Join Emily and Katie for this year's Summer School
“Close your eyes and listen: to the plants, to the birds and the bees, to the surrounding space. Breathe, inhale the myriad of scents and smells of the garden; from the dank earth to the pungent rose.” ~ Katie Sollohub
Images: Summer in the Garden 2024 (Emily Ball/Katie Sollohub)
Dear
The garden is a symbol of abundance and a space for dreaming. Spending time in a garden is food for the soul.Looking at your own garden could tell you a lot about what you might desire in your paintings - full to the brim with vibrant colour, shaped with sharp edges, or layered and glazed with shimmering borders and golden grasses.
“Think about how a garden is created: with love, experimentation, trial and error no doubt.A willingness to shift this, transplant that, cut back, prune, replant…. this is how you can approach your sketchbooks, studies, and paintings.” ~ Emily Ball
If you would like guidance on how to approach this truly sensational, seasonal subject, join Emily and Katie for their online and in-person Summer Schools.Entitled ‘In the Garden’these courseswill guide you from quick studies to finished paintings, with Emily and Katie offering inventive approaches to encourage fresh ways of looking and creating images.
Drawing and painting from nature is a process of exploration and discovery, so to help you switch on all your senses, Katie will lead mindfulness meditations to really ground you in your surroundings before making work.
Images: Summer in the Garden 2024 (Emily Ball/Katie Sollohub)
“The warm up meditation made me feel very relaxed and I embraced the freedom to do my own work without distractions...” ~ Marnie Watson
After sowing the seeds of creativity andfilling your studies with colour and sensory delight, you can then begin to grow your paintings in the studio.Following your instincts, being bold when you want to, delicate where it’s needed – just like gardening!
Images: Summer in the Garden 2024 (Emily Ball/Katie Sollohub)
The two versions of this year’s Summer School take place in late June and early July.In this newsletter we are taking a deep dive into both courses, but if you’re already won over and are raring to go, click on the links below to head straight to our website and secure your place:
The Online version of the course takes place in June, providing you with the option of taking inspiration from your own garden (or one of your choice). Early Bird discount – book by 9th April and enjoy £50 off, making the course fee £200 instead of £250
The In-Person version of the course will be in July and includes two days on location at Highdown Gardens- an historic chalk garden near Worthing - followed bythree days at the Seawhite Studio.Early Bird discount – book by 9th April and enjoy £50 off, making the course fee £500 instead of £550
“What an amazing experience. Pushing me well outside of my comfort zones and exploring new ways of working.” ~ Felicity Talman
Summer in the Garden
Summer School 2025 Live Online
with Emily Ball & Katie Sollohub
23-26 June (Mon-Thurs) | £250
In May and June, Spring melts into Summer and flowers become centre stage with their splashes of colour jostling for attention. Colours are luminous on the blousy petals of flowers, the bird song is shrill and excited, the shadows are deep, cool and inviting.
Images: Working in the studio as part of Summer in the Garden live online 2024 (Emily Ball/Katie Sollohub)
Sitting in the garden at the height of summer is heaven. Whether you have a beautiful garden of your own or you love to visit a garden for inspiration, this course is a celebration of the abundance of the summer garden. To find a quiet, shady spot to sit, watch, listen, wonder and draw is the first part of this course. As you sit and make studies it gives you time to notice the foliage, the shapes of shadows and the dance of colour as your gaze meanders through the spaces.
A month before the date of the live online sessions you will be sent a collection of short films that give you demonstrations of ways of working. These will help you make lots of studies which you will need in preparation for the live classes.
Click on the image below to watch a short film that gives a flavour of what artists attending this year's online summer school can expect:
“I really enjoyed the pre-course films and I found them really helpful in terms of developing a body of work in preparation for the live tutorial week. They did help me to engage with my subject, and I felt ready to work on larger paintings."
~ Felcity Talman
“I appreciated enormously the weeks of exercises prior to the commencement of the course. I found it both very motivating, since I had no hesitation about what I was going to do each day, but also immensely useful to build up a body of work to work from.”
~ Carinthia Gibbins
Images: Emily Ball filming in the studio for the live online Summer School; Studies and paintings made by Katie Sollohub as part of Summer in the Garden Live Online
During the live online sessions Emily and Katie will show you how to unpack and select from your many studies and create expressive paintings that bring back the glorious riot of colours, patterns, mood and memories of being in the garden. In the afternoons you can choose to do more work on your own or just rest and await the next day's joyous gifts.
For more information and to secure your place, please click on the button below:
Early Bird discount!book by 9th April and enjoy £50 off, making the course fee £200 instead of £250
Summer in the Garden at Highdown
Face-to-Face Summer School 2025
with Emily Ball & Katie Sollohub
30 June - 4 July (Mon - Fri) | £550
Images: Summer in the Garden 2024 (Emily Ball/Katie Sollohub)
This five day painting course takes its inspiration from the beautiful Highdown Garden near Worthing, a unique chalk garden on the Downs. This garden is both beautiful and remarkable. In the unlikely setting of a chalk pit the founders of the garden sourced plants from all over the world that would thrive in this habitat.
“I loved the gardens. I liked that they were open into the evening and they were relaxed with lots of private areas to work." ~ Cath Sacco
Images: Summer in the Garden 2024 (Emily Ball/Katie Sollohub)
It is a garden full of delights; mature trees and plants, winding pathways that lead to open spaces where you can sit immersed in the sights, sounds and smells. These long summer days, following the summer solstice, are the perfect time to celebrate the colour and abundance of nature.
Accessing the garden is easy. It is a short walk on flat ground from the carpark. All the paths in the garden are easy to navigate. There are benches dotted everywhere so that you can pause to sit and soak up the atmosphere and draw in comfort. Above the gardens is Highdown Hill; the gateway to the South Downs National Park.
The gardens do not close until 9pm each day in the summer. If you wish to stay and draw into the evening then that would be wonderful. Adjacent to the garden is a cafe, for light snacks, lunch and refreshments. As well as this, there is a pub, restaurant and hotel for those travelling from further afield, who might want to stay overnight or enjoy an evening meal and a sunset walk on the Downs.
For further information on accommodation, click on the button above
In the Garden – On Location
The first two days of the course are spent in the garden making lots of studies capturing the experience of this peaceful and inspiring place. Beginning with a guided meditation to ground you in the space, you will then be introduced and shown a variety of processes to make successful studies: mark making that captures the lights and depth of foliage; collage exercises that explore space and colour; and written tasks to help capture your immediate responses and observations.
Images: Summer in the Garden 2024 (Emily Ball/Katie Sollohub)
“It has really fired up my enthusiasm for painting. I also feel more confident painting outside and believe I have developed some really useful ways of making meaningful studies.” ~ Liz Meier
Images: making studies at Highdown Gardens (Emily Ball/Katie Sollohub)
In the Garden - at the
Seawhite Studio
After two days on location at Highdown Gardens, the rest of the week will be spent at the Seawhite Studio where Emily and Katie will show you how your studies can be used to begin paintings that articulate the experience of being in the garden.They will expertly guide you through different approaches that will enable you to select, invent, and compose, creating ambitious and creative paintings.
Images: Students working in the Seawhite Studio, Summer in the Garden 2024 (Emily Ball/Katie Sollohub)
By the end of the course you will have started a collection of paintings and also have a set of exercises and ways of working to maintain an independent practice beyond the course. This could lead to a body of really interesting and exciting work, reflecting your experience of seeing, and sensing Summer in the garden.
“I really enjoyed all of it, but Emily and Katie's thoughtful and perceptive critiques and tutorials were fantastic . I felt that I was encouraged to stretch myself and to work on a bigger scale . Everything felt very manageable and I loved the positive attitude in the studio.” ~ Liz Meier
Images: Work produced by students as part of Summer in the Garden (Emily Ball/Katie Sollohub)
For more information and to secure your place, please click on the button below
Early Bird discount! Book by 9th April and enjoy £50 off, making the course fee £500 instead of £550
“My biggest take-away from the course is to allow things to develop slowly, to keep pushing the work forwards, and not to settle for something I am not excited or interested by. I hope my future work/practice will maintain the playfulness that I managed to find, both in the process and outcome!” ~ Felicity Talman
Whether it’s your own garden and you join us online or whether you come with us in person to Highdown Gardens near Worthing, it promises to be a riot of colour and an opportunity to grow. These courses could even inspire you to plant new things in your own garden, for next year’s garden paintings (Highdown Gardens sell plants from their nursery)…This could be the beginning of a lifelong project, as it was for Monet at Giverny.
Images: Work produced by students as part of Summer in the Garden (Emily Ball/Katie Sollohub)
Taking it further
Join us for another Creative Adventure
Joining Emily and Katie for Summer in the Garden could just be the start of a new - or rekindled - passion for painting on location.Why not keep the momentum going and sign up for one of these location-based courses in the Autumn?
A DAY ON THE BEACH
with Simon Carter
15-18 September (Monday – Thursday) | £400
Beginning with a day’s drawing on the beach at Worthing, this four-day practical course will look at strategies for unpacking drawings made on location: understanding what it is that makes them work and seekingways to maintain the freshness of the initial drawings as you develop ambitious, rich and evocative paintings back in the studio.
In this five day course there will be two days on location at Leonardslee Gardens, followed by three days at the Seawhite Studio: Autumn Trees is a hugely enjoyable course that not only serves to raise your confidence in working outside on location, but also helps you develop your personal language of paint back in the studio.
If you prefer to work from your home studio or find it difficult to get to the Seawhite Studio, why not take a look at these online courses, which can help you further develop your practice and/or love of working from nature:
PAINT FIT STUDIO RETREAT
with Emily Ball
27 - 31 October (Mon - Fri)
3 - 7 November (Mon - Fri)
£315
Paint Fit is all about establishing a daily practice of painting and discovering what really matters to you. Each day starts with a live-online tutorial/demonstration with Emily guiding you through exercises; opening up the possibilities of how you can approach your painting.Making a commitment to show up in your studio and paint every day quickly gets results - the progress and breakthroughs that participants make during the course are significant and long-lasting.
Celebrating all the joy of drawing and painting flowers.Emily will guide you through exercises that will help you capture their colours, sculptural forms and heady scents in a way that is personal to you.
If you would like to receive regular updates from us with news of upcoming courses and exhibitions at Seawhite Studios, please sign-up for our newsletter
If you would like to receive regular updates from us with news of upcoming courses and exhibitions at Seawhite Studios, please sign-up for our newsletter
