Painting with John Hoar,
I decided to go to one of John Hoar’s painting workshops, who is someone whose work I have always admired. So this April I drove to South Devon and spent two days painting with John. There were four of us in the workshop all were good artists and it was great to see other artists style, we managed to complete five paintings three in his studio and two around Johns home in the Devonshire countryside.


John and his wife Jacky were fantastic hosts and made us feel very welcome and at home. The food that Jacky cooked for us was fantastic.
One of the techniques John uses line and wash which is a very interesting and all depends on how the matchstick behaves. You put a match stick in the end of a piece of bamboo and sharpen the end of the matchstick to a wedge shape, dip it in black waterproof ink and draw the screen on watercolour paper. If the matchstick is working well the drawing looks very much like a charcoal drawing, if not then sharpen the matchstick and try it again. After finishing the drawing let it dry and put a wash over it, it is a very good way of doing a watercolour and the painting can look very striking.
John uses very few colours usual Phthalo blue or Windsor Blue and Cerulean Blue, Burnt Umber, Raw Sienna, Light Red, Alizarin Crimson and Payne’s Gray.
I have placed two of the five images for you to see, and will defiantly be using the line and wash on some of my watercolour paintings particularly when painting city scenes.
Anyway thanks for coming on my blog and I would love to receive any constructive comments you wish to make.
I wish you all good and inspired painting and drawing.

Cheers Phil