Art Materials Live – Birmingham NEC

Art Materials Live on Friday the 6th of November was worth the trip. It was interesting because the event was combined with craft and gift items, which seemed larger than the art section. Although small, the Art section took most of my time and I participated in four hands on art demonstrations.

The SAA had the biggest area with two sections for art talks, two for hands on demos and the middle area for products sales. It was a much smaller version of ‘All About Art’ in London.

At this event, I painted a snow scene in watercolour with Matthew Palmer, then of course bought two lift out brushes.  Next was a session on pastel painting with Jeremy Ford where I proceeded to buy a pastel kit :).

Linda Matthews had her own small demonstration area and I tried my hand at using permanent ink and watercolour; it was my favourite painting of the day. Linda has a variety of classes teaching different mediums both in the U.K. and abroad.  She is very easy going and personable and I want to take a painting class with her; hopefully sometime this summer.

Finally, the Chinese Brush Painting Society gave a small hands on lesson; it was very useful to learn how to  mix the ink, hold the brush and remove excess liquid properly. We also were able to practice making marks on cartridge paper and just for fun how to draw a cat and mouse. I was really impressed and bought a brush at the stall and ink from the SAA.