Written by Paul Regan, ©paulregan.studio
A really nice lesson that responds to the still life paintings of Mary Fedden, focusing on design, composition and colour. The class length was 2.25 hours, which allowed for a quick one hour painting to be made in the second half after the planning stage. A longer amount of time would also work well. This session also worked well when delivered online.
- Discuss works by Mary Fedden (below) and show the APV Films preview clip of Fedden working.
- With Fedden’s drawn line in mind, students make six individual 1 minute line drawings of Fedden-like objects.
- Considering how Fedden arranged objects within the pictorial space, students to make a number of fast thumbnail sketches of possible compositions (demo this).
- Ask students to consider their colour palette. Fedden said that she sees her paintings as being predominantly based on one colour; a red painting, or a blue painting.
- Students to make an A2 painting in one hour from their chosen composition.
Mary Fedden:
Students’ Work:
