The second painting I did yesterday. When I got back to the river two of the artists were sat painting in the sunshine and I was attracted to the way they were outlined by the strong sunlight.

We were out painting in Blandford Forum with Broadstone Art Society this morning, it was lovely down by the river but I decided to do some urban sketching in the town first. Had an interesting chat with a sculptor who stopped to look at my sketch. It’s fascinating to meet people while out painting.

This is the pastel painting I did during Pam Phillips workshop at PEDAS yesterday. It’s done from a photo taken in St James park a few weeks ago. Thanks Pam for the inspiration and guidance.

Pam Phillips did a pastel demo for us at PEDAS this afternoon. It was a great session and well attended. Everyone enjoyed themselves and produced some great work.

Our first PEDAS plein air today was at Branksome Chine beach and gardens. The sun shone and we enjoyed a pleasant morning painting on the beach.

At today’s session at PEDAS we had still life of musical instruments to paint and draw. It was very quiet in the room as everyone concentrated on the difficult shapes but the results were really good.

Today’s tutor at PEDAS was Tony Paul who showed us his method of drawing a self portrait. Tony uses a grid system to get an accurate likeness, not a method I have used before but it certainly helped me to create a portrait I am happy with. There was som great work created by members as you can see in the photos.

Today was the last portrait session at the art society before we start painting outdoors. Today’s model was Sharon. Our artists displayed some of the portraits created over the last few months, they are a talented lot!

Helen Talbot led our workshop at the art society today. Helen showed us a series of photos giving us five minutes to sketch each one. Helen is a very experienced and enthusiastic artist and happily we had a good number of members to enjoy her workshop. Here are my efforts.

I fancied a little en plein air painting this morning as the forecast was good so I visited Knowlton Church just north of Wimborne here in Dorset. The sun shone but the wind was very cold so my picture ended up being a bit rushed. I took lots of photos so I may do another one in the studio.