EXHIBITIONS

Paint in Morocco with Adebanji Alade VPROI

ADEBANJI ALADE is vice president of the Royal Institute of Oil Painters and ‘artist in residence’ for the BBC’s One Show. Adebanji is known for bringing a lively sketchy feel to his paintings, and his work is inspired by atmosphere, people and the mood created by a particular light. He was winner of Pinto Rapido in 2013. Adebanji has chosen Essaouira for his painting holiday, because it is full of colour and sun, and has a buzz in the air.

WELCOME from the editor

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Next month in the artist

IN CONVERSATION Scottish artist George Gilbert reveals

STAR LETTER

This month’s star letter writer will receive a DVD

ART WORLD

NEWS, VIEWS, INFORMATION AND SPECIAL EVENTS IN THE ART WORLD

OPPORTUNITIES & COMPETITIONS

Check out the latest competitions to enter and make a note of important deadlines

PaintersOnline editor’s choice

Meet this month’s editor’s choice winner from our PaintersOnline gallery

Larger-than-life reality

Tjalf Sparnaay tells Susie Hodge what inspires his huge, ‘megarealistic’ oil paintings of food and everyday objects

Upping the ante with DIGITAL ART

Cliff Cramp shows you how to achieve professional fine

Shadow play

Paul Talbot-Greaves demonstrates how to add shadows to a landscape in the sharp light of a February day

Ears

Kathy Barker’s final article in this four-part series concentrates on how to paint ears, with advice on what to look for

Inspired by white poppies

Soraya French shows you how to address the negative spaces in your painting by demonstrating her creative mixed-media techniques in a painting of white poppies – a perfect subject for this technique

Painting the seasons in pastel

In the final article in his series, Robert Brindley discusses how to capture the seasons in pastel and demonstrates a dramatic winter scene of sunrise on a frosty morning

Unwrap the gift of COLOUR

Colour need not be representational – Steve Griggs suggests some unusual dyad and triad combinations in watercolour and urges you to move away from the expected to create compelling compositions

Rocky mountain high

In last month’s issue, Ian Sidaway discussed how he gathered plenty of reference material during a trip to the Rocky Mountains. Here, he reveals how he works out compositions using thumbnail sketches to produce finished watercolours from his initial sketches

Chiaroscuro

In the second part of her series, Adele Wagstaff discovers how the Old Masters used chiaroscuro to increase a sense of volume and depth, to intensify dramatic effect, to heighten a sense of drama or to enhance a certain part of a narrative

Still life with cheese

The trouble with cheese is that it changes so quickly.

Capturing the story

Wildlife artist Derek Robertson describes the creative process behind a narrative composition in watercolour made from direct studies in the field

Beat the block

Yael Maimon suggests eight ways to boost your creativity when your motivation falters

Develop your sketching techniques

Pick up your sketchbook and try these exercises suggested by Adebanji Alade to help hone your sketching skills

How to look after watercolour paper

Follow these few simple steps to ensure that you get the best results from your watercolour paper, says Ian Sidaway

Winter skies

Continuing her new series about modifying colour, Julie Collins shows you some ideal colour combinations for capturing winter skies in watercolour

Get to grips with the basics

Max West demonstrates an apparently simple still life, with advice on how to achieve a successful composition, each and every time you paint