Inspiration from land and sea in the Algarve, Portugal

Course date is Sunday Sept 24^th - Sep 30^th 2023

Elements Replenish, Nurture, Rewild and Reconnect

The inspirational teacher Emily Ball, will encourage you to engage in a dialogue with your work, while exploring, gathering and researching studies. Numerous practical exercises will help you incorporate different processes into your work practise, encouraging a rich plethora of ideas to flow, which will build throughout the course. The work created in becomes much more visceral and engaging, giving further potential to fuel months of work back in your studio. The course is also designed to develop the artist’s confidence in their own sensibilities and to enable their creative courage to transform into uniquely personal work. This week is not about making plans for pieces or finished paintings. Instead, the focus is on exploration discovery process and depth.

The villa and location offer a beautiful, rugged landscape and access to unspoilt beaches, calm space and comfort. Students on the course have outside spaces to work in and can allow themselves to become immersed in the experience; as local home cooked food, guided walks, materials and tuition are all generously provided and organised daily. Giving you the luxury of just concentrating on developing your own creative flow. Additionally, a pro masseur is available poa, to ease you into a place of relaxation and personal nurture too. The nearest airport is Faro

Details about the structure of the course

Students arrive on Sunday September 24th between 3-7pm. The course starts on Monday 25th and ends on Friday September 29th, Students leave on Saturday 30th @ or before 10am.

Each morning, from 9am – 12.30 pm Emily will demonstrate processes and experimental ways of working that could be used to make studies from the landscape. Students have the time to practise and apply these during the sessions, before going off in the afternoons, to work by themselves to make studies. Rosalind Hodges, our host and fellow artist, will lead guided walks in the surrounding landscape, to give the students the opportunity to choose a location that inspires them. In the afternoons, students will work by themselves, applying their newly learnt processes to work in the landscape. At 5.30pm Emily will be available each day to support the end of day, review process. Additionally, Wednesday – Friday, Emily will offer appointments for one to one tutorials, to help collate, articulate and refine ideas, enabling individuals to develop further potential

To get the most from this course, I recommend a capacity to be able to walk and carry a day pack 2km and an ability to walk on narrow, uneven, hilly coastal earth paths. If this is not possible then the gardens and landscape that surrounds the house do provide ample inspiration.