Abstracting Familiarity is a totally made up term because I don't pigeonhole myself as a still-life painter; I'm not, I paint what I love, the way I want to paint.

I may create a mass of flowers in an oddly shaped vase, or I may find a landscape reminiscent of Provence or Wales with a random pot of Stilton Cheese and a bird in the foreground. I never know, nothing is planned. so I came up with this term to describe what I mean.

 

I paint what I know, what is familiar enough to evolve without planning or expectation, and then I abstract it, deliberately distorting proportion, perspective, and avoiding reality. This may sound complicated but it really isn't, it offers permission to do it your way, which is what art should be. 

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4 hours of guided real-time (and a little time-lapse) video, lots of rambling and fascinating chat, probably more than you needed to know but I've added it anyway!

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What am I going to need to do this course? 

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• Space to create and make a mess.

• Tea.

• Time. Phone on silent for as long as possible!

• MDF panel, wooden board or cradled wooden panel, I am using a 40x40cm MDF board. (Canvas is not suitable)

• A homemade stay-wet palette - Plastic tray with lid or cling film wrap to cover, kitchen roll, baking parchment or greaseproof paper.

• Water spray bottle and jar of water.

• Silicon wedge or silicon paint shaper (silicon paint 'brush'). This is my primary tool and is a wonderful way to apply paint. If you can't get hold of one then use a silicon kitchen spatula! I'm using a 2inch paint shaper and I buy them from Amazon in a pack - a 1&2 inch for around £9.

• Cheap short bristle angle brush 0.5inch flat brush 1inch and one or two other inexpensive brushes. You don't need fancy ones for acrylic painting.

• Metal clay scrapers. I buy them in packs of 10 from Amazon for around £8. You only need one so they'll last forever, plus a few have great edges for creating texture if you like that sort of thing. 

• A metal palette knife. Mine are really cheap, about £5 for a pack.

• Acrylic gesso primer, any brand, it doesn't matter. I'm using Liquitex basic.

• A selection of water-soluble crayons and pencils. I use Stabilo Woodies, Inktense pencils and blocks, Caran D'Ache Neopastels (oil) and Neopastels 2 (water soluble), plus charcoal and white chalk.

• Acrylic paint - I am using student grade System 3 by Daler Rowney in my chosen primaries. You'll need YOUR favorite blue, red and yellow, plus Titanium white and a lot of it! Don't buy a set, they are a waste of money, you can make all the colours you'll need from your favourite primaries plus white. We'll use a limited palette so go for colours that you like to wear or looks at in your home. I'm using Phthalo blue, Burnt Sienna an Cadium Yellow and I would say I use about a teacup for of each. *I buy my paints from www.artdiscount.com as they are by far the cheapest online supplier in the UK. 500ml of system 3 is approx £8.70ish and more than double elsewhere.

• Cold Wax medium. NB this is MY personal choice to finish my work, you do not have to use this. I don't like varnish so I wax my paintings. I'm using Zest-it cold wax oil painting medium.

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