A New Point Of View

One Day Workshop
‘I want to show what I know and what I feel. Not just what I see.’ Peter Lanyon (1918-1964)

Before it can be painted, the landscape must be experienced and that is why many innovative landscape artists are adventurers too, immersing themselves in different climates, geologies and cultures in order to discover new forms, a fresh palette or even a novel way of working. It’s why Towne climbed mountains in Switzerland, Turner lashed himself to a ship’s mast in a storm and Ravilious attempted a perilous journey to Iceland. That all-too-elusive masterpiece is always somewhere over the next horizon…

Seventy years ago, Peter Lanyon was regularly taking to the skies in his glider to gain a new perspective on his beloved Cornwall and then to combine its geology, history, people and myth in mixed media paintings of exhilarating complexity and originality.

Using Lanyon as our inspiration, this course seeks to challenge the conventional point-of -view of landscape painting in order to help us re-experience it in our own art, in watercolour, charcoal, graphite and gouache. This practical, one day course is ideal for anyone who wishes to get to grips with abstraction or paint more freely.

All comers welcome.

All materials are provided but please bring brushes, apron and a notebook.

Beverages will be available.

Please bring a picnic lunch.

“The gravest immorality is to try to finish what isn’t well begun. But a picture that is well begun may be left off at any point.” Sir Matthew Smith (1879 – 1959)

Composition is at the core of all picture-making, yet whenever we embark on a new painting, composition often comes very low on our list of priorities as concerns about colour-mixing, proportion, photographic realism and general technical competence dominate. But by just paying attention to where things are, rather than what they are, we can make the business of painting far simpler and finish our work in half the time! In this one-day, practical workshop, we will look at seven of the principle elements of design and learn how to apply them to our paintings. This workshop focuses on abstraction but the day will be useful whatever your chosen genre and give you the confidence, as Klee said, “to improvise freely on the keyboard of colours.”

All-comers welcome.