catherine beale

I am delighted that my large watercolour portrait of my two sons has been accepted into the SWA Annual Exhibition this year. The painting is taken from photos on our family post-lockdown trip to the Lake District – a precious time.
The SWA exhibition will be held on line from 21 September.
See https://www.society-women-artists.org.uk/ for more details.

A couple of spaces have opened up in my July workshops as they have had to be moved forward by a few weeks.
Atmospheric Landscapes is now on Wednesday 28 July
and Watercolour Portraits is now on Saturday 7 August
Further Autumn workshops have been added too!
A Beginner’s Autumn Retreat to introduce you to the wonder of watercolours and Imaginary Landscapes to help free you up from using photographs as your only source material.

It has been a joy to be back demonstrating art techniques live again (in spite of masks and visors!) I have one space left on each of my physical workshops in June. Do join me to try line and wash, or receive an introduction and sample watercolours at my Beginners’ Retreat.
July sees me explain how to work wet-in-wet to build atmosphere into your watercolour landscapes.
If portraits is your thing, on 10 July I will take an in depth look at creating them in flowing watercolour.
Hope to see you soon!

Earlier this week I was masked up and having fun with cascading watercolours, weather and atmosphere at the delightful Truro Arts Company in Cornwall.
It’s always exciting for me, trying to control the drips on a super vertical easel!
The glowering cloud contains Indigo and Burnt Umber on a base of Phthalo Turquoise – a lovely mix.

A series of new workshop dates are now available to book and I am so looking forward to creating watercolours together in our spacious venue on Bath’s canal. I have everything crossed to hope we go ahead without a hitch! Further details here: https://catherinebeale.com/bath-watercolour-workshops-2/

Dear fellow painters,
I am extending my mid-month Zoom Watercolour workshops into at least the middle of the year.
Each workshop explores a different aspect of the English countryside and the live videos will be made available for purchase to view via Youtube after the class.

Wednesday 12 May (1030-1230) – ICE – Look at reserving the white of the paper to depict snow and add ice-blue shadows over undulating Cotswold fields.
Wednesday 16 June (1030-1230) – EARTH – Have fun contrasting cascading foreground colour against crisp forms.
Wednesday 21 July (1030-1230) – FIRE – Explore exciting granular pigments – Moonglow and others – to describe fields in a Somerset summer thunderstorm.
Wednesday 18 August (1030-1230) – WATER – Try letting paint loose, pooling in water, in a semi-abstract wave motif from near Cornwall’s Lamorna Cove.

Please visit and book here:
https://catherinebeale.com/online-watercolour-workshops-with-zoom/

Physical Bath Watercolour Workshops return from the end of June.

Best wishes,
Catherine

A return to physical BathWatercolour Workshops?
As we gradually leave lockdown this Spring, I will be continuing with my Zoom workshop programme with one eye on the potential for opening physical workshops back up again this June.
Last planned Portrait Workshop over Zoom
My final three hour portrait Zoom workshop is on Friday 19 March and open for bookings here: https://catherinebeale.com/online-watercolour-workshops-with-zoom/
Landscape workshops continue over Zoom
Meanwhile watercolour landscape workshops will continue into the summer on Zoom on the middle Wednesday of each month.
All Zoom workshops include a materials list, plan and source photo sent in advance with the Zoom link itself. You can also opt to purchase videos of each class.

Happy that my portrait “The Calling ii” has been picked up by the editors at Artists & Illustrators Magazine. There is a short interview about my inspiration for the painting and watercolour portraits in the March edition.

This portrait masterclass is for painters who have attended a previous portrait workshop.
Get straight down to drawing and building up paint using the techniques I have described in prior sessions.  We will paint one eye and one nose from a single A4 source photo (above left), designed to print off and paint.

Start by analysing the feature in the photo, creating a pencil drawing to establish proportions and to describe the way light falls. Identify paint colours that will effectively  describe light and prepare them in the palette. Lay on watercolours within “wetted zones”, using the dry paper to create definition. Then lift off to add more light back in to our painting and end with final focussed detailing.
Watercolour artboard is required to help us explore the full subtlety of these lifting-off techniques.

Go to https://catherinebeale.com/online-watercolour-workshops-with-zoom/ to book.

Looking forward to this Wednesday’s watercolour workshop when we will be looking at lavender fields as a subject and colour in particular.

Find more details on the workshop page