I turned up at the venue for the course with some trepidation - not knowing what to expect. I shouldn't have worried because Charles is the most generous, gentle and wonderful man and a superb teacher who is so willing to share his world of experience in watercolour painting. He seems genuinely delighted when people show that they really want to learn. He started the day with a demo. He had a whole pile of copies of very old black and white photos taken around the turn of the century - very dark and indistinct in places and very bleached out in other sections. Impossible I thought - how on earth do you decide what colours to use, how do you deal with the shadows, light, etc. He decided to do a photo of a seaman and fishing boat, with Whitby Abbey on the hill in the background. Charles started by completely changing the composition from the photo. He had his weathered seaman in front on the left hand side facing out of the painting (rather than on the right facing into the photo) which is totally contrary to what the accepted rules of composition are. After he had painted the man he then added an old wooden fishing boat slightly further back on the right and then drew in a light outline of Whitby Abbey high on the hill. He started by doing a contour drawing of the man (he left the boat out at this stage). He drew a rough outline shape of where the man was to be placed and then started on one of the man's eyes. Everything then hung off this point with the drawing evolving with one shape relating to the next and so on. His pencil work is very dynamic and expressive and he draws in the shadows as he goes along (just a rough oval). After finishing the drawing he went in and used his rubber on the lines to lighten them so that he didn't just fill in shapes with paint. He then started the painting and concentrated first on the man's face. He completely freaked me out by putting a very dark mark to denote under the man's nose. However, as he added more colour and softened the edges away from the light, the man's face started to take shape. Charles doesn't worry about what colour he is using as he is only interested in the tone (or value as he calls it). If he wants a darker tone he might use Ultramarine and if he wants a mid tone he will choose Cobalt, etc. Many on the course kept asking him what this or that colour was and he replied with gentle humour that we shouldn't worry about the colour - only the tone (said in a wonderful Connecticut drawl). He painted the man's jacket with dynamic strokes in many colours, using very dark darks where necessary. When you see him using his paintbox it is quite fascinating. He dips his brush (he was using an Escode Reserva size 8 for this painting) in the water, rubs it against an old face cloth which his wife, Judy, has pinned to his apron and then he digs right into the paint. The effect is that all the pigment is right on the tip and the belly of the brush has just the right amount of water to get the paint to flow. He never uses too much water. If he wants a lighter tone then he uses the same method with his brush but just picks up less paint. He never goes to his water and adds it to the painting to lighten a colour as he says that he would get blotches if he did that. He carried on completing the seaman whose jacket ended up painted in burnt umber, burnt sienna, alizarin, oxide of chromium, yellow ochre, antwerp blue and cobalt. However, the point of all these colours wasn't to achieve a colourful look - it was to get the tone of the various parts of the seaman's jacket correct. He then moved on to the boat and used the same technique with colour to achieve the right tone. He uses the tip of his brush to almost 'write' with as it danced across some sections leaving very dynamic and interesting marks. He said he wanted to keep the hill behind the man and boat very light and also just put a very light wash on the shape of Whitby Abbey. He used a combination of alizarin, cobalt and raw umber (which he uses a lot)a very weak mix (not watery, just pale - there is a difference). The demo took us until lunchtime as Charles paints in short bursts to allow students to photograph all the different stages and also to ask questions. In the afternoon we all chose from the pile of black and white photos in order to try out some of the techniques we had seen in the morning. I chose one of a lady staring out to sea at a boat leaving - possibly waving her man away for a sea voyage? Charles is an attentive teacher and he went round everybody and sat beside them and helped and painted on a spare piece of paper to illustrate what he was trying to explain. He liked my drawing, but spotted that I hadn't got the attitude of the lady's body quite right and also helped me with how to best tackle the water (never been any good with water!). I really enjoyed the afternoon and ended up taking my painting home to finish in the evening which is a first for me on a course as usually I can't wait to bin them. I am posting this painting on the gallery so anyone who is interested can see what I produced at the end of the first day. If anyone would like to see the painting Charles did of the seaman and fishing boat or any of the other demo paintings, they can add their email address below and I will forward it. To sum up the day: Don't worry about the colour as if the tone is right the painting will be right. Change the composition totally if you want to. Charles's big adage is YOU CAN'T PAINT WHAT YOU SEE!!. Also when you start a painting look for the dark shapes and start with them. Define the light shapes by negative painting. This was enough to take on board on Day 1 as it all takes a lot of thinking about. I finished the day with my mind buzzing.