Alai is a great teacher as well as an excellent artist, and her enthusiasm is totally infectious. Her presentation was extremely slick with multiple camera angles and video collages, making the experience perhaps even better than it would have been in a classroom (especially if you were sitting a long way back). I have no idea how she was able to multitask so well, changing camera angles while painting and teaching all at the same time.
The workshop started with some colour theory and then a warmup mini-painting. The main painting was Halloween-themed and included multiple light sources and types of objects (glass, ceramic, fabric, flame etc), so quite challenging but a lot of fun. I have included my painting here.
Alai stresses the importance of not being too perfectionistic, which is a useful reminder for me. She paints quickly and has her eye on the over-all piece, rather than getting stuck on any particular detail. She likes to keep painting in a state of flow, rather like the paint itself.
The video recordings were also available afterwards, which allowed me to review a few things later at my leisure. Highly recommended - I will be looking forward to the next workshops she puts on!