I have been going to classes with Emily for many years. She has helped me to develop from a watercolourist (painting from photos), to a more spontaneous oil painter. When I got the courage to work more expressively I could not go back.
The Paint Fit course was just what I needed to refresh my mark making and create new paintings. The warm up excercises are very important and sometimes they become a piece of finished work. Knowing when a painting is finished is difficult. So what I do now, is do another one and another one, collaging, editing, to find something exciting and that's what makes me keep going. What I have learnt from Emily's classes has been invaluable.
If I compare face to face sessions to being in your own studio and doing a zoom class, I find working in Emily's studio is wonderful and very full on. However, being in your own studio with everything familiar around you is great too, as you can go at your own pace, which in my case is slow, and you can replay recorded demonstrations. It never ceases to amaze me how many fantastic brush strokes, pencil marks etc that have crept into my repertoire. I am discovering that painting is just an extension of drawing, especially when working with charcoal, using your fingers and hands to achieve your goal.
My inspiration for the paintings in this exhibition is Autumn colour in Nature. Emily is an inspiring teacher and I am very glad I found her.
