Hello Alan,

Thank you so much for an most enjoyable and informative day last week. You certainly sent me home with plenty to think about!

I've finished my painting and thought you might like to see it.

Kind regards

Anne

Hello Alan

Thank you for the course last week. 

I learnt a lot and it has changed my perceptions. A way to go on the painting itself but I am on a journey -  starting at #0 CONTENT!

Thank you also to Barbara for the great lunches and conversation.

Best wishes

John 

Dear Alan,
Thank you very much for my week of coaching last week. It was good for me to work hard and experiment with some of the new approaches you suggested and to gain clarity on what is important to me and what I need to focus on in the future. I appreciated you tailoring your approach to my individual needs and assisting me to reflect on where I am now and where I am heading.
Many thanks again
Barbara

 I was very pleased to receive a gift of an art lesson with Alan last Christmas , it has proven to be a very inspiring and interesting introduction to an alternative style of watercolour painting.

Alan is very encouraging as a teacher and explains his techniques to obtain lustrous and almost transparent artworks.

Each lesson explores ones own motivation and helps to unleash creativity in a non traditional way .

Simon

Hi Alan!

I attended the last 2 of the 3 sessions you ran at Swanley Art Group recently. You may remember me - my first picture was small and curled at the edges because I didn't tape it down and was of dancers; the second was a bit bigger and was very bright, again with dancers as a theme.

I just wanted to say thank you so much for your tuition. I never seem to get round to doing any art at home (I have a young family and 101 other things that need doing), and on the rare occasions I do, I never know what to paint. Since meeting you I have been inspired! I am just off to continue a painting I started last night and have 2 more blank canvases which I'm anxious to fill! I'm no longer worried about what the end product may look like and who may like it, but am just enjoying the actual activity of painting. (The ironing pile's getting bigger mind you!)

I have just saved your website to my favourites so that I can remind myself of your philiosophy.

It was great meeting you and thanks again for some invaluable help and guidance.

Kind regards

Liz

I was lucky enough to attend three mini workshops run by Alan Brain at my local art group last year and his articles in Paint have served as a timely reminder of his philosophy to paint with feeling.

The membership of Swanley Art Society is varied, but I think it’s fair to say we all initially felt uncomfortable with Alan’s instruction to “paint with feeling”. No reference material, nothing to copy, no pencil outlines. See your brush as an extension of your heart and paint what you feel. It was very scary to look at a blank sheet of paper with no direction on subject matter.

However, I quickly felt a real sense of liberation. To paint without rules and without any worry that my finished painting might not actually resemble anything. I felt rather like a young child who paints for the sheer joy of painting itself and is excited by the wonderful colours on the paper and the marks of the brush and has no inhibitions or inner critic.

Some of our members had difficulty in embracing this approach, but for those that did the results were stunning – and it was clear who had had a bad day at work simply by their choice of colour!

Here is my result, which is a world away from my usual style – see what feelings it evokes in you and do give it a try yourself.

Hi Alan,

I have never painted like this before i just love it!

This one is of Woking,  it's what i wanted to paint it like so i did! 

Mary

Dear Alan,

I just want to let you know that I got so much out of your course at Preston Montford .

It was not what I expected to be honest and at the beginning I wondered if it was for me. I am so pleased I came . I feel sort of "free" from all the rules of painting and can now do my own thing.

My paintings are so different from before I came, i don't think i will ever paint "things" again

Thank you so much

Laura