Melbourne – Watercolour Painting Workshop Insight
Once again, I find myself sitting in the airport lounge, all set to fly away to my next watercolour painting workshop and wonderful group of students to work with. This time, were enjoying a 3 day masterclass, where we will be creating one illustration a day to learn more about capturing our favourite subjects in our favourite medium! What a hard way to spend our long weekend hey? We are truly blessed to have this opportunity to unplug and indulge in such a wonderful creative pause.
I woke early to another perfect autumn morning, soft and still, raced to the closing doors of the train to town and enjoyed the velvety smooth foggy morning views over the Hawkesbury – a different beautiful scenic story every time. Ive hauled my bags up the rabbit warrens of Central station, a mix of old and new buildings, memories, moments coming to mind as I weaved in and out the crowds to nowhere, followed the familiar stop start queues into the airport lounge… all the way to the coffee shop (with a squirt of Burburry on the way) and I am ready to this new adventure!
Ive carefully selected 3 focal subjects to work on this week, a botanical, a small bird and a pair of toadstools to keep us busy. These subjects give us a well rounded feel for natural history painting challenges, and a better feel for working in realistic watercolour. They are beautiful, practical and fun subjects and im so looking forward to deep diving into each one. Lets take a look at how our workshop unfolded!
A full class awaiting, we put the theories in our heads to practice, establishing clear and practical processes, learning about techniques, touch and balances – the one on one attention helping my students grow in a very personal way, as we learnt more about realistic watercolour painting. Our toadstools were a wonderful first taste test to the process, giving us a brilliant cross section of techniques to explore in this stunning, whimsical, ever favourite subject. Slowly our toadstools emerged, applying our focus to one stage and technique at a time. Learning, adjusting and growing so much in such a short time is a wonderful thing to see… a true buzz for my efforts to knowledge share as I do.
With our toadstool paintings in hand, we shifted our focus to the next challenge. The Southern Emu Wren (reference thanks to Roger Mackertich) was a fun subject with his insanely long, sweeping tail. It brought us a significant new story and technical challenges to consider… we discuss colour, materials, process and techniques, creating coverage, texture and those long steady tail feater lines to top it off with a perfect line work and brush control practice.
Every painting has its unique set of balances and combinations of techniques, and although this was only 3 days together, we certainly enjoyed a jam packed taste test of this craft. New curiosity, lots of new clarity and confidence, my students left with plenty of new ideas to tackle in their creative practice following our time together! Thank you so much to everyone who joined me for this event. Ill be missing you all but I look forward to seeing your continued creative growth, or at the next painting workshop experience!
If youd like to join me for a face to face painting workshop, you can keep track of whats on offer in my Painting Workshop Calendar, or on my Linktree. Perhaps Ill see you there next!
Watch insight into our Toadstool chapter of the painting workshop
Watch insight into the Southern Emu Wren chapter of our painting workshop