Summers Arts Programme at Laois Arthouse for Adults now fully booked

Portraiture Workshops with artist Una Sealy RHA

‘Painting the portrait from life’

course A June 4, 5                       Course B June 6, 7

Booking required:  Places limited €60 per two day course

The Laois Arthouse is delighted to welcome Una Sealy RHA for the annual summer arts programme for adults.

Una Sealy RHA is an Irish artist based in North Co. Dublin. She paints domestic interiors, streetscape, landscape and portraiture. She paints from observation and often the compositions evolve organically, with elements appearing and disappearing before the final arrangement is arrived at. The works form a kind of visual autobiography.

In these two day workshops, Una Sealy will lead the participants through the process of painting a portrait from life; from planning the composition, through tonal under painting, to completed painting.

The workshop will begin with an introduction to the anatomy of the face, head and neck, which will help with the structure of the portrait, and then proceed with composing the piece.

Working in oils, we will look at colour mixing using a limited palette, effects of light, and the colour of the shadows. Warm/cool contrasts will be studied in order to increase the understanding of depicting 3 dimensions on the picture plane.

Una will paint alongside the participants to demonstrate the various principles, and will give individual guidance according to each artist’s level of experience.

An exhibition of Una Sealy’s portraits will be displayed in the Laois Arthouse gallery.

This exhibition of portraits showcases a personal selection of works depicting friends and family, shown together for the first time.
Sealy works from life, and spends varying amounts of time with her sitters, from a single three hour sitting, to longer term projects requiring multiple sessions.
This connection between artist and sitter is important to Sealy, as the resulting conversations inform the work, and contribute to a certain fluidity in the paint handling.  The aim is that the resulting work somehow encapsulates time passing, as opposed to one static moment.

A selection of work undertaken by the participants during the courses will be shown also. This exhibition opens on Friday 7th June at 4pm.

Bookings for the courses can be made by paying a €30 deposit. Forms can be downloaded here Application form Una Sealy

Further information from Muireann Ní Chonaill at, artsoff@laoiscoco.ie +353 57 86 64033/13.