EVERYONE'S WORK - Dr. JOHNSON'S HOUSE 4/11/14

Well done indeed, the four of you who went along.  I think we will all be MOST impressed by the clarity and courage of your drawings, and your plans for what to do with them.  This is so exciting, as far as I'm concerned - your work is just so strong now.

Jill made the useful suggestion that anyone who couldn't make it on Tuesday could go along at another time.  I know they'd be more than happy, but just phone them first and check there's nothing big happening.

Also, I know you are all very concerned for Pam, and we just await news, probably via Jane.


I am going to start with ELIZABETH's contribution :-

Elizabeth no. 1

Elizabeth no. 2

Elizabeth no. 3

Elizabeth no. 4

She said about no. 3 : "This started off as shadows but then the sun disappeared and so did the shadows so I rearranged everything!   I would call it shadows of yesterday and today."

And then, about no. 4 : "My final attempt . I wish they could look a bit more controlled and orderly after looking at the others work. "

The thing I love about your work, Elizabeth, is the richness of your expression.  You have so many variations on your 'voice', each saying something different, but always distinctly 'Elizabeth'.
Last time, the conclusion was that your simple line drawing was a bit of a breakthrough, as it left so much to work on painting-wise.  This selection combines many things, but each drawing is more complete as it is than last time.  Each drawing can stand, very nicely, on its own, as well as being the basis for further work.  They are all lovely.  
No. 1 - I really like the clarity of tonal arrangement here.  The light through the window, echoed on the left, and then in the foreground.  That is what makes the picture.  the figure is a simple but strong suggestion - not over defined.  So good!
Then no. 2 offers more light and air - much less formal and more dreamy.  And ... a nicely placed patch of colour against the dark of the picture on the wall.  Very successful.
No. 3 sounds like it was frustrating, but often new ideas come from that sort of frustration.  I really like what's inside the shape in the middle, but I'm not sure about the way it floats against a sort of mushy sky.  Maybe if that was darker it would work better, or part of it at any rate.
No. 4 is really beautiful.  Pure Elizabeth.  You have such skill with your drawing.  Don't wish you were more controlled and orderly - others would wish they had your poetry!  The only thing to watch for is the cross monster-face in the picture on the left - 2 yellow eyes and a cross mouth!

As I said, these all stand as pieces in their own right.  It will be interesting to see whether or not they help you with further ideas, and whether last time's line drawing is more or less useful, or maybe a combination of all of them, with a little creative memory sprinkled in for good measure.

PENNY wasn't sure whether she's even make it, and had a short day because of the cold.  She said :-

Penny - 'Unused objects'

Penny - 'Security Objects'

Penny - 'Handled Objects'

Penny ' Books behind bars'

Influenced by Grayson Perry’s recent programmes on portraiture “Who are You?”, I decided to see if I could find any thing about Dr J’s house that I could use to turn my drawings from last time into more of a statement about the house, rather than just a spacial description.  So, I spent the first hour just looking and making notes.  e.g. 

Anti-slavery, black servant was Dr J’s heir.  But - “A woman preaching is like a dog walking on it’s hind legs”!

Security a problem at that time - hence the chain.

Chinese links - porcelain, stone from great wall(?)

Chairs no longer to be sat upon today.  Books not to be opened.

Conflict between the occupants.

etc. etc.

I don’t feel I got anything much that I shall be able to use, so not a great day.  This needs more thought!  Will proceed on last time’s drawings and see what happens.

You certainly set yourself a challenge, Penny.  If anyone hasn't seen the Grayson Perry programmes, they are well worth watching if you can access Channel 4 OD. He was making 'portraits' of people, or groups of people.  The actual representation of the individuals were there, along with all sorts of bits and pieces, and references, to their lives, and their 'identity' as individuals or groups.  Totally valid as part of a portrait, and a really refreshing take on how to encapsulate the complexity of an individual's perception of identity.
The difficulty with doing this sort of thing is how to balance the reproduction of 'reality' (eg. a face, or an interior) with the added bits - be they bits of photographs, or other fragments as in Penny's case. The two components of the expressive language of the piece need to work together, and feel that they belong to each other, not that one has been superimposed on the other.  This is Penny's challenge:  how to weave the bits and pieces into the interior drawings.
Penny also has another challenge - getting the message across - imbuing the painting with the 'feeling' of injustice, or prejudice (as we see it now) or whatever her statement might be.  Penny - remember the outcome of one of your Wallace Collection pictures - that a red slash was more powerful than a recognisable drawing of a sword.  Let the painted language do the work, rather than assuming that the association of, say a sword, will translate as, and be understood to mean, violence.  Your unused objects drawing has the beginnings of this through the way that everything is a bit wobbly and leaning.

Easy .... over to you!

Next, we have GERALD, who said :

Gerald nos. 1-4

Gerald nos. 5-8

"I think I had a good day yesterday despite the cold and rather gloomy views soon after 3pm. The four of us, - Pat K, Elizabeth, Penny and me, had a good discussion, including the benefits of watching Grayson Perry's excellent TV series. Our mini crit was also useful, with Penny asking where were my thumb nails, so I did one for my last sketch.

So I'm attaching a couple of pages of sketches where I've tried to be more daring in overlaying or combining images and simplifying others. I intend to combine no. 4 and 5 and perhaps put elements of no. 6 in with the others. Again how they will adapt to brush and paint is going to be a challenge, however I'm more confident since our last crit at RFH. "

Oh, well done!  It's great to hear you sounding so brave.  These drawings are most successful, and well balanced.  However, they almost go as far as they can as they stand.  The lovely balance of tones in no. 7 (?), and the simplicity of drawn lines in no. 5 are just great, and to try and 'reproduce' them in paint would inevitably be disappointing.  They are of their moment, and stand strongly as such.  So, doing some clever reconsidering of the content, combining images, pondering on the possibilities within what you've got etc. is a great next move.  So much is stored within your recollected reactions to what you were drawing, as well as the actual factual stuff, and as Grayson Perry eloquently showed us, these are just as important, if not more so!
So, Gerald, it might end up feeling ham-fisted and awkward at this stage, but persevere. Your own thinking is leaping ahead, and that's so exciting.


Then PAT K. sent the following in :-

Pat no. 1

 "Not really 'thumbnails' but made a conscious  effort to simplify the image Bottom left on second line I think came closest to this Will hope to carry this into 'work to be done.'-What a super place this is-quiet meditative-Exactly the place to encourage a change of direction."

I agree with you Pat, the piece bottom left is great. Lots of potential there.  Simple, and yet a strong, tonal, statement, and a nice combination of light and dark areas combined with the confident line-work.
I think the thing I'd just remind you of is to consider what your colours are doing for you.  The image bottom right is colourful, but are the colours acting as 'local' colour to illustrate a scene, or are they contributing to the expression of the piece - there's a difference.  The one you like (bottom left) doesn't suffer from this because it is predominantly tone doing the work.  The image top right uses colour and tone combined very well - the golden colour ADDS to the richness of the tonal statement.  Top left is a bit muddly as to whether colour or tone is doing the main work.  So, just be careful when you come to work from these - what is your colour contributing?

So - great stuff.  Well done.

We will, I hope, all meet on December 9th at the RFH.  I'll let you know about further plans nearer the time.

EVERYONE'S WORK - Dr. JOHNSON'S HOUSE 7/10/14

A very interesting day of people having to reassess what to do with a smaller, more intimate space, compared to the huge and complex possibilities at King's Place and its environs.  Several people fell into a rather humdrum trap, rather than keeping on creating original ideas.  We had discussions about this at the end of the day, concluding with statements like the one from Maggie, whose previous tutor had once said "who's permission are you waiting for?" (or something like that) - meaning that in the end, you only have yourself to let down if you don't push things to new and adventurous possibilities. I also chipped in, saying that I think we have a responsibility, as artists, to find an individual expression - we are not here to re-do what has already been done!



GERALD struggled with the problem above, having been such a star last time ( well, maybe he can't be a star ALL the time!):-

Gerald no. 1

Gerald no. 2

Gerald no. 3

Gerald no. 4

Gerald's main issue at the begining (drawings on p.1) was that he just plunged into them, without really thinking 'why', and not having any particular statement to make.  They are very nice little drawings, but not really much more than that.  No. 2 was a very interesting view of the stair well, and things started to settle into place then.  No. 3 and no. 4 show how he is thinking things through with a simple 'thumbnail' plan first, and then elaborating on it in his subsequent drawing.  No. 4 was right at the end of the day, and he was getting really into it by then, and couldn't quite stop!  Interestingly, Maggie pointed out that each of his compositions had a vertical 'block' running through the middle.  Very useful to spot things like this.









Then PAT K. also struggled!

Pat 

She was looking especially at the strongly silhouetted figures against a window.  At first, she got caught by drawing 'the figure' as a separate entity from 'the background'.  This rarely works.  What she needed to look at was the fall of light, and how that defined the figure AND the space around it.  This finally started happening in the final drawing (lower left).
She also did a drawing of a detail of the fireplace, just as a piece of abstract shape.  We'll see whether anything can come of that.










ELIZABETH however had a little breakthrough moment at the end of the day.

Elizabeth drawing

She had a day of studying little happenings outside the windows, using the window frame to create individual pictures.  These were drawn, with little touches of colour. Then, right at the end of the day she produced this line drawing.  This is really exciting as it offers so many opportunities for the next step.  Elizabeth's tendency was to explore the subject so fully in her initial drawings, that the subsequent paintings were less interesting.  This drawing, however, has a whole world of possible further interpretations.  Over to you, Elizabeth!
















PENNY had a most interesting day:-

Penny 1

Penny 2

Penny 3

Penny 4

Penny 5

The coloured piece came first, and already she was exploring what happens if an interior line became an exterior line (or vice versa) - see the diagonal line.  This she then extrapolated further in no. 2, with the edge of the moulding on the door cutting across into the space created by the door. She also played with this idea very succesfully in no. 3.  This is SO clever, because it's twisting what we understand by space - spaces through; spaces across; divisions of space.  Great stuff, Penny.  No. 4 was based on reflection in a glazed cabinet, but the bit of dark detail on the far left was added after, to balance everything - it was made up - and why not!  No. 5 - look at the chair and it's reflection!
A real voice coming out here, Penny.







MAGGIE sent in the following :-

Maggie no. 1

Maggie no. 2

Maggie no. 3

Maggie no. 4

Maggie no. 5

Maggie's exploration was all about a sense of a space or presence unseen, or just vacated.  All her drawings show tantalising glimpses of things half seen through rooms, or behind doors.  She has used her components to brilliant effect to cut up the space in an exciting way.  I love the use of the chairs in no. 4 - they fuse together to make one big dark form cutting across the picture.
Another thing Maggie did was to specifically bring paper that had these taller proportions, knowing she was going to be drawing interior spaces.  Well done.  Not enough consideration is given to the outer proportions in many cases.








JILL spent her time very usefully, doing a meticulous set of drawings of a very complicated 3-tiered table.  She also snatched some quick figure when a group came in.  Jill, I know tables keep still and people don't, but try and draw your people with that same sense of 'not knowing the answer', with which you drew the table.  You drew it completely openly, not forcing answer on to it - treat people like complicated tables!!!!

Jill no. 1

Jill no. 2

Jill no. 3

JANE had to go early as she wasn't feeling too well.  However, in the time, she did some very complex line drawings of views through doorways.  We had discussions about how much she needs to be 'realistic' with the perspective.  Examples above show the two extremes - Maggie used perspective to add to the composition (especially in no. 5), and Penny deliberately played with hers, using it or flattening it as the composition required.  Jane also did some nice colour work - may I remind you about using those neutral/mixed colours as well, Jane.  Really useful.  I know it's difficult on the day, with limited materials.

Later -  Jane has just sent in these images.

Jane no. 1

Jane no. 2

Jane no. 3

So, well done everyone.  The next session will be on 4th November, and it was decided to try the plan of you going without me for another time, and see how it worked out.  I will contact you before then, and I will need to know by the 2nd whether or not you are intending to be there..

By the way, another artist to look at is Hammershoi (Danish? ) - have a look of Google images - beautiful compositions with a real attention to tonal arrangement.

Hammershoi interior

Or - completely the opposite extreme - Matisse/Bonnard interiors with all their COLOUR?

May I also pass on to both Pam and Pat W. all our best wishes for strength and better health.  We missed you.

RFH work - notes

I am not planning to make a long review of each meeting, only those where I am not present.  However, it is useful to have notes from each meeting to keep as a record of everyone's ongoing projects.

I have to say, I was SO impressed by the amount of progress that had been made since I had last seen the work - maybe less of me is a good thing!!

First, we had JANE's work.  It was a chance to see, in the flesh, the work illustrated in the last posting. Inevitably, some of the colour relationships were a little different for real, rather than in reproduction.  We discussed the thorny issue of colour relationships / tonal relationships.  Jane had both things happening in her work, well controlled, and intelligently laid out (ie. not dotted around all over the place).  She especially had good neutral colours, all working hard to support the more brilliant colours.  However, she still needs to consider which facility is going to create the primary statement of the painting - colour or tone.  They were tending to come through equally strongly, creating a bit of a confusion as to where to look first.  Think of a hierarchy.  Everything can be in there, but which one do you look at first?  A strong tonal statement is often what leads you in, and then you can fully appreciate the colour nuances.
Her best compositions were the ones where the image was tightly contained within the frame, with shapes reaching to the edges, rather than floating in the middle.

Then PENNY produced some really interesting work, with a great statement about the fact that she wanted 'the paint to do the work'.   This is a great step for Penny, whose intellect usually dictates the composition and content too much, not allowing enough room for 'things' to happen as the painting progresses, and moves away from the drawing.  She had two oils, which were especially interesting as a development.  There was definitely room for dreaming in some of her pieces.

GERALD laid out loads of work, which had taken huge steps since last time.  He had done a copy of a John Piper painting, and this experience has fed all sorts of new ideas into his own work.  The thing that was particularly striking was the mark-making/scratching/ drawing/ texturing - brilliant.  His colours were being put to use very intelligently, and the whole thing was great.

ELIZABETH had produced a couple of pieces where she had worked with different colours at one tone (again!), but this time, I think the penny dropped!  The subsequent work was full of richness and colour, combined with her distinctive use of tone and marks.  We were all struck by how free she is when using mediums other than watercolour, and encouraged her to use whatever she needs to to get what she needs.  Just because a piece is done using felt pens and wax crayons doesn't make it a lesser work!  Having said all this, there was also one very sweet 'pure' watercolour - simple and lyrical.

MAGGIE was feeling a bit despondent, having reached a point with her 'wandering line' work where it wasn't stimulating her any more.  Her use of colour in the pieces she did show us was definitely more developed, but she was just fed up with them!  So, a very sideways step is needed next time.

PAT K.'s work was simply lovely.  Elegant, expressive, reflective and pared-down.  We had a long discussion about what she thought she meant by 'cliched' as compared to 'gritty'.  Not sure we got to the bottom of it, but one piece with stronger marks and richer red colours seemed to have element of grit to it.

PAT W. produced two super cut-out collages (a la Matisse!) based on her drawings.  Really fabulous. Her accompanying paintings were also strong, but she knows she has tendency to fiddle. It would be great to try and paint completely flat, like one of the collages, just to see what that sort of diciplne feels like.

We won't be seeing Pat for a while, as she will be undergoing quite serious surgery, and we all wish her a very speedy recovery.  Come back soon, Pat.

It was also really great to have Pam back, and looking so well.

EVERYONE'S WORK - KING'S PLACE - AUG 5th 2014

Well done, those of you who made it - let's see whether this works!  I've had some lovely work sent through, and I gather you all had a good discussion session at the end - great.  It's probably very good for you all to assess your work yourselves a bit more!

Anyway, the first to send in was PENNY, who said " I’m not sure if this is quite what you meant by “dreaming” but I have tried to draw less so the viewer has more to fill in.  Hopefully, painting will take this even further."

Penny no. 1

Penny no. 2

Penny no. 3

Penny no. 4

Penny no. 5

Yes, I suppose it's difficult to define 'dreaming'.  I suppose I would say it was leaving space for things to happen in the mind.  That's what that curve in the foreground did last time.
That's certainly what happens in no. 1 this time.  the scale is offered to us by having the figures in there, but what the context is, is very difficult to ascertain.   No. 2, 3 and 5 are all very clever, because a lot IS explained, and the viewer can feel secure as to the context.  However, there are little passages of strangeness (like the 'striplights' in no. 3), and these offer up twists in the tale, if you like.  similarly in no. 5, the figures going up the stairs (?) behind offer a strangeness - where are they going?
No. 4 is very intriguing, with that strange dark dot.
I would make the prow even less distinct.  It draws the eye so much.  Without it, or at least not so strong, there's a lovely diagonal of the horizontals going up from the boat in ever decreasing lengths.  Put your hand over the front, and see how it transforms.
Your real problem is going to come with colouring.  Especially in something like no. 1, where there's so much left unsaid.  If you use anything resembling 'local' colouring, you'll end up losing the mystery.  think instead of mood colour.  your tonal arrangements are so strong that the colour can be anything, really.
Push them further - let's see what happens.  Very nice.



Then PAT K. sent the following, and said "Today I returned to the same place with the intention of stripping away unnecessary detail and to simplify the image  I hope to take this further" 

Pat no. 1

Pat no. 2

Pat no. 3

Pat, well done.  Did you do any thumbnails first????  I am hoping so, because that was what made a difference last time.  We could read no. 1 as being a study, that leads on to no. 2, which is really lovely.  I think the thing you've really cracked in no. 2 is the tree (?) in the middle distance.  Such a lovely, integrated shape.  So different from the rather cumbersome lines in no. 1.  I really feel drawn in to no. 2, wheras in no. 1, I sit very much on the surface.

No. 3 has many beautiful parts, but I think it's a couple of paintings rolled into one, at the moment!  I think the content (the pink square and the dark marks) on the lhs and the rhs are a bit too similar, saved (just) by the flicks on the far left hand end.

It's all about balance and weight.  This is why the thumbnails are so useful first, making you more aware of where you're heading, leaving less to chance.



ELIZABETH's contribution :-   "The drawings were done in the order of Sarah 1, 2, 3 started off by looking at leaves against the water and then put in passing things on the bank opposite. The idea was of things only seen fleetingly and an impression of colour and movement against the foliage ."

Elizabeth no. 2

Elizabeth no. 3

Elizabeth no. 1

I think your aim is a lovely idea.  The trouble is that your pieces are very TONAL.  Very much about light and dark.  This doesn't allow any room for colour.  They all have the beginnings of ideas, and components that could be put together - leaves, figures, bits of the far bank.
I'm going to challenge you to do something with these which you will find difficult.  I would like you to try and do a version of one of them (or several!) where you are using COLOURS ALL OF THE SAME TONE.  We've played with this exercise before, and it's worth revisiting.  You have to keep screwing your eyes up, looking just through your eyelashes, to check the colours are the same light/dark as each other.  If you were to photocopy or photograph it in black and white after, it should come out evenly grey (except that photocopiers etc. often read some colours slightly differently).  Just try, and see what happens.  You'll have to stretch your range of colours enormously, because you won't have tone to fall back on to.  Try it - see what happens.  Bring it in next time, and we'll talk more about it.






GERALD said  "I decided to put some figures into my thumb nail sketches as I think they look sterile without some human forms.

Trying to do a few sketches before the person moved or left is, I realise, a discipline in itself and I don't know how successful it has been.

I am intending to try and combine 2 or 3 sketches into one."

Gerald no. 1

Gerald no. 2

Gerald no. 3

Gerald - these are very beautiful indeed.  I think the most successful page is no. 1.  I feel that you've made drawings which work as beautiful compositions.  Poems of light and dark.  Added to these is an unobtrusive, but essential figure.  The drawing in the top left, with a white silhouette, is really special - as is the one in the bottom right.

The subsequent sheets of studies are much more about information gathering, and understanding of how figures work (and yes, it's really difficult).  I am guessing that these are ideas that you might fuse into future compositions.

The key is just what I've said above.  Make compositions which work as such (on an abstract level), and have the figures contributing within that.  Working with colour is going to be your challenge.  Whatever you do, keep the tonal underpinning, and as I said to Penny, don't necessarily 'colour-in' with local colour.  Fabulous!

Added to all this industry, I have had contributions from Jane and Stephanie, who were not able to be at King's Place - well done both of you for sending stuff through.







STEPHANIE

"I am sending you work from a day spent on 25 July near Debden in Essex. I felt I learned a lot.  

I think it would be useful if there could be a round-robin of emails just before these days so that we could know who expects to be there.  They could just be random, to you, but copied to the rest of the group.  

No. 1.  First attempt, in front of landscape that was beautiful.    I rapidly found myself getting very wrapped up in the detail, and becoming maddened by the fact that the  tones were all the same, there was no focus and the scene did not say anything. So I went on to the scene below. Later, I came back to the painting at home, worked up the colours somewhat and put in ink additions.

So I moved on to number 2.  A very fast squiggle which suggested much more about what I was feeling about the day.   I liked this result. 
No. 3.  Finally, at home, I cooled off and reworked painting number one, by drawing into it a bit.  I then took a colour pencil sketch I had made of the view just to my left -- which was what had most appealed to me when I started out -- but of course I did not 'treat' myself to tackling it until tired --  and painted the following from memory, just keeping to the shapes and geometry of the fields and sky that had appealed to me in the beginning.  I am not sure whether it is finished or not."  

Stephanie no. 2

Stephanie no. 3

Stephanie no. 1

OK Stephanie, what a great contribution.  The main thing you need to decide, really, is which aspect of the scene fascinates you the most.  Is it the tonal 'pattern', or is it the vivid colours?  No 1. has got everything + the kitchen sink in it.  It actually works well as a landscape, but we've all seen a million like it before.  Tones popping about all over the place (especially with the exagerated modelling on the trees), and colours thumping through in competition with them.  
No. 2 is beautiful - you're right to be pleased.  Why?  Because you have reduced the colour, apart from the striking blue slash in the sky (which works predominantly as a tone), kept the modelling to the shapes to a minimum, and created a lovely landscape statement that reads firstly as a tonal composition.  Do you see the difference?


No. 3 is very impressive, as it was done from memory.  Here, the yellow and brick-red work happily side by side.  However, just be sensitive to the pattern you're making with those darks.  I've added it in here in b&w - does that pattern please you?   Well done though - really good.

Stephanie. no. 3 b&w

JANE is away, but sent these in from the previous visit we made.

Jane no. 1

Jane no. 2

Jane no. 3

Jane no. 4

Jane no. 5

Jane no. 6

I had talked to you about expanding your palette of neutral colours. I can see that you've been experimenting with them here.  The real difficulty you've got with these is that you've used that extremely vibrant blue and red in your darker areas in some pieces (eg. no. 2 and no. 4), and then the more modest colours in the lighter passages.  this tends to allow the blue and red to completely squash everything else.  However, where you have used the blue/reds in dark areas IN COMBINATION WITH darker neutrals, they can sit quite happily (eg. no. 6 and no. 1).  No. 5 is very gentle, with the pastel-coloured lights coming through against the more neutral darks, and no. 3 works as an all-over coloured piece.
The real key is in no. 1.  If you are going to have areas of the painting which are significantly different in tone (as you have done), then you need to contain the brilliant colours with some 'buffering' of something more neutral.  That's what you've done with that brilliant blue.  OR - if you want to use very vibrant colours throughout, then you need to reduce the degree of tonal contrast.  I hope you'll be there in September, and we can explore this further.

Pat W. hasn't been well since the meeting, and I know we all wish her well.  Anyway, she's now sent these in, saying :- "Rather the same as I have done before but I had hoped after seeing the Matisse cut outs afterwards I might translate the fairly stark shapes here to that medium!
Possibly the same for the gasometer.
The st. Pancras view was really from memory with the exemption of the table and chairs  added afterwards and the scale plotted in".

Pat no. 1

Pat no. 2

Pat no. 3

Super Pat!  What might be a REALLY good idea would be to actually reproduce one of these images using paper cut-outs.  Then you would really get a feel for what it would be like to work like Matisse.  There's a little challenge for you, and I know you would be brave enough to do it!

I like the starkness of no. 1 - that building has obviously got its hooks into you!  However, areas of 'fudge' have crept in.  If you were cutting it out of paper, it would just be stark shapes.  I have been cheeky enough to amend it, just to show you how that could happen.  Only then can you really SEE the shapes against each other, and how they fill the space, and talk to each other.

Pat. no. 1 - amended!

This is especially difficult where you have bits of filigree, such as the line-work on the gasometer in no. 2.  How would Matisse have dealt with this?  Put yourself in his shoes.  Think about what the picture needs to counterbalance the dark triangle in the bottom lhs.

I think this sort of exercise is very good for you, because it forces you to be more clear-thinking, which, by your own admission, you sometimes tend not to be!!

Then, having cleared your mind in a more practiced way, you can re-introduce brush/pen marks, but still keep 'areas' distinct.

So, this leads us to no. 3.  I think this is excellent, done from memory.  However, the reintroduction of local colour has led you down the 'fiddling' route, especially with the trees on the left.  I very much like the strong red brick of the spires against the hard modern structure on the right - nice idea.   The trees and figures then need to speak the same language, and ADD to your statement.

Your skills as an individual lie in the playing with shapes and colours, Pat.  Explore further the Matisse inspiration - see where it takes you.  Well done.




OK folks - brilliant!  I still hoping to get something from Pat W., but will get this to you anyway, and then add her in.

Please bring all these with you in September, as well as your subsequent work.

I hope you enjoy this - and get something out of it.  It's all there for all to share.