EXPRESSIVE LAYERED LANDSCAPES in Oils & Cold Wax

EXPRESSIVE LAYERED LANDSCAPES IN OILS & COLD WAX

DATE: Sunday 22nd March
TIME: 11am – 3pm
VENUE: Harbour Arts Centre, Irvine
COST: £75 – all materials included

Forget pretty controlled landscapes, timid little hills and polite pastel sunsets.

This one is about depth. Texture. Drama. Atmosphere.
It’s about building landscapes that feel like weather has passed through them.

Using water-mixable oils and cold wax on MDF panels, we’ll spend the day layering, scraping, dragging, revealing and disrupting paint to create richly textured, expressive landscape pieces full of movement and atmosphere.

Cold wax transforms oil paint into something beautifully tactile and sculptural. It allows you to build up layers, scrape back through them, soften edges, create mist, create earth, create sky – and most importantly, create work that feels alive.

We’re not copying photographs.
We’re not painting “views”.
We’re building layers and atmosphere.

What we’ll explore

• Creating strong, atmospheric base layers
• Mixing and using cold wax with water-mixable oils
• Scraping, dragging and excavating paint
• Building depth through tone and temperature
• Creating distance and foreground energy
• Knowing when to stop (before you kill it 😉)

You’ll work on a prepared MDF panel and leave with an experimental expressive layered landscape and a wealth of new techniques using cold wax.

Materials

Everything is provided.

Panels, paints, cold wax - just need to bring any tools you enjoy, reference material (or just paint totally intuitively) and an open mind to experimentation. 

What to expect

Adding cold wax to water-mixable oils:
• creates depth and softness
• allows you to layer and scrape back
• gives that beautiful misty atmosphere
• speeds up drying time
• leaves a subtle, velvety, almost sculptural finish

It’s expressive.
It’s experimental.
It’s slightly addictive.

You’ll spend the day layering, dragging, disrupting and revealing paint on MDF panels — building landscapes that feel like weather has passed through them.

This is not about neat, pretty or perfect.

It’s about layered, expressive landscapes that feel like you stood in the wind and painted what it felt like.

Suitable for -  adventurous beginners right through to experienced artists looking to loosen up and try something different.