We had the morning off for sightseeing (in my case retail therapy!) so the session didn't start until 1.p.m. We were to submit one of our paintings, done on the course, for Charles to critique later on in the afternoon. Everyone was busily trying to put their painting on the bottom of the pile, but this ploy didn't work as I found out! Charles started the afternoon by doing a demo from a black and white photo in a book of images of old Burford (circa 1910). I had met him in Burford in the morning, sitting outside a pub, smoking his trusty pipe, and he showed me the book. I asked which photo he has chosen and to pointed to one with a donkey (!), cart and man in it. Not what I would have chosen as I can do race horses, but a donkey.....? I was looking forward to seeing how he treated the subject. By the way, I haven't mentioned the paper that Charles uses so far (or don't think I have). He used Fabriano Artistico (his favourite because he says he learned to paint watercolour on that paper) for the portraits and the Whitby one, and used Schut Rough for the two still lifes and the donkey painting. The Schut looked liked really difficult paper to work with and I think even Charles had a couple of problems with it at times. It has a blotting paper quality to it and I expect you have to be pretty good to turn out a decent painting on it (so I won't be using it!). Anyway, back to the painting - Charles started as usual with his drawing. His drawing skills are awesome - the lines he makes are so expressive and dynamic and set the tone for the painting to come. He started with the man's face, carefully drawing in his features. The man's face is quite small in the painting, but Charles gave it all his attention starting with the eyes and moving on to draw in the other features. He then moved down drawing the man's jacket, trousers and shoes. I was surprised at him drawing in the shoes because to many artists leave them out, but Charles is meticulous with detail even although his paintings end up looking very loose and immediate. He does simplify and leave a lot out of a composition, but if he feels it is an important part, then he draws it in carefully. Every time I watched him draw I was amazed at his observational skills. He then went over the the other side of the painting and drew the donkey, carefully relating each shape to the one next to it. He started with an ear and then got the attitude of the head right and everything then followed on from there. The cart was next with Charles slowing down in his drawing when he came to the cart wheels which had to be accurate to look correct. He loosely penciled in a doorway behind the cart, the kerb of the road and a few lines on the wall of the building in the background. When Charles finishes a drawing he often takes an eraser and swipes it across the drawing to break up the lines and lighten them so that he is left with guide lines rather than a precise defined drawing which might tempt him just to fill in the shapes with colour. He decided to paint the donkey first. The donkey was a white/grey colour and we all wondered how he was going to treat this area. A lot of people would have used shadow blues, purples or such colours (as I probably would have done). However, Charles first painted some strong negative shapes behind the donkey's head to show up the whiteness of it. He then reached for very dilute cad yellow orange (real surprise to me I have to say) and teased the paint over the donkey's face leaving little highlights of white paper in places to describe the donkey's rough coat. He used the cad yellow orange on most of the body, adding touches of cobalt and cerulean to emphasis darker shadow shapes. As he had a base of the cad yellow orange, the cobalt didn't look overly blue but had a warmth about it. He painted the hooves in a darker tone (burnt umber/ultramarine) and linked them to the ground with a strong shadow of cobalt with touches of raw umber. The saddle blanket was painted in viridian, with strong touches of ultramarine to give variety. He then turned his attention to the cart. In the photo the cart was in very dark shadow and such was the quality of the old photo that it looked dense and black. I wondered what on earth he was going to do with it. He does paint very dark darks sometimes and I thought that was what he would do here. How wrong was I! He reached for alizarin and painted the whole cart in it, using his brush dynamically as I have described before, leaving lighter patches and then using more pigment in places to add strength. Cobalt was added in places to give variety in tone and colour. I honesty think that alizarin would have been the last colour I would have used but Charles wanted a mid-tone and that was the colour that he reached for to achieve this. The top sheet of the cart was painted in cad orange (!!) - yes that's what I thought - alizarin and orange, but by goodness, did it work. The basket perched on the top of the orange tarpaulin covering the cart was executed with a few dancing brush strokes with burnt sienna. Charles often has another colour on his brush and he doesn't bother to wash his brush out before putting it into a second (or third) colour. This is how he achieves that interesting variety in tone and colour in his work. I was still a bit iffy about the bright pink cart, but then Charles painted the door behind it in viridian and by jove, did the cart begin to sing then. He used a variety of weak colours to put some tone on the building wall in the background (cad yellow orange, raw sienna, cerulean, cobalt) and then defined the kerb with a varying line of burnt umber running into cobalt. The foreground was finished with a few sweeping lines (brush kept on the paper all the time) of cad yellow orange. The darker line that he had put at the top of the door frame started to run into the viridian door and one of the students pointed this out. Charles just left it and I think he was absolutely right to do so as it adds character. What did I learn from this demo - even if you are painting a small face within a composition, do it carefully and get it to look right (Charles went back several times to improve the man's face until he was satisfied that it was right) - unexpected colours can work especially if you concentrate more on the tone you want rather than thinking about the colour - defining white doesn't have to be by using blues and purple shadow colours - to make your subject stand out use light tones in the background but use negative shapes behind light objects in the foreground - don't be daunted by any subject (i.e. the donkey!) as if you tackle the painting in sections, relating one to another, you can build it up to be successful - figures in landscapes make them more interesting and exciting - mistakes happen, so leave them as they add character and life to a painting. Once this demo was finished, it was time for the critique! Butterflies in tummies all round I think. I debated whether to submit my lady and boat one or my still life. I went with the still life in the end as I felt I had made more mistakes in that one and Charles's feedback would be more helpful. Having shoved my painting at the bottom of the pile (there were 17 on the course) I was slightly unnerved when Charles picked mine up second. How did that happen - lots of crafty people I think! Anyway, up onto his easel it went and this is what he said - very prettily done, I think you should have lost the edge of the wine bottle on the shadow side and made the tone of the background closer to the tone of that side of the bottle - the flowers are quite controlled, but very nice white flowers - a good painting. I was happy with that and actually think I got off lightly, but then Charles is a very kind man and doesn't want to discourage anybody. He went through all the paintings, and it was interesting that they were all painted in totally different styles - not a Charles Reid clone in sight. Some of the students had been on numerous CR courses before so I was surprised to see that they had all retained their own identity, which is exactly what you want. Use the benefit of Charles's enormous talent and experience to improve how you paint within your own style. He worked his way through all the paintings, giving advice, being very positive about the parts that had worked and he seemed genuinely appreciative of how different all the paintings looked (everyone had submitted a still life so they could have looked all the same). It was a really useful afternoon as I had learned so much from his demo and also from all the critiques. I was, of course, interested in what he said about my painting, but I found all his comments about the other paintings equally, if not more, valuable.