stitch itch

I have recently started taking painting lessons. I have a lot of painting equipment at home and have made a few dire attempts at it but I wasn’t getting the results I wanted. I decided I really needed some expert guidance on painting techniques so I asked around the community here and someone very kindly introduced me to an artist who was willing to give lessons.

It turns out that there are a few other ladies interested in improving their brush strokes as well and so we started lessons.

Our teacher is a very lovely Russian artist called Lena. She has been painting for many years. Her husband, who passed away about 5 years ago, was also a brilliant painter and they shared the studio we are working in within the famous ‘house of painters’ area in Baku. Their son is also a painter, however he is currently serving his military service in the army.

Our first lesson was an introduction to Lena and her work. She showed as many of her paintings all using acrylic and other additions such as fabric and gold foil to add texture and interest to the work.

Lena then introduced us to our canvases…..

They are huge! It was a little bit daunting at first but after a while I really liked the idea of having so much space to work on. Lena explained that she wanted us to have freedom to paint whatever was inside of us. :O)

Next, we added plaster of paris to the blank canvas. This was to add texture to the surface so that the work has depth when we eventually paint over it.

Lastly, Lena showed us how she adds gold foil to her art work. I really loved the results we got on these scrap canvases. I would love to use this technique on my work.

More pictures from lesson 2 soon….