Forgot to post this photo of #pleinair #seascape #painting in situ last week

The palette is probably a bit misleading as most of the colours around the edge weren’t used.
From memory I probably used white, burnt umber, raw umber, yellow ochre, ultramarine blue, viridian and yes a touch of black!
Interestingly, perhaps, I’d left my palette knife at home, which I would have expected to have used in that fiddly iron-work and scratched about with it in the foreground rocks. Who knows if it would have improved it?
Those with a nautical bent can tell me how long it took to paint by judging the change in the tide line!
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Not posted a #portrait #drawing for a while

Here’s a charcoal portrait of Maureen from the last Clifton Arts Club Saturday morning portrait & still-life session before the Summer.

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I had a couple of comments about what I was going to do to it after the break and the look of relief on their faces when I said “perhaps nothing” removed any doubt about it.
“It takes two to paint. One to paint, the other to stand by with an axe to kill him before he spoils it.” (William Merritt Chase)
I’d never heard of him either but he was an accomplished American impressionist and painter of this “truthful” portrait of Dorothy.

#portrait #oilpainting #course with Andrew James RP October 2014 filling fast

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Andrew James Self Portrait

The Andrew James Expressive Portraits course I ran in Portishead last year was a great success. Due to the popularity of the course there are two separate dates to choose from this year.

  • Tuesday, Wednesday & Thursday, 21st – 23rd October 2014
  • Friday, Sat & Sun, 24th – 26th of October 2014

The course is filling quickly, there aren’t many places left on the weekend one.


Feedback from last year’s course…

“He’s so tuned in to each individual artist, and pushes or coaxes everyone in the right direction…”
“I thought Andrew was superb – intelligent, open, honest, articulate, funny,
patient, tactful yet challenging and extremely supportive – providing us all
with ways forward that suited our abilities and levels of expression – which
is a rare capability in many art tutors let alone well-known artists.”
“I have been on one or two courses previously.This was the best
by some distance.”
“I felt like I learned more in 3 days than I did in 3 years at college”
“Andy was such an inspiration and such a nice guy with it. The group was also brill to work with, so so much talent!!”
“liked the venue a lot, partly because of it’s location by the estuary and the curlew accompaniment”
“cakes were stunning even though I shouldn’t eat cake”


I’m asking for a £50 deposit and the full price is £210. Further information and booking details are included here. There are some great videos of demos by him on YouTube too.

Severn tide receding through Clevedon Pier #art #pleinair #painting

I was struck by the darkness of the ironwork making a bold zed. But sooo many lines to describe it.

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That was 12 by 10. Here’s a little A5 lunchtime sketch that encouraged me to try again later with a deeper format; painted holding an ice cream in one hand. I don’t think there was very much cadmium paint in so I should live to paint another day.

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My first attempt at #framing

Well actually my 3rd, 4th and 5th attempts but I won’t show you those.

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Total cost of the wood is about £3, I can’t remember the cost of the new mitre saw I bought, ahem…
The main thing is that I’ve still got all my fingers left.
I’ve got a thin, normal and wider width of tray frame, general feedback so far is that the thinner frames look better around these little paintings although the difference is subtle.