On Tuesday 17th October 2017 Anastasia Pollard came to St Augustine’s Priory to give staff and students a live 4-hour portrait painting demonstration. Anastasia studied at Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts and Florence Academy of Art. Her work has been seen in the annual exhibitions of the Royal Society of Portrait Painters and was previously included in the BP Portrait Award in 2006, 2007, 2009 and 2012. Our Head of Art, Miss Eng, tells us about her visit:
“Having been to the BP Portrait Award at the National Portrait Gallery, I was delighted to come across events at Cass Art Islington where artists from the competition were demonstrating their painting. I went to one of Anastasia’s live demonstrations over the summer and had said to myself that I would check in on her painting every hour to see how it progressed. I ended up sitting motionless for four hours watching each brush stroke!
I wanted to share this experience with our GCSE and A Level girls who are at various stages in learning to use oil paints, and I could see that they too were mesmerised by Anastasia’s process. She was so informative, and taught us about her colour mixing process, her materials, and lots of tips about painting ‘alla prima’ (wet-on-wet paint in one sitting), which the girls noted down and took photos of. I know that they will find this useful within their artistic careers.
Thank you to Anastasia, and our model Peter Hall for this wonderful experience. We were also so grateful to receive the painting as a present at the end, so that future students can be inspired!”
