Face to Face Courses

Course Dates: 8^th June- 10^th June  2026 (Monday - Wednesday)

This 3 day course is suitable for any students who have attended the two day Colour and Light courses that Emily and Katie have run from the Trueligh Centre on the South Downs either in 2025 or 2026. The freshness, freedom and immediacy of the studies made in situ are qualities that are often wished for in sustained and finished paintings. The studies are not there to be copied but to be used as inspiration and triggers for new work. This course is all about unpacking and using the content in these studies to make new painted studies and work towards finished paintings. The colours, marks, layers and memories are material to play and invent with. They have become your landscape for you to walk through and explore. They are reminders of the sensations, the light, the weather and the feelings of being out on the hill.

Course Dates: 29^th June- 3^rd July  2026 (Monday - Friday)

This 5 day painting course takes its inspiration from Highdown Garden near Worthing, a unique chalk garden on the Downs. This garden is 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. It is a garden full of delights; mature trees and plants, winding pathways that lead to open spaces where you can sit and drink in the sites, sounds and smells. Long summer days are the time to celebrate the colour and abundance of nature. The first 2 days of the course are spent in the garden making lots of studies capturing the experience of this peaceful and inspiring place. The rest of the week is spent at the Seawhite studio where ambitious and expressive paintings will be created using these studies and our memories of the place.

Course Dates: 7^th- 9^th September  2026 (Monday - Wednesday)

A 3 day course during which you will ‘construct’ up to three large (A0) paintings on Heavy duty paper (this paper will be supplied as part of the course). We will work in an outside space, weather permitting, a nearby wood on the first day. You will gather visual material, working first in black and white, and then progressing to colour. Making a series of quick drawings and paintings on paper, recording interesting forms, light and shadows, perhaps getting in quite close and intimate with the woodland undergrowth rather than recording the overall vista. This accumulated visual information will then be used as the starting materials and basis with which to embark on the larger paintings back at the studio on days 2 and 3.You will use these as both a resource to work from and as materials that may be directly employed as part of your larger paintings in a collage capacity. You will be experimenting with a whole variety of painting processes, including- collage, experimental mark making, glazing, and paint transfer methods.

Course Dates September 21^st -  24^th  ( Monday - Thursday ) 2026

A four day practical course led by Simon Carter. Starting with a day’s drawing at the Truleigh Centre situated on the Downs, the course will look at how we can record things in the landscape, whether expressively in charcoal or by working across multiple sheets, constructing a panorama or by focusing on the minutiae of the landscape. In the studio we will look at ways to unpack your drawings, understanding what is in them and find ways to maintain the freshness of the initial drawings as we develop studio work.

Course Dates: 25^th- 26^th September 2026 (Friday - Saturday )

Standing on Truleigh Hill there are the most stunning views of the South Downs and the Adur Valley. You are held by the hill, grounded by the chalk beneath your feet, yet exhilarated by being up high, soaring and floating, feeling the air and wind in your face. If you love being in the landscape and are interested in making work that expressively captures the light, space, air and physicality of being on the South Downs then this course will provide you with the location, materials, inspiration and guidance to help you make exciting work.