Fiona began painting in watercolours with the Midland Bank Art Club under the patient and comprehensive tuition of traditional watercolourist Keith Burtonshaw, now sadly deceased. She took redundancy in 2000 to concentrate on her family and develop her obsession with watercolours, and soon began teaching around the area. She is regularly recording and releasing new videos of her classes each term for students at different levels depending on their skills and experience.

‘Starting Out’

The beginners groups, ‘Starting Out’, are designed for students who are new to painting in watercolours introducing them to what it is that makes this medium so exciting and so much different from anything else. Students are taken, step-by-step, through all the skills and techniques they need to learn and practice beginning with just one colour and working up to introducing three primary colours with more being added along the way.

Starting to see the world around us, appreciating light and colour, are the important steps covered on this course. The classes cover basic art theory as well as an understanding of the materials we use and why we choose them.
When you complete all the projects in ‘Starting Out’ students will move on to the slightly more advanced ‘Splashing Out’. Test script 

‘Splashing Out’

These classes are aimed at the more experienced watercolourists who have completed the ‘Starting Out’ course and are ready to move on with their watercolour painting journey. Subjects are a little more challenging and more colours are added in to the palette. More techniques and different methods are brought in to the ‘Splashing Out’ curriculum, to encourage students to experiment and start to think and work as artists and interpreters, rather than copyists.
In the ‘Splashing Out’ zone we work much more freely and more as a response to the subject – not using heavy drawings and filling in between the lines. More emphasis is put on applying paint in different ways not just direct painting on to the paper.
After completing the ‘Splashing Out’ projects, then students can more on to the more challenging ‘Stretching Out’.

‘Stretching Out’

This is the place where more experienced watercolourists can really let go and start to develop more of their own skills and be less prescriptive. The objective of these classes is to encourage developing your own interpretation of the suggested subjects and try some of the things you really shouldn’t do with watercolours. With ‘Stretching Out’ students use more mixed media creating really exciting works of their own.

At each level, students can share their own work with other members of Wicked Watercolours in the Online Gallery – comments and feedback are an important part of the learning process.

Throughout each level of these courses, Fiona encourages students to build their confidence in painting in watercolours. Each class normally starts with a discussion of the challenges of the subject, colours and techniques that will be used, pitfalls along the way – and how to avoid them – and video recordings will show extracts of her own painting methods.
A wide range of subject areas will be covered, from Skies, Trees, Wild Seas, Animals, Landscapes, Flowers, Still life, Snow-scenes, through to Starting with Abstraction and Mixed Media Adventures. There are always new subjects and challenges to tackle so if you have a burning desire to paint something special then you are always welcome to suggest this as a new subject for the next seasons class list.

Fiona works with a hand-made brush maker who has developed a range of pure sable brushes at very affordable prices brushes for watercolourists. Her range of brushes, and other tried and tested materials are available to order through the website including the Winsor and Newton Artists Water Colours, Bockingford and other papers, various additives and special items that she uses regularly.