ago! 80% of the students had never used oils. As a result of the workshops I found out what areas were difficult for my students and what needed more transparency and I have amplified these areas of learning in this online workshop version. We even start with acrylic paints as an underpainting to shorten the time of waiting to get started. As I said, I use many other methods to paint landscapes but this way will get you there surprisingly fast.

My live students did the workshop over 2 intensive days at my studio and despite our sometimes extended tea breaks 😄 we got finished with our own personal animal under the tree before they went home!

The process involves a fairly limited palette that in this case is based on a 'nowhere in particular' landscape but it did feature a lovely blue sunny sky, token huge cumulis clouds, a metaphorical ghost gum, and a pretend distance, mid ground and foreground. All features of our imagination which are designed to be tweaked at your pleasure to suit your location! I did not use realistic detail in the foliage deliberately - choosing instead to go for the impression and joyful use of the mediums and oils to let them do the talking! This is all about method and learning to be comfortable with pushing oil paint in conjunction with certain mediums to see what you can do.

On the animal, you are most welcome to bring that little critter into your work in whatever way you like. Some students drew their animal in a freehand and fun (exagerated character style), while others gridded up so they got the basic shapes and scale correct (we talk about arists licence on this), and others projected their animal on. The key point was NOT to get too detailed in this process as we would lose the plot and fall down the minutia trap. So more lessons here on how to 'get that painting done' by avoiding such traps.

This is a power packed workshop. Roll up your sleeves, take a deep breath and you can get a large painting done as a result! Tweaks and creativityare welcome (colour changes etc). I loved seeing the artists in the room with their wonderful rebellious independance breaking free as they added other gorgeous colours to their works, to better reflect and serve their inner creative. I loved the design sensibility of one artist who painted her cat super large and magnificent in the foreground totally smashing rules of proportion.

The thing is, if you are just learning you may not want to do this as you follow along exactly behind me, it depends on your learning style. Despite my wacky independant thinking nature, when I learn from someone I like to take every step they are taking, to literally crawl into their skin so I can understand what their basics are - to learn the 'method', the skill. Its only later that I branch out on my own expressions.

The point is, you can of course follow your own tangents, callings and feelings in this workshop. As long as you extract an improvement in your own critical 'mechanical' (do it skills) arty knowledge, I will be very happy!

PS a groovy little addition for those who like to work without all the talking, I have put in an option for you to turn on CAPTIONS in the videos. :-)