About

Lisa Paddon

 

Around twelve years ago, I took a trip to the National Gallery in London to find some inspiration as I had recently attended a weekend workshop in oil painting for beginners. 

As I admired the beautiful portraits from the Renaissance times, I couldn't help but marvel at their richness in colour and the luminosity which emanated from the paintings. When I reflected on my attempts as a beginner creating a portrait, I knew this type of process that I see before me was an enigma, I could not understand at all why or how these paintings were so different.

 

As I looked around the rest of the gallery, I set myself on a quest to find out how these paintings were created.

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Little did I know at the time that this quest subsequently turned into a passion and then became an all-consuming obsession which would change the direction of my life.

 

On my way home full of renewed energy, I started to think about how I could find out this painting process. Searching for such information was somewhat difficult, eventually, I came across a workshop in London that showed the process. After attending the week-long workshop, I bought all the pigments, oils, glazes, and brushes from an amazing treasure trove called Cornellisions, the oldest art shop in the UK. I set to work and practised. I studied from books I obtained from charity shops and regular trips to the National Gallery, Portrait Gallery, and eventually a trip to Florence, where I would stand for hours studying the details of the brushwork.

 

After a while, I realised my drawing skills were not so great. I looked around at the colleges and university courses in fine art, however for what I wanted, they all seemed to fall short. I eventually enrolled at the Reading College for the foundation in art and design, but soon became frustrated with the teaching and subject matter and left after 6 weeks. After a while, I came across a governing body called Art Renewal Centre. They were the type of schools I was searching for where artists teach aspiring artists in realism drawing and painting.

 

I enrolled on a part-time course for a term at a school in London and had some guidance on drawing from still life, plaster casts and life drawing. 

I took the knowledge and carried on training at home. I can’t say I use their way as I’ve moved forward. However, they gave me different methods in my tool kit to use if I get stuck.

 

So I took it upon myself to create my own bespoke course in  “Fine Art.” I would study the Master artists and keep going until I had reached a good enough standard, that would be my foundation course in Fine Art, they I can develope my own style and build on my own work.

 

Over the next couple of years, friends asked me to buy various paintings, and I started selling through art fairs and World Of Interiors Magazine. I carried on attending various workshops in traditional arts as my interest grew in different directions.

 

With this newfound knowledge, I felt a desire to share my knowledge on what I had learnt. In 2021, I started teaching workshops in classical oil painting techniques. Recently I created a part-time intensive drawing course that gives you all of the different tools for drawing in a short space of time, giving you all the information you need in your drawing adventure.

 

When I started my quest twelve years ago, I would never have imagined all the new life experiences, new skills that I have learnt along the way such as web design, marketing, writing, talks, and teaching.

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Following my heart's desire has led me down a path I could never have foreseen, and I am very gratefull