Some copies of the Russian and English masters. Fechin, Blohkin and Freud are wonderful painters. I just love the looseness but the portraits are so alive without the need for photographic details

 The last few weeks at life class

This weeks life class.

Some recent life class studies . All are long poses lasting just over 2 hours, done with oil paint. The last portrait was finished with several more hours work at home.

The village people.

I started this painting just as practice portraits but as it progressed I started to like it as an actual painting. My wife and I visited Lymm in Cheshire one summers day this year. Lymm is a beautiful little village with a canal running through its center. The white lion pub is perfect for lunch as you can relax and watch the barges sailing past from the beer garden. A nice pint of beer and steak and chips are recommended. The characters in this painting are taken from photos I took around the village and all were oblivious to me taking the photos except my wife and my self portrait. I put a limit of 1.5 hours for each portrait although a couple did exceed this time restraint.

Pastels done today on toned paper taken from William Maughan's book.

todays life class and some more done on the old man

A couple of sketches. The old man in pencil and the young lady in charcoal.

Madame Suggia after Augustus John.
Oil on canvas 60mmx50mm

    

This weeks life class  Charcoal on paper