Charles Reid at Stow - Day Five

Friday, the final day of the workshop dawned with much better weather, although as we were indoors this didn't matter. The subject today was the much anticipated portrait/figure session and the model was Jane, who I had first seen modelling for Charles in 2007, on my very first workshop at Burford. I gather she has also done so subsequently. I have a photograph of the painting Charles did on that occasion, which is one of my favourites, now owned by our organizer Jane Duke. You will note it was combined with flowers and other objects, quite a different approach from today's painting.

 Jane at Burford in 2007

Jane at Stow in 2013

Charles began with a faint outline creating a silhouette.  He then made the head smaller and drew the hands which he does very carefully, where things intersect. Charles took regular breaks as much for Jane's benefit as his own. These are about every 15 to 20 minutes. Charles is very solicitous for the models well-being constantly asking if she is all right, and to some amusement initially kept mixing her name up and calling her Mary.

With the face start with the eye and check position, using these as a starting point for the nose, mouth and chin. Check the corner of the eye with the face, the other side with the hairline. The next key problem is the length of nose which students often get wrong. Don't make a hard line of the light side and stress the upper line of the nostril without making it into a black hole. Use mouth for the distance to the hair. At bottom of chin go to the neck making the chin line faint and subtle. Keep losing lines by erasing.

Note this is an accurate but not detailed drawing- quite loose in fact..

The initial loose washes. Plenty of paint and water using an Escoda 1212 Kolinsky sable size 14. This is larger than any I have and I was able to examine it between breaks. It is a lovely brush and I'm sorely tempted to invest in one (I just have). In general the equivalent Da Vinci Maestro Series 10 is roughly two sizes larger, but comparing the diameter of the No.14 brush heads is only fractionally wider, while costing 50% more. I don't have a length comparison but I doubt there is a lot in it.

The painting has now dried before Charles moves to the next step.

Started detail changing to the Da Vinci Maestro 35 size 6, I think the number is different in North America, which is longer and slimmer (and more expensive) than the Series 10. Charles stressed that you shouldn't do the eye as a solid block but in pieces, placing paint. He adds green and Raw Umber, Cadmium Red at corners, over the top Cerulean and a little red, but not on the upper lid. He works wet in wet with up and down strokes then the eyebrows.. Don't overstress under the eye. Don't stroke - press the brush, Soften edges as you go. Edge control is really important. He restates quite a lot.

Next the nose painted with Cadmium Red and Raw Sienna. No blue in the nostril just a dot.

Under the nose and indicates mouth with light wash. First step the centreline - don't make too dark! Constantly softens and corrects.

The mouth is completed then the lips and chin. Stay away from sides -stay in centre. Starts on chin, softens adding red and brushes away from it. Don't leave a pronounced chin line.

A start on the hair and hat. Note they are painted as one shape and not separated. Don't fill out the hair leaving an escape route. Use the same colours under the hat brim  and paint out into the hair. Colours mentioned here Ivory Black and Burnt Umber.

Further work to define the hat.

Charles used a minimum of strokes (5) for the hair/hat and said more screws it up! Small final touches as he reviewed painting. Some white gouache was added at the end, although looking at the painting it isn't obvious where. He always says don't spend too much time on the hair, although in this instance the hat and hair are combined as one large shape..

The sequence above shows the final result.

This was a fascinating session and you could hear a pin drop most of the time, although Charles constantly explains what he is doing and why. We then broke for lunch and unfortunately as it was Friday and nearing the end  four of the students departed, as they had long journeys and connections to make. This meant only thirteen remained for the afternoon session. As the weather was somewhat better I went down to a fish and chip shop I'd noticed called Greedys and bought some  for my lunch. They were excellent and I enjoyed them sitting on a seat at the area where Charles first painted outdoors.

 I realise these notes are a little rough but it isn't easy to  write down or remember everything. I hope nevertheless that they convey the gist and flavour of the demonstration.

When we reconvened at 1.30.pm the students sorted themselves out position wise and began to draw and paint the model. As it was my turn on the front row this carried over to the painting session and I was able to position myself closer to Jane and also only slightly to the side. I think this gave me a considerable advantage over some of the others. I shall cover my efforts, and explain why I wasn't able to photograph other student paintings, in a final post in the next two days.

For those who are interested in Portraits the Charles Reid way I recommend the  DVD `Figurative Watercolours' (APV Films 2012). Portraits feature in many of his books but the ones that stick in my mind are his final book `Watercolour Solutions' and `The Natural Way to Paint'. Both can be obtained from Amazon and some other booksellers.

Charles Reid at Stow - Day Four

With the weather again inclement it was decided to repeat yesterdays subject of a Flowers/Still Life arrangement. Before going any further I should have explained that the way his workshops are planned is that Charles paints, demonstrates and instructs, while Jane and Judy ensure that things run smoothly throughout the week. This isn't as straightforward as it sounds. For example the caretaker had said we must not get paint on the carpet, although there were plenty of marks on it already.  This involved putting down sheets of cellophane and taping them together! 

For the Flower subjects they arrived with an enormous bunch of flowers, a bag of fruit and some vegetables, the flowers then split and arranged into five separate bunches. When this was being done I commented to Judy about the preponderance of white flowers. This was when she said Charles likes painting them.

On this occasion he chose a different arrangement. You may note the other objects not just fruit. The duck is a regular as are some of the other items.

After the usual checking and re-arranging Charles commences the drawing.

Charles starts drawing with the duck. He draws the vase - inside first. Don't draw straight stems look for ovals. He said the place you start is not as good as the place you end up or vice versa. 

 The completed drawing

 This was his palette for today with added paint. Compare it to yesterdays photograph.

The initial application of paint which always begins in the centre by the rim of the vase. Note the Cobalt Violet.  Use single strokes and keep the brush on the paper. You thus start darker and end lighter. Vary the direction of your brush strokes. When painting the bottle the brush takes different directions. The colours on it are made up, Lemon Yellow and Cobalt Blue were mentioned. It isn't always easy to follow Charles as he often improvises as the mood takes him and is certainly not regimented in any way.

Things begin to take shape. Flowers are just indicated without any real detail.

See how things develop. Note how the white flower is moved to just above the rim to break up the greenery. Charles always says don't overdo the leaves.

The flowers are virtually finished.

Not a great deal left to do.

A closer look.

The finished Painting.

The students paint under Charles eagle eye.

Following Charles demo a second critique took place in which students offered up another painting. Charles commented on each one after asking what the owner felt about it. We then broke for lunch and recommenced at 1.30.pm, everyone selecting a different arrangement to  previous. I did not have a good session and scrapped the first two attempts, one at a very early stage. I'm afraid I was somewhat distracted by phone calls I'd received on Wednesday afternoon from the estate agent involved in my house selling/ buying, which is causing a lot of grief, and lost concentration. That sounds like a cop out and probably is, although the painting I did then was better than on this day. 

Painting carried on until 4 -5.pm with Charles supervising as you can see above. We then dispersed with the much awaited portrait session scheduled for the final day. After my poor performance so far I determined to finish on at least a higher note! One sad (but happy) note. Latifa Kostas, a Charles Reid regular for some years left at midday to return to London. We were told the following day that she now has another granddaughter! Latifa never paints between workshops as she says she is just too busy. Over the course of the week you can see how her painting improves and is much better at the end than the beginning. I noted this on previous workshops and have told her so. A salient lesson that painting regularly is essential if you really wish to progress.  

Charles Reid at Stow - Day Three

Wednesday dawned, a thoroughly miserable damp and cold day, quite a contrast from Tuesday, but as we were indoors and the hall was well heated this wasn't a problem. The subject was Charles trademark combination Flowers/Still Life. 

 Guess Who!

Charles Craig Young palette. Note the small amounts of paint and his latest addition Cobalt Violet, in the bottom right position. His two greens are Oxide of Chromium and Viridian but he also mentioned Cobalt Green Dark and you can see two shades in the third pan across, second row down. Charles also talked about only putting out sufficient paint needed as it must be fresh, nice and juicy, so that the tip of the brush digs into it. Sometimes he mixes on the palette, quite often straight from paint well to paper. As for makes he mentioned Winsor & Newton but had many tubes of Holbein, his long time choice, in his box.

Charles started with a quite complicated drawing using on this occasion some Schut very rough paper. He draws lightly, using a mechanical pencil, and when painting will improvise. Mostly he uses Fabriano Artistico paper, although he likes Schut Noblesse, which isn't generally available. The Schut rough he used - I'm not sure what it is called - is very rough and can give a different effect, although not the easiest to paint on. He also likes the Czech Moldau hand made paper.

This was the subject and Charles spends some time moving things around, both flowers and objects until he gets them exactly where wanted.

Checking its just right.

The completed drawing.

When he started painting he usually starts at the rim of the receptacle and likes to let paints work together, with a quite complicated interaction between the green leaves and flowers. He paints shapes rather than things and connects stems when the flowers are still wet.

The flowers are painted first - shapes not things. Value is more important than colour. You will note that he likes to have a flower(s) in the lower position rather than a mass of green leaves as in the actual composition. Apparently he particularly likes to paint white flowers, not everyone's favourite colour.

He starts adding the window frames and said you must vary the colour. He added some background,  painting around the window frame. Avoid `mushy' colour apart from shadows. The darks are incorporated as he paints - no adding later. Timing is important as if too wet you can get a mess.

Almost there!

The finished painting a typical Charles Reid speciality, with many at this workshop particularly interested in this part of his repertoire. As usual Charles takes regular breaks - every 20 minutes or so - and goes outside to smoke his pipe. I noticed on more than one occasion clouds of smoke emanating from it! Probably contemplating a tricky bit. Charles is very communicative when painting, only occasionally going quiet when he needs to especially concentrate on a particular section. Part of the reason for the breaks is to let parts of the painting dry before pressing on. It isn't all wet-into-wet. He is actually quite pragmatic in his approach.

Together with the subject Charles painted,  four other still life's - all with the same basic flower theme - were set up for the students afternoon painting session. groups of three to four congregating around each one. Charles circulated and commented on work in progress, while helping those who asked for assistance.

One thing I've missed is the critique, which took place at around noon or a little earlier after Charles had finished his demonstration. Each student was asked to submit one painting which Charles would then comment on. In my case I submitted the painting of Chris at the Stow Lodge Hotel. I mentioned earlier  Charles made one basic criticism that the tree looked out of place and, the painting would be better without it - also the tree colours were too cool -  the rest being okay. 

The afternoon finished at around 4.30pm and all headed for their hotels, most thoroughly exhausted, or in my case a 20 mile car journey to my sister at Ducklington. Exhausted? After such  intense concentration you usually are.  Charles commented earlier that a two and a half hour session was enough for him during a day, and he found it hard to understand how some artists painted all day.

Charles Reid at Stow - Day Two

On Tuesday morning, the second day, the weather turned out to be the best of the week. The original plan had been that Tuesday morning would be free time with the workshop commencing at 1.pm. The reason was that it was thought the hall would not be available that morning. In the event this wasn't so, and caused some slight confusion about what exactly the programme would be on the first two days. This was also affected by the variable weather forecast with deterioration expected from mid-week. Charles decided to paint outside and we headed for the main square, specifically a small area of greenery on one side of the square. When we arrived it was thought we might have problems with visitors, as it was a popular seating area. One of the students was staying at the Stow Manor Hotel opposite so elected to ask the hotel if we could paint in the grounds. This was agreed although we were restricted to a particular area at the far side that wasn't ideal.

Initially Charles wandered around the area peering this way and that way trying to find a vista to paint. Eventually he gave up and I heard him mutter he was having trouble finding inspiration. I wasn't involved in the discussions, involving mainly Jane and another student Chris. Chris volunteered  to paint  in the middle of the lawn facing Charles and thus became the subject with the rest of the painting from Charles interpretation of the surroundings. As with arbitrary colour - colours that aren't actually there -  he made up the rest of the composition.

This was the setup with Chris in the middle and several students clustered around close by. The rest were spread around and I was behind and to the left.

  

This was my position. Charles can just be seen at the top of the easel under his large blue umbrella.

The two photographs above feature Charles painting with the second the finished one. As I've mentioned before he doesn't finish in a conventional way just `stops' when he feels he is adding bits for the sake of it.

This was mine. I started with the figure, made a not too detailed pencil drawing, then painted working outwards.

My finished painting (the photo affected by shadows). I added the tree as an after thought and at the Wednesday critique Charles said this was a mistake. I thought it a little stark otherwise.

Overall this was a successful session. It was very hot and drove the majority to paint in the Hall in the afternoon. While you could stand and watch Charles paint it wasn't a demonstration, with most opting to paint. You could naturally ask questions and he is always ready to answer. I alternated between painting and going over and seeing what he was doing. As I've mentioned before Charles takes regular breaks, usually every twenty minutes or so. He will wander off and mostly smoke his pipe, before recommencing after 5 -10 minutes.

In the afternoon nearly all returned to the Hall and painted using the black and white photographs provided. There were several different ones and we had previously been asked to list those we liked after which photocopies were made. The photos were quite old, I would think the early part of the 1900s, and I thought I heard Whitby mentioned. The subjects were fishing folk.

Examples of the source material. I opted for the man on the extreme right, while the left hand photo is of the man Charles demonstrated. Several of the students opted to copy him.

 My initial drawing, top half of the body.

A3 Moldau 280gsm Not

I thought the drawing was okay but although the painting started well I lost my way halfway through and did not like the final result. Apart from anything else the colours were  too dull and neutral. I should have introduced brighter arbitrary colour rather than mistakenly be led astray by the black and white  of the photo. This is something Charles repeats, that at some point in a painting you arrive at a turning point where it either goes on to succeed or takes a wrong turn. I think I should also have made the figure about a third larger but feel I made the body too wide relative to the head and shoulders.  During this session Charles did not paint, wandering around and helping those who asked for assistance while making the odd comment about individual paintings.

This was the first day I painted and I was disappointed that I hadn't made a better fist of it.