Talk and Demonstration by Pete Marsh 18/04/2026

​#petemarsh #salfordartclub #salfordmuseumandartgallery

Pete introduced himself and talked about his time at art college in Sheffield and his studio at Falcon Mill.
One of his favourite topics is musicians and he does a range of sketches from life at these gigs to get a feel for the subject. These are rough sketches catching the movement or stance of the subject. He then showed his working method for one of these paintings. Here he started with a brown wash but explained he has many different ways of starting paintings.

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He then talked about his ways of painting outside and the importance of an interesting viewpoint in his pictures. In the first one by sitting down to paint the viewpoint worked better. The second one shows a study done in acrylic later painted in the studio in oil, in this instance he changed the perspective to make a better composition.

Next, he talked about the diverse types of printing techniques he uses in his work. Examples of these were on a table for members to look at during the break.

He finished this part of his talk by telling us about two of his recent commissions and how he had to use a GoPro to capture a range of images to help him decide on the final choice.

After the break he did a quick demonstration of his working method to capture an image plein air, using oil paints. Using an MDF board, already primed with PVA, he stated by adding the clouds using three tones staring with white, blending the tones towards the end. Next, he worked on the foreground, and then the side sand dune. He adjusted the composition continually explaining his reasoning as he went along. Eventually it was time for the session to end, many members felt too soon, as we could have watched and listed to him for much longer. An interesting and informative afternoon.