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Alan Meades Lavenham, acrylic ink on Jackson’s A4 spiral-bound black pad, 6x63⁄4in. (15x17cm)

White acrylic on black paper

Scratchboard has been quite a favourite magazine topic in recent times and obviously involves skill as well as specialist equipment. Readers might be interested in the fact that similar images can be achieved with a pen & ink technique, using titanium white acrylic ink on black paper. My painting of a building in Lavenham, Suffolk (above) is an example.

Alan Meades

Take a painting break

I finally took the plunge and I am so pleased that I did! Having used acrylics for several years, I decided to try my hand at oils – in particular water-based oils. The tutor was Sarah Wimperis, who featured in a recent edition of Leisure Painter, and it turned out to be a fantastic experience. All my fellow students – both experienced painters and complete beginners – were new to the medium, and Sarah was an inspiring teacher and excellent guide, as well as being an expert on the style of Van Gogh. We thoroughly enjoyed learning more about him and his style of painting and were quite amazed at the work we all managed to produce with Sarah’s encouragement.