Paint Fit Studio Retreat
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Image: Emily Ball in her home studio.
"Another word for creativity is courage." ~ Henri Matisse
Dear Visitor Over the past year, we have all found ourselves spending a lot more time in our own studios. We have had to paint alone. This has provided space for valuable reflection and new found determination, but sometimes it has felt lonely and a bit of a slog. It can still be hard to motivate yourself when the work is not flowing and you cannot see where it is going. However, Emily’s friend and colleague John Skinner says "Even if you do not feel well, or you are tired, go into your studio and work and you will feel better". So, if you feel that your painting practice could do with a bit of an energy boost, then PAINT FIT may be the course for you. Over 10 days in March, this course will motivate artists to make a daily commitment to working in their studios. With daily input from Emily as your Paint Fit Trainer, the course will encourage you to make a positive investment in your practice and instill a daily work ethic that will become an essential part of your painting routine. Live from her studio via Zoom, Emily will provide an hour-long workshop each morning, for two weeks (Monday to Friday). These sessions will provide motivation and demonstrate different techniques. A daily warm up exercise will help focus the attention on being clear and playful; maximising the potential of the materials and for mark-making language. The exercises will help you be more fluent with improvisation, phrasing, repetition and creating an exciting visual language that is personal and relevant to the subject; helping you to be ‘Paint Fit’ and ready for the rest of the day. "Don't wait for inspiration. It comes while one is working." (Henri Matisse).
Image: Emily Ball in her studio (Noah Carter) |
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PAINT FIT - Nurturing a sense of community A shared experience is very powerful and liberating. It can be tough sometimes to keep going on your own and it is easy to feel despondent, so working as a group can help us keep our courage up. Being part of this experience connects like-minded artists together. Although there is no feedback given by Emily during these sessions, there will be some time set aside for discussions in Zoom break out rooms at the end of each week, and there will be a private Facebook group where ideas and work can be shared daily. You can continue to use the group after the course has finished to help sustain the sense of camaraderie and support that you will have enjoyed during the course. Similarly, If you use Instagram, this can be used as another platform to share your work and progress.  Image: Emily Ball working in her studio |
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What does it do? PAINT FIT motivates artists to get working in their studio every day, for 10 days. The exercises are designed to help you feel focused and limber up to be ready to paint for the rest of the day. The course will help artists recognise the importance and impact that turning up daily in their studio has on their work: it is an essential part of being an artist - it’s what you do, who you are. By the end of the 2 weeks you will have made a lot of work, got into a routine of being in your space and also be armed with some processes and strategies for continuing forward.
"Studio Ghosts: When you're in the studio painting, there are a lot of people in there with you - your teachers, friends, painters from history, critics... and one by one if you're really painting, they walk out. And if you're really painting YOU walk out."
~ Philip Guston |
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Who is it for? Image: Emily Ball painting on a John Skinner Master Class. The PAINT FIT challenge is for artists who need more courage and are feeling stuck, or tired; lacking the energy to motivate themselves and push to keep working regularly. It is for artists who wants their work to be more expressive and yet their courage falters when they are on their own in their studio. It is important to note that Emily does not provide the subject matter for this course: artists will need to have this already. So, to get the most out of this course, it is essential that you have lots of studies and perhaps paintings that are already in progress to build and improvise from. To find out more about the course and to book your place, please click on the course title below:
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 Image: Emily Ball working at the SEeawhite Studio "Sometimes I scrape off a lot. You have on the floor, like cow dung in the field, this big glob of paint... and it's just a lot of inert matter, inert paint. Then I look back at the canvas, and it's not inert - it's active, moving and living." ~Philip Guston
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| www.emilyballatseawhite.co.uk | contact | | |||
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