What a fabulous workshop we had with Bill Newton, who patiently guided us through painting a river scene at Pin Mill on the River Orwell, near Ipswich. The main subjects were a barge and the Butt and Oyster pub, along with an atmospheric sky, based on one of Bill’s own paintings.

Bill used Raw Sienna, Ultramarine Blue , Cobalt Blue, Burnt Sienna, Burnt Umber and Orange to mix all the colours in the painting, so it was easy for us to combine these colours in different strengths to achieve a picture with harmonious colours throughout.

During the day Bill walked around everyone several times and helped those who needed it, giving advice all the time. He showed us how to add birds to a painting, demonstrating how we could show their direction of flight by painting parts of their wings more thickly. He also showed us a successful way to paint a tree in the light in summer and winter, and also how to paint rounded object successfully by painting shadows.

At the end of the session Bill held a mount to every painting and commented on how the artist had done, suggesting one or two ways to complete the paintings.

All-in-all a very successful day painting. Thank you Bill!

Here are all our paintings, most of them finished or with only a little more to do. Isn’t it interesting how we were all given the same picture to work from, but we’ve all ended up with our own interpretation of it?