Becoming a pop artist over night (From Echo)

Becoming a pop artist over night

10:42am Friday 5th October 2007 in Search By Rebecca Peppiatt

ALTHOUGH the closest I usually come to painting is touching up my nail polish once a week, I was intrigued to find out more about Dean Smith's pop art classes at his Barleylands studio and so signed up for a one to one lesson.

Modern and stylish, pop art is far more appealing to young people than still life drawing and landscape painting, but the genre hasn't yet been introduced to the National Curriculum.

Instead, people of all ages can sign up for cheap (£6 for two hours) lessons at Dean Smith Art at Barleylands Craft Village in Billericay and have a go at something fun, expressive and very, very funky.

As I was about to learn, however, putting paint brush to paper wasn't going to be the hardest part of the task.

"Who do you want to paint?" asked Dean. "Who is your idol?"

I stared back at him with a blank, I-haven't-got-a-clue look on my face.

I couldn't think of anyone who had been such an influence on me that I would want to massacre their face with paint, so in the end I opted for Jon Bon Jovi. Later I regretted it and wished I'd picked JR Ewing or David Hasslehoff, but the choice was made and Ben, Dean's business partner, had found a flattering pic of Jon in his prime and had cleverly manipulated it into pop art style with the use of a snazzy computer programme.

So, picture in hand, I hovered nervously over a large blank canvass wondering how on earth I was going to make Jon's face appear on it. Nope, magic wasn't going to work this time, so I had to opt for picking up a pencil instead.

With a sense of trepidation I sketched out the proportions of Jon's head onto the canvass and with Dean's help added his features and the prominent lines of shading.

With some lead on the page I started to feel a bit more confident that it might end up resembling something human.

Next, out came the paint - acrylics. Dean says they're great for beginners as they're so thick and definite - unlike watercolours that can be hard to work with as they're so wishy washy.

"If you make a mistake with acrylics, it will dry in ten minutes and then you just paint over it," says Dean. "You can even hide black with white after a few coats."

I felt even more assured and started to slap it on, following the shading as closely to the picture as I possibly could.

"It's not supposed to be perfect," Dean insists. "You want it to look like a painting - not a photo."

I lost track of time as I relaxed into the rythm of adding paint and crafting Jon's face out of the white abyss. Before I know it a few hours had passed and I was onto my second coat and wishing I could stay there all day chatting to other students, drinking coffee, listening to the radio and working on my masterpiece.

Once finished, I glared at it intently, seeing only a mass of imperfections. But once I stepped away and admired Jon from afar, I actually felt extremely proud of myself. I played it down, of course, with comments like "oh it's ok" but secretly I loved it and put it up on my windowsill at home to stare at all night with awe.

I'm also signing up for a month of tuition - I think my mum would love David Hasselhoff for Christmas.

SIDE BAR POP art emerged in the late Fifties as a style of art which explores the everyday imagery that is so much a part of contemporary consumer culture.

Pop art therefore coincided with the youth and pop music phenomenon of the Fifties and Sixties, and became very much a part of the image of fashionable, swinging London.

Brit Peter Blake designed album covers for Elvis Presley and the Beatles and placed film stars such as Brigitte Bardot in his pictures in the same way that Warhol was immortalising Marilyn Monroe in the USA.

Common sources of imagery include advertisements, consumer product packaging, celebrity photographs, and comic strips.

SIDE BAR DEAN trained in fine art before hooking up with business partner - and graphic designer - Ben Murdoch, and branching out into the world of pop art.

The duo now create pop art paintings and collages of their idols and take on commissioned orders.

Their Barleylands studio is full to brimming with colourful and moody images of the Beatles, Elvis, Kurt Cobain, George Best, Paul Weller and Bobby Moore.

Wannabe artists can dabble in all forms of art at the studio via day and evening classes. If pop art's not your thing, there are lessons in watercolour, drawing and any other medium you want to work in.

Contact Dean or Ben on 01268 522973 to find out more about what they do, or log onto www.deansmithart.com.