What’s On

Art Course
with Jackie Garner 10am – 5pm
Maximum Participants: 12

This 2-day course will focus on producing detailed paintings of natural objects such as feathers, seeds and shells, using a pure watercolour technique.
We will cover working with layers of colour, wet into wet, and lifting out colour to create texture, pattern, iridescence and form.
Course Cost
Members: £80
Non-members: £100
Course Suitability: Absolute Beginners – Improvers
ART COURSE BOOKING FORM

Artist’s Profile
Jackie Garner trained at Medway College of Design before becoming Nature in Art’s first education officer. She is now a professional artist who specialises in portraying wildlife, taking inspiration from encountering wildlife in its natural habitat. Jackie teaches and lectures regularly, and is a contributor to Artists & Illustrators magazine. She has exhibited with many art societies, including the National Exhibition Wildlife Art, the Society of Wildlife Artists, BirdScapes Gallery, Royal Institute of

Painters in Water Colours and has held solo exhibitions in London and Gloucestershire. Jackie is the author and illustrator of The Wildlife Artist’s Handbook.
Jackie is happy to discuss the course with students. Visit her website for contact details: www.jackiegarner.co.uk

Art Course
with Jill Moger 10am – 5pm
Maximum Participants: 12

This 2-day course will start with a discussion about the importance of the presentation of a piece of wildlife art produced in clay. All of Jill’s ceramic animals are presented on an appropriate and realistic base and you will be constructing your very own for your piece on the first day.
On day 2, you will model a realistic gecko. Jill will teach you how to hollow out your clay sculpture and the different ways to finely model features and texture skin. She will also talk about the various glazes and how to apply these and she will bring an example to demonstrate on.

If students have an available kiln to fire their finished piece they may wish to take it home but if not, Jill will take the work back to her studio in York, dry it, glaze and fire it and return it to Nature in Art a few weeks later for students to collect.
Course Cost
Members: £80
Non-members: £100
Course Suitability: Beginners – Improvers
ART COURSE BOOKING FORM

Materials List
Please bring a full apron and any small tools that you might like to experiment with on clay.
All other materials will be supplied by Jill Moger, at a cost of £10 per participant,
payable directly to her on the day.
Please note: for those who wish Jill to use her kiln to fire their finished piece, an additional charge of £6 will apply, payable directly to Jill on the day.

Artist’s Profile
Jill is an established ceramicist of many years’ experience and her subject matter is wildlife but with a particular emphasis on reptiles. She uses stoneware and porcelain clays to create finely detailed work which is fired in an electric kiln up to five times to enhance colours and lustered glazes.
www.jillmogersculptures.co.uk

Family Fun Day
Our latest family fun day will be taking place on Saturday 25th June and will be themed around Bees, this will coincide with celebrating Insect Week (20th-26th June).

All activities will run from 10am-4pm and will be suitable for 3+; the cost to take part will only be £1 per person, under 3s free. If you wish to view the museum galleries on this day normal admission will apply.

Full details on the day’s events will be added below as soon as they are confirmed.
Here is a taster of what to look forward to already:

• Watch live demonstrations of real-life bees in their portable hive,
  at 11am and 2pm
• Discover our UV light and interactive smells exhibit
• Explore the microscopic world of bees
• Make a bee house and paint a bee magnet
• Get hands-on with the master composters
• Have a go at dissecting plants
• Take part in a Bumble Bee quiz and related games in the garden

There is no need to book for activities, please just come along anytime between 10am-4pm.
The coffee shop will also be open and serving light lunches.

Please see below for more detail about those organisations, individuals and charities who will kindly be providing many of the activities during our fun day:

The Cheltenham Science Group (10am-4pm) – Join the science group to experience the world as bees; using ultraviolet light, by dissecting a flower to see why pollinators are so important and by surveying the Nature in Art garden to find about the different pollinators at work. Plus, learn to communicate like a honey bee.

Bees Abroad (11am and 2pm) – The aim of Bees Abroad is to provide education and technical advice in Beekeeping. As part of the family day, see live hive demonstrations from the team as they educate you about bees and their importance! Find out more about them, here.

The Stroud-based Buzz Club for Young People (10am-4pm) – “Our aim is to ensure that all young people are aware of the importance of all bees and insects in the food chain and to care for the environment through bee centered education and play.”

The Bumblebee Conservation Trust (10am-4pm) – one aim of the Trust is to “support the conservation of all bumblebees, rare or abundant” and to educate people on the importance of bees in all shapes and forms. Have a go at completing their Bumblebee quiz and other games during the fun day. Find out more about them, here.

The Master Composters (10am-4pm) – Master Composters are volunteers who encourage people in their local community to start composting at home. During our fun day learn more about composing and the sorts of plants you can grow to help bees in your garden. Find out more about them, here.
Plus, meet insect artist Cath Hodsman who loves to explore the world of bees using a microscope. See some of her bee related artworks on show.

Art Course
with Richard Box 10am – 5pm
Maximum Participants: 12

This course is for all of you who long to paint in watercolours but have been deterred by the erroneous myth that they are supposed to be ‘difficult’. Richard will dispel that myth and teach you, step by step, how to paint a simple still life and achieve marvelous effects with numerous layers of translucent colours without ‘getting mud’!
Most problems about painting are concerned about mixing colours. So the course will start with exploring the nature of colour with coloured pencils.

This will give you the confidence to transfer your newly discovered knowledge to watercolours. If you follow Richard’s ‘recipes’, you will be thrilled at what you can achieve.
Course Cost
Members: £80
Non-members: £100
Course Suitability: Absolute Beginners
ART COURSE BOOKING FORM

Art Course
with Yvette Green 10am-5pm
Maximum Participants: 8
Garden mosaics are designed to interact with their environment, reflecting and refracting light so that they change throughout the day.
On this 1-day course you will produce a stained glass bird mosaic which can be used to brighten up your garden or pot plant in the winter months. You will be able to make a bird of your choice .
Skills covered on the course will include mapping out your initial design, basic glass
cutting, stained glass mosaic techniques and grouting techniques.
This course is ideal for all levels, although glass cutting skills are a bonus.

Course Cost
Members: £40
Non-members: £50
Course Suitability: Beginners – Advanced
ART COURSE BOOKING FORM

Materials List
Apron
Sealable jar or container to take home grout powder if needed.
All other materials will be provided by Yvette Green, at the cost of £6 per participant, payable directly to her on the day.

Artist’s Profile
Yvette Green is a stained glass mosaic artist working from a small house studio based in Cirencester, Gloucestershire.
Yvette trained in Botany and Education before working in mosaics for the last 8 years. She works primarily with stained glass and glass inclusions and produces mosaics for all areas of the home, specializing in garden mosaics.
Her work is inspired by the intense colours of nature. She has taught a number of courses in the Gloucestershire area.
www.baobabtreemosaics.co.uk

Art Course
with Mike Amphlett 10am-5pm
Maximum Participants: 12
If you still haven’t read the camera manual or, if you have, but cannot comprehend much of the ‘jargon’, then this 2-day course is for you!
On day 1 Mike will run through the menu systems and settings of your camera, particularly those that are of most concern to new users, but specifically focusing on those settings which are of most use to those working with natural subjects. He will also cover how to use different lenses/focal lengths to best effect. There will then be time during the afternoon to practice what you will have learnt about menus and settings, followed by a Q&A session.
On day 2 Mike will add some more ‘depth & breadth’ to what was covered on the previous day. Weather permitting, you will be able to start taking some images using the experience you will have gained from day one. After lunch, there will be the opportunity to have Mike review and critique what you will have done and, suggest ways in which you might improve your technical and creative abilities.

Course Cost
Members: £80
Non-members: £100
Course Suitability: Absolute Beginners – Improvers

Materials List
Notebook and pens
Your camera and accessories and, most
importantly, your camera user-manual
For both days, laptop PCs would be
extremely useful
Mike Amphlett will provide course handouts for you to keep.

Artist’s Profile
Mike has been photographing since 1978, beginning with insects for his work at Oxford University’s Zoology Department – he then ran the department’s photo-unit until 1991. In 1982, he was seconded by the RSPB as field-assistant on a film about Pink-footed geese in Iceland. In 2004, Mike moved to digital and, in 2005, acquired his first D-SLR. 20 years of tutoring photo-classes helped him understand the often simple things which prevented many camera users from progressing. He is a good listener and a patient instructor.

Summer Holidays Art Activity Days:

This Summer we are running a range of our popular art activity days for children aged 3 years and over. They include:

26th Jul – Oil Pastels Inspired by Picasso
27th Jul – Marvellous Marbling
28th Jul – Garden Noughts & Crosses
29th Jul – Pond Dipping
2nd Aug – Paper Making
3rd Aug – Finger Print Doodles
4th Aug – Origami
5th Aug – Sun Print Photography
9th Aug – Paper Sculpture Lizard
10th Aug – Model with Mod Roc
11th Aug – Make a Clay Vessel
12th Aug – Wire Sculpture
16th Aug – The Art of Print Making
17th Aug – Cave Paintings
18th Aug – Painting Party
19th Aug – Pen & Watercolour in the Garden
23rd Aug – Marvellous Mosaics
24th Aug – Landscapes in Textiles
25th Aug – Encaustic Art
26th Aug – Weaving
30th Aug – Build & Decorate a Hedgehog House
31st Aug – Simon Says “Draw & Colour!”

Each workshop interprets the day’s theme using age appropriate materials and techniques. The different times are:
10.30-12.00pm: for 3 – 7 years
1.00-2.30pm: for 3 – 18 years
3.00-4.30pm: for 8 – 18 years

Each activity costs £6 per child and includes free entry to the museum for one accompanying adult. All activity must be booked in advance via our online booking system.

To see full details and to book please visit our Activity Days home page, here.

Art Course
with Ann Swan 10am – 5pm
Maximum Participants: 12

In this 2-day course you will learn how to create deep, vivid but clean colours without compromising the form of the plant. You will be able to say ‘goodbye’ to muddy colours, as Ann will show you how to choose accurate colours for layering and shading without losing the brilliance of the colour.
You will also learn in which order to apply techniques such as resist, underpainting and embossing and the importance of planning your approach to coloured pencil work.
By the end of the course you will be able to use the techniques demonstrated, to tackle
multiple coloured and textured plant material with confidence.

Course Cost
Members: £80
Non-members: £100
Course Suitability: Beginners – Advanced
ART COURSE BOOKING FORM

Art Course
with Liz Robertson 10am – 5pm
Maximum Participants: 12

The aim of this 2-day course is to produce a triptych landscape, based on a photograph or sketch of your choice. Triptych is a popular format for depicting landscapes and will add dynamism to your work.
Liz will firstly teach you several methods of printing and you will be able to make print blocks to your own design. You will then have the chance to embellish your print with different types of stitch techniques. To finish, you will then have the option to add beads and other small objects to your piece.

Course Cost
Members: £80
Non-members: £100
Course Suitability: Absolute Beginners – Improvers
ART COURSE BOOKING FORM

Materials List
Please bring a photograph or image that you wish to base your landscape on.
All materials will be supplied by Liz Robertson, at the cost of £5 per participant, payable directly to her on the day.

Artist’s Profile
Liz Robertson is an exhibiting textile artist. Her work uses a variety of textile media and techniques. The inspiration for Liz’s work comes from her love of natural landscape.
Liz is a teacher with over 35 years teaching experience in schools, colleges and adult education settings. She delivers textile and art workshops at various locations throughout the UK.
facebook.com/All-Things-Textile-by-Liz-Robertson

Art Course
with Trevor Smith 10am – 5pm
Maximum Participants: 12

This 2-day course will focus on the sketching, drawing and painting of birds, with the emphasis on working from life.
The course will cover topics such as basic sketching techniques, simple anatomy, and the use of watercolour in sketching. For the more ambitious, there will be the opportunity to have a go at sketching birds in flight, which is more of a challenge.
This course is aimed at a range of ability levels, with Trevor on hand to demonstrate particular techniques and to help you develop and improve your observational skills

when sketching birds.

Course Cost
Members: £80
Non-members: £100
Course Suitability: Absolute Beginners – Advanced
ART COURSE BOOKING FORM

Materials
A range a B grade pencils (eg 2b – 6b)
An A4 or A3 cartridge paper pad
An eraser ( if desired)
A colour medium such as watercolour
pencils or a field box of watercolours with a couple of brushes (perhaps a number 4 or 5, and a 10 or 12 round)
A container for water

Artist’s Profile
Trevor’s deep interest in wildlife dates back to childhood and grew concurrently with a
desire to record the birds and animals he encountered on his visits to local nature
reserves and wild corners of Worcestershire.
Trevor has been teaching students the essentials of bird art for over twenty years now, but still get a kick from seeing people thrill to the subject and often surprise
themselves with hidden latent ability. He has also published a book Sketching Wild Birds in 2001 as a means of encapsulating my experiences of recording images from life.