For a change I will tell you a little of what I have been up to today.

I mentioned a couple of days ago that I would be doing a fair amount of teaching this week. Today I did a workshop for the SFP. A couple of times a year they arrange workshops for members at a place called Bursledon just outside Southampton.

Bursledon is by the River Hamble and its Elephant Boatyard is on the site of the old ship building yards where Henry VIII’s fleet was built. But I didn’t get to do any sightseeing unfortunately.

The village hall where the workshops are held is very light and airy, but the light comes in all directions giving all round light. Difficult when you want to emphasise contrast and shadows creating form.

The topic of the workshop was Autumn Colours and the medium was coloured pencil. Some of the students were well into using coloured pencil in botanical art, some had played a bit with CP and some had collected the odd pencil and wanted to learn how to use them. We had only one day.

Because of time limitation (1 day), and unlike my usual workshops, I had to stay focused only on CP techniques, rather than the whole picture – initial drawing and composition. This meant that people had to have taken decisions about subject and composition before today, to be in readiness for laying CP.

I demonstrated the technique, answered questions and then let people put into practice what they had picked up from the demo and instruction. After that it was a question of going round and continuously checking progress, giving advice and solving individual issues.

I’m afraid that I only took a few pictures as I waited a little too late before remembering to take them. But there are two people from further west who are absolute gluttons for punishment, they got off on time, but are coming back for my three- day workshop at the weekend. I will definitely take photos of their results then.

Here are four of the results from today.

Don’t you think they are stunning? Three of the happy ladies (Maggie Roberts, Barbara Sampson and Ruth Roberts) considering if they are going to paint Medlar or not. I think that they were amazed that when painting subjects such as dead and dyeing leaves, you can really play with colours. They were so surprised to find out that dull brown also contains pale pinks, exhilarating magentas, delicate blues and of course vibrant reds and yellows.

To finish off this blog a few more of the exhibition pictures at Palmengarten.

Artwork by Sandra Armitage & Vickie Braithwaite.

Artwork by Cheryl Wilbraham & Yuriko Kojima

Artwork by Shevaun Doherty & Elisabeth Sherras Clark