Leisure Painter

Leisure Painter - the number one learn-to-paint magazine featuring practical painting and drawing features from top art tutors. Includes step-by-step tuition and easy-to-follow advice on how to draw and paint.

Editor's welcome

Leisure Painter

Editor's choice • 2026 sees the 200th anniversary of the Royal Scottish Academy, Edinburgh, Scotland

Spotlight on art • A round-up of events and ideas to enjoy live and online

Winter trees in watercolour • Learn tips and tricks to turn your watercolour trees from amateurish to professional-looking, and the best tools to use.

NEW WAYS TO Paint snow • Naomi Jenkin shares her techniques for creating a snow scene using gouache and chalj pastels

Painting the night away • Tim O'Brien delves into the delightful genre of ‘nocturne’ painting, with tips and tricks for how to capture unique nighttime lighting effects and more…

Animal explorations • Part 3 Chloe Hibberd demonstrates how to bring a Humboldt penguin to life in vivid detail, armed only with colour pencils and drafting film

The possibilities of a limited palette • Reduce your palette to create moody watercolour painting with an impressionistic style, advises Amanda Hyatt

10 TOP TIPS for working with a limited palette

Relighting your creative flame • Professional colour pencil artist, Helen Carter, provides helpful guidance and tips for how to get back into painting and drawing using pencils to lead the way

Snow-capped Sierra Nevada • Daniel Fermor-Smith's painting project takes us to the Sierra Nevada in Andalucía, then back to the studio to finish the painting

Art clubs • Over to you for the latest news on your club exhibitions and activities

Art club challenge • Some of the great entries we had for the ‘Frozen’ art club challenge set in the November 2025 edition and from the Painters Online Gallery pages.

Exhibitions

Seasons of small things: Winter • As winter sets in, Linda Birch encourages us to look closer to home for subjects from nature, plus a focus on seasonal ‘slow art’

THE ART WORLD • NEWS, INFORMATION AND ONLINE EVENTS IN THE ART WORLD

BRUSH with the PAST • Grahame Booth concludes his travels back to his painting roots, finishing with his third great leap of understanding… connections

Painting into the unknown • Caroline Saunders talks to Belinda Eaton about her instinctive and spontaneous compositions materialising almost as if by magic

Sandro Botticelli The Birth of Venus • Sarah Middleton takes a deeper look…

MAKING WAVES • Dave West, winner of The Artist award at the Royal Society of Marine Artists 2025 open exhibition, shares his love of plein-air painting and capturing the coast of Ireland in oils

A snowbound stream • Barry Herniman shares his nostalgia for winter snow with this evocative watercolour scene

Self-publishing an art book • Robert E Wells describes the process, with tips and advice, for any artist interested in self-publishing their own art book

A QUESTION OF STYLE • Ingrid Brown explores the highs and lows of discovering and enhancing your unique artist style

A different PERSPECTIVE • Paul Hollingsworth, author of three new books published as Oil Painting - Controversial Views, shares his idiosyncratic approach to painting and creativity

ART BOOKS

Taking advantages of opportunities • Mike Barr looks at all the reasons why an opportunity should always be seriously considered