Composition and the Principles of Design

Nymphea - oil on canvas 910mm x 610mm ©2013 Carol Lee Beckx

This one day workshop will be held at the Hamilton Road Studio on the following dates:

Saturday 24^th August;

OR

Thursday 29^th August Please note this workshop has been postponed until September - date to be confirmed

OR

Friday 30^th August - Fully Booked 

9.30am to 3.30pm

$60 for the day.

Morning tea/coffee and Veg soup for lunch will be provided. (If you have any special dietary needs please BYO)

Mastering composition & design is an essential skill for all artists.

The course will include:

• Elements of composition
• How to apply these to your art work
• Format selection
• Notan drawings
• Drawing to scale - enlarging preparatory drawings

Participants are also welcome to bring paintings or drawings for help with composition.

Materials list

The aim of the workshop is to do a number of smaller compositions, working towards a number of working sketches for future paintings/drawings

• VISUAL ART JOURNAL 200gsm or more to take paint and for notes
• PENCILS e.g.2B and 6B, Eraser; Ruler, set square; Black felt tip pen for Notan drawings
• A selection of any of the following: Coloured pencils; Inktense pencils; watercolour pencils - these will be used to make a number of small colour sketches, Derwent sketching or Graphitint pencils.
• Reference Photographs and /or drawings to use as a basis for the exercises.(I will have some but it’s better to work from your own ideas)
• Tracing paper - a couple of sheets
• White Card +/- 35cm square to make your own “L” shaped angles for cropping images. (I will have some for purchase)

Mt Coot-tha Botanical Gardens, Brisbane

What a special day! I joined members of the Urban Sketchers Brisbane at the Mt Coot-tha Botanical Gardens. The weather was perfect - warm and sunny but not too hot. 

It was also a day of celebration - The Japanese Cultural Day was held in the Japanese Gardens, hosted by the Japanese Consulate General. Crowds flocked to watch interactive demonstrations of the traditional tea ceremony, ikebana and origami.  

Next to this beautiful shady bamboo water feature, I found a lovely flat rock to use as a seat while I did this sketch. Children came to look and dip their fingers in the cool clear water or watch the lizards dart around on the rocks. 

It's the first opportunity I had to try out a new A4 Moleskine watercolour sketchbook out of the studio. The paper is great and very responsive to both ink and watercolour. Balancing the large format book, paintbox, and small water bottle took a bit of practice. 

Later in the afternoon after lunch we returned to do a little more sketching. I wanted to complete a sketch I had started earlier. I had struggled to draw the panorama because of the crowds walking along the path in front of me.We were treated to the haunting sounds of Japanese music drifting across the water.

It was a great way to spend the day, sketching with friends in a perfect setting.

These paintings found a good home

I was delighted to receive these photographs this morning. My paintings of Avlemonos and Menomvasia are hanging in their new home - and isn't the space just perfect for them?

Images of Greece

While I would love to continue to travel the world I am so fortunate that I can enjoy beautiful places by painting them in my studio. I have never had the opportunity to visit Greece so a recent commission to capture a wonderful holiday there was almost as good as travelling there myself. 

Avlemonos, Kythira, Greece oil on canvas 30" x 24" © Carol Lee Beckx 2013

This first painting is Avlemonos on the island of Kythira. The sea is the most unbelievable colour - clear and translucent. The water is Turquoise, Cerulean, cobalt, sapphire, all in wonderful harmony; crisp white buildings with blue windows complete the picture. 

From rocky outcrops one looks down to the sea and the beach below, personally it almost gave me a feeling of being too close to the edge. (But then I do have a thing about heights)

In some ways it was really difficult to photograph the painting with any degree of accuracy, and this photo does note really do justice to the colours.

Monemvasia, Greece oil on canvas 24" x 30" © Carol Lee Beckx 2013

The second painting is set in the fishing village, Monemvasia located on a small peninsula on the east coast of the Peloponnese. Fishing boats cast interesting reflections with the Rock of Monemvasia in the background.

A highlight was delivering the paintings (always with my heart pounding, wondering how the paintings will be received) and seeing that the paintings had fulfilled my client's expectations. 

The disappearing Page and a delivery

It was supposed to be a quick fix - change a number on my Commissioned Portraits page, alter some wording and be finished.

Then, disaster - the Page has disappeared. It's so easily done - click on the wrong bit while on the iPad and oops - the page is gone - forever!! This is not the first time the flick of a careless finger has cost me dearly.

So now after fetching my laptop from home; (I'm away for the weekend) finding the saved copy of the file; deciding the page needed editing anyway; noticing that some links on other pages were not working - they slipped through the net when I upgraded my website, I've been busy for over two hours !

My new resolution - leave tinkering with the pages completely alone when not working form the safety of the laptop.

On the bright side though, it was great to deliver the painting to Transform Hair on Friday afternoon. They were thrilled with it - it's always so satisfying when a commission meets with approval.

Transform Hair The Gap

 

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