You don't want to miss this!! - 10 Day Artist retreat in Greece

Ok...so I am just a bit excited!!!

If you have been following me for a while you will know that I have been working with the amazing Gillian from Artable for quite a few years now. We have held some awesome workshops and retreats together all over Australia. Well, now that the world is opening up again Gillian is bringing back what she does best and what Artable is most known for....overseas creative retreats!

I am super stoked to be one of her teachers for the first series of luxury art retreats in 2023 and we are heading to the beautiful Skopelos Island.

Skopelos is a very special island full of artistic inspiration and colour everywhere you look. There is the most incredible turquoise coloured sea nestled behind spectacular white-washed villages with multi-coloured rooves. Combine that with the brilliance of the local bougainvillea, lemon and olive trees and you have an artists' haven.

I have never been there before but Gillian has spent a lot of time there and knows exactly what we need to see. She has put together an incredible 10 day retreat full of food, inspiration, relaxation and art.

PLACES ARE LIMITED SO SECURE YOUR SPOT WITH A DEPOSIT ASAP

Each day will involve a new painting location where you will work with me, I will demonstrate some useful techniques before tackling your own artworks with plenty of down time to shop, swim in the crystal clear waters and enjoy the Greek hospitality.

We will be using mostly watercolour and gouache so that we can keep things nice and portable, with a strong focus on capturing the colour and mood of the locations we visit. We can work in sketchbooks as well as loose sheets of paper. I will show you how to work loose and fast to capture the essence of the island without getting bogged down in details. 

In addition to daily instruction from me and staying in gorgeous water view accommodation, you will also be enjoying:

- Dinners with a local Greek grandmother cooking & George's homemade pastries and incredible fresh Greek breakfast each morning

- A sailing trip to soak in the incredible turquoise waters surrounding the island with painting in the old village on Alonyses

- A Day trip to see St Johns Church made famous in the movie Mama Mia

- Visits to local tapas bars & restaurants

- Visits to local beaches where you can swim between painting sessions

- Plenty of shopping time for authentic Greek ceramics and more

The full package includes accommodation, art classes and some planned tours. Breakfast is also included each morning with some lunches and some dinners included in the price (others allow you to choose & pay for your own meals at a variety of restaurants and tapas bars). Flights are not included in the package which gives you the flexibility to plan a longer visit if you would like.

This workshop is open to anyone worldwide so if you are based in Europe or the US and you have always wanted to join in on my workshops then this is a great opportunity to learn from me.

Artists will have painting sessions with me either morning or afternoon and you can choose how much or how little painting you do each day. (Non-painting partners are welcome to join us at a discounted rate as well and will have plenty to do).
 

What if I'm just a beginner?
You don't need to feel as though you are a good painter to do this trip, I have taught many beginner painters before and what better place to be inspired and learn the basics than the Greek Islands.

Watercolour and Gouache are very easy art mediums to pick up and learn for beginners. And a lot of techniques used with gouache are very similar to how I use acrylic paint, so you can transfer what you learn at the retreat over to acrylic paint when you get back home. 

What if I don't have someone to go with?
No arty friends? no worries! Based on past experiences with these retreats I know that by the end everyone is great friends. You will be with a group of creative people that are just as excited as you are to talk about paints, materials, techniques and more. The accommodation is based on twin share rooms and Gillian will match you up with another single traveller. 

More questions??

Feel free to contact Gillian at Artable (INFO@ARTABLE.COM.AU) to answer any of the questions you may have regarding the retreat itself, if you have any art-related questions or concerns about the trip then you can contact me and I'd be happy to answer as best I can.

Online Classes - Which is better? Skillshare or Teachable

If you are an artist and you are interested in learning some of the techniques that I use to create my paintings then I do have a number of online classes available on both Skillshare and also through Teachable.

I often have people ask me what the difference between the two platforms are and whether they are the same. The answers is yes and no.

The classes and content available on Skillshare and Teachable are the same (with only one exception). Same videos, same information, same format etc. The difference is that for Skillshare you need to pay a monthly membership to get access to the classes and you need to continue that membership if you want to rewatch or revisit any of the lessons. On Teachable, you pay a one off fee for each class that you want to watch and you only have to pay once. After that you can rewatch anytime as often as you like (even months later).

Which platform you choose is totally up to you and both come with positives and negatives. Skillshare is a monthly subscription, however you also get access to all the other content that is available on the platform (including all my classes and every other class created by other teachers). So you do get a lot of content for your monthly subscription.

Teachable is good for those that don’t want to commit to a monthly subscription, or maybe you are only interested in watching one particular class. You can also watch one class on Teachable, see if you like my style of teaching or not. If you do, then it might be benifitial to eventually subscribe to skillshare and watch them there instead.

You can view my Skillshare profile here and visit my Teachable website here

Five Day Tasmania Art Retreat - October 2019

If you want to stay in luxury accommodation whilst indulging your creative side and learning from the best, then this trip is for you. We are taking only 10 students and have timed this tour to be combined our favourite Tasmanian accommodation with the regions most popular flower festival - don't miss out! We have included all meals in the workshop pricing except for 1 lunch (at the Tulip Festival) and 1 dinner so that we can enjoy a night out together.

We have painting days with Clair Bremner as well as a full day at the Tulip Festival. At night, we dine by candle light as our chefs prepare local Tasmanian fare from locally sourced produce. There are beautiful gardens to explore as well as well as plenty of nearby walks along the river to truly experience the beauty of the area before or after class.

- Artable

Join me for a relaxing five day art retreat in Launceston, Tasmania with Gillian from Artable Retreats. We will spend the day creating in the studio, exploring the beautiful rural location at the Red Feather Inn and chatting about all things art.

We will spend one day wandering around the Tasmanian Tulip Festival gathering inspiration and taking in the food, wine and festivities. The lessons will be casual and relaxed, I will take you through some step by step techniques and also give you plenty of time to explore your own ideas. This retreat has a limited number of places available so get in quick if you are interested.

Some of the guided classes will include working in a sketchbook to loosen up and plan compositions, observing the landscape and interpreting it in a more abstract manner, acrylic painting techniques and colour mixing, sketching from observation, painting flowers and more. The materials list is very low key and easy to manage, we will be working mostly small scale on paper so you will come home with a big pile of work that you can experiment with further.

This workshop is suitable for all levels, so whether you are an absolute beginner or experienced artist you will learn something new and have the chance to meet like minded people. There is only a few places left and payment plans are available. Follow the link below to learn more and sign up.

Does every painting need to have a story?

Many beginner artists start painting because they enjoy the process. They enjoy the feeling of mixing and adding colours to canvas, the challenge of representing something in paint, of creating something from scratch and saying “I did this”. It’s for the love of it.

If that desire to create goes further and they begin to feel as though this is how they want to make a career, a whole other world of problems are opened up. When moving from the world of amateur into professional suddenly there is a whole new set of expectations put upon you. Suddenly you can’t just create something just because you want to, because people will begin to ask that one elusive question…why?

Collectors, critics and fans will begin to want to know why you are doing something, what is the deeper meaning behind it. What message are you trying to get across? What point are you making?

To begin with I really struggled with this. Even way back when I was completing a Diploma of Visual art (back in 2002-2004) I would be asked by my tutors “what are you trying to say with this piece”…my answer would be a shrug of the shoulders followed by “I dunno”.

I was never interested in creating a political argument with my art. I never had religious views that I felt needed to be expressed or a statement that I was trying to make. As a result I always felt inferior and as though my work wasn’t worthy of anything important because I wasn’t trying to make a point or send out a message. Everyone around me was creating artistic statements and deep hidden messages within their art about the environment, racism, social issues, feminism…the list goes on. There is of course nothing wrong with that, but I personally really struggled with it…because I didn’t have any. Even back then, all I wanted to do was make pretty paintings, but that never seemed to be enough.

So does every painting need to have a story?

It has taken a very long time for me to realize that the answer to that is…no. It is ok to create purely for the love of creating. It is ok to not have a deeper meaning behind each stroke of the brush. There is nothing at all wrong with painting JUST because you want to paint. Does that make my art shallow? Not at all!

The purpose of my art is not to make a statement, first and foremost I want my paintings to be seen as beautiful. I want the viewer to look at it and say “wow…that’s so pretty!”. I want to create a reaction within them that sees the piece for exactly what it is….a pretty picture. I want the colours to be pleasing to the eye, calming and attractive. I want the shapes and composition to remind the viewer of nature and tranquility. I want the details and textures to be noticed once the view comes closer and becomes engaged in the piece. I want them to be able to look into the layers of colour and pattern to see the work and process involved. I want them to WANT to have this hanging on their wall in their home and not have to explain the deeper meaning of it all to everyone that comes over.

In my opinion, creating something that is beautiful, peaceful and calming to look at is just as important as creating something that is challenging, thought provoking and has a strong message to put across. There is a space for both within the art world.

Now all this being said, some of my paintings do have more of a story to them than others but that story usually has more to do with what inspired the piece than a particular subconscious message I’m trying to make. For example if someone approaches me to create a painting based on a mountain view near their home, and I am to include the flock of pigeons that the neighbor releases each afternoon into the skyline…then obviously this piece now has a story connected to it.

Or if as I am creating a painting, the images that are coming forward remind me of a particular time or place or event then I can happily match up that piece with such story and give the painting more meaning. But at the same time I no longer feel the need to do this with ALL my paintings. Sometimes it is just what it is and nothing more. The piece was created spontaneously with little to no thought and it is now just a pretty picture.

What do you think? Do you have trouble finding meaning in your work? Or do you totally disagree with me and believe that if there is no meaning behind it then there is no point creating it?

Making a start | how to stop being scared of a blank canvas

Blank canvases are scary. Anyone that has stood in front of one will know this. The stress that you can feel sometimes is crazy. You worry about ruining that perfect white flat surface. You don't want to mess it up. What if you make a mistake? What a waste! 

Then you have to think about what you are actually going to paint. How do you decide? How do you pick one idea out of a million that are in your head?  

Its a struggle.  

The easiest way to get over this overwhelming fear is to just do it. Pick a colour (or three) and cover up all the white. Just slap it on. It doesn't matter how just cover it up.  

There you go... the white is gone. The canvas has been messed up and now it doesn't matter what you do next.  

Even now, after painting pretty much my whole life I still have that fear and anxiety when starting a new piece. Even when I know exactly what I need to do, I procrastinate starting because I worry that I will ruin it. But as soon as I cover the surface with paint the feeling disappears and I can focus on getting the work done.  

Colour in Your Life

The episode of Colour in Your Life that I recorded a few weeks ago has gone live on YouTube. Hello to all the new fans that have found their way here through the various links.

If you haven't seen the episode yet you can watch it here

I was quite nervous on the day, it's quite a challenge to focus on creating a painting with people watching and asking questions at the same time LOL.

I have had a wonderful response so far which is very reassuring and I'm glad to hear that everyone is enjoying watching it.

I have had people ask me about the workshops that were mentioned in the video, they will be released via Everything Art in February. I will share links and more information about that in a few months,