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EMILY BALL AT SEAWHITE‍

CONTEMPORARY DRAWING AND PAINTING COURSES‍

COURSES with KATIE SOLLOHUB 

Join Katie for a course at the Seawhite Studio this Autumn

Images: Embodied Drawing, Working from the Clothed Model, Dancing & Drawing (Katie Sollohub)

“[You’re] gently pushing me out of my comfort zone with regards trying new things, encouraging me to be more playful  & experimental. I also love how holistic your teaching is in guiding me towards combining both body & mind with my developing art.” ~ Susanna J

Dear  Visitor ‍ ‍

Katie Sollohub has a remarkable gift for creating courses that expand and challenge our understanding of what drawing and painting can be. Her workshops invite artists to step beyond familiar boundaries, encouraging experimentation with new techniques, forms, and scales. With a calm, reflective approach, she introduces processes that free artists from anxiety and expectations, allowing creativity to unfold naturally. Through her courses, she generously shares her joy, energy, and passion for drawing; infusing every session with a sense of excitement and possibility. Those who have worked with her know the power of that ‘Katie Magic’—the irresistible invitation to play, explore, and take creative risks. The outcomes are always inspiring: not only in the work produced but also in the renewed confidence and expanded sense of what drawing is and how it can be incorporated into a creative practice.

In this newsletter, we’ll be sharing three courses that Katie is delivering at the Seawhite Studio in the coming weeks:

•  Drawing and Dance (17 November): a joyful one-day workshop where Katie invites you to immerse yourself in drawing without inhibition – draw likes no one is watching!
• Embodied Drawing (4 & 5 December): a two-day course focused on using the whole body to explore gestural drawing on a large scale.

• Embellishing the Body (10-12 December): a three-day course painting from the clothed figure, where the focus will be looking at colour, texture and pattern as well as form and pose.

In addition to these Face-to-Face courses, Katie is also team-teaching with Emily on the Autumn Trees Live Online course at the end of November (24-27).  To find out more about this wonderful course, please click here to read a previous newsletter dedicated to Autumn Trees.

Images: Emily and Katie team-teaching a live online landscape course

Taking part in one of Katie’s innovative courses could be truly transformative for your artistic practice, offering inspiration and insight that will stay with you long after the course ends. She will help your work move beyond observation, and give you the tools and confidence to create work that is fresh and dynamic.

Read on to find out more…or click on the buttons below to head straight to our website and book:‍

Dancing & Drawing 

An exploratory, interactive, creative workshop



Monday 17 November, £100‍

Image: Dancing & Drawing Workshop (Katie Sollohub)

‍"What an amazing experience … I spent the day immersed in a creative exploratory dance and drawing workshop run by the incredible Katie Sollohub  …exhilarating, emotional, experimental. This day has lit a fire in my belly and unleashed a freedom in my bones .” ~ Jane Johanson

Have you ever imagined creating artwork as large as your studio walls? Or watched children lose themselves in a sheet of paper bigger than they are—painting freely with hands, feet, and total abandon? Think of this workshop not as a technique to master, but as an experience to immerse yourself in. Something that you might never dare attempt at home—and one that few of us have the space to try. 

Image: Dancing & Drawing (Katie Sollohub)

Through meditation, informal movement, and freeform dance—accompanied by music—you’ll learn to connect more deeply with your body and senses. Using ink, paint, and charcoal, you’ll make marks that flow from movement rather than thought, working without the weight of expectation or the need for an outcome. You’ll be offered charcoal on sticks, ink in buckets, and even a mop as your brush! As you explore spontaneous gesture and intuitive mark-making, you’ll begin to loosen the grip of overthinking and rediscover the joy of pure expression.

Image: Dancing & Drawing (Katie Sollohub)‍

“Oh my, this was utter joy to lead - a whole day drawing and dancing. So good. To be moving. Responding. Listening. Connecting. Following the impulse to move. The drawings were a by-product of the process... It’s not always easy to avoid the ingrained expectations of what makes “art” but I’m enjoying the dance, treating myself, my work, and others with curiosity and compassion.” ~ Katie‍‍

You’ll work both individually and alongside others, sharing in the energy and freedom of boundless creative movement. This workshop is open to everyone—with an open heart and mind—who’s ready to let go, get messy, and explore. Beginners are warmly welcome, and you don’t need to be a dancer to take part!

Click on the image below to see a short film on our YouTube channel that provides highlights from last year’s course:‍ 

There is only one space left on this very special workshop.  To  find out more and to book your place, click on the button below:

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Embodied Drawing

 4-5 December (Thurs-Fri), £200‍

Image: Embodied Drawing (Katie Sollohub)‍

 Be brave, go large, move freely -

and let your whole body leave its mark.

Gestural mark-making and engaging with the whole body lie at the heart of Katie’s practice, and her Embodied Drawing course captures this beautifully. This two-day experimental workshop invites you to experience drawing as a physical act—seeing movement as a form of drawing in space, and the body itself as a mark-making tool. Over the two days, you will be your own model, creating two or three large-scale drawings guided by Katie’s meditative exercises and creative prompts. Throughout the course, she will encourage you to experiment freely—layering, adding, editing and transforming your work as you go.

Image: Embodied Drawing (Katie Sollohub)‍

“Drawing - two days of total immersion in the magnificent studio space.  It’s been magical.  Working large can be so liberating, and is certainly exciting. There is such vitality in each person’s work. I guided the session with meditation, some qi gong, and drawing prompts, the rest just unfolded on the page (and off the page, on the walls, on the floor…).” ~ Katie

Image: Embodied Drawing (Katie Sollohub)‍

To give you an idea of what to expect from this experimental approach to drawing, click on the image below to watch a short film on our YouTube channel.  The film was made ahead of Katie’s Live Online version of the course in 2021, and shows how she encourages students to warm up their bodies and to “think of yourself as a drawing” – drawing with hands, arms, elbows, mouth and even cycling helmets!‍‍

Embodied Drawing is for anyone wishing to expand their drawing practice by working large, freely, involving body and breath. Using the generous space of the Seawhite studio, there is  virtually no limit to how expansive your drawings can become.

The course offers a fresh way of working from the figure; inviting you to reinvent your visual response to the physical body.  It’s an immersive approach that may surprise and inspire you, and could transform the way you approach drawing and painting beyond the duration of the course.

To find out more about the course and to book your place, click on the button below:‍

Embellishing the Body

Costume and Poise

10 – 12 December (Wed-Fri), £330‍

Image: Painting of Eve, Emily Ball

“What I love about this course is the way personality is conveyed through costume and pose. There is life and movement in every pose, and every painting. Each person’s response to the subject is part of the conversation and dance between artist, sitter, and the paint. It is a joy.” ~ Katie‍‍

Embellishing the Body is  a course that is as much about exploring colour, pattern, and texture as it is about the shape and form of the body.  In this course, poses and fabrics combine to inspire confident, expressive paintings that explore both body and costume.

The course benefits from having input from three creative sources: Katie Sollohub, Eve Stuart and Emily Ball.

Katie is the courses tutor.  She will be gently guiding and empowering you to create confident, expressive paintings that capture both the poise and character of the model and the sumptuous fabrics of her costume.  Katie will guide you from quick studies of the moving figure to longer paintings, using paint to capture the weight, direction, and flow of cloth as it shrouds and reveals the form beneath. Play, experimentation, and expressive mark-making are at the heart of the course, ensuring your work stays fresh, dynamic, and open to change.

To help you connect your own work with a broader artistic context, Katie will reference artists such as Matisse, Bonnard, Vuillard, Chantal Joffe, Alice Neal, and Jennifer Packer

Image: Seawhite Studio set up for clothed model painting course (Katie Sollohub)

 Eve Stuart is the clothed model and costume designer for the course.  Eve is  currently studying Costume Design for Stage and Screen at Wimbledon College of Art.  For Embellishing the Body, she  has collaborated with fellow student Holly Wright to design and create a unique costume that she will model during the course. The outfit reflects Eve’s identity as a modern young woman, and the poses she creates will work in harmony with her costume to bring the character of Embellished Eve to life.

Image: Painting of clothed Model by Seawhite Studio student attending course with Katie Sollohub

Emily will be the artist-in-residence during the course. Painting alongside you, Emily will not only provide an inspiring example, but will also contribute valuable observations  to group discussions around the topic of painting from the figure.‍

Image: Paintings of clothed Model by Seawhite Studio student attending course with Katie Sollohub‍

With three distinct creative perspectives guiding the course, you can expect an abundance of ideas and inspiration. Joining Katie, Eve and Emily on this course is  guaranteed to enrich your practice and give you a wealth of approaches, techniques, and creative tools that you can use in the future.

“Katie is so inspirational and  - with her abundance of knowledge together with  Eve as such a creative model  - it made for a very special three days for me.  The many exercises and new approaches Katie gave us gave me so much useful information to take away.” ~Julia Schultz

To find out more about the course and to book your place, click on the button below:‍‍

TAKING IT FURTHER

Join us for another Creative Adventure!‍

The wonderful Katie has created a number of pre-recorded courses for us at the Seawhite Studio.  These short film-based courses are a fantastic way of experiencing the ‘Katie Magic’ at a time and place that suits you.  And once you have downloaded them, you have access to the recordings indefinitely – meaning you can pause and repeat at your own pace, ensuring you get the most from every exercise, demonstration and piece of advice offered.‍

 Museum of Self –

Keeping a Visual Diary

£160

This course offers a fresh way of seeing the everyday, encouraging a regular, small-scale creative practice in a sketchbook. Through guided exercises and suggested self-study, you can explore familiar surroundings with new eyes, discovering inspiration in daily life. It’s an opportunity to develop a new subject, or simply to enjoy keeping a visual diary for the joy of the process itself.‍

 Coming to your senses

 

£160

Come to your senses and explore your creativity in the great outdoors.  This five-day course offers a fresh way of seeing the everyday and encourages a small-scale, regular creative practice. Featuring 17 short films ranging from 10 minutes to an hour, it combines practical exercises with mindful observation, helping you connect with your surroundings, nurture your artistic practice, and enjoy the process of creating in nature.‍

 From Sketchbook into Painting

£130

This course shows how your sketchbook can inspire a series of paintings, breaking down the boundary between sketching and “finished” work. You’ll revisit processes often reserved for sketchbooks—mark-making, pouring ink, layering, rubbing out, collaging, and embracing accidental marks—allowing images to emerge organically from creative experimentation. The course encourages play, discovery, and a fluid approach, helping you translate the energy and spontaneity of sketchbook work into fully developed paintings.‍

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