Service Description

Following the success of our sold-out workshop, the Landscape and Abstraction returns as a 4-week evening course. This extended format allows for deeper exploration, continuity between sessions, and meaningful development of your ideas, techniques, and personal approach. With more time to explore ideas, develop techniques, and receive personalised guidance, you’ll build confidence and take your work further across a structured, progressive journey. You’ll refine your visual language, experiment, and benefit from sustained tutor support and peer dialogue throughout weekly sessions. Group size: 5 students maximum. You will receive personalised tuition and feedback tailored to your needs and level. No generic advice and no getting lost in a crowded class. We are all about creating a supportive atmosphere. Course structure: First 2 weeks: how to achieve the atmosphere, sky effects, and different kinds of blues. Distancing through aerial perspective. Final two weeks: Abstracting from observation. A selection of artists whose work we will look at and learn from: Helen Frankenthaler Richard Diebenkorn Rachel Jones Emil Nolde Georgia O'Keeffe David Bomberg Henri Matisse Some of what we'll cover: 1. Abstracted composition: structure and form, simplifying and selecting the key components and focal points in composition. 2. Use of colour: from naturalistic to expressive. 3. Colour and light: tonality and colour contrast. 4. Movement using different painterly techniques: staining, texture, impasto, open and loose brushwork, and more. This workshop is open to all levels: enthusiastic beginners, those experienced in figurative work but attempting abstraction for the first time, and seasoned abstract painters. Materials. You need to bring any of your oil paints. Canvas or canvas paper. Cartridge paper. Group size: 5 students maximum. You will receive personalised tuition and feedback tailored to your needs and level. No generic advice and no getting lost in a crowded class. We are all about creating a supportive atmosphere.