The Watermill’s next exciting live, interactive painting session is with the renowned US watercolourist and Watermill tutor Randy Hale. It is on Thursday 11 February at 5:00 pm European time. (Obviously, due to the inexorable laws of physics, this will be early in the morning in some parts of North America and late at night in Australia. If you can’t make the live session, you can still register and receive an edited video of the demonstration to paint along in your own time. See below.)
The theme is painting from photographs: quickly capturing the essence of a busy scene. “It’s fun to take a photo and turn into something a bit more abstract,” says Randy. “It is also good to work quite quickly. “This is an excellent lesson in LESS is MORE. When you work quickly and don’t think too much, the result is usually more fluid, spontaneous.” Randy’s approach is to simplify, and not get bogged down in details.
Unlike many online painting programmes, Randy’s will not expect you to ‘look over his shoulder’ for a long demonstration, and perhaps be allowed to ask the odd question or two. No, you will be painting along at more or less the same time, trying out the watercolour techniques that Randy has shown you, step-by-step. He will demonstrate some basic techniques for only a few minutes before you start painting the same subject at home. Then, after you have had your turn, Randy will move onto the next part of the process.
Lois Breckon from The Watermill at Posara will be on hand during the session to feed your questions. The session, on Zoom, will last a couple of hours or so.
Registration for this exciting online, interactive session is through the Eventbrite platform and you can join up by clicking here.
When you register for the session you will be asked for a donation. How much you give is entirely up to you. We like to think it should be like the dram of whisky you receive when visiting a Scotsman’s home: the size should neither offend the host nor the guest! Our Zoom painting demonstrations do take quite a bit of time in preparation and administration and your support is very much appreciated. With your generosity we can plan and run further sessions and, more importantly, provide a regular meeting place for creativity, camaraderie and fun.
When you have registered, you will be provided with two internet links. The first is the Zoom link for you to join the session. The second link is where you will find a source photograph of the subject that you will paint, a demonstration painting by Randy, to show you where you are heading, and a list of equipment and colours for your palette.
After the event, you will be invited to email us with your painting to add to a participants’ gallery. We will also send you a link to an edited video of the session that will enable to you revisit Randy’s step-by-step teaching. This will enable those in different time zones to download video and paint along at home in their own time. To enthuse you, here’s an example of a video from a previous online session with Randy.
In these difficult times, we hope that our online initiatives may add a ray of creative sunshine. Brighten your day and paint along with Randy. That registration link again: You can join up by clicking here.