I had a fabulous weekend away in Cornwall with my lovely husband. It didn't come without its problems, the accommodation was awful. I really discovered this weekend that you get what you pay for. So I will never stay in a static caravan again and the full story will be told on trip advisor.
Anyway not people to let that stand in our way, we had some fabulous walks on beaches and chatted to some lovely people in a great dog friendly pub , we even didn't let the rain get us down. But I was very pleased when the rain stopped for Monday.
Because the whole reason for going was that I booked myself onto a painting day in Penzance. Well we started in Penzance but moved onto Marazion and painted St Michaels Mount.
The day was run by the brilliant Glyn Macey. I have to make a confession, in that I didn't really know who he was when I booked it. I have been having problems with acrylics for years. I have dabbled here and there, but I always struggled as it felt it was like painting with treacle, after my beloved watercolours. I also felt it was a bit like painting by numbers. I have always been blocky with painting with it and to be honest I look like a complete beginner when I use them. I have however realised recently that I am to tight and if I want to explore the type of work that interests me, I need to move more into a fully bodied medium. So when someone shared a link on Facebook with me about Glyns workshops, I had a quick look at his work and the book Acrylics unleashed and thought this is the course for me.
What a great choice that was.
I made a decision before I went that I was not going to discuss what I did for a living, for 2 reasons really, the first one being totally selfish, I wanted to just enjoy and not worry about having to get a good result, but also I didn't want any of the others on the course, to worry I may be better than them. I really wasn't either, I was as much as a beginner with acrylics as they were.
Glyn was a great teacher and his gift to me this weekend was that he made me excited by the idea of using acrylics. What a revelation! I know it sounds daft, I knew of most of the techniques he taught us, but I could never put them into practice, I had no context into how they could be used for my paintings. The biggest revelation was a small palette knife, I have tried once with a palette knife, but really didn't get the point, well I do now, Oh what a joy!!
We scumbled and glazed and talked about optical and actual colour mixing, we kept to a limited palette but the revelation was how you could produce so many optical colours with just two glazes. And I am not allowed to share ( unless I kill you after ) the secret of Macey Blue!!!! as it is pure magic! I was also very taken with some collage techniques, something I had not been very keen on before.
Anyway the work I did is here for you to see. Probably we wouldn't have used so many techniques in one painting, if Glyn hadn't been so keen to share so many with us in one day. But both paintings are unlike anything I have ever done before.
This is my interpretation of a windy day on Marazion beach
and this was a studio study we did later, to learn some more techniques.
I would recommend this day so very very much, but get in quick as Glynn wont be running them after this year. His website is http://www.gullova.co.uk/ I saw 2 of his books, 'Acrlics unleased' and 'Glyn Macey's Cornwall', which were wonderful and I would have bought them, if I could have afforded them. I would recommend both and if you are interested then they can be bought from his site here
I can't wait to get a little palette knife and get myself in my studio, so if I go quite for a while, you will know why.
Wow Janice, that one of Marazion beach is amazing! Can't wait to see what you produce next.
ReplyDeleteStephie