Tabla de contenidos para January 2026 en Leisure Painter

Welcome to your brand new edition, published in a cosy, creative month when soft light and quiet skies invite us to slow down, experiment and look closely. This issue is full of practical projects and fresh inspiration. If you want to celebrate seasonal blooms, Jo Allsopp's step-by-step watercolour shows how to paint an amaryllis with delicate washes, clever palettes and simple materials. For anyone wanting to push beyond the familiar, Julia Borodina offers a joyful manifesto for painting beyond the brush, sponges, rags and unexpected tools that add texture and life. Julie King's winter geese project is a lovely demonstration of composition, confident sketching and subtle shadow work for white-on-white subjects. “Remember, all rules were made to be broken. Go with how you feel. Jo Allsopp” If landscape is your thing,…

You will learn How to use watercolours in a loose style Experimenting with different surfaces Adding salt to your paints for texture For my amaryllis project, I will paint from the reference photo (right), I found on Pixabay. I may incorporate other elements that are not even there, for example, I thought salt might be a great effect to denote a wintry feel to the proposed painting. I like to work quite spontaneously most of the time and will use the photo just to get a sense of how the flower looks, but only ever work ‘loosely’ on this. I am not wishing to paint photographically at all, but instead very loosely, as it's a style that excites me. “I am not wishing to paint photographically at all.” Colour choices…

You will learn Working in acrylic layers Expressive mark making and adding tonal contrast Painting with a limited palette Whenever I head to the Lake District, I hope for nice weather, but prepare for the worst! I've been many times since my teens and find that whilst the high mountains fill me with wonder, they are also a reminder of how fleeting our own lives are. 40 years may have passed since I first set foot on the Walna Scar Road, the miner's route that winds its way to the top of Coniston Old Man, but the views remain unchanged. I wanted to capture that timelessness and mystery in my acrylic painting. The landscape in my reference photo was quite grey and lacking in contrast, and so I decided to…

Best in show Don't forget to invite visitors to your exhibitions to vote for their favourite painting in the show. Send us details and a high-resolution image of the winning painting and we will publish it in a future issue of Leisure Painter. Send the details to artclubs@painters-online.co.uk Thanks and congratulations, to this‘Best in Show’ artwork.…

What inspired you to start Great Art Explained? It was accidental. I was bored during lockdown and thought “I'll post a short film on YouTube” – not realising it would become my career and take over my life! Was there a particular moment, artwork, or experience that made you think, “I want to explain art in this way?” Yes! Rothko's Seagram Murals. When I was a teenager on a school trip to see the JMW Turners at the Tate, we passed through the Rothko room, and I thought, “What the hell are these?” Then, on our way out, I overheard a tour guide explaining to her group about their origins. She was so passionate and so engaging, and such a great storyteller that I was hooked. My teacher had to…

Bob Brandt has drawn and painted since childhood. For over thirty years he pursued a career in law but becoming a consultant allowed him time to attend the Bristol School of Art and Design to study life painting. After a series of one-man and shared shows in the West of England, he moved to North Norfolk. He has run art classes for over twenty years, written for art magazines and contributed to a number of art books. His paintings are in many collections including the National Trust. In recent years he has exhibited with the Royal Institute of Oil Painters and the Royal Society of Marine Artists in the Mall Galleries in London. He is President of the Institute of East Anglian Artists (eastanglianartists.com) and is currently principally represented by…

Catherine Beale specialises in watercolour techniques across a number of surfaces and paints landscapes and portrait commissions from her hillside studio on the edge of Bath. She is a member of the Society of Women Artists and was recently accepted to hang with the International Watercolour Masters this May. She teaches across England and Wales and is author of ‘Capturing light - creating radiant landscapes in watercolour’ (Search Press 2023). Keep in touch @catherinebealeart via Instagram and Facebook or her website www.catherinebeale.com A wash is a fundamental watercolour technique and so it makes sense to start these twelve articles by delving into their beauty with a look at how they are created and interact with one another to build up a subtle painting full of atmosphere. STAGE 1: INSPIRATION The theme…

Two of Britain's greatest painters, J.M.W. Turner and John Constable were also the greatest of rivals. Born within a year of each other – Turner in 1775, Constable in 1776 – the art critics of the day compared their paintings to a clash of ‘fire and water’. Raised in the gritty heart of Georgian London, Turner quickly became a young star of the art world despite his humble beginnings. Meanwhile Constable, the son of a wealthy Suffolk merchant, was equally determined to forge his own path as an artist but faced a longer, more arduous rise to acclaim. Though from different worlds, both artists were united in their desire to transform landscape painting for the better. With the two painters vying for success through very different but equally bold approaches,…

Our next challenge is ‘Her’ for the April 2026 edition. Email artclubs@painter-online.co.uk for the chance to be featured!…

Sarah Middleton is a painter, art historian and lecturer. She studied Italian and History of Art at UCL and a short course at the Slade School of Fine Art. She works as a communications consultant and as a history of art lecturer in the Cotswolds; sarah-middleton.co.uk I absolutely love this painting; it is so intriguing and there is so much to look at. Apart from the quality of the painting itself and the awe-inspiring brushwork, the subject matter and intensity of colour, perspective and social comment make it one of the finest. It is, in fact, considered to be one of the most original paintings in Western art because of its intriguing mixture of beauty, iconography and perspective. “We will nowhere be able to find his equal in art and…

What a year this has been. I can't quite believe I'm sat typing an article which will attempt to summarise the last 12 months of becoming a self-employed artist. The time has flown by – the years do tend to fly by the older you get, as I'm sure many will agree! That was partly why I was motivated to take the step in the first place but also because circumstances aligned that meant it felt like the right time to make one of the biggest decisions of my life. Before I began typing the final instalment of this ‘Turning Professional’ series I must admit I got a little distracted. Instead of opening the word processor on my Mac, I found myself researching next summer's FIFA World Cup schedule. The…

You will learn How to blend layers for a smooth finish Deciding when to blend or not Other tools to use for blending Welcome back to the Colour Pencil Clinic, your monthly exploration of tips, tricks and techniques for colour pencils. This month, we're delving a little deeper into the blending of layers to get that smooth finish, free of streaks. Think of blending as a ‘squash and smoothing’ layer within your colouring process. The simplest way to do it is with a white or light colour pencil fairly early in the layering process, and again later if needed. Using the scumbling or circling motion, with slightly increased pressure, you can gently squash and smooth all the pigments below, combining all the different colours into, essentially, one merged layer. Question…

Paul Riley has been a practising professional artist most of his life starting at the very top with a painting accepted by the Royal Academy at the tender age of 15. Paul's watercolour painting is heavily inspired by the Oriental traditions of Zen painting, and he has “always explored, challenged and pushed the boundaries of my chosen media; nowhere more than in the elusive spirit of watercolour.” Paul also teaches short residential courses from his home and studios in South Devon and you can contact him via email lara@coombefarmstudios.com phone 01803 722 352 or online at www.coombefarmstudios.com I first explored this subject about five years ago, under the title ‘It's a bug's life’. I now want to revisit the subject primarily because I have experimented further and wish to share some…

Rebecca Holton has an MA (Hons) Fine Art degree from Edinburgh University and Edinburgh College of Art. Her work has been included in exhibitions by the Royal Academy, The Royal Institute of Oil Painters, The London Biennale, ING Discerning Eye, The Royal Society of British Artists and The Ruth Borchard Self-Portrait Prize. Awards during 2025 include: The World Art Dubai Award at The London Biennale, Bishop & Sewell's Award for an Exceptional Painting at Chelsea Arts Society, The Peter Kelly Commemorative Prize at Royal Society of British Artists, as well as The Artist Exhibition Award at TALP 2025. Rebecca's work is in private collections in the UK, Belgium, Sweden, the USA, Hong Kong and Singapore. Encouraging the viewer to engage, Rebecca Holton prompts reflection on the way we live today…

Mike Barr is a Fellow of the Royal South Australian Society of Arts. He has won over 80 awards, including 17 first prizes. You can find more of Mike's work at mikebarrfineart.com Taking up painting later in life is a common thing and perhaps more so today. As well as taking up a passion that did not materialise in our working and having-a-family life, more of us are keen to take up a creative hobby, and painting would probably be THE most popular of choices. Painting is not only a worthy use of our free time, but it also affords some of the most rewarding social outlets possible. There are numerous painting groups and societies to be found that welcome new members. If you are inclined, there are painting classes…

Fresh off the back of winning the Painters Online award at David Shepherd Wildlife Foundation Wildlife Artist of the Year, Andrew Pledge is reflecting on his win, and it's fair to say he's not taking his success for granted. “I don't think I'll be alone when I say that as an artist, ‘Imposter syndrome’ is very real,” he says. Andrew has been a category winner several times before and was the overall winner in 2020. “Winning in 2020 was a life-changing and still pretty unbelievable moment. My painting ‘Wood Stork’ was my first completed work for about 10 years. It was also during COVID. Not having the public viewing the painting in the flesh only fed the ‘imposter’ within. Winning the Painters Online award in some ways means more. So…