Workshops Reviews
Juliet Best Workshops
May 2017
by Gwen Carre
A very successful workshop with well-known Wellington artist, Juliet Best was held at the clubrooms on Monday 22nd May. Sharing different art products, Julia demonstrated and explained how to apply these with special emphasis on texture techniques.
Andrew, from Gordon Harris dropped in and had a chat and very generously donated several products for the club to use. Each participant ended the workshop with a finished painting which was displayed at the end of the day. We had great encouragement from Juliet and she gave us all confidence in our own work.
Thank you members for the overwhelming support for this day.
I think everyone would agree that it was a most enjoyable day and applaud Juliet for making it so.
Juliet Best ran her second workshop at the Club. We learnt glazing techniques on a simple landscape and 17 artists all completed a painting. Juliet took us from gesso, to building up layers of glaze and acrylic and a final texturing product.
Andrew from Gordon Harris called in as we used Golden products from their art supply shop.
July 2016
by Del te Rito
Royd Bussell Pastels
Very satisfying pastel workshop with Royd Bussell 2 July, 2022
by Sharon McIntyre
It was a real treat to participate in Royd Bussell’s Pastel workshop on Saturday 2 July. After many years not having dabbled with soft pastels, I was effectively an absolute beginner with this medium, and the morning spent practicing various techniques was invaluable, and learning about the varying qualities of brands and types of pastel. Another experiment using different papers was equally useful.
At first the list of items to bring to the workshop seemed somewhat daunting, but most were used during the morning of experimentation, some very briefly.
Before a quick break for lunch, we launched into the background for a beach scene on canvas, then abandoned that to complete the Pohutukawa tree details at home in a medium of our choice.
During the afternoon, we concentrated on our final work, a still life of fruit in a bowl.
I found this very satisfying, as I built up the colour and detail. I used the recommended Artfix Colour Spectrum paper in blue. I am very glad that I splashed out the $$$ to buy it. It is such a pleasure to work with this. I quickly tackled the plate to my satisfaction, then tweaked the fruit some more, having almost completed the piece before the end of the session.
Royd is highly skilled in this medium, his favourite, and he showed us some of his finished works, which demonstrated the various techniques he shared with us. While we worked, Royd walked among us, giving us individual tips to progress our work.
Apparently, this workshop was the first he has delivered, and I am sure that if he offers any in future, they will be well-received. He has inspired me to continue to work with pastels, despite the messy nature.
John Crump Oil Painting
By Charlotte Hird 2021
Thanks to committee member Graeme Calcott the club secured a weekend workshop in July with his old friend and master painter John Crump. The workshop sold out in a flash and I’m sorry if you missed out.
13 painters gathered on the Friday evening to hear John talk about his long career, technique, approach and his materials as he adeptly painted a south coast scene.
Saturday morning was clear and calm as we drove to the south coast to gather inspiration. We came back to the club to set up our gear and begin our own paintings.
I initially struggled to set up the oil paints after many years of watercolour painting. Taking onboard John’s advice about design composition, tonal balance and colours I embarked on a small canvas of the distinctive Wellington rocks and Pencarrow in the distance.
I admire John’s expressive brush strokes and minimal earthy palette but found his apparent simple approach is anything but simple to replicate. His quote that “3 hours painting en plein air is enough and 5 hours is too long” is my kind of painting. Olympia was horrified as she usually takes six months to complete a painting.
There was much industry during the two days and John worked his way around the room giving advice on composition, tone and colour. We all went away with a painting or three and plenty of hot tips from the master.
Portraits in Watercolour with Eric Dyne
Eric Dyne's "Portraits in Watercolour" Workshop
by Charlotte Hird
The two day workshop with Eric Dyne was a productive time to try new techniques and colour mixing tips. Eric had a long and successful career as an illustrator in the advertising world and now paints for pleasure. He generously shares his knowledge with others. I regularly attend Eric’s Friday portrait class at the Wellington Art Club where he has taught me to paint with watercolours and continues to inspire me.
It’s magic to watch a portrait appear as Eric demonstrates his techniques.
For transparent flesh tones that glow Eric uses raw sienna and alizarin crimson, then mixes in cerulean blue to make a neutral tone for shadows. He uses a mixture of either ultramarine and burnt sienna or viridian and alizarin crimson for the darkest areas in the corners of the mouth and under the top lip.
In the mornings, Eric outlined the anatomy of the skull and we learned the classic rules of proportion.
We painted from photos of our model Giselle to familiarise ourselves with her striking Italian features then in the afternoons she sat for us.
Eric encouraged us to carefully observe the light on the planes of her face and build the tones and form.
We did a series of 15 minute drawings then painted from life using a four colour step plan.
I produced six paintings and five drawings, none of which captured a great likeness but all had elements of spontaneity and transparency. It was an enjoyable escape on a cold winter weekend with a friendly enthusiastic group of fellow artists.
Robyn Eastgate-Manning
Review by Rod Bently-Bishop 2021
Robyn’s Abstract Art one day workshop was just brilliant.
I really don’t know much about abstract art.
To write this article I looked up my friend Dr Google and found these comments.
“It is art that does not attempt to represent an accurate depiction of a visual reality but instead use shapes, colours, forms and gestural marks to achieve its effect.”
“This vocabulary is made up of six basic elements: Line, Texture, Shape, Form, Colour, and Value. The end result is a composition not referring to our visual world.”
“It is a way of expressing emotion feelings moods, anything that is outside of realism.”
On Saturday Robyn started this overview.
Then to our first exercise.
We used various papers and wrappings which we glued to watercolour paper, next our paints and markers. By lunch time we had all achieved surprisingly good results.
Robyn the whole time was dashing around the studio giving positive encouragement and good advice, including that the design had to be our choice and decisions. No right or wrong, just do it!!!
After a break we had a second go, resulting in similar good results.
It had been a wet and windy day outside but we had a warm and wonderful day inside the club house.
I thoroughly enjoyed the day and would recommend Robyn’s workshops to everyone.
I believe it is important to do workshops. It helps me to shake up my way of thinking and to see a new way of operating.
by Sheila Playford June 2021
We had such a great day fully immersed in creating our art books! Robyn Eastgate-Manning gave us so much info and encouragement, and we took off running!
We could work on 2 or 3 books if we wished and started decorating the pages with colourful art, straight from the soul. A first layer of light gesso to slightly cover or totally cover the printed page of the law books, and then added colours, shapes, lines, light and dark values, open and closed designs. Focus was on differences, hard/soft, light/dark, hard lines and soft abstract shapes. Was fascinating to see all the different outcomes from each artist.
Robyn Eastgate-Manning
Review by Rod Bently-Bishop 2021
Robyn’s Abstract Art one day workshop was just brilliant.
I really don’t know much about abstract art.
To write this article I looked up my friend Dr Google and found these comments.
“It is art that does not attempt to represent an accurate depiction of a visual reality but instead use shapes, colours, forms and gestural marks to achieve its effect.”
“This vocabulary is made up of six basic elements: Line, Texture, Shape, Form, Colour, and Value. The end result is a composition not referring to our visual world.”
“It is a way of expressing emotion feelings moods, anything that is outside of realism.”
On Saturday Robyn started this overview.
Then to our first exercise.
We used various papers and wrappings which we glued to watercolour paper, next our paints and markers. By lunch time we had all achieved surprisingly good results.
Robyn the whole time was dashing around the studio giving positive encouragement and good advice, including that the design had to be our choice and decisions. No right or wrong, just do it!!!
After a break we had a second go, resulting in similar good results.
It had been a wet and windy day outside but we had a warm and wonderful day inside the club house.
I thoroughly enjoyed the day and would recommend Robyn’s workshops to everyone.
I believe it is important to do workshops. It helps me to shake up my way of thinking and to see a new way of operating.
by Sheila Playford June 2021
We had such a great day fully immersed in creating our art books! Robyn Eastgate-Manning gave us so much info and encouragement, and we took off running!
We could work on 2 or 3 books if we wished and started decorating the pages with colourful art, straight from the soul. A first layer of light gesso to slightly cover or totally cover the printed page of the law books, and then added colours, shapes, lines, light and dark values, open and closed designs. Focus was on differences, hard/soft, light/dark, hard lines and soft abstract shapes. Was fascinating to see all the different outcomes from each artist.
Framing Workshop with Charlotte Hird
Review by Haley Clark October 2024
I really enjoyed my experience at the Framing Workshop. I have always wanted to have a better understanding of how to prepare artwork for exhibitions and sale, but finding information on how to do it correctly has been a challenge. Charlotte broke it all down so clearly with hands-on demonstrations, which let me walk away with confidence in my finished framed piece. Everything, from Charlotte’s full process to what materials to use was explained thoroughly, and saved me a lot of future trouble by answering questions I didn’t even know I had yet. The tangible skills I got through the workshop make me confident I can replicate everything on my own. I have a newfound excitement for being able to exhibit and sell my work more professionally, and I’m already gearing up to be able to do so.
Watercolours with Charlotte at Thursday Art
Review by Jerry Hewitt June 2022
I have just completed Charlotte Hird’s four-week watercolour painting course, and I am now keen to develop my newly acquired skills, such as they are, further. Charlotte’s hands-on approach to teaching is ideally suited to ensuring students see immediate results, and progressive improvement through each class. Using an overhead camera to throw the view of her drawing board directly onto a large format screen, Charlotte guides her students through a series of exercises with practical demonstrations of technique.
Each two hour class is based around a specific landscape image, and introduces students to the step-by-step process of watercolour painting, from choice of paper, to setting up a work area and the tools and materials needed. The importance of process and a disciplined approach is emphasised, and becomes quickly apparent to even the most inexperienced student.
Charlotte employs a limited palette of five colours for students to explore colour-mixing to achieve a usable range of colours, tints and values sufficient to render credible scenes.
As with the colour palette, Charlotte’s workshops use a limited range of brushes – mop, flat, round tip (large and fine) – to demonstrate basic techniques, and guides students on which brush to use for specific effect. Wet-on-wet techniques, dry wash applications, blending and graded washes are demonstrated and practiced, as are hard and soft edge applications. Images chosen for the practice paintings make extensive use of the range of techniques taught, and each student has a completed painting to take home after class.
The workshops are an excellent introduction to watercolour for the novice, or a great refresher for those who have allowed their skills to atrophy with time.
Review by Tessa Mitchell 2021
Charlotte’s Thursday watercolour classes are ideal for all levels of watercolourists, whether you are a beginner, want to refresh, learn new skills or meet other artists. I learnt how to use watercolours when I went to The Learning Connexion and have practised using them since, however not as much as I would like! Going to Charlotte’s class has already helped boost my confidence and I am learning lots of new skills as well as refreshing old ones. I have felt really empowered after each class.
Charlotte demonstrates many different techniques, using a digital screen so we can all see. She also welcomes her students to watch at her deskside if they so wish. Charlotte is very approachable and genuinely enjoys teaching. She makes herself available by walking around the room giving helpful advice, suggestions and praise. Each lesson consists of different subject matter and techniques. In our first lesson, we practised ‘loading’ our brushes creating different gradients and learning how to create different shading effects. This gradually progressed to us creating beautiful landscape painting.
In our second lesson, we did exercises on shading 3D objects and we did a colourwheel exercise. These exercises prepared us for our final task of painting vibrant tamarillos. Charlotte showed us how to create realistic light and shadow and how we can best achieve them using watercolour.
I highly recommend this class if you are interested in watercolour. I can’t wait for this week’s lesson!
Review of “Writing about your Art” workshop
Review by Lucille Cash 2021
Six artists attended Miranda’s workshop to explore writing a personal artist statement and a bio in a fun, relaxed environment.
Miranda asked us to think about what sort of art we do. We then wrote about that without too much thinking.
We were encouraged to avoid long sentences and to keep in mind our audience.
Questions to ask ourselves about our art.
How do I work and set up my studio or workspace ?
What is unique about what I do ?
We were asked to take one of our paintings with us and we chose another artists work to write about.
At the end of the morning we left with written statements about our paintings and I felt more confident to write about my own work.
Being in Touch with Miranda Munro
Review by Lucille Cash 2021
A group of 5 artists attended Miranda’s workshop on Saturday 13 March. We started the session with a quick introduction about ourselves as there were two new people in the group.
Miranda introduced the topic Being in Touch with a 10 minute visualisation of a walk through a beautiful forest but encountering an area of pollution. We also imagined colours and people we met on our walk. Our art work was based on what we imagined on our walk focussing on colour and integration.
Each artist had a different story to tell which we shared in our group at the end of the day. We used a variety of mediums in our work: paints, dyes, stamps, collage, rollers and fabric. Miranda teaches with a topic in mind which we are free to explore with our own ideas and techniques as shown in my photos.
My experience of the afternoon was feeling totally relaxed and free to explore my ideas, often out of my comfort zone. I left inspired after an afternoon of sharing and creating art with like-minded people.
Miranda Munro workshops at the Art Club
Review by Lucille Cash 2020
I have attended most of Miranda’s Transformative art workshops held at the Art club since 2016. Miranda offers freedom to experiment in all mediums including acrylics, crayons, pens, stamping, fabric painting and collage.
Some of the topics we have covered include; Home, Journeys, Time for a change, Patterns, Hearts Desire, Dreams, Magic Happens and Crossroads. Each topic is expressed from our personal feelings and the workshops help in this creative process. We work in a peaceful atmosphere and I usually go away re-energised and inspired to paint.
At the end of each workshop we are encouraged to share our work and discuss the process in a safe non-judgemental environment. This can be a very personal and honest experience. I have gained confidence in my art through attending Miranda’s workshops.
If you enjoy creating and exploring art outside your comfort zone, with like minded, creative people then Miranda Munro’s workshops will appeal to you. One rule at the workshops is no self putdowns or statements like, I’m not very good at…
At each session we have a shared afternoon tea and a break to chat then it’s back to create.
Andrew James
by Sharon Macintyre October 2024
Review of the Watercolour & Pen Still Life Workshop
On Sunday 22 September 14 artists were treated to a Watercolour and Pen Still Life Workshop with Andrew James.
Our instructions were to bring some items to arrange, some waterproof pens, and hot press paper, which is more forgiving on the pens. We began with an exercise using a pear, going through the various stages of planning and execution.
Then followed exercises showing the importance of Composition. He had us arranging our objects, ensuring a sense of depth, then drawing an outline on practice papers, then re-arranging a few times, and finally choosing the most pleasing composition, before creating the outlines in pen.
He then explained his use of the 3 basic colours and how they make clean colours when mixed. There was some basic but practical colour theory, with a reminder to leave lots of white, use a large brush when you can, and use large strokes.
Finally, we had a demonstration about the use of shadow, a critical element to a satisfying painting. Andrew had us gathering around him at intervals as he explained each stage. His teaching style is very comfortable, a good balance of patience, humour and encouragement. He was considerate of our various needs and his individual follow-up was appreciated. He had occasion to remind me to use larger strokes for better effect. Throughout the momentum/pace was good, and despite have more objects than other participants, I was able to complete 2 pictures during the workshop.
At the end, we displayed our works and discussed what we each liked about them. We all had totally different styles and they were all fun and well-executed.
Andrew had a lot of his workbooks and individual sheets of art to demonstrate his style, and to provide inspiration. Even his tidy printing was something for me to aspire to.
Needless to say I immediately booked his Fearless Drawing workshop to be held on 17 November.
Jacky Pearson Watercolours
by Sherryn Strickland November 2021
In early November watercolorist Jacky Pearson held a weekend workshop in the Wellington Art Club rooms. It was eagerly anticipated by the group who attended, as it had been rescheduled from September due to the Wellington covid scare.
We spent two days of intense rewarding concentration on procedure, and application. Jacky is an engaging and very knowledgeable tutor, and we spent time on our first morning discussing form and shadow in the depiction of mass. We learned how to mix various blacks, and about the behaviour of pigment types in washes. We revised watercolour basics, paint density, brush loading, and scumbling. We all painted some landscapes with cloud forms, rendering to indicate the density and play of light and shadow in the clouds.
On our second day, we considered perspective, and practised using plenty of paint and colour in a comprehensive and free manner.
Lunch fuelled us for our biggest challenge, a downtown Wellington cityscape! It was fascinating watching Jacky competently paint our city, and it was fun trying it ourselves, with a little gentle guidance.
It was an intense and rewarding workshop, a fulfilling weekend spend with a genial group of fellow artists.
Sheila Playford’s Alcohol Inks Workshop
By Rita Quirk
On a cold Saturday in mid-July I attended an Alcohol Inks Workshop tutored by Sheila Playford at the Art Club, something quite different from my usual watercolour or acrylic medium not to mention my painting style.
We had three hours and Sheila got straight into it, showing us how to disassemble Sharpie pens to access the ink which was not too difficult once we got the hang of it. When we had mixed the ink with alcohol to make our ink medium Sheila demonstrated the technique of applying ink and alcohol to various special papers and other surfaces and manipulating the results with the aid of straws, dryers, and other methods to create artworks.
Then we were let loose to have a go ourselves and what fun it was. We all had at least four different surfaces to experiment with including Yupo paper, ceramic tile and canvas and the inks behaved slightly differently on each and we all enjoyed trying our hand at producing our own masterpieces. We all loved the strong colours of the inks and as always at a workshop although we were using the same materials, there was great variety in the results.
Sheila did a great job guiding us through demonstration and practical help as well as providing extra materials and best of all we all left with written instructions as well as materials so we could continue to experiment at home.
Thank you, Sheila, I’m sure everyone enjoyed the workshop as much as I did.
Shirley Sutton Workshop
By Linda Smith
Ten club members attended Shirley Sutton’s Acrylic workshop on April 19th. The subject Shirley chose for subject matter was poppies.
Some of the equipment she kindly provided included Indian ink, pouring medium to add to the colour needed, cling film, spray bottles and chalk. A plastic tray (like a muffin tray) was used to hold the paints and to apply the paint to the tray eye droppers were used. Brushes included riggers and a wedge-shaped brush.
Shirley began by splotching watery acrylic paint onto the canvas, then loosely
lay a sheet of cling foil on top, wrinkling the cling foil so that the paint eventually dried with the crinkle effect on it. The cling foil was removed after the paint had dried. Then the resulting suggestions of shapes were painted in more definitely to represent poppies. Next she lay a black line round the edge of the earlier painted flower with a rigger.
Then gently squeezing pouring medium mixed with cream paint (from the narrow opening of a smallish plastic bottle) we finally dribbled Indian ink onto the top of the line of cream paint.
The drier was used between each application. The outline really made the flower stand out
nicely. Some of the poppy paintings will no doubt get to the walls of the clubrooms so
readers can get a better idea of the effect I’m trying to explain here.
It was great to see so many people were inspired to keep experimenting later on. This was yet
another lovely workshop by Shirley. She recommended we read the book “Experimental Landscapes in Watercolour”
by Ann Blockley (IBSN number 978-1-84994-090-0) We looked through it and found many interesting ideas for exploring new ways to paint.
Watercolour Workshops by Helen Wilson & John McDonnell
March 2021
by Sue Johnston
Helen started her workshop by encouraging us all to use a big sheet of paper for our paintings. She then showed us the technique of wetting our paper and where to draw our horizon lines, to produce a balance of light and dark, crisp, clean colours for our beautiful sky and sea paintings. Helen encouraged us to be expressive and use lots of yellow and some violet too. Helen suggested we could get our paintings printed on cards to give away or sell, as she does.
John started his workshop by showing us some of his amazing sunset and pointillism paintings. He also encouraged us to paint on big sheets of watercolour paper. John told us how to stretch our watercolour paper so it wouldn’t buckle. He guided us to paint a sky and how to layer the watercolour paint on to form hills and sea, to produce a beautiful scene to take home.
We all had a busy and creative day and we were able to take away new ideas and inspiration for our next watercolour paintings. Thanks very much, Helen and John for your great workshops.
March 3, 2018
The workshop concentrated on pattern, shape, tone and colour. It showed ways to use artistic licence rather than photographic representation. Helen & John encourage innovation and explore options to escape from convention. Likely subjects include trees, rocks, stones, skies. Concentration on water vs bright colours using large brushes.
“We had a lovely day at Helen and John’s workshop at the art club today” – say participants.
Plein Air on Helen Wilson Lavender Farm
February 25, 2018 by Phil Dickson
A very pleasant day was had by some artists who ventured over the Rimutakas from Wellington on Sunday 25 February 2018. Helen Wilson’s Lavender Farm is situated on the Castlepoint Road about 17 kilometres east of Masterton.
Helen made everyone welcome and paintings and sketches popped up from the shelter of the rows of lavender bushes. In spite of the fine weather, the wind slowly increased so that gale gusts were whistling over the Rimutakas for the return home.
Hot wax painting with Magda van der Walt
by Christine Strang
The only thing I have done with wax is to light candles. So I did not know what exciting horizon would come when I went to the hot wax painting workshop with Magda on Saturday afternoon.
Magda showed us several instruments to use hot wax. First I tried the small iron and an electrical instrument which looks like a very big palette knife.
I quite enjoyed it, then thought I’d like to try the other instruments. So I had a go at the hot tile, which was wonderful! It’s a ceramic tile which is hot, and you can melt wax on this surface and on your piece of paper. It is literally fluid, and quick and easy to apply.
Magda provided a generous range of wax colours (sort of the size of a matchbox).
I will be the first to sign up if she does another workshop.
Magda’s Hot Wax Workshop 2020
by Rita Q.
In September I attended a three hour taster workshop with Magda van der Walt to try out some Encaustic Art or hot wax painting which involves creating artworks using pigmented wax blocks applied to a surface using various methods including a hot iron, a heat gun or a hot tile for melting the wax blocks. We also used various scribing tools to create texture in the wax.
Magda was a great tutor and demonstrated the various techniques along with plenty of examples of what could be achieved. We were then encouraged to have a go and Magda made sure we tried all the methods and moved round the room assisting us in our efforts. I attempted to create some leaves using the hot iron and was very surprised to achieve a creditable result. Everyone in the group was able to take away some very attractive and colourful pieces at the end, which was over all too soon.
Magda said she finds the process very soothing and I can certainly see the attraction. I’m sure others would love this workshop if there was another opportunity. Thank you Magda for making it so enjoyable.
