Blog 8 – 15/5/18

Hi de hi campers,

On Friday, a group of us went to the Aim Blockley exhibition at Bourton-on-the-Hill, a quaint little town in Glouchtshire. We had a great day out visiting the expo and gardens and eating scrummy cake.

Ann Blockley was very inspiring, her ‘figurative abstracts’ were awesome and made painters want to go away and paint under the Blockley influence.

Yesterday (Monday 14/5/18), Ali Smith, Liz Marsh and myself were at the Gordano Valley Church Art Group and tried painting ‘a la’ Blockley with some degree of success, it is such a free and flowing style with just a few hard edges to give the paintings some presence and let them speak for themselves.

As a learning tool, there is great value in ‘impersonating’ different peoples work, it allows you to experiment with different styles and explore how other artists use their paint differently, we can then pick out the bits we like and add it to our own style.

When I become more adept at the Ann Blockley style of painting which I hope to do by reading her books, watching her DVD’s and practice, practice, practice, I may run a workshop.

The message here is visit exhibitions, get inspired and don’t be afraid to copy other peoples styles and techniques to improve on your own.

Cheers for now.

Jeff