The Art of Letting Go: Angela Webb Inspires Students to Embrace Mistakes, Experimentation and the Unexpected 

Students attending last week’s Reach Higher lunchtime talk enjoyed a fascinating insight into the creative world of local artist Angela Webb, whose vibrant, expressive paintings demonstrate how embracing mistakes and relinquishing control can lead to unexpected and exciting artistic discoveries. 

Angela shared her journey from working as an architect for ten years, followed by eight years as an illustrator, to becoming a full-time artist and workshop leader. Throughout these different chapters, painting remained a constant passion. She spoke about her desire to keep moving forward creatively, allowing each new discovery to open the door to something different. Indeed, she encouraged students to recognise that frustration with their own work can be a positive force, often providing the motivation to explore something new. 

One of the most engaging parts of the session focused on Angela’s approach to layering and her willingness to revisit paintings that hadn’t quite worked. Rather than discarding these unsuccessful pieces, she began painting over them, discovering that glimpses of the original colours, textures and drips could create wonderful surprises. Sharing before-and-after examples, she described these remnants as the “ghosts” of previous paintings, adding depth, energy and unexpected character to the finished work. 
Angela demonstrated how she now deliberately builds paintings over vibrant base colours, allowing small areas to peek through subsequent layers. This approach brings a sense of movement and spontaneity to her compositions, making even still objects feel full of life. As she explained, “I’m only partially in control when I’m painting”, a philosophy that encourages experimentation and allows each painting to develop in its own direction. 

Students were particularly interested in her discussion of negative space and the freedom to depart from photographic references. In one painting featuring a washing line, Angela had initially intended to paint a pair of black trousers, but as the composition developed, she realised that leaving them as an unpainted area of vibrant pink created a far more interesting result. Her message to students was simple: “You’re in charge.” A painting doesn’t have to reproduce exactly what appears in a photograph, and sometimes the most effective artistic decisions come from knowing what to leave out. 

This led to another important piece of advice: “You can leave things incomplete; let the viewer fill in the gaps.” Angela explained that knowing when to stop can be one of the hardest parts of painting, particularly when the temptation is to keep refining every detail. For her, the excitement lies in not knowing precisely how a painting will look when she begins, allowing the process itself to shape the outcome. 

Alongside these practical demonstrations, Angela shared insights into colour and composition, from using the limited Zorn palette in portraiture to recognising the importance of the spaces surrounding a subject. She also revealed her recurring attraction to blue, recalling how even when she deliberately challenged herself to paint an orange, touches of blue somehow found their way into the finished piece! 

Angela concluded with three fundamental principles that she encouraged students to remember whenever a painting isn’t working: composition, value and colour. Often, she explained, the solution lies in reconsidering one of these three elements rather than starting again. 

Her visit was a wonderful reminder that artistic development rarely follows a straight line, and that mistakes, uncertainty and experimentation are not obstacles to creativity but essential parts of it. Above all, Angela encouraged students to trust the process, embrace the unexpected and have the confidence to make their own artistic decisions. 

We are extremely grateful to Angela for sharing her work and experiences so generously, and for giving students such an inspiring insight into the creative process. Her talk beautifully embodied the aims of the Reach Higher programme, demonstrating that sometimes the most exciting discoveries happen when we stop striving for perfection and allow ourselves the freedom to explore.