Description
FCB Cadell Painting Portraits with Ailsa
Date: Saturday 9th and Sunday 10th May 2026.
Time: 10 – 4pm each day.
Cost £150
Lunch is included.
About the day
Two-day workshop is designed for adults to explore the techniques of Scottish Colourist F.C.B. Cadell, focusing on portrait drawing and painting a clothed figure with a hat. Participants will develop their skills in composition, tonal values, and expressive brushwork while creating their own artwork inspired by Cadell’s famous society portraits.
Materials: £25 for materials should be paid directly to the tutor on the day.
What to Expect
Day 1 focuses on drawing. You’ll begin with quick warm-ups before learning how to capture facial proportions, tonal values, and simplified, confident linework. In the afternoon, you’ll develop full-figure sketches and plan your composition through small thumbnail studies. These drawings form the foundation for your painting on Day 2.
On Day 2, you’ll explore Cadell’s limited colour palette, studying how contrast and carefully placed highlights create mood and elegance. You’ll create small colour tests before transferring your drawing to canvas, paper or board, blocking in the main shapes, and building up expressive layers of paint. Guidance will help you balance detail with Cadell’s characteristic simplicity and strong design.
What you’ll create:
· A collection of portrait drawing studies exploring facial proportions, tonal values, and expressive linework.
· Figure composition sketches, including gesture drawings, figure studies, and thumbnail compositions.
· Colour thumbnail paintings testing limited palettes inspired by Cadell’s use of contrast and mood.
· A refined underdrawing on canvas, showing the planned structure and tonal layout of the final piece.
· A completed Cadell-inspired painting of a clothed figure with a hat, created using layered brushwork and a carefully considered colour palette.
Location & Accessibility:
This workshop will take place indoors in one of the rooms of the house. Please note that some of our workshop spaces are located on the second floor and are only accessible via stairs. If you have any access requirements, let us know, and we will do our best to accommodate you.
Please bring an apron or wear clothing you don’t mind getting paint splashed
