Mat Hill
← to fine art index

I returned to London Fine Art Studios in December 2022 for a 3 day still life workshop. It was a very packed course, but I learned a lot! I especially changed my understanding of colour, and how it can be regarded as almost completely relative.

Special thanks to our tutor Joni, who worked hard to impart as much information as possible in the limited time!

Messy charcoal and chalk sketches on brown packing paper of a various still life scenes.

Still life value composition thumbnails.

Rapidly testing ideas with respect to their patterns of light and dark was a super useful way to refine our compositions, before spending time drawing them properly.

A tiny colour study of white flowers and a lemon against a vivid red backdrop, beside the real thing.

Final composition and tiny oil colour study.

Colours can dramatically alter our perception of a composition, so our tutor had us paint a tiny study to identify how chroma might detract from our design.

Loose oil painting of white flowers in a clay vase beside a lemon, against a vivid red cloth background.

Flower still life colour oil painting, 7 hours.

I struggled to capture the shadows on the pot and lemon, but otherwise I am happy with the overall sense of lighting, and my first attempt at capturing a plant.

Our tutor pointed out that flowers change shape dramatically over time, so in future I will try to capture their shape, then their colour as quickly as possible. This painting has quite a sad look due to the wilted leaves and petals, but I kinda like that.

↑ to top
← to fine art index