Demonstration for Keswick Arts Society

Demonstration for Keswick Arts Society Nov 2017

By Rob Miller, Nov 7 2017 04:26PM

I've jotted down a few notes here about an afternoon I had. I'm going to try and do more of these so that you can get a feel of my working life as an artist painting in the beautiful English Lake District and Lingholm in particular.

I've copied and pasted this from my blog on the Lingholm website so if you want to see more please click here

I had a great time last Friday at the Herberts Centre in Keswick with Keswick Arts Society. I managed two demonstrations the first 45 minutes with a triptych watercolour of the Northern Derwentwater Fells this was a real gamble watercolour on this scale can easily go wrong but even with the short time slot, I think I did well. Challenging oneself is the only quick way to develop and test your skills and mentally your concentration whether its in private or in public. if you do and it comes off then watercolour is amazingly good at looking bright and fresh...perfect really as it keeps this fresh quality forever.

After tea came the second half. I had already stretched some Windsor and Newton oil paper and had prepared a box of all the materials I would need so I got straight into making a sepia painting using Pip Seymour Acrylics AKA. I covered the whole sheet in a light wash of lemon and raw sienna and whilst still wet had some fun wiping it off with a cloth, moving the paint around the surface, before painting with a cloth , brush anything in my box trying out all sorts of non traditional ways in order to quickly get to an image that I liked. The Art society members appeared to love it, this method is not only quick fun but also produces some stunning work by some of the UK's leading artists. At the end of the demo, we talked about using this technique for a full day workshop in the new year.