The Gord & Jay Talk Art Podcast

It's great to get really positive feedback from my workshop attendees, and here, Jay, who attended my last workshop, talks in his podcast about some very concrete benefits that he felt he gained from my class. The relevant piece begins at 42 minutes into the podcast entitled "Discipline", but the whole thing is really interesting. Many thanks Jay.
https://itunes.apple.com/…/the-gord-jay-talk-a…/id929963389…
I'm looking forward to a workshop at Kennedy Art on Saturday.

 Here's my demo of Des from a few weeks back.

"Draw In" in Belfast

Here are a bunch of photos from Julie Douglas' wonderful symposium "Draw In" at Belfast College of Art last weekend.

I really enjoyed my one hour portrait painting demo with Julie's son Rory as my model. Next day I gave three portrait drawing workshops with Des modelling for me.

It was great to meet so many really terrific artists including Colleen Barry, Paul Foxton, Peter Cooper, Matt Weigle, Shevaun Doherty, and of course all the lovely attendees.

Detail of my Portrait Sketch of Des

Here's a scan of the painting I did of Des at my last Kennedy Art portrait sketch workshop. 
I only had 30 minutes to work on it in all, but I was very pleased with the fluidity in the handling of the paint.
My next two workshops at Kennedys are on the 15th Feb and the 8th March.
I am very excited about the two day workshop I will be giving in Cavan on the 3rd and 4th of May.
Contact Anne for more information.(brady.anne@rocketmail.com)

Portrait Sketch of Des

Des was our model for Saturday's very enjoyable workshop at Kennedy Art.
This is my demo after 25 minutes.
I love painting Des and my students all loved working with him too.
He has such a handsome head, but also shows loads of character. 
He can even look a bit sinister when he's concentrating but in fact he's a real sweetie.

A Head of Des

Here's a scan of my  painting of Des from the KennedyArt workshop with the background tidied up.
I was able to spend about an hour and a half of the day painting my demo and the rest of the day was spent on one-to-one teaching with the students.
I'm hoping to spend a full two hours on the demo at my next workshop. That one is all booked up but there are places left on the workshop I am doing there in August.
Contact Kennedy's if you would like to join us.
ph  + 353 (1) 475 1749
info@kennedyart.com 

A Great Workshop at KennedyArt

We had a terrific time at Kennedy's portrait sketch workshop a few weeks ago.
Here are a few photos from the day. 

 Everyone worked very hard and achieved very impressive portrait sketches.

Des is a particularly good model for artists trying to get a likeness because of his terrific bone structure and that bullish neck of his.

The weather was so nice we were able to have lunch on the Green.

This is my demo sketch.
I like to alternate my demonstration with periods of tone to one teaching. I'd like to have spent longer on this one. I think I got about an hour and a half on it throughout the day.
I will post a cleaned up version soon.

My next portraiture workshop at KennedyArt will be on the 20th of July.

A Portrait Sketch of Des

Here's a series showing the process of a recent two hour portrait sketch I did of Des.
I'll be giving another portrait sketch demo and workshop at Kennedy Art on the 8th June.
It's booking up so contact Kennedy's if you would like to join us.
ph  + 353 (1) 475 1749
info@kennedyart.com 

Two Portrait Sketches

Yesterday at life drawing I got in some practice for my upcoming portrait sketch workshop at Kennedy Art. This tighter than usual study of Molly took about four hours.

Then I did a quick portrait sketch (2 hours) of Des.
With his powerful body and those granite features Des can look very stern and a bit scary when he's posing, but in reality he is a sweet and very gentle man.
Thanks to my pal Blaise Smith for inviting me along.

Back in the Life Room

A day of life painting at the RHA is a pretty rare event for me these days, but yesterday I was  able to get in and to see some great old pals and to work with two excellent models, Des and Darren.
Here is the picture I did of Des in the afternoon and a shot of the man himself at my easel which will give you a sense of the small scale of the painting.

Two Views of Des

Staying on the black and white theme, I thought that one of Conor Walton's recently posted drawings of the RHA life room looked very familiar.
On closer inspection I realized that the model is Des and that the guy in the white t-shirt is me drawing him.

This is the drawing I did of Des that day.

I always love to see the same subject as depicted by different artists.

Conor has a show of his extraordinary still life paintings entitled "Elements" running now at the Beaux Arts gallery in Bath.
If you aren't in the UK you can see a number of Conor's wonderful life drawings here.