Short Courses

 Course dates: September 16th - 19th 2019 (Monday - Thursday)

Exploratory drawings have direct energy and freshness. Finding ways of getting that equivalent quality into the paint can seem elusive. This course gives you four, full studio days of painting from drawings that you will bring with you. Your inspiration will be the sea so you will need to be able to do several visits to your nearest beach and coastline to do drawings. Simon will suggest different approaches to help you do a series of ten minute drawings.  You will then bring these exciting studies to the first day of the course (this is an essential part of the course, providing the subject and impetus for your paintings).

Course dates: September 23rd - 25th 2019 (Monday - Wednesday)

The price includes model's fee.

Painting and drawing the head is more than just about getting a likeness. It is about form, and expression, the direction and quality of the mark. It is about the gaze, the character of the pose, the turn of the head, the angle of the neck, the light.

Course dates: October 22nd- 24th 2019 (Tuesday - Thursday)

The aim of this course is to enjoy the materials and allow the painting to evolve as you work. We will be experimenting with careful layering of paint and repetitive brush strokes, with varying rhythms, to create densely constructed forms which shift and change through the process. We will be looking at artists who use multiple processes pouring oil and inks on linen.

The work will be created using paints, pigments, inks, oil paint and dyes onto saturate surfaces, as well as using bending, wrinkling and folding. Out of this repetitive, engaging and meditative approach, the work just makes itself. This is very much an Eastern philosophy connecting the inner self to the outside world. We will be looking at wabi sabi which is a concept of Japanese aesthetics; the celebration of the beauty of the handmade process and nature, the imperfections, incompleteness and ever changing qualities. We will look at Korean artists of the Dansaekhuwa movement and also western contemporary artists who have this approach at the centre of their practise. There will be demonstrations throughout the course , students will be led by the tutor and encouraged to let the work lead them .

4th - 8th November 2019 (Monday - Friday)

The price includes entrance to Sheffield Park.

Sheffield Park near Uckfield will be our inspiration for paintings. Famous for its beautiful Autumn colour; with its Acers, Nyssa, Taxodiums and Ginko trees. The reflections in the large lake double the impact and make the experience all the more magical. The course will start with 2 days working on location in the gardens making rich and exciting studies of the colour, textures and spaces; capturing all that is wonderful about working on location. The final 3 days will be back at the studio in Partridge Green making paintings from these studies.

 Course dates: November 18th -20th 2019 (Monday - Wednesday)

This course will explore the possibilities of changing light, colour and mark making. As you work Gary discusses the importance of direction, movement, surface and the function of specific bodily energies. The qualities of what makes a painting will be explored. It should have what Gary refers to as ‘an area of flexibility, to be alive and interactive with the spectator, without formula’. You will work on a large scale and develop drawings and paintings over the three days (mediums paper and canvas provided).

Includes large primed canvas and paper.

Course Dates January 13th -16th 2020 (Monday - Thursday)

The overall aim of this courses is to help you to be confident, playful and intuitive with colour, using oil paints and mediums. To get to this point we will explore four areas: the primary colours and how to mix them; transparency and opacity in paint; tonal values and their relationship to mood and light; and finally, colours and their connection to our sensory experience of the world.

 Course dates: 21 - 24 April  2020 (Tuesday - Friday)

Spring is a magic time of year that moves all too fast as nature wakes up and blooms. Embrace the energy of spring with four days exploring ways of courageously handling luscious paint to create paintings that go beyond safe, traditional flower paintings. The subject is full of colour, texture and sculptural form......a gift for painting. The course will be packed with demonstrations, exercises and finished paintings to take away with you.

 Course dates: 28 April - 1 May 2020 (Tuesday - Friday)

Spring is a magic time of year that moves all too fast as nature wakes up and blooms. Embrace the energy of spring with four days exploring ways of courageously handling luscious paint to create paintings that go beyond safe, traditional flower paintings. The subject is full of colour, texture and sculptural form......a gift for painting. The course will be packed with demonstrations, exercises and finished paintings to take away with you.