for my art lesson at the Royal Art Society I had the model do some 3 minute  poses with her head in different positions which I think is good practice for  drawing the structure of the head without concentrating too much on detail, as well as being  a good warm up!

Then we did longer pencil study before moving on to a painting pose. Some wanted to delve into watercolour this week while some of the class concentrated on charcoal drawing and oil painting.
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from today's portrait session at the Hawkesbury Community Arts Workshop,  an A3 oil and an A3 Watercolour

I have started a term teaching a portrait class at the Royal Art Society in North Sydney  on Wednesday afternoons 1.30-4.30pm
Not being academically trained or having attended any art schools my approach will be  more 'What they don't tell you in Art School!' than a formal academic approach, and the goal of the course will be to enjoy the experience of developing and improving individual skills and confidence in the art of Portraiture.

The principle medium used will be oil paints but the course won't be limited to one particular method or style and the intent will be to build competence, confidence and originality in being able to portray a likeness in a variety of mediums and methods, and will be  aimed at   developing confidence to paint 'alla prima' with short poses but will also include developing a more finished result over longer poses.

We got off to slightly disorganized start, orienting myself to the way things work there, we had a volunteer model step in from another group for a short time... next week should run a little smoother, and some of the participants are keen to explore other mediums like watercolour next week.

from the monthly portrait group at Richmond Art Supplies

A tribute to my friend Alan Chipperfield who has  passed away at the age of 89.
for several years now we had been getting together on Monday afternoons for the practice of painting portraits. It started when I was told of this elderly gentleman who wanted to learn to paint portraits, and I soon found was that what he really wanted to paint a surprise portrait of his son, the internationally renowned architect Sir David Chipperfield. 

We discovered that we had many things in common in our backgrounds, and Monday afternoons developed into a regular painting session along with cups of tea and coffee and discussions of everything under the sun, and which stopped for very few things... Monday afternoons were for painting!

Alan's house was a heritage house circa 1812, and he operated his antiques and restoration business from there, and as there was nowhere inside suitable for our painting we always worked outside which was not easy but that is the way he wanted it.

He was a remarkable individual, growing up in England in the 1930's, evacuated during the war as a child, becoming a successful businessman before emigrating to Australia and spent the last decades of his life working with antiques. It would take a couple of books to describe him and his possibly eccentric ways and life! successful in business he had retired several times but worked 7 days a week, had made millions but would spend nothing on himself. Fortunately there are a couple of autobiographical books that he did write. One of them is titled “A face in the Crowd' describing his life up until his move to Sydney over 25 years ago.

Here are some photos. my portrait of Alan, Alan working on portraits at the back of his house, some of his antiques and upholstery and what he did it on... never a person to spend money unnecessarily!