Flowers in Oils - Getting the WOW Factor | Lyn Diefenbach

Love Flowers? Enjoy painting? Combine the two passions and learn how to create oils that are full of luminosity, dimensionality and light. Lyn will share her extensive knowledge of colour as well as provide you with the technical know-how to create the illusion of reality with oils.

The building blocks of line, tone, colour and edge will be discussed extensively to lead you to a better understanding of these important areas. Focus will be given to the mixing of the palette and the skill of colour recognition. This is an area particularly pertinent to florals.

Enjoy clear, informative demonstrations and individual attention at your easel. You will use your own reference material so you can choose your own degree of difficulty or perhaps your favourite flower. Definitely the WOW FACTOR.

Included in your workshop is a FREE video introducing you to the fundamentals of technical know-how valued at $30.

Once you have booked in, please log in to your student portal to see the free video from Lyn that you must watch before coming to the workshop. THIS IS ESSENTIAL VIEWING!.

What will I learn?

Through demonstrations and a series of ‘hands-on’ exercises, you will learn easy methods for creating floral paintings.

Who is this course suitable for?

This workshop is suitable for all skill levels, however basic knowledge and skills in oils and colour is a prerequisite.
Ask our friendly team for advice if you are not sure if this workshop is for you.

What do I need to bring?

Please come with your canvas toned with acrylic paint in a colour appropriate to your subject and the subject drawn up with willow charcoal BEFORE the class.
As to what colour to tone the canvas – this is dependent on the colour of the flower. If the flower has a yellow centre, use cadmium yellow light. If not, tone the canvas with a colour that is in general the mid tone of the flower and keep the colour warm rather than cool.

Brushes:
Flat, size 1” soft brush for blending
Escoda Prado Sintetico series 3160 size 8 (cats’s tongue) or a small pointed brush.
Sizes 8, 10 and 12 Art Basics series 877KF
Note: These are the brushes I use. You might have your own favourites.

Oil Colours:
Bring all the oil paints that you have. I cannot recommend specific colours because each person will have a different subject. Here’s a list of my “work horses” for florals (by no means does this mean that you have to buy them all): sap green, olive green, viridian, winsor green, cadmium lemon, cadmium yellow, Indian yellow, burnt sienna, naples yellow, alizarin crimson (cad red, winsor red deep if you are painting a red flower), permanent rose, purple madder, cerulean blue.
Most of the above colours are Winsor & Newton Artist Colours. Art Spectrum Flinders Red Violet and Australian Gold are also good. The white I use is a “Soft Mixing White” put out by Winton. This is a transparent white which stays wet on the palette for a few days.

Canvas:
1 stretched canvas. The shape will depend on the composition of your subject. Be realistic in the size that you tackle.

Other:
Odourless solvent
Slow Drying Medium (Refined Linseed Oil and Odourless Solvent mix) - also available for sale from Bienarte
Paper towels
Kneadable eraser
Mixing Palette - I use white painted Masonite available from hardware stores. Size approx 45x70 cm
Reference Photos – make sure these are clear, large enough to work from and have a good play of light and dark. If you are doing your own printing from a computer, make sure that you use photo quality paper NOT plain paper.

Pre-order of canvases available from Bienarté

What is provided?

• Easels, tables and chairs.
• Tea and coffee (you might like to bring your own cup)
• A friendly, supportive and encouraging learning environment
• Connection to the Bienarté art community

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