Course details:
What are oil pastels and how do you use them? We will spend the day exploring this underrated medium. In the morning we will learn techniques – from using oil pastel as resist to scratching out details, building up layers, and blending. We will achieve different interesting effects on various papers. In the afternoon, everyone will have the opportunity to create their own piece of artwork using these techniques. By the end of the day, you will have a good idea of how to complete an art work purely in oil pastels and how to use them to add extra dimension to mixed media work.
Materials and additional costs:
Supplied by tutor, £5 cash
Suitability:
Suitable for all
Spaces:
12
Price: £62 / £79
Jess Pritchard. Coloured pencil.
Wild Perspectives
One of a series focusing on our desire to highlight and encourage active creative groups celebrating the natural world.
One World Imagined is an artist collective of 7, whose drive is capturing our natural world, bringing attention to the need to look after it and working with wildlife charities and organisations to help raise funds to this aim. A diverse group, covering a wide spectrum of subject matter and mediums, all are professional artists. Between them they have been shortlisted for the DSWF Wildlife Artist of the Year many times, have won numerous awards for wildlife art and completed large commissioned works. Subjects include all aspects of wildlife, British, African, South American, Asian, Arctic, on land sea and in the air. With work in pencil, watercolour, oils, acrylic and in sculpture, members of the cooperative will be there each day demonstrating and very happy to chat to visitors.
Talk to artists every day about the work on show.
Join Artist-Gardener Holly Foskett-Barnes to expand your creativity and nourish your wellbeing this summer.
In this course we’ll enjoy learning a range of watercolour painting techniques alongside mindful activities throughout the creative process. Studies will be inspired by beautiful summer shoots and wild flowers around the Nature In Art gardens and local surroundings. No previous experience is necessary, just bring yourself and an open mind! All the activities offered will be gentle and accessible for all levels and abilities.
Previous students have shared:
“A lovely afternoon with a great teacher. Holly was very patient and explained everything well. I shall definitely be doing more of her course.”
“Thank you for a very enjoyable and positive experience – I came away with new skills and the confidence to use them!”
“Holly is a great teacher – always positive and really knows her craft.”
What you can expect from the course:
● Discover playful warm-up drawing techniques
● Nourish your wellbeing with mindful activities and nature-connection
● Gain confidence in your artmaking abilities
● Learn to approach artmaking mindfully, focusing on enjoying the process over any outcomes
● Develop a range of watercolour painting techniques and artistic skills
● Enjoy exploring nature through a creative lens
● Expand your knowledge of materials and tools to support your creative practice beyond
the course
Spaces: 10
Suitable for all
Bring your own supplies or borrow for £10 cash
‘Moorhen in the Rain – Minsmere’ Watercolour c1984. Peter Partington SWLA (1941-2025). Included inn this exhibition together with an accompanying poem written by the artist.
In Sync: Words and Wonders
A selection of work, both 2D and 3D, shown with poetry both contemporary and historic. For centuries, art has inspired poets and poetry has inspired artists. Come and write some of your own words for the exhibits on show!
More details coming soon.
We have our amazing Mini Craft Market where our talented local crafters can get together to share and sell their handmade products.
Previous crafts have included: nature crafts, paper crafts, woodwork, paintings, illustration, crochet/knitting, weaving, decoupage, cards, glass, silk painting, textile bags, jewellery, resin art and flood painting.
Held in the Education Centre and is free to enter!
10am – 4:30pm (3:45pm for December Market)
Gloucestershire Society of Artists
One of a series focusing on our desire to highlight and encourage active creative groups celebrating the natural world.
The 102nd annual exhibition of GSA celebrating local and regional artists and craftsmen working in a variety of styles and media.
Tetiana Hnilytska is a professional violinist who has played with several orchestras around the world including the Hans Zimmer orchestra and the Odessa Philharmonic. Originally from Odessa, Tetiana came to the UK as a refugee with her family following the invasion of Ukraine. She will be performing with the talented Sarah Harris on piano. The programme will include works by Bach, Piazzola, Skoryk, Kreisler and others.
- 7pm Doors open to view museum galleries
- 7.30pm Finger buffet
- 8.10pm Recital
Book here
We have another amazing Dare to Dabble planned for you!
Designed completely around the absolute beginner, or those who just fancy a dabble, these sessions provide a great opportunity to try out new art techniques and mediums.
Morning Session: 10am – 12pm
Afternoon Session: 1pm – 3pm
Inspiration, materials, guidance and fun are all provided, and as all tasks should, we’ll begin with a brew.
Follow this link to see what we have going on in the session today: Dare to Dabble
Course details:
Immerse yourself in the vibrant shades of autumn with this two-day watercolour sketching course, perfect for all abilities. You will learn how to capture the rich hues and textures of the season through step-by-step demonstrations and practical exercises, working from both reference materials and nature itself. Explore essential watercolour techniques including washes, layering, and colour mixing to bring autumn landscapes, foliage, and textures to life. Guidance will be tailored to suit each participant, ensuring a relaxed and supportive environment. By the end of the course, you will have created your own collection of expressive autumnal sketches.
Materials and additional costs:
Supplied by tutor, £32 cash
Or email tutor for materials list
Suitability:
Beginners – advanced
Spaces:
12
Price: £124 / £158
Looking Deep into Nature
Peter Partington SWLA (1941-2025)
Painter – Printer – Sculptor Teacher – Lover Of Mother Nature
This unique exhibition is a celebration of the remarkable life and work of Peter Partington SWLA.
Peter spent his life observing and sharing our living world, bringing birds and animals to life in their habitats and seasons. He sketched in the field and created pictures, sculptures and prints with an incredible touch of the eye and hand.
Peter showed work in Nature in Art’s Inaugural 1985 exhibition, the year he was elected to the Society of Wildlife Artists (SWLA) on whose council he served some years later. In 1989 he was Nature in Art’s very first artist in residence and one of the first to donate work to the collection. He was a valued friend and encourager of Nature in Art until his death early in 2025. He leaves a prolific output with thousands of painting’s across UK homes and many inspired people who experienced his live teaching and conversations.
This show will feature Peter’s studio, diverse works and some not previously displayed in public from private and public collections. All tell the story of a man who lived life to the full and from the heart, and inspired others to do the same. Peter’s legacy will live on, not just through his own work, but through the work of countless others who were encouraged and enabled through him.
A printmaker, painter and sculptor, it is hard to know which he enjoyed the most, and, site unseen, a parallel body of abstract art, many 3D as well as experiments in colour and form. This show includes some of these so one can see these creative steams feeding his capability across all the works. As one commentator said ‘His art was in every inch, his personality. His personality was in every inch, his art.’
Peter expressed himself through his art, which was widely published in books, print runs, ‘How to Draw’ guides, online videos and magazines, numerous local and professional exhibitions, poetry too and his ‘natural illustrator’ to bring life to other writers. His compulsion to venture into the great outdoors to watch birds (sometimes worryingly from his moving car too!) meant he could draw from memory and describe their behaviours in his art.
Small wonder that his studio groaned under the weight of thousands of works, most finished and many in states of re-work. This exhibition will sing out his enthusiasm and represent this unique English master artist, generous to a tee with his support and engagement with the public.
The show is accompanied by a new book ‘Peter Partington ‘The Artists Anthology’ by his son Jerome Partington, which includes many of the exhibition, to raise funds for a SWLA nature art school programme, Nature in Art and his conservation charities.
There also is a special launch event on September 29th.