£50.00
£0

Painting Workshop Schedule
Suitable for all abilities – whether you’re picking up a brush for the first time or you’re a more experienced painter looking to develop your skills.
10:00–11:00 – Welcome & Painting Demonstration (Gallery Area)
We’ll begin with introductions, followed by a live painting demonstration, where I’ll talk through my approach and techniques while answering questions.
11:00–12:30 – Introduction to Painting (Visual Arts Studio)
During the morning session we’ll focus on the foundations of painting:
1. Drawing with Paint & Brush – Developing drawing skills using the brush through careful observation of the chosen reference material.
2. Blocking In – Learning to identify the main shapes and tonal values, establishing a strong structure for the painting.
12:30–1:00 – Lunch
1:00–4:00 – Developing the Painting
Building on the morning’s work, we’ll explore:
1. Introducing Colour – Understanding colour relationships and beginning to establish atmosphere.
2. Building the Surface – Developing the painting through successive layers of paint.
3. Adding Detail – Using carefully observed details to bring the painting to life and create a convincing interpretation of the chosen scene.
4:00 – Group Review
We’ll finish with an informal group discussion of everyone’s work. I’ll highlight the strengths of each painting, offer constructive suggestions for future development, and aim to send everyone home feeling encouraged, inspired, and with new ideas to take into their own painting practice.
Please feel free to come and go as you see fit or if you need to leave earlier.
All materials provided
What to bring: A reference image of your choice, or send to visualarts@birnamarts.com to get printed for the day.
Scottish contemporary artist Jonathan Mitchell
Since graduating from Duncan of Jordanstone College of Art, Dundee, in 1990, Jonathan Mitchell has developed a considerable reputation as a painter of the Scottish landscape with his work collected by patrons both in the UK and internationally.
Primarily working in oils, his painting is firmly within the Northern European tradition;both detailed and atmospheric. Mitchell says of his work;
"I am very much a realist artist. My work derives directly from things and places as I have found them. I try to evoke a sense of place and to communicate to the viewer what it felt like to be there; how cold or warm it was, how it felt underfoot and even what smells and sounds were there. And of course light-how the Scottish landscape looks when bathed in sunlight".