Oil Painting Workshops in Currie, King Island

 

More than a dozen enthusiastic  painters attended two workshops conducted this month by Elizabeth Barsham, artist in residence at the King Island Culture Centre for January. Elizabeth is  not only an accomplished artist, but has been teaching adult drawing and painting classes for many years.

 In conjunction with her Return to the Island exhibition at the Culture Centre she invited interested islanders to come along and see how she creates her intriguing and idiosyncratic artwork.

 In the workshops Elizabeth explained how to select subject matter and compose it into a picture, first from a still-life arrangement and then from a selection of landscape photographs. Her informative and entertaining demonstrations covered ways to begin a painting, how to mix colours and how to apply the paint. 

Participants were fascinated to discover the difference between the way they looked at photographs and how they interpreted paintings, and to realize they need only four colours to create a satisfying picture.

Alison Milsom, who organised the workshops, said  “It was wonderful to learn about painting techniques; I love oil paint, but I've never really been shown how to use it before. I've been waiting for years to find out some of these things”.

 Elizabeth is currently employed by the Nolan Art Gallery and School in Hobart.