EXHIBITIONFinal-day exhibition

 

Once again, a group of seven artists from around the country gathered in Porthleven for the latest 6-day 'Freedom in Painting' course at the Old Lifeboat House studio. The aim, as always, was to find inspiration in the beauty and complexity of Porthleven and use this as the springboard to explore the possibilities in painting...The Old Lifeboat House is in an incomparable location at the head of the harbour, a special studio for all the artists who work there.

 

studio2
The Old Lifeboat House (on left)

The first day of the course is now our 'gallery-day' and this time we headed to Truro. We were all impressed by the mark-making and saturated colour in the landscapes of Martyn Brewster at Lemon Street Gallery. We also visit the Tregony Gallery - great crab sandwiches in the Kings Arms! - and then onwards to COLOURSCAPES, my solo-exhibition at the Heseltine Gallery, which included a selection of my Porthleven paintings.

We returned to the studio for an afternoon painting session where the artists had the challenge of making a small painting with a given colour and one of the ten letters that spells PORTHLEVEN. Out of their comfort-zone, the artist's response was varied and inventive. Some of the artists, including myself, continued to work on these paintings throughout the week. 

GILLIAN SYLVESTER 21Gillian Sylvester's 'N'

 YVONNE AULD 41Yvonne Auld's 'H'

 

On Sunday morning, a brief talk was followed by a drawing session around the harbour from a multitude of viewpoints, recording place, structure, water, incident, in our search for ideas for paintings. The afternoon session began with a group exercise exploring a variety of opposites, again challenging the artists' skills and ingenuity. For the next three days, the artists pushed their ideas and paintings forwards, interspersed with demonstrations, individual tuition and group critiques. We worked hard, often late into the evening, painting, observing, conversing, learning. 

STUDIO 1

 

At 2pm on Thursday, we finally put down our brushes to hang the exhibition. It's always a magical moment when the studio is cleared and the paintings are revealed, with the space to see. Denise joined us for our celebratory dinner at The Square restaurant, delicious food as always. Plenty of mmm's around the table!

We finished the course with a one-day exhibition, welcoming many visitors to the Old Lifeboat House studio.

Below is a gallery of some of the exceptional paintings from the course and I've also posted a gallery on the Freedom in Painting Group Facebook page here , where you can of course view them large scale.

 PS Although our Autumn Porthleven courses are full, we have three places available on the May Port Isaac course. See here for details

GALLERY

 

PORTH APRIL 19 BLOGEDIT