'Harbour' Griselda Mussett
The aim on all the Freedom in Paintings courses is for our artists to leave their comfort zone, take some risks and go deeper into painting. In the Spring painting-workshops at Creek Creative, in exploring the idea of 'HARBOUR', the two groups of ten artists certainly delivered.
The preliminary talk was divided into three sections, which led into three different ways into painting. The first section was weather, looking at the work of Joan Eardley and Emil Nolde in particular. In their first painting, the artists were asked to put down a simple harbour structure which they were encouraged to overwhelm with gestural and inventive mark-making, echoing the movement and power of the sea.
This was followed by looking at the motif of harbour in the work of Kokoshka, Dufy, Marquet and the Post-Impressionists. In an exercise to mirror the methodical Pointillist technique of Signac and Seurat, the artists were asked to paint/print an interpretation of their chosen harbour using only given a small wooden block (canvas tighteners!). Within that remit, the artists were impressively inventive.
For the third source of inspiration we looked at the abstractions of the St.Ives School - Terry Frost, William Scott, Paul Feiler, Peter Lanyon - leading to simplifications of the source material and the idea of melding different viewpoints and image.
To see a gallery of larger images please visit the Freedom in Painting Group on Facebook HERE. Below is my own painting from the workshop....
'Harbour (Turquoise & Pink)' 30x25cms oil on canvas
ARTISTS COMMENTS:
'A very enjoyable two days - excellent teaching from Ashley who shared his knowledge and experience with the group generously' FRANCES BEAUMONT
'Ashley has pushed me on to experiment with new ideas' KARIN BOURNE
'Always moves me out of my comfort zone' JANE CRANE