Mixed Media Landscapes and Seascapes

About Chris Forsey

Chris Forsey, RI SGFA, is a professional artist and figurative painter working in acrylics, watercolour and mixed-media, mostly concerned with landscape, townscape and coastal subjects. His main focus is in capturing atmosphere and fleeting moments of changing light and works particularly with water-based media. Chris runs regular workshops on mixed media painting, and was elected a member of The Royal Institute of Painters in Watercolours in 2010 and also The Society of Graphic Fine Artists.

The Artist

In what is a quite specific combination of subject and medium, Chris Forsey demonstrates how this can be used to capture highlights, contrast and detail in exciting and innovative ways. Chris uses watercolour, acrylic, ink, pastels and crayons not simply for their own sake, but to capture the majesty of crashing waves, contrasting colours, shapes and textures in a foreshore and the detail in twigs and branches in an autumn lane.

Lessons include choosing the format and colour palette for your final work as well as planning from sketches and photographs. Mixed-media elements include white ink to create spray of breaking waves and the use of wax resist for texture on weather-beaten timber.

As well as examples, exercises and demonstrations, there are discussions of colour, weather and the seasons and a useful look at what mediums are appropriate for your particular subject. This is a thorough and enthralling guide.

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The SAA Catalogue 19/20

Mixed media offers a wealth of opportunities for capturing shape and texture and Chris Forsey explores a wide variety of technical and creative approaches.

Technical matters are covered in a series of demonstrations that include shorelines, river scenes and inland areas using a variety of techniques, styles and materials. Particularly useful are the explanations of how different media suit different subjects - the brightness of a flower-decked chalkland path captured with water soluble and oil pastels, for instance.

Further demonstrations include suggestions of how to capture the fleeting moment such as a breaking wave, how to render texture and the use of collage. This is a thorough and inspiring guide from a confident teacher.

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Paint

If you were inspired by Alison C Board's Beginner's Guide to Watercolour with Mixed Media, you'll be looking for some more extended projects to get your teeth into. This comprehensive guide should fit the bill nicely. Come to that, if you're already well into the delights of mixed media, you'll love the vision and inspiration Chris offers here.

Chris uses acrylic, inks and paints as well as soft pastels, wax crayons and other water-soluble media, to both create and depict textures as well as highlights and a wealth of visual effects. The emphasis throughout is on creativity and finished results, rather than techniques exhibited for their own sake. At the same time, Chris demonstrates how to choose your material to suit both the subject and the conditions - winter or summer, rain or sunshine.

The technical introduction is anything but hard work, with plenty of examples that show rather than tell you what you're looking at and trying to achieve. Even the exercises quickly resolve themselves into works that stand happily alone.

Once you're up and running, there is a series of projects covering the use of colour and the full gamut of seasons and weather, as well as beach and riverside scenes, large vistas and intimate landscapes. Chris's approach is to explain not just what you're doing, but why and where you're aiming to end up. It's an appealing method of instruction that never feels like following a recipe and keeps you in control at all times.

This is a beautiful and inspiring guide, which provides a wide range of answers.