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EMILY BALL AT SEAWHITE‍

CONTEMPORARY DRAWING AND PAINTING COURSES‍

PAINT FIT & STUDIO RESIDENCIES

Enrich your practice this Autumn

Images: edited highlights of work featured in the new Paint Fit Online Exhibition

“To have a conversation with your work is what really matters. The ideas come from the

paintings as they grow” ~ Emily

Dear  ‍ ‍

 ‍

In this newsletter we wanted to invite you to check out our new Paint Fit online exhibition The exhibition is a celebration of the work, both ongoing and completed, by nine artists who attended Emily’s online Paint Fit course in November 2023. The exhibited paintings are expressive and exciting and reveals the courage and rigour that each artist has demonstrated through their work.

“I think that Paint Fit has helped me be  more experimental in the studio and has given me multiple ways of moving my work on.” ~ Deborah Pugh

Working with Emily either online or at the Seawhite Studio is a guaranteed way of investing in your practice; digging deep and finding out what really matters to you creatively.   In this newsletter, we’re focusing on two ways you can join us and enrich your practice this Autumn:

PAINT FIT STUDIO RETREAT.  A two-week online course in which Emily will give you the tools, exercises and demonstrations that will help you find new ways of working  - refreshing and reigniting your painting engine.  The structure of this course is also designed to  instill a daily painting routine that can establish a regular painting practice going forward.

STUDIO RESIDENCIES.  A five-day block of focused painting time coupled with the space to spread out, experiment,work large or see a body of work as a whole.  Working alongside Emily – or another of our tutors -  and sharing your practice with other like-minded artists is an equally  motivating factor in these special studio weeks.‍

Paint Fit Online Exhibition 2024

Images: Emily delivering online tutorials and demonstrations as part of Paint Fit

Whilst the work featured in this exhibition is wonderfully diverse and varied, the artists behind the work shared a unifying ambition…To paint more; with curiosity, courage and a greater connection to their own feelings about their subjects:

“Finding out what that meant to each of us and what that might look like  was a journey that unfolded over the two weeks of the course.  During Paint Fit I demonstrated on camera each morning; offering creative processes and trains of thought to help them focus and recognise the expertise and resources that they already had, and add in new ones too. We became a community of painters who supported one another. We made a commitment during those two weeks to be uncompromising and playful; open to the new possibilities of what might come up as we worked steadily and purposefully.

“A daily motivation and focus. A calm, creative logic to help you make decisions and begin working each day with a real sense of purpose and confidence. This is what I instill into each session.”  ~ Emily

Each artist has generously shared their thoughts about their work and practice. In this newsletter we are providing a taster*, but would urge you to visit the online exhibition to see each artists' wider body of work and read more about their paintings and philosophy.‍

If you like the idea of having this kind of creative support and motivation,  Emily will be running another PAINT FIT this Autumn  -- October 28th - November 1st and November 4th - 8th 2024. To find out more about the course, please click on the button below:‍

*the quotes provided here are edited snippets from the artists’ exhibition statements

Deborah Pugh‍

This series of paintings were developed from studies undertaken in Portugal while on Residency with Emily Ball and mark making with unusual tools during Paint Fit.  Studies (both written and painted) done en plein air are essential to my process where back in the studio I put elements together to create a type of visual poetry.  An abstract watercolour painter by nature, Emily has introduced me to the wonders of oils and the contrasts of thin veils of colour, and thick lush marks.‍

Frances Steven

My inspiration for the paintings in this exhibition is Autumn colour in Nature. The Paint Fit course was just what I needed to refresh my mark making and create new paintings. It never ceases to amaze me how many fantastic brush strokes, pencil marks etc have crept into my repertoire. I am discovering that painting is just an extension of drawing, especially when working with charcoal, using your fingers and hands to achieve your goal. What I have learnt from Emily's classes has been invaluable.‍

Linda Shearer

My work is about responding to and capturing what it feels like to be immersed in the Scottish landscape. Walking and observing is my inspiration - the shapes, marks and lines draw me in. Participating in Paint Fit showed me new ways of approaching my work and to “dig deep” and not just skim the surface. I work in acrylic and mixed media on paper and wood panels, applying layer after layer of medium and then sanding back until the feeling I want to achieve emerges. I want to communicate to the viewer how I see the landscape - the wind, the rain, the layers, the remoteness and the beauty. Slowing down and being at one with the place. 

Gisela Kissing

I had chosen Sheela Na Gigs as a subject for the Paint Fit course, after all, I had lived in Ireland for over 25 years and had felt and experienced some of the Celtic past. I started quite realistically which helped me to feel the energy of the Sheelas I chose. Eventually they became more of a theme of the great mother of the earth and the elements, which could be expressed in so many ways, including colour and gesture and even collage. In some of the paintings that I had begun abstractly, a Sheela "appeared" and emerged from the paper. Emily’s approach to painting felt so supportive and inspiring…the biggest nugget I am taking away is how important it is to give conscious and purposeful meaning to shapes and marks alike. 

Jennifer Privett

I walk down the narrow cobbled path, pushing the encroaching plants aside as if forcing my way through a football crowd, breathing in the intoxicating scent of roses, sage, lavender and artemisia growing in soft, fluffy silvery grey billowing domes.

The colour intensifies as your eye moves forward to the colourful patterns of tomato red with marmalade touches and magenta rose trumpets… horizontal hedges and vertical tree trunks and paths enclose the space like a Persian carpet. 

Nicola Watson

I am inspired by the landscapes and the sea. I make studies on location using mixed media, then in the studio I use my drawings to inspire oil paintings working on arches oil paper and occasionally canvas.

Last September, 2023, I attended a week long course called Inspiration from Land and Sea run by Emily Ball in the Algarve. I focused on the land which was very parched and arid.  I stayed on for another week to develop my studies into oil paintings during a residency with Emily and other artists. During Paint Fit I realised my theme was Cutting Through, like the branches cutting through the intense blue Algarve sky. Although I was surprised I was inspired by the reddish parched Portuguese earth too. 

Sallie Govett

These paintings are all memories of living and walking in the North York Moors and the Cleveland Coast.

Frothing waves bashing against wild rugged cliffs, long spits of rock, gulls shrieking and golden light. The winding steep roads leading up to the moors. Smoke sometimes billowing when the heather is burning. It is a wild place, often empty but with all kinds of weather; wind, rain, snow and golden light . Nowhere else is like this place for me. 

Liz Shard

I am a multimedia artist mostly using the outside world as my main subject. I spend a lot of time in my garden, which I started 4 years ago, planning, working, thinking, adjusting and experimenting. Watching colour combinations change throughout the year. This feeds into my work and in a way is exactly the same, starting, watching, experimenting, changing and waiting to see what might happen next.

Working alongside other artists is also important for me from time to time and is an exciting experience. I might try a colour combination inspired by another artist in the group or steal a mark. It’s also very interesting seeing others view of the world through their work.

Suzanne Lawrence

My subjects are the coast and landscape. Woods, fields, weather, colour and patterns that I see on my walks.

I make studies in collage ,inks and charcoal and sometimes start a painting outside. When I take them  back to the studio I may change the work completely, but keep the essence of my time in the landscape. I’m becoming more excited by unusual colour combinations, colours I wouldn’t usually put together that can be evocative.

Shapes in paintings have become important to me; how they sit and move through the landscape. I move things, and find the courage to paint things out and put new things in; even turning paintings upside down.

STUDIO RESIDENCIES‍

We’ve talked a lot about the benefits of our studio residencies - five days of undiluted painting time in a spacious studio, working alongside a professional artist and a small group of like-minded artists.‍  So instead of us extolling the benefits,  in this newsletter we are sharing some of the feedback we have received from residency artists.  Their comments give a good indication of why these weeks are so successful and beneficial.

Click on the button below to go directly to the Studio Residencies Page:‍

How helpful was the  hour-long online tutorial offered in advance of the residency week?‍

“Emily helped me to focus on ways of preparing for the week and taking the opportunity and myself more seriously.”  ~Sally Barnard

Image: Julia Court's working area during a Studio Residency with Emily Ball‍

What did you gain from having five days of painting time in the spacious Seawhite Studio?

“It's always wonderful to work in the studio with so much space and the company of other interesting and committed artists.” ~Felicity Heath

“…the dedicated full time job of it! No distractions, total focus on my work, hour after hour.” ~ Karen Stamper

“Having the dedicated time was very helpful. Space to spread out and see the totality of what you have produced was enlightening. It allows you to notice connections…” ~Sehila Craft

Images: Karen Stamper's work station  during  a Studio Residency with Emily Ball

What benefits were there to working alongside other like-minded artists (including the artist who led the residency)?

“A buzz and energy to keep going and keep with it.  A shared feeling of being serious about our art.  A recognition that I want to make substantial art , and a recognition of when others around me had produced work that had ‘substance'. Picking up tips on process.   Picking up ideas from others and from the library.” ~ Sally Barnard

“It's always wonderful to work in the studio with so much space and the company of other interesting and committed artists.  It was fascinating to watch Julian building up his paintings  - an added bonus to the week. “ ~ Felicity Heath

“Working alongside like minded artists was great too…I have been reassured that other artists can find it a struggle to paint especially during the middle and end stages and feel anxious. You need to have the courage to work through it and you do eventually get

there. I guess it is a feeling of not being alone.”

~ Karen Friedli 

Image: Jane Mc Clelland'w work station during Studio Residency with Katie Sollohub

 If you would like to join us for one of our future Studio Residencies, please click on one of the images below:

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