Charlotte Hird’s Landforms Workshop
by Jan Pryor
2024
I want to call this ‘Awash with Charlotte’ – those of us
not accustomed to using a lot of water became familiar
with using very wet paper. Sixteen of us, some from as far away as Australia and
Dunedin, spent two days learning and laughing as
Charlotte took us through some challenging
techniques, and enabled each of us to produce four
worthy pieces of art.
We started with an exercise in
tonal range, and painted a view of the Hutt Valley from
a photo by Jeff Ng. The layers were glorious – fading
into the hazy blue hills in the background. That was the morning. We moved on in the afternoon
to a painting of Mt Hutt , which developed our skills in
defining light ridges and dark valleys. This was quite
challenging! However this writer at least was surprised
at how lovely the outcome looked. When we put all the
paintings together it was apparent that everyone had
done fine paintings, although the differences were
interesting.
On Sunday morning we tackled Mt Cook and
foreground hills. By this me we had mastered the skill
of wetti ng the back of the paper thoroughly, then
wetting the front. Again the outcomes were wonderful.
We were getting better at darkening the valleys and
leaving the ridges and snow patches light.
Finally on Sunday afternoon we took on painting the
Remutaka Forest Park landform, looking at it from
Wellington. This combined the earlier skills we had
learned – dark valleys, light ridges, and achieving tonal
range with the hills behind.
It was great fun. Charlotte is a talented and warm
teacher. We were all quite red from the concentraon
required but we went home with new skills and a sense
of achievement. That is what it is all about. Thank you
Charlotte.
Watercolour Landforms workshop with Charlotte Hird
2023
In June I was fortunate to join a workshop under the tutelage of Charlotte Hird, studying how to
depict landforms in a meaningful way. We started with a monotone in burnt sienna of the Grand
Canyon to clarify spatial depth in tone, moving from a light background with misty valleys
through to a strongly contrasting ridge in the foreground.
Our next exercise required us to darken the valleys and soften the ridges an enjoyable mental
reversal challenge. Keeping to a limited palette, we attempted snowy mountains by leaving white
paper for snow, using masking tape, fluid or trusting our hand eye co-ordination. Our last
painting used quinacridone gold for the under painting, followed by indigo or blue to make a
range of greens. We painted rounded hills with a cliff separating background and foreground,
using soft to hard edges.
We all used the same reference photos and similar colours, but everyone produced very different
and individual paintings. The weekend was inspiring and informative, thanks to Charlottes
instruction and encouragement.
~
Fiona Pocock
22-23 October 2022
"Loved this course thank you, learned so much and feeling inspired to try landscapes again.
Charlotte Hird thanks for inspiring me and sharing your talent."
~Lucy Broad
Charlotte Hirds Watercolour Landforms workshop was held at the Wellington Art Club rooms, a warm
and relaxed space with a variety of inspiring art and resources available. Charlotte
demonstrated different ways to apply paint to achieve interesting washes and edges and tones.
Then she explained her approach to creating depth in landscapes, guiding us through exercises.
We used this knowledge to create four landscapes of the Sounds and Mount Aoraki. The overhead
projector made it easy to watch demonstrations and hand-outs explained the steps. Charlotte
encouraged each of us so that, despite differing levels of experience, we all created successful
paintings. As a newbie to landscape painting, I was taken out of my comfort zone. Im confident
that I will be able to use my learning to continue my adventures in watercolour. Thanks,
Charlotte, for sharing your time and knowledge.
~
Bridie Atkins
Kaikoura road trip for Washes & Edges with tutor Charlotte
13-14 August 2022
Wendy from Kaikoura Arts Society engaged Charlotte to teach a weekend workshop. Takahanga
Bowling Club was the perfect venue with a wall mounted 42 inch TV and plenty of tables. The Art
Society paid the members fees to attend out of their accumulated funds. It was a super weekend
to learn technique and information about materials. Write to the committee if you want a
workshop in your province.
Perspective Applied en Plein Air with tutor Charlotte Hird
by Hannah Martis
In her August workshop Charlotte guided us through the principles of perspective, showing us the
world from a new angle. There was a range of experience in the class, but Charlotte was able to
engage and challenge all. We started with basic guided drawings, before heading outside to test
our skills. The weather was overcast the first morning so we took advantage of the Karori
librarys large windows overlooking the street. We had many onlookers admiring our work - even
the sun came out to watch.
On the second day, after working through advanced exercises including adding figures in
drawings, we braved the warmer winter weather and went on a church crawl, drawing some of the
fascinating architecture on offer. Karori is a great location for practising perspective en
plein air, with plenty of weatherboard homes. The churches provided a challenging opportunity to
push our skills further.
We completed one or two drawings at each location. Charlotte was an attentive tutor, giving us
tips and guidance. Thank you Charlotte for an interesting and challenging workshop.
Review: Wellington Washes & Edges with Charlotte
by Mary Beth Cook
Charlotte created such a great atmosphere for learning. She is a warm person with a really
engaging style. She is an excellent teacher, and her approach is structured and clear but very
relaxed and fun. Her camera set up let us see everything she was doing as she taught us how to
apply watercolour to wet and dry paper, how to create hard edges and how to soften them, and
different ways to do washes.
Having a full weekend meant that we werent rushed and could really get into what we were doing
as we worked through exercises to learn technique and then worked on paintings with a range of
subjects involving water, sky, boats, people and fruit. The group had a range of experience, and
I believe everyone learned something new or had a moment out of their comfort zone Charlotte
made it easy to try new things.
Beyond using watercolour as a medium, we also learned important fundamentals of composition,
perspective and drawing figures as well as tips on negative painting. More importantly we got a
lot of encouragement from Charlotte and inspiration from lovely examples of her work.
The Queen of Perspective
Report by Pavithra Devadatta
About thirteen eager watercolourists congregated at Charlotte Hirds two day workshop to take
this Perspective bull by the horns and succeed we did! Charlotte had a great set up using a
camera projector for the class to view and follow her demos. We systematically worked out the
spatial depth from 1 to 3 point perspective, smoothly sailing from converging railway lines to
27th storey hotel balconies. We did cylinders, telegraph poles, arches, bicycles, buildings,
people, trees, cars, interiors and wine glasses.
The secret of drawing a straight line free hand is to put down point A and without lifting your
hand to focus on point B. Then without taking your eyes off point B, stretch your point from
point A to reach point B. Try it, it really works with a little practice and is great fun taking
that leap of faith on paper. Gradually increase the speed of the stroke and watch it get
straighter and straighter. Charlotte has been teaching architectural drawing to students at
Wuhan University, China and has published a book of her paintings. A Perspective Refresher
workshop from time to time would be great to keep this valuable skill well oiled.
Edges & Washes with tutor Charlotte Hird
by Jan Pryor
In Wellington the weekend of 7/8 August was wild. Cold southerlies, rain, even hail. Inside the
Wellington Art Club in Miramar, it was warm. That wasnt because of the heat pumps, though they
were great. It was the warmth and energy generated by nine keen students from as far away as
Auckland and Morrinsville at Charlotte Hirds Edges and Washes Workshop. And it was the
enthusiasm and teaching from Charlotte that kept us all engaged.
I was the only true beginner, and of course I learned a great deal. The others though, some of
whom have been painting for years, revised skills and learned new ones under Charlottes expert
tutelage. We practised soft and hard edges, and we practised washes and wet-on-wet painting and
figure development. And we put all those into paintings so that we came away with our own
idiosyncratic works of art, all glorious in their own ways.
Perhaps the most important aspect of our enjoyment was Charlottes encouragement and feedback.
She gave us time, and she talked to us all individually as we slaved away over our brushes.
It was a truly wonderful workshop and I hope Charlotte runs many more.
