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26th May, 2013
POETICAL PAINTING and ‘the SUBLIME’ In the LAKE DISTRICT D409
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2 – 5 pm
The artists and the poets of the Eighteenth and Nineteenth centuries recorded their impressions of the Lake District in paint, verse and prose. Join Viv and Geoff for a superbly illustrated talk exploring works by the artists and poets of the Romantic Movement in their efforts to portray the ‘savage grandeur’ of Lakeland scenery.
Viv Philpot
£16 including tea
KEEPING a HOLIDAY SKETCHBOOK in PEN and WATERCOLOUR A2027
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You don’t have to be the last one on the coach when you keep a holiday sketchbook Learn techniques for rapid sketchmaking during studio sessions, working from images on a big screen, and consolidate your skills during outings around the Lake District. Visit Cockermouth and Grasmere and take a cruise on Derwentwater for sketching on the move. Study examples from great artists’ sketchbooks and discover that keeping a sketchbook is much easier than you think.
Viv Philpot
Residential: £460
Non-residential: £295
3rd June, 2013
WATERCOLOURS WITH CONFIDENCE A2030
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You will have ample opportunity to paint in a variety of settings – studio, Higham’s extensive grounds and the surrounding beautiful countryside. Sessions will comprise demonstrations, ‘paint-alongs’ and painting en plein air. You will also be able to photograph and print your own scenes ready for painting in the studio. Individual tuition is designed to help you develop your skills and improve your confidence with watercolours. The course is suitable for beginners and those with some experience.
Mike Dobson
Residential: £370
Non-residential: £230
9th June, 2013
ASPECTS of LANDSCAPE – PAINTING in ACRYLICS A2035
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A closer look at the components of landscape painting, composition and mood will involve considering the effects of weather, times of day and choices of colour and paint handling. There will be a chance to paint outside, with all the subject matter found within the landscape.
Linda Birch
Residential: £450
Non-residential: £285
16th June, 2013
WATERCOLOUR/GOUACHE – MIXED MEDIA TECHNIQUES for DEVELOPING EXPRESSIVE PAINTINGS A2044
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This course will explore the properties of watercolour and gouache, separately and combined, with an emphasis on generating quick studies that will be the basis for more fully developed paintings. You’ll be encouraged to experiment with these media and push the boundaries of your current working style. Students will be working with personal resource material which may include still life, books, photos or the surroundings of Higham Hall. Representational and abstract painters welcome.
Ed Hinkley
Residential: £445
Non-residential: £280
30th June, 2013
WATERCOLOURS: SUMMER VIEW of SKIDDAW A2055
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This course welcomes complete beginners as well as those with more experience of watercolour painting. Our inspiration will be the landscapes surrounding Higham Hall. Through guided tuition on watercolour techniques and individual help you will be encouraged to explore this vibrant and exciting medium, allowing you to develop your own creative path to your paintings of Skiddaw in summer.
Tutor: Angela Burton
non-residential £295
residential £460
5th July, 2013
SUBJECTS FROM a SUMMER POTAGER in COLOURED PENCIL A2060
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Flowers, fruits, herbs and vegetables can all be grown together in a potager plot to combine the decorative with the edible. Create a small composition that captures some of the abundance and delights of this season. The aim is to make an accurate study observing botanical details. There will be an opportunity to sample a wide variety of coloured pencil types with examples of work and demonstrations to show techniques as well as lots of individual attention, conducted in a relaxed atmosphere, where you can work at your own pace. The course is suitable for beginners as well as those with some experience.
Susan Christopher Coulson
Residential: £195
Non-residential: £131
7th July, 2013
The SPIRIT of the NORTH – NORDIC LANDSCAPE PAINTING A2061
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In Northern Europe, landscape painting has a powerful hold on our visual culture, and none more so than in Scandinavia, where far-Northerly folk have found a kinship with nature to be indispensible. The 19th Century paintings of snow and sun, rock and forest, mountain and fjord – and the people who lived there - helped confirm their difference from Mediterranean culture and shaped their national identity.
Tim Stimson
Residential: £195
Non-residential: £131
ABSTRACT ACRYLIC USING PHOTOGRAPHS IT2062
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Use inspiration from manipulated photographs taken at Higham to produce a unique acrylic painting. Explore elements to give your art work a new dimension, culminating in an acrylic painting with a difference. Previous experience of digital photographs is not required.
Karen Walker
Residential: £225
Non-residential: £155
12th July, 2013
METALLICS MIXED MEDIA C2069
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This course will introduce a wide range of metallic media including real metal leaf, metallic powders and metallic transfer foil. Students will experiment with colouring, distressing and texturing metallic surfaces using a variety of techniques on different surfaces – paper, plastics, textiles etc. Students are encouraged to explore combinations of media on both flat and raised surfaces and will build up a collection of experimental samples which will provide dramatic starting points for future use and further embellishment.
Jo Mabbutt
Residential: £195
Non-residential: £131
28th July, 2013
JAPANESE CALLIGRAPHY C2084
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Sunday 28 July to Saturday 3 August
The course will look at the history and origin of calligraphy followed by an explanation of tools and then writing with individual attention. This is a rare and special opportunity to work with a leading calligraphy teacher from Japan.
Ransetsu Ozawa
Residential: £545
Non-residential: £330
4th August, 2013
WORKING FROM the LIFE MODEL A2086
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Sunday 4 to Sunday 11 August
Working from life has been a central element of art education for centuries. We will be following the example of artists like Degas, Bonnard, Picasso and Matisse all of whom made the figure their focus. This course will concentrate on three key areas of image-making: composition, markmaking and the use of materials. Students’ increased understanding and confidence with these three elements is likely to lead to the creation of more challenging and original work. The course is not suitable for beginners and students should have some recent experience of painting from life.
Michael Stewart
Residential: £680
Non-residential: £450
7th August, 2013
FROM the SUMMER HARVEST – BOTANICAL ILLUSTRATION in COLOURED PENCIL A2088
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High summer brings an abundance of produce in the garden and the greengrocers’. Choose a favourite fruit, vegetable or flower to capture the spirit of Summer for a botanical study to be worked in coloured pencil. The aim is to make an accurate study/studies observing botanical details. There will be an opportunity to sample a wide variety of coloured pencil types with examples of work and demonstrations to show techniques as well as lots of individual attention, conducted in a relaxed atmosphere, where you can work at your own pace. The course is suitable for beginners as well as those with some experience. The tutor is Susan Christopher-Coulson, and all materials are available to purchase from her at cost.
Residential: £195
Non-residential: £131
11th August, 2013
GET a-HEAD! CERAMIC SCULPTURE C2090
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Sunday 11 to Sunday 18 August
‘Your face is as a book where men may read strange matters’. Explore the fascinating subject of the human face through making a ceramic sculpure. Martin will guide your steps from a lump of clay to a finished piece using his tried and tested techniques whatever your skill level or experience. The first part of the week will be making sculptures concentrating on the human face, up to 30cm tall. These will be glazed and fired in a raku kiln on the Saturday ready to take home. The second half of the week develops the methods of the first, making a larger scale piece using Cumbrian brick clay. This will be left at the college to be fired and students will be notified when they may collect the completed work.
Martin Copley
Residential: £650
Non-residential: £400
25th August, 2013
PAINTING SUMMER SCHOOL – EXPLORING an INDUSTRIAL LANDSCAPE of WEST CUMBRIA A2098
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Sunday 25 to Friday 30 August
The Florence Mine near Egremont in West Cumbria was until recently the last working haematite deep mine in Cumbria and is now being developed as an arts centre. The painting Summer School this year will include a couple of sketching field trips to the mine as a source of ideas and imagery for painting. This offers a mix of authentic mine buildings and equipment, which have not been tidied up for tourism, plant life reclaiming the environment and a backdrop of the Western Lakes – a fertile ground for the artistic imagination. There will be plenty of studio time to work up your ideas with the usual professional support from the tutor.
Lionel Playford
Residential: £450
Non-residential: £285
1st September, 2013
KLIMT D425
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Sunday 1 September
2 – 5 pm
Gustav Klimt, after years of dismissal as merely a decorative artist, has now been recognized as not only the greatest artist of Vienna – of both the last Hapsburg era and the revolutionary secession – but also a pioneer of the depiction of women. Understanding Freud’s critique of sexual repression, the frankness of his pictures polarised contemporary opinion and contributed to the development of modern attitudes which are still evolving.
Tim Stimson
£16 including tea
DEVELOPMENTAL LIFE and PORTRAIT WORKSHOP A2105
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Sunday 1 to Friday 6 September
This exciting workshop explores the human figure through alternating daily sessions of portraiture and life drawing and painting. Different models introduce variety and dynamic to the practical sessions, and the workshops offer different stylistic approaches to our art making, through formal teaching with an ‘academic’ bias to highly informal and expressive techniques. Patrick will demonstrate and explain the fascinating intricacies of the subject through a series of beautifully illustrated slide shows. Beginners and experienced artists are welcome and fully supported throughout.
Patrick Oates
Residential: £475
Non-residential: £315
2nd September, 2013
CAILLEBOTTE – The NEGLECTED IMPRESSIONIST A2106
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Monday 2 to Wednesday 4 September
A man of independent means, devoted to the Impressionist exhibitions, without whose organisation and enthusiasm many would have failed, Gustave Caillebotte contributed a series of unsurpassed Paris street paintings and views of everyday life, which languished unknown in private collections until recently. We will consider his paintings in the context of fellow Impressionists and the modernisation of Paris, whilst sampling his sometimes eccentric and unpredictable output!
Tim Stimson
Residential: £195
Non-residential: £131
8th September, 2013
FACES, FIGURES and COLOUR A2112
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Sunday 8 to Wednesday 11 September
The theme of faces and figures is a complex, intriguing subject. Historically, artists have puzzled over the portrayal of the human form and portraiture. This short course can only be an introduction at looking and interpreting. So, required is the ability to leave behind your preconceived ideas of what you think is there and start ‘listening’ with your eyes. A life model will be used for part of the course. Enthusiasm, patience, ability to draw plus experience with painting is a must. This is not a course for beginners.
Hazel Lale
Residential: £295
Non-residential: £185
15th September, 2013
PAINTING IS DEAD – LONG LIVE PAINTING! A2118
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NOTE: ERROR IN OUR PRINTED BROCHURE:
Marked ** below.
Sunday 15 to Friday 20 September
Contemporary Art History is littered with narratives which conjure the ‘death’ or end of painting. This course will engage students with ways to invigorate their painting practice, within the context of early 21st Century (**this is correct, but our printed brochure states “20th Century” and it is, we are reassured by Steve, 21st Century – sorry for the mix-up!) culture. Through a series of exercises, discussions, demonstrations and a variety of subject material, students will be pushed to extend their thinking of painting, as a visual art practice and to develop their technical handling of media. Some level 1 walking may be involved.
Steve Humble
Residential: £450
Non-residential: £285
20th September, 2013
GATHERING IMAGES – INNOVATIONS in SKETCHBOOK TECHNIQUES A2124
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Friday 20 to Sunday 22 September
Recording landscapes in our sketchbooks allows for an immediate response to remarkable scenery whilst on our travels. This course develops rapid techniques in pen and pastel that captures those ‘moments’ in particularly beautiful ways. A local excursion and wonderful evening slideshows will enhance the experience and enable a permanent record of your travels to be made.
Patrick Oates
Residential: £195
Non-residential: £131
22nd September, 2013
LANDSCAPE and TOPOGRAPHICAL PAINTERS of the 20th CENTURY D432
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Sunday 22 September
2 – 5 pm
After World War I, many ‘war artists’ adapted their skills of landscape painting to more passive forms of recording the British landscape. Ravilious, Nicholson and John Piper were remarkable in capturing a particular quality of topography that shifted between representational and abstracted values. This course compares many paintings of different styles and techniques – all are inspirational and uplifting.
Patrick Oates
£16 including tea