We started out using a thin brush and ochre coloured acrylic paint to draw an outline of our work onto the canvas. I still wasn’t 100% sure how I wanted it to look when I started but I knew I wanted it to include foxgloves. You can just about see the outline of the foxgloves in the picture above. We then applied a wash of background colours.

Once that was dry we added background colour to the foxgloves themselves in various shades of light and dark to add depth to the work. Before we knew it two hours had passed and we were ready to finish for the day.

In Lesson 3 I added further details to the foxgloves but unfortunately I forgot my camera so I don’t have any pictures to show you.

Next week we are leaving these paintings for a while and will have a go at painting still life! Ek! :O)

It’s been such a long time since I painted anything and I had forgotten how much fun it is!

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….