All Courses

A pre-recorded online 5 day course

Once registered, students have access to the films for as long as you need.

This year more than ever we have been confined to our homes, many of us turning to it as a subject matter, for its familiarity, and personal significance - whether comforting, or claustrophobic. But if you are finding drawing yet another tea pot just a little uninspiring, this 5 day course will give you a fresh way of looking at the everyday, and aims to encourage a regular practice on a small scale. All the work will be done in a sketchbook, with guided exercises and suggested self-study throughout. It can be seen as a way into a new subject, making you see your home life with new eyes, maybe inspiring more work to develop from it. Or, it might help you rediscover the joy of keeping a sketchbook as a visual diary, for no other purpose than the process itself, a record of these times. There will be 5 sessions, which you can choose to do in 5 consecutive days, or, take your time, and see how much work can come out of each online session, let the sketchbook fill up over days or even weeks.

Experiments in Watercolour - Pre-recorded

Once registered, students have access to the films for as long as you need.

Experiments in Watercolour is a three day practical course led by Simon Carter. The course aims to have a fresh look at the medium of watercolour and how it might be used in an expressive, experimental and contemporary way. The course will not be about technique, but will seek to use watercolour in a bold and painterly manner.

As we are more confined to our studios in the current situation, we will gather a group of natural objects to construct a surrogate ‘landscape'. You will need to gather together a group of natural objects prior to the course starting (further instructions below).

For each day there is approximately an hour and a half long video where Simon practically demonstrates and talks about the processes that can be used to explore your subject and build paintings. These demonstrations encourage you to be bold and experimental in your approach.

Coming to your Senses

A 5 day online pre-recorded sketchbook course for working freely and experimentally outdoors - on holiday, in the landscape, by the sea.

Come to your senses - and spend time being creative in the great outdoors in this 5 day prerecorded course led by Katie Sollohub, inspirational teacher, artist, and experienced yoga and meditation practitioner. This course will give you a fresh way of looking at the everyday, and aims to encourage a regular practice on a small scale. There are 17 short films ranging from approximately 10 minutes to an hour long.

Once registered, students have access to the films for as long as you need.

Now Offered as an Pre-recorded Online Course - Once registered, students have access to the films for as long as you need.

A Handful of Objects is designed as a three day course led by Simon Carter, looking at how you can create energetic and inventive compositions based around objects and activity in the studio. There are 3 films, plus a short introductory film, that last for an average of 1 hour. Working in your own studio you collect a group of objects together that you will start making paintings from using direct observation, seeing how inventive you can be while staying true to the familiar objects. You will then look at constructing larger pieces in a process of collaging and building, looking to find big compositions based on still life but with the lyricism and breadth of landscape.

Gather a group of favourite objects: two man-made things, two natural things, two patterned things and reproductions of two favourite paintings. For the first 2 sessions of the course it would be best to work with acrylic paint on paper, painting, collaging, glueing together, building an image. Looking to make something large, dramatic, disruptive and daring. Making paintings from this dymanic collage could be done in oils if you prefer

Now Offered as an Pre-recorded Online Course - Once purchased you have unlimited access to the recordings.

Drawing and painting self-portraits, looking at yourself in the mirror, is a grounding, challenging and invigorating experience. You are in good company as many of the great painters in history made Self Portraits. You are free to invent and take risks, as there is no one to offend or judge the likeness other than yourself. It is a chance to contemplate, scrutenise and explore how to capture more than just a likeness; to convey with feeling the mood of the gaze, to enjoy the sculptural qualities of the subject and materials. During this 3 day course Emily will have a large mirror in her studio so that she can draw and paint herself, live on camera, to demonstrate and also work alongisde you. She will lead you through processes that help you become confident at manipulating the materials so that they become the subject. She will suggest ways of layering marks and shapes taken from observation to help you invent more expressive ways of making the features of the face. A fleeting glance, the tilt of the head, rubbing through, redrawing and editing provide a fertile ground, with its layered materials and moments, to offer you powerful images that hold your gaze.

By the end of the 3 days you will have lots of drawings and painted studies that will be full of good material for many paintings. You will also have begun at least two paintings. Emily will encourage you to continue these paintings after the course has finished.

Artists’ work that might inspire you: Matisse, Picasso, Chantal Joffe, Maggie Hambling, Stephen Chambers (‘The Court of Redonda’ series), , Bonnard self portraits, John Skinner, Frank Auerbach, Katie Sollohub, Francis Bacon, Dennis Creffied, David Bomberg and the Rembrant late paintings.

A set of 5 films full of engaging and valuable demonstrations, exercises, instruction and inspiring poses to help artists create expressive paintings. Your model, Eve, is currently studying costume design at Wimbledon College of Art and has assembled a striking red and black costume, with fantastic accessories, that has statuesque drama, glamour and elegance. There are 3 films lasting approximately 35 minutes each where Emily is painting and explaining her process and decision making. The paintings that she makes explore the versatility of paint as it glides, sculpts, glows and layers to create the character and movement of the figure. Taking the fear away from painting directly from Eve as she poses Emily uses paint in the way that she draws; fluidly, boldly and playfully to find the qualities of the body, fabric and attitude. The processes she offers result in fresh, vital and surprising paintings. The 2 short films have lots of beautiful poses, both seated and standing, that can be paused and used to paint from to create new work using the exercises offered.

A set of 4 films full of engaging and valuable demonstrations, exercises, instruction and inspiring poses to help artists create expressive drawings. Your model, Eve, is currently studying costume design at Wimbledon College of Art and has created a costume that celebrates her graceful poses and movement, as well as the joys of the handmade, upcycled lace fabric, as it falls and flows around the figure. There are 2 films lasting approximately 40 minutes each where Emily is drawing and explaining her process and decision making. The drawings that she makes explore qualities of the body and movement; fabric draped across skin and flesh, poise, flow and folds. The richness of the mixed media that she is using generates exciting, layered drawings. The 2 shorter films have lots of beautiful poses that can be paused and used to draw from to create new work using the exercises offered.

Course Dates: 8^th- 10^th January  2025 (Wednesday - Friday)

Start the New Year with this exciting 3 day course in the Seawhite Studio, working with the wonderful Eve, dressed in her own dynamic and inspirational costumes, designed to adorn and accentuate the body, turning the studio into our very own catwalk!

Painting from the clothed figure means we will be looking at colour, texture and pattern as much as form and flesh. Celebrate the way fabric adorns the figure, how it changes as it wraps around form, glimpses of flesh, the features of the face emerging from folds and frills.

Course Dates: 20^th January  2025 (Monday)

Another unique opportunity to make use of the expanse of the Seawhite Studio and the in-spiration and motivation from Katie’s particular form of teaching. You do not have to be a dancer! This workshop is suitable for all, for anyone with an open heart and mind, physi-cally able and willing to let go and get messy. Beginners welcome. An ideal gift for a friend or loved one.

Course Dates: 22^nd- 24^th January 2025 (Wednesday – Friday)

A three day practical course exploring the Window in and through drawing and painting. The window has long been an immensely important subject for artists. A framed hole in the wall offering views from the inside out and the outside in. The painting of a window immediately locates the viewer spatially in relation to the subject and engages the viewer in an exploration of their own feelings and recollections of similar experiences. Light enters the room from outside and at night the electric light from inside illuminates the darkness. Gaston Bachelard writes of how when walking in the landscape at night the light from a distant farmhouse seems to exert a hugely powerful response of longing and desire. In Mattisse and Richard Diebenkorn we see the painting, the painted widow and the real window in dialogue allowing an exploration of pictorial space, physical prescence and the role of the picture plane. In Hodgkin and Lois Dodd we see the role of the window frame and the edge of the painting explored with an almost trompe l’oeil effect. Hammershoi evokes the magic of mote filled shafts of light and the reverie induced where time slows down and silence reigns.