This is a 4 week course, running on Thursday mornings.

My work is usually inspired by photos I have taken in my travels. I am particularly interested with finding the beautiful and interesting wherever I am. My Country roads series of works are based on photos I took from the passenger seat while driving locally or on holiday. We live in such a beautiful place, there is plenty of inspiration. Light and shape grab my attention. The road gives me a path for my eyes to follow. The photos are springboards for my work. The painting takes me where it needs to go. My preferred medium is oils.

In this course I will help students compose an interesting painting from photos they have. Discussion around the elements of good composition will be an important part of this. Decisions are made on what to include and what to leave out. Reading tone and colour mixing using a limited palette will also be discussed.

What to bring:

1 Photos you have taken of road views. Look for passages of light and different tonal shapes.
A coloured image on your phone is fine as a backup only but as this format is too small to work from well. Please print A4 black and white images. Bring at least three images to choose from. Not every good photo makes a good painting. I will bring some images you may work from if you need them.

2 Drawing pencils, sketch paper. Drawing is an excellent way to focus your observations as well as nut out your composition. You will need these for week one in particular.

3 Painting kit and canvas

· Painting surface, eg stretched canvas, canvas board or canvas sheet. Perhaps no smaller than 25×30 and no bigger than 50 x 60, so that the work can be completed in the course of the workshop. If you complete the painting earlier, of course you may begin another.

· Ideally your paints should include a warm and cool red, yellow and blue. Paint kit example:
Cadmium red,(warm) alizarin crimson (cool)
Cadmium yellow(warm)and lemon yellow(cool)
Ultramarine blue(warm) and cerulean blue(cool)
white
burnt umber or black

But bring whatever you have.

· Painting medium, odourless non-toxic solvent, brushes, rags etc

You can see some of my work on Instagram @bernadetteartworks