Now we're learning to paint with acrylics!
Part two of Peter Cunningham’s Learn to Paint with Acrylics classes has been nothing short of epic. All eight students painted a masterpiece of a darkened gorge, it’s steady waters backlit by a lemony morning sky through leafy trees!
Again, if you get an opportunity to attend one of Peter’s course, bypass the brain or purse/wallet and just SUBSCRIBE!
Forming Up
The evening started off comparing notes on our shopping list purchases. We all had one difficulty or another with sourcing paintbrushes of the right type (Acrylic or oil) or the right size.
Art suppliers across Carlow, Gorey, and Wexford cannot be expected to stock more than one or two brushes of each type, but it does make group purchases difficult and may drive purchases to the Internet? Perhaps there’s an art supplier who can make group orders swiftly, and maybe with a discount as incentive?
Anyway, once we’d “oooh”d and “aar”d at the variety of snatty-looking painting boxes unveiled on the night, and compared shopping expertise and experiences, Peter convened us into some semblance of order as the last of us fetched two vessels each of water.
Black Jesso’ed boards came out, while Jon King (ARTBANK’s Curator) doled out black card for those of us still in the process of supplies. The knowledgeable taped down their paper (as Peter had previously instructed, to be fair) while I quickly copied what seemed a good idea.
Getting Started
Before we knew it, Peter was scribbling away with Titanium White mixed with a touch of Cadmium Yellow (Pale) and a fan brush. A large floaty wedge grew down from the top of his blacked board.
There was a moment of reverence and brain waves audibly computed for a why, what, how, and where?
Peter explained: re-demonstrated, and encouraged us to follow with confidence. We followed…confidence was a little scarce, but we followed. It felt good to break the blankness of our ‘canvas’: great, in fact. We were painting!
Following Peter
Each of us roughly followed Peter’s lead and produced our own versions of the twister-like geometry Peter had so freely created. He reminded us that we are painting an impression. “Even a photograph is only an impression”. We just painted sky.
With Burnt Ochre (brown) and a liner brush, we repeated the previous week’s practice of painting branches. Applying our skill to our masterpiece was not without its stresses. Last week we were gently forming a likeness, now we felt the pressure of sketching a scene. But Peter was reassuring as always, and pressed up to get on with it: not to worry. I only worried about how much I was worrying.
Now we mixed Cadmium Yellow (Pale) with Ultra Marine (blue) to create a thick leafy soup in our pallets (saucers, pallet papers, and real artist’ pallets among them).
With a fresh fan brush, we battered into the soup and conveyed it to our scenery with gentle dabbing and flicking and – it must be said – some cussing. Impressions of trees overhung the pale tornado.
We mixed Burnt Ochre (brown) with a touch of Ultramarine (blue) and began filling in around the ‘sky’ and overlaying the ‘trees’ with rock using the fan brush. I totally didn’t wash my brush first, so my clean brown rocks were moss-covered from the off. I didn’t think it would matter. I was too wrapped up in just painting – with real paint – acrylics! Cool. (More cussing off my shoulder).
Back to Titanium White and a clean fan brush (I remembered this time!) Now Peter led with very brave-looking strokes of highlight about our rocks and even braver marks for where our water would run. We followed. There was a palpable and comfortable silence as we each crafted our scenery, now getting a handle on how to lay our paint.
Peter did his routine rounds, encouraging and admiring each of student’s creative works and offering suggestions and help when required or requested. His teaching style is relaxed and he very much expects us to get on with it as he knows the path he is leading us along and knows we’ll all arrive in good time.
Looking around the table at my fellow students’ paintings, I could see that my own ‘good time’ might incur short delays. I washed my brushes to recompose but I couldn’t help but feel pleased with myself. I was enjoying this real paint lark and already planning what I might try when I get some time at home.
A Break
Jon King “flew” an old test print of my first commission, the Messerschmitt into my gully scene. He was giving me a hard time. I find it difficult not to draw in or paint exacting detail and he’d seen me adding things that perhaps didn’t need to be there to present the light impression our brains need to complete the picture for themselves. It’s why some paintings attach to us emotionally – because our brain fills in the spaces from our experience and memory causing a connection with the artwork. It’s a story, but it doesn’t all need told. Point taken. Thanks, Jon.
Final Push
And back to painting. We were clearly all in the swing. We dragged a pool with a green-loaded fan brush horizontally from left to right. We added other leaves, fern-like flora, and a bold new rock in the bottom left hand corner. And we were done.
We’re done?!
We’re Done
We each stood back from our work and, of course were eager to compare experiences with our fellow students. It seemed to me that everyone had a piece of the painting that we wished we had done. But behind the ‘detail’, everyone had their masterpiece – painted in one evening, and in their own style! Wow.
"Sign it. It's your work." Wow (again). Yes. Yes, it is.
“Make sure you get some practice in this week,” said Peter. I don’t doubt that we’ll each make the time. And we made our ways home ready to show off our scenery to words of wild praise and, in my case astonishment. “It’s not brown like your others, Dad”. No. And there’s a surprise!
Thanks Peter and fellow students. I am so looking forward to Lesson 3 next week.
Gallery
It'd be just wrong not to show off what we have painted? So here's our gallery.
Note: Each image is of course, Copyright of the individual artist ;)
