WEEK 3 : PAINTING

So we are into the third week of Future Artists Nottingham and this week we decided to focus on painting.

Painting is one of the most common mediums within art, however we wanted to show the girls how diverse painting can be. To do this we had help from a local painter Ellis Sharpe, who gave the girls an insight into the basics; lighting, shape, composition and colour. 

Originally when we told the girls that we were doing painting they seemed to be excited, however as soon as we got the big paint brushes out and they realised that we were going to be working on a less detailed scale they seemed to be a bit apprehensive, but they manage to push through and we ended up with some great results.

Ellis showed us the process he goes through when painting; he doesn’t always work on white paper, but a coloured background, so we gave the girls painted paper to work with. The first step was to draw the object; map out the form and areas of shadow. The objects were placed onto a contrasting coloured piece of paper, to reflect an interesting hue onto the object, such as garlic on blue paper and already to create an interesting composition. The girls dived into this straight away which we were pleased with, seeing as in the first workshop they were a bit apprehensive about using charcoal.

The next stage was a little trickier; we explained how to give the fruit or vegetable form by painting in where the shadows are on the object. Ellis showed us how he does this using a brown tone for the shadows and then dilutes the colour for the mid tones leaving the areas clear where the light is being reflected. This is where the girls needed the most help; mapping out where the light was on their fruit or vegetable. Nevertheless the girls pursued with the task and manage to come up with the form and structure. 

The last stage was to use colour, to look really carefully and allow the blue tones reflected from the paper for example to be on the object. By adding a variety of colours instead of a solid block colour, the object becomes more vibrant and textural, and more real.  Some of the girls quickly grasped it and were really experimenting with the others, although a few were struggling to realise the different tones. However with our help, and Ellis’ expertise and enthusiasm they all were experimental and produced fantastic paintings. 

the alternative paint palette 

At the end of the lesson we made the girls all look at each other’s work and discussed what they thought of the style of painting, it was obvious that some of the girls felt hesitant at the start but most of them said that they enjoyed doing something different. As a member of F.A.N I felt extremely proud of the girls for sticking with the difficult task as the end results were excellent. Some of the paintings will probably be exhibited as part of the exhibition of their work in the Nottingham Trent Bonington Art Building Atrium in a couple of months time but as well as this, the girls gained important painting skills which they can reuse again and again.