First up this month, and something to look forward to is on Wednesday, 10th of June from 10 am until 1 pm. Rita will be leading this session with a theme of Birds Beasts & Blossoms and employing her usual style of art with colour, collage and a contemporary vibe.
Rita has suggested that you take a look at Matisse’s work particularly his collages, which, will undoubtedly help with the workshop.
Bring all the usual art materials incl scissors, tweezers, glue. A mount & frame if you have one.
Bring any unused painted papers & decent magazines like country life are useful. Rita will supply lots of printed / coloured papers & extras.
Come & have fun and get your creative juices flowing, collaging ,printing, and experimenting. Rita.
It sounds like a very different type of morning and I have no doubt it will be enormous fun.
Soft Pastels Summer Meadows, Cartmel 2026
Inspired by the richness of summer light, this soft pastel workshop will explore meadows, grasses, hedgerows and trees in full leaf, capturing the colour and atmosphere of the summer landscape.…..I’ll guide you through my approach to working with soft pastels, beginning with a painterly wet base before gradually building layers of colour, depth, blending, mark-making, and texture, to capture the essence of the landscape.
We’ll begin by creating an initial wet underpainting using pastels with rubbing alcohol. This quickly establishes the dark values and general composition before developing pastel work over the top. Whether this approach is familiar to you or completely new, there will be plenty of opportunity to experiment explore and develop your own response to the subject.
Soft pastels come in a wide range of colours and qualities, hardness and softness. The more colours you have, the more flexibility you will have for layering and blending, but please just bring whatever you already own. The emphasis will be on how we use them rather than having a full range of materials.
The surface you work on makes a big difference with soft pastels, particularly when using wet techniques. I will have pastelmat paper available on the day from £1.20 per sheet.
I will provide the rubbing alcohol.
For reference, if you wish to buy your own paper, I use ‘Clairefontaine Pastelmat’ a little smaller than A4 in size. I’m using white, as we are painting our own base, but any light colour is fine.
Suggestions of equipment to bring:
This sounds like a great workshop, can you put my name down Rita please. To book your place please contact Rita on: email. ritadeby45@gmail.com or 07587705842.
