Monochromatic Self Portraiture Workshop

Monochromatic Self Portraiture workshop

Three two-hour sessions painting with Paula MacArthur, come along to one, or ideally all sessions

4.30 - 6.30 pm 27 March

4.30 - 6.30 pm 3 April

4.30 - 6.30 pm 10 April

Paula is an OCA Programme Tutor on the BA Painting course, as a student the focus of her work was self portraiture.

UK based participants will be provided with a 30 x 30 cm canvas and 2 tubes of water mixable oil paint in Prussian Blue and Titanium White. 

Students will need brushes and a mirror and be able to set up their work space so that they can easily see their own reflection and the canvas without moving too much. It’s helpful to be able to prop up the canvas beside the mirror. Alternatively you can use a square photograph of yourself, looking straight into the camera, preferably printed out at approximately life-size.

Paula will do a demonstration at the start of the workshops which focusses on how to achieve an accurate likeness but participants are welcome to approach this in any way they wish to depict themselves and express their personality.

The resulting paintings will be donated to We The Human: A Quiet Blue Wall project led by Laura Mohapi which aims to raise awareness of the increased risk of suicide in the neurodiverse community. 

By donating your painting you consent to it becoming part of the collective archive and the property of The Head Of A Pin C.I.C. This is an ongoing project aiming to run until 2030.

​There's no submission fee or benchmark of artistic experience you need to climb over to have your self-portrait accepted, your collaboration and involvement is the precious bit.

Being part of this project (donating a portrait) you understand that your painting becomes part of a larger artwork that will be publicly exhibited both digitally and physically until 2030 when it will be archived.

Find details of the forthcoming exhibitions at https://www.lauramohapi.com/a-quiet-blue-wall and follow Laura on instagram @laura.mohapi to see works which have already become part of the project.

Please note students will be responsible for sending the work to Laura. 

Places are limited on this workshop. We welcome participants who are neurodiverse. Please do let us know if you have any access needs.

We have a number of materials available. If you would like to participate but cannot attend the workshops we can arrange to send a canvas and paint set to you, please email studyevents@oca.ac.uk. Please note these are limited.

International students are welcome to attend but unfortunately will have to source their own materials - 30 x 30 cm canvas and 2 tubes of water mixable oil paint in Prussian Blue and Titanium White.

Please register your interest by Friday 22 March.