SUNDAY WORKSHOP March 15th 2026; Daffodils or tulips, loose and lovely watercolour.

8 minutes ago
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In this workshop the intention is to use watercolour loosely and minimally. We will still be looking for precision in our looking so that what we put down on the paper is as a result of close looking. The looseness comes from allowing the paint to run amok in water – not to over control the paint in water, especially in the early stages.

· Place your daffs or tulips in a lovely clean label-free jam jar, half-filled with water. (Cut the stems so that your subject isn’t too tall to fit well on your page.)

· You’ll begin by making a working sketch, soft pencils, of your subject. Think about where you’ll place your subject on your page. Search hard for in-between shapes. Use soft transitions, hatching, line and tone to acquaint yourself with your subject.

· Look for light against dark… which may be the dark surrounding a thing or the dark on a thing. Look carefully to what actually happens as the stem passes through the water surface, not your assumption of what happens – there will be disconnect!

The watercolour.

· Prepare your palette with the colours you’re going to use. Include a blue and a brown to make a nice dark neutral.

· Completely wet your page. Paint your subject onto it – paint like a happy 5yr old, let the colours run. You might think you have too much water on your page, but the likelihood is that you’ll have too little and the colours won’t run enough. This is an experiment that can last a lifetime! Too much water? Too little water?!

· It’s worth starting a second painting now so that painting no.1 has time to dry naturally for a bit of time.

· As no.1 dries (but long before its in any way fully dry) begin to look for some of the details you found in your working sketch. Be very conscious of any in-between shapes or dark areas that you can paint to reveal your subject.

· You’re putting in some information and choosing what not to put in. Find a point where you say to yourself – that’s enough, I’m not doing any more! Leave your painting un-finished.