Adebanji Alade does a demo for Epsom and Ewell Art Group

Adebanji came to Epsom and Ewell Art Group last night (10th of January, 2018) and proved a great hit with our members. Full of enthusiasm he managed to complete in the 2 hours he was there a fantastic acrylic Urban Landscape of the street outside of Peter Jones in Chelsea, all the while giving hints and tips to our members.

Even during our break when he was surrounded by members, Adebanji continued to work on the painting while answering questions; A sight I have not seen before. Many members congratulated me at the end of the evening on having booked Adebanji saying that in the years they had been members, some up to 15 years, he was the best demonstrator to date and others said they had learned more from him in the 2 hours than they had learnt in numerous demos put together!!!

Please come back soon.

Nicola Hughes

Programme Secretary Epsom & Ewell Art Group

Adebanji Alade’s Workshop with Society of Fulham Artist’s and Potters: The Urban Landscape.

 

SoFAP’s March workshop, specializing in Urban Landscape using oils and acrylics, was as expected a resounding hit, with award winning artist Adebanji Alade on fine form after his recent appearance on BBC’s One Show.  The workshop was a sell-out, which was not altogether surprising, and there was a full complement of about twenty SOFAP members in attendance, keeping Adebanji well and truly on his toes.  He in turn was dexterous in supporting and aiding his students for the day with guidance and vision.

The day began with a demonstration in how to create a landscape, and this consisted of an approach to painting from a photograph by dividing up both a 12” x 16” canvas and photograph of similar aspect ration into a 4 x 4 grid system, each rectangle then being subdivided into triangles.  This proved a very useful tool in mapping out the image, without getting too caught up in detail.

The next stage was the essence of Adebanji’s technique, and that was to get his students to concentrate on connecting only with shapes that could be visualized.  On this basis the demonstration involved putting in the sky area first, followed by the darkest areas of shade, that were applied in a light and feathery way, thus creating a key for what would follow.  The triangles assisted us a guides for perspective.  Finally the more neutral mid tones were inserted in between.

The idea behind Adebanji’s approach is one of painting a foundation.  Once that has been established, further detail can easily be inserted lightly throughout, whilst trying all the time to keep shapes simple and not get caught up in a single area.  It was fascinating to watch as Adabanji’s painting came to life, as ours did later, with so very little information.  Once the demonstration was over a bunch of enthusiastic students set to work with their own chosen images, each one working on a picture with different content.

With the artists all hard at work, Adebanji then circulated the room touching base with each person in order to engage with and discuss the use of tones and colours.  It was interesting to note his preference is for using a mix to create darks and greys, instead of the traditional black, always keeping these tones with some kind of colour appropriate to that of the light.  (Report by Izzy Hutchison

Adebanji Alade’s visit to St Peter’s RC High School.

“The students and Art department had all an awesome day. Adebanji was amazingly talented, enthusiastic and really inspired the students. They got so much from the day, most students stayed and worked through lunch  by their own choice and Adebanji actually had to physically go round the room and take the paint brushes out of their hands as they would not pack up at the end of the day. They loved it!!!”  Mrs Ginette Baker (Head of Art)