Still life study Painting

Paintings are made from observation directly using colours and drawing to make shape from the inside out . Influenced strongly by the Euston rd school of arts Sir William Coldstream who also taught at the Slade school London and possibly Camberwell . I found these techniques he developed in drawing to be so interesting because it makes the final product resonate more vividly. After teaching myself for years through reading books from cover to cover over and over of my favourite painters until the books fell apart . Also attending short drawing and painting course whilst putting out work in local annual societies shows . One notable course was with Robert Dukes who is the head of drawing at the Prince of Wales royal drawing school. He also teaches in The London art academy near London Bridge. This 12 week course really homed in on so many of the techniques taught at the Slade school maintaining the Coldstream approach adopted by so many . This clarified my own processes and has been invaluable in achieving my goals when lifting the brush. Such a lovely person the course was fun but also very serious if you needed it to be. After over half a decade ago I am still learning from that experience and feel the penny has finally dropped in realising the core of that teaching . What was so brilliant about Robert’s teaching was his attention to all the different individuals at their own abilities to help them move towards . However the main point was that he did not teach you like a trained monkey as schools usually do through punishment and reward . He left the door open but left you to go through it on your own , to use your attention so you understand it ,not him tell you but you’ve seen it for yourself . Therefore it’s yours , original and he pointed the direction to go , but find out for yourself . My project on the small boards I paint have become knowingly paired down images of direct observations of the shapes within the object , these abstract shapes meet each other in relationships of tone and colour values individually mixed (Cezanne) so when correct juxtaposition wise the comes a vibrancy and solidity realism ,through which one may express the way he feels . These paintings usually last from a few weeks to a few months as the image takes this on until the point where it ends .