What’s On

This is a two day course that will show you how to sketch buildings and architectural detail with waterproof black ink pen and watercolour wash. Using photos supplied by the tutor you will be shown how to use the pen with watercolour paint both before and after painting. Techniques taught will include colour mixing, brush technique, light and dark, drawing with a pen and how to loosen up to achieve expressive sketches. By the end of the course you will have produced a few sketches to take home with you. Suitable for beginners and students with some knowledge of the medium.

This is a course for all abilities who have an interest in learning to paint the colour, energy and vitality found in a Garden Border.

Working from photos that inspire, from views of your own garden or a garden you have visited you can work in a personal way with close up views of plants in detail or a looser more abstract, atmospheric view. You can paint in a way that appeals to you.

You can paint in Gouache,Acrylic or Oil paints on paper,board or canvas.

A 2-day course on painting almost certainly one of our most popular, colourful and easily recognisable birds, the Kingfisher.

Using acrylics on board we will be looking at sketching the bird in flight and trying to capture a sense of movement and ideas on where to place the subject in the overall painting to enhance that effect.

We will also be working on how to go about incorporating the surroundings i.e. the rocks, water and foliage associated with it’s usual habitat.

This is a two day course that will show you how to paint impressionist style autumn and winter landscapes with acrylic paint. Using photos supplied by the tutor you will be shown how to paint landscapes and buildings in the landscape using a loose and painterly technique similar to that of the French Impressionists. Techniques taught will include colour mixing, scumbling, impasto brush marks and using the paint both thick and thin. By the end of the course you will have produce a couple of paintings. Suitable for beginners and students with some knowledge of the medium.

A rewarding 1-day where participants will use willow and other materials to make stars, garlands, angels, reindeer and mini Christmas trees ready for the festive celebrations.

By the end of the day you should have been able to make a number of items to take home.

Maria Merian (1647-1717) was a true pioneer. As a young girl, she was passionate about two things – insects and art. Maria lived in a time when religious superstition and long-held traditions and rules about the source of all of life, reigned supreme. Maria’s fascination in insects and her skill in art meant that she was perfectly equipped to dispute the “norm” – Supported by close friends and family she was the first individual to study, record and paint the Metamorphic Lifecycle of butterflies.

Her ground-breaking discovery challenged ideas about the origins of insects, in place since the time of the Ancient Greeks. Maria’s beautiful paintings produced as a result of her research capture her discoveries for prosperity – Each painting, a beautiful, intricate and colourful homage to the Metamorphic Lifecycle. She is now widely credited as being one of the most influential entomologists of all time.

This workshop will study her life and achievements in more detail, culminating in producing a painting in her style – Full of colour, texture, beauty – and insects!

This is a course for all abilities who have an interest in learning, to paint wildflowers, plants and weeds in their natural habitat.

It could be a corner of a garden which inspires you, a field full of wildflowers, a landscape, anywhere where plants live in their natural habitat and are in their abundance. Anywhere, where their energy and beauty dominate the landscape and where the human footprint is at a minimum.

To book a place on this course please return a completed application form along with £20 deposit.