There havent been any group activities in the are since June so it was good to get back to painting some live portraits again. The first one at the Hawkesbury Community Arts Workshop was on canvas that needed mor priming and it was a bit of an effort to scrub the paint into the canvas,  so with the second one at Richmond Art Supplies I made sure the canvas was prepared and the paint flowed more easily.

The Village Kitchen Restaurant in Kurrajong Village, is hosting an exhibtion of paintings from Artists in our Piggery Lane Studios from 12th June until 15th July, with paintings by Kym Morris, Sharron Whittington, Maran Wilcox and myself.
Some of my paintings on one  the wall of a dining area

It was the first portrait group for a few months at the Hawkesbury Community Arts Workshop due to floods and other events getting in the way, and due to a  last minute cancellation this one almost didn't take place either, but Mia was found in time to sit for us. I gave her the portrait sketch to take away.... hence the photo isn't very good!
Oil on canvas approx 20 x 16

the video of the portrait demonstration  for the MacquarieTowns Arts Society on Maarch 13th at the Deerrubbin Centre .in Windsor has now been posted on YouTube

On Tuesday April 13th I did a portrait demonstration for the Macquarie Towns Arts Society. These demonstrations are always a learning experience for me too. Painting a portrait under the pressure of expectation is different to the relaxed informal group setting where the outcome doesn't really matter, and there is the added burden of trying to verbally explain and give something of value to the audience watching.
The time is limited, should I say a lot and then get stuck into the painting? or say less and try to feed information as the painting progresses?..I tried to take the second approach.  With the portrait groups there is usually a break every 20 minutes, which gives the sitter a rest, and the artist a change of concentration and the chance of a fresh look, which doesn't happen with a demonstration, so an information exchange is another way of doing that.
The group watching seemed to really enjoy it and I'm told there will be a YouTube  video of this demonstrationavailable,so I  may be able to see for myself!

At our monthly portrait group  this  time we a mother and son sit together.

As a part of the celebration of 100 years of the RAAF, local artists were invited to participate in an open day of plein air painting on the Richmnd RAAF Base. A  C130J Hercules aircraft was parked on the runway as an option  to paint witha backdropo of buildings and mountains.
The weather had been threatening rain, but the day turned out to be ideal...   at 33 degrees it was a little warm on the runway, and the RAAF officers were exceptionally friendly and helpful, which made the day a great success.
This was our regular scheduled portrait day at the Art Shop in Richmond, which was cancelled in order to participate here, and for most of us, including myself it was the first time ever for painting an aeroplane!