CLASSES AND WORKSHOPS 2024

I have over 15 years experience teaching creative workshops to all levels of ability, from nervous beginners to those looking to challenge and stretch themselves. 2024 will bring many opportunities to take a workshop with me as I continue to run classes at Bullclough Art School in the beautiful Peak District as well as workshops in Oxfordshire. Make sure you are on my mailing list to hear about them first!

Contemporary Landscape painting workshops

Venue: Bullclough Art School, Peak District

There are four contemporary landscape workshops a year at Bullclough- one for each season. The idea behind these workshops is that they provide you with the basic building blocks of landscape painting; line, mass and shape. I don’t want to teach you how to paint like me, though I will show you lots of the techniques I use in my work, I want you to begin to explore your motivation for painting- what is it you want to express? What colours and marks feel like home? How do you want people to feel when they look at your work?

If that all sounds very intangible then consider that you will also undertake lots of exercises that demonstrate the formal elements of painting like compositional formats, contrast and difference, line weight and colour mixing.

On day one we begin with some simple drawing exercises to get you exploring the ever-changing landscape around Bullclough art school. These sketches will serve as a jumping off point for several experiments with colour, tone and composition. We will explore together the idea of abstraction and expressive painting and, in particular, where you see yourself on that spectrum between detailed realism and contemporary expressionism. During the final day and a half of the workshop you will be able to work on a number of larger paintings informed by the things you have discovered about yourself and your own style.

All the materials you could possibly need will be provided for you including boards to work on and sketchbooks to record your time in this most magical of places. You will want for nothing. Drop me an email here if you have specific questions or you can use the links below for more information and to book. Nellie and Andy at Bullclough are always happy to help with logistics and to recommend place to stay, you can contact them here.

The Abstracted Landscape

Venue: Bullclough Art School, Peak District

26th, 27th, 28th April 2024

“Like a good poem, a good abstraction attacks your feeling before your understanding” Robert Genn

Spend three days exploring abstraction in the beautiful Peak District countryside. This course is ideal if you have attended a contemporary landscape workshop and you would like to see just how much detail you can loose and still retain a sense of place. Even if you are simply curious about the process of abstracting a landscape there is plenty here for you to explore.

The tricky thing about abstract painting is that artists make it look easy when, in fact, it is anything but. You still need to consider form, tone, colour and composition but these formal principles now drift free from their subject matter. In abstraction subject and narrative take a back seat and these elements of design (colour, tone, pattern shape etc) play a more dominant role, free of the subject matter. In this workshop we will work from the Bullclough landscape but as we work through the exercises, your paintings will begin to take on an abstract life of their own. This way of working will also allow to you to explore memory, emotion, and atmosphere in much freer and looser way.

Because this workshop is about exploration and experimentation there is less of an emphasis on completing resolved pieces of work. Having said that you will go home with plenty of pieces underway and loads of ideas.

For more information and to book click the link below.

COLOUR AND LANDSCAPE

Venue: Bullclough art school

28th, 29th and 30th June 2024

This structured three-day workshop will give you the confidence to work bravely with exciting, vibrant colour. Forget those dry lists of must have colours you find in ‘how to’ books- in this workshop? Anything goes.

Initially we will explore the Bullclough surroundings, creating several first impressions of the landscape. We will then spend time experimenting with colour bias, creating vibrant saturated colours and neutralised hues. I will help you to see tone within your mixes so that you can create strong compositions with clear focus. We will also look at a number of colours individually and experiment with the variety of pigments within each primary set, with the aim of creating preliminary works that use only these mixes before adding in harmonious, contrasting and dissonant elements.

During the second half of the workshop, you will investigate how emotions are associated with certain colours and how they can be used to create a sense of distance, drama and atmosphere. There will also be plenty of time to work on paintings across a number of boards with the emphasis always on developing your induvial process rather than adhering to a set of rules or pushing you towards a finished piece. There will be plenty of induvial tuition for each student and handouts  on all of the exercises.