A Brilliant Brusho Workshop

I got a call from Joanne last night to say a place had come up for one of her all day Brusho workshops and would I like to go.... didn't think she would get any cancellations but lo and behold she did!! My lucky day!!

I also got to meet Polly Birchall, fb pal and fellow blogger ...another a treat, so early this morning and armed with all the Brusho tricks of the trade I set off to the Boonric Gallery where I had held my beginners watercolour workshops.

We were all brushocited and brushovated and willing to become brushoholics painting brusholips in brusholicious colours!! As you can see there is a new language being invented as we speak!!!

Some hadn't had the pleasure of playing with Brusho before and Joanne, as always, shared all her hard learned tips and hints and an odd one or two new ones for we veterans!! Students were taking notes, listening and watching intently as the magic started to happen and I have to say you may think I might have got a bit complacent and blase about Brusho but I really haven't, especially when in the hands of a real expert.. am thinking Joanne may actually be the world's leading expert in painting with Brusho... other people are using it but would be surprised to hear of, or see anyone who can actually create work as she does with it!! How lucky are we?

Anyway we started with a simple landscape, a cottage surrounded by foliage,  a good exercise for all of us and some lovely paintings done especially by the Brusho "virgins!!"

 Yours truly... oblivious to the camera or I would have done my hair and make up!!

The lovely Polly

 Gorgeous cottage with fantastic bushes in the foreground from a Brusho "virgin!!"...

The next image was a nude.... I know my favourite... actually using the same colours as the previous painting but just shows how versatile it can be

This is Joanne's lovely version, not sure it was finished but looking at it here looks "done" to me!!

Then we moved on to some tulips which were quite abstract and really "made up!!"  That is the beauty of Brusho, you can make it up as you go along, it is unpredictable but once you learn to go with it rather than fight it, you strangely gain more control not less!! Here are a few tulips

This was mine... I decided to use one of my own images of a single stem using the tips and hints Joanne had shared to put into practice on my own piece, while this was drying I did the multiple flowers Joanne had demonstrated.

 This was Joanne building up her painting negatively around the flower heads...

 A wonderful abstract piece in the making!

 Sheer concentration....

 Look at all those lovely splatters

Another wonderful variation, just showing how wildly different these paintings can be and how even with the same colours and same composition the results are so unique to each individual.

This was mine a bit further on which still needs finishing (will not be doing much more to it though!!) in fact I need to complete all the pieces I started (5 in total!!) Finally here is the last piece Joanne demonstrated... a lovely daisy

You can see from this just what a master Joanne is with this medium and why she (and the rest of us) love it so much. Joanne can "see" just where to go with something, painting positively, negatively and every other which way she can to produce inspiring pieces like this and once again I am amazed as to how quickly, given the right help, it is possible to get a handle on painting with Brusho.

As those who follow my blog may know, Joanne has recently completed an instructional e-book and DVD which I reviewed here . She shares all of the tips and hints you will need to develop your Brusho skills.... everyone on this workshop was amazed at the effects they were getting and all admitted they could not get the same result with watercolour.

You can purchase Joanne's book and DVD here ......they really are two of the best publications I have ever seen and I can wholeheartedly recommend them!!

I am going to work on my unfinished pieces in the next few days and will share them once completed...