A blessedly quiet month at the end of a very busy year!  However it has still been a time of planning and preparation for forthcoming events: the new spring programme of workshops which includes two new classes - Flowers in Glass (watercolour with me) and Drawing (tutored by Mark Azopardi) - another exhibition at Burton Agnes Hall in the summer and even initial arrangements for the next Charles Reid Workshops scheduled for October 2011.

The first part of this month was spent in Spain taking part as a volunteer native English speaker on an English language course for Spanish school teachers.  It was an incredibly intensive schedule but it was also immense fun and presented an exceptional opportunity really to get to know people who have grown up in different countries - not just the Spanish, but also the American, Canadian, Australian and Irish volunteers.  Some lasting friendships were started during the course.

Back home in the UK I am currently spending three hours a week working on printmaking at York College.  One of the joys of printmaking, aside from the pleasures of the artistic process, is that it is one of the more sociable mediums, with the need to go where there is a press and to share the facilities with other artists.  Shown on the left is a dry point etching of the same view depicted in the watercolour 'Distant Cuillins'.

On the very last day of the month I spent an afternoon in a life drawing session with another group of artist friends.  The watercolour sketch on the left was produced during a forty minute short pose.  It was the first really cold day of the winter so we couldn't ask the model to pose for much longer than that at a time!

The new term of workshops got properly underway this month, with new classes, new venues and a new guest tutor, Mark Azopardi.  All have been very well received and will be carried on into spring 2010.  Mark proved a great hit with his new students and the range of classes offered with him as tutor will be extended next year.  Two new venues, Heslington Church and Newton-on-Ouse Parish Hall, have been found to be warm and well lit and ideal for art classes so we will continue to use those too.  The photo to the left shows Mark Azopardi with one of the participants in his wildlife painting workshop in Heslington Church.

This month saw the culmination of two years of anticipation in a highly successful and enjoyable week-long Charles Reid Watercolour Workshop which I ran in Urchfont, Wiltshire.  The participants this time were from America, Norway and France as well as the United Kingdom and as always the international flavour brought added interest and different perspectives (and a wide range of skills to the skittle alley in the village pub).  These workshops are always fun and many people come back time and time again but all present agreed that this week had been a particularly happy workshop.  Charles was on top form and produced stunning work every single day while many of the participants showed dramatic improvements and breakthroughs in their own painting.

The photos to the left show the group at work on the village green at Urchfont, watching Charles painting in Lacock where we went for a day trip and the portrait demonstration he painted on the first day of the workshop.

For more photos and an entertaining account of the week from a student's perspective, I recommend the blog by course member, Mick Carney.

The next Charles Reid workshops in the UK will be in 2011 so if you want to be informed when details are published then email with your full name and postal address.

My two week solo exhibition in the Red Bus Gallery at Burton Agnes went exceptionally well.  The weather varied from blazing sun to downpours and visitors were of all ages, backgrounds and nationalities, from locals popping in for a browse to overseas visitors touring the area.  I'm looking forward to returning to the Gallery next year for a joint exhibition with Mark Azopardi.

The new autumn programme for watercolour workshops has been published this month.  There will be new workshops, new venues and even a new tutor.  I am delighted that my good friend Mark Azopardi will be tutoring two of the workshops this season: his classes 'Expressive Wildlife' and 'Detailed Still Life' will give an insight into how he produces his stunningly delicate watercolours such as the study of beach finds shown to the left.

Visitors to Burton Agnes Hall in May might have seen me at work on a portrait commission of two small children.  This started with a morning in their delightful company during which I made notes and took more than ninety reference photographs. Very young children cannot, of course, be expected to sit still for a portrait and when working with more than one child at once it can be almost impossible to achieve a photo in which all look happy and relaxed.  The final composition was created from elements from several different pictures.  Thank goodness for unlimited digital photography.  The end result was completed, framed and handed over to the clients this month.

This has been a busy month with another successful and highly enjoyable spell as Artist in Residence at Burton Agnes Hall.  The weather for the most part was glorious; the only downside to that was that it made it hard to work on any large scale pieces in the Summer House as the paint dried so quickly!  It did however give me the opportunity to work on a few small ACEO art cards like the two additions to the Eye Series shown left.

A few days after I returned from Burton Agnes I had a call inviting me to stage a solo exhibition in their Red Bus Gallery in the courtyard, so I will be there from 5 - 18 August this year which includes the Hall's Jazz Festival.  More information on the Exhibitions page.
 

I have been enjoying experimenting with painting on textured grounds this month.  The painting to the left, Highland Colours, was painted in watercolour over a rough layer of gesso on heavy weight watercolour paper.

This portrait of my son was finished early this month.  It is a companion piece to the portrait of my daughter which was shown in the news update for December 2008.

The spring workshop schedule is now up and running, having started on the last day of February.  Classes are once again fully booked with waiting lists, so if you are interested in future workshops don't forget to get in touch and ask to be included in the monthly email newsletter distribution so that you hear about new dates first.

The March 2009 issue of Artists and Illustrators magazine was published this month.  It is a watercolour special and in the introduction, editor Lynn Parr comments that as she 'trawled through endless websites [....] the overall impression was one of sameness' and that 'It's clear that it takes more than a box of paints to become a watercolour artist.'  However, she goes on to say that once they have seen the work and artists selected for the issue, she hopes that readers 'will be inspired to look at watercolour differently'.
With an introduction like that it is therefore even more of an honour to have been included in the issue under the heading 'Masters of Watercolour'.  The piece is illustrated with my self portrait, 'Tired Eyes' (left).

At my Absolute Beginners workshops we do 'paint-alongs' together where everyone follows me painting a simple watercolour.  I have decided to show step by step versions of these here on the website so that those who can't make it to a workshop can try for themselves.  The first to be added is this tropical island scene which is a very simplified version of my popular painting, 'Windswept'.  Click on the image to be taken to the demonstration.