5 Day Course
Monday 3rd - Friday 7th October 2022
Pembrokeshire, Wales, UK
Immersive Watercolour Week
Explore all aspects of watercolours and unlock your creativity!
Watercolour is such an exciting and wonderful medium. I am so pleased to be offering this painting week...it's going to be a huge amount of fun and packed full of information and inspiration.
Suitable for all experience levels. Please enquire if unsure.
The course will be held in Pembrokeshire, Wales, UK. Please see below for notes on the venue and where to stay.
I highly recommend booking accommodation, and this course, as quickly as possible, as both will be filling up quickly even now.
COURSE OUTLINE
Over the course of 5 days we can go really deep into all aspects of watercolour.
Everything you could possibly need to know (or as much as we can fit in!)
Equally suited to a complete novice as it is to an experienced painter.
We break everything down to absolute basics and build up from there.
For people just coming to watercolour, or painting full stop, I would recommend at least some practice and play beforehand. I can advise on this well in advance if needed.
The course has been designed to build as the days go on and is structured in a very specific way to fast track your painting.
The last time I ran the course, students found the 5 consecutive days and total immersion to be not only really fun, but incredibly useful!!
Day1
All about Tone
The foundation of all painting. By understanding this, and then working it into your paintings will see instant improvements. In fact, this is so important it comes before really diving deep into the medium itself on day 2.
As well as creating interesting compositions we will also look at painting light and shadow, another key principle of watercolour painting. Tone is the key to this.
This will be a day working in black and white with lots of little exercises, demos and fuller paintings.
We will be going really in-depth to fully understand how to see, interpret and paint tone. We will also cover some drawing basics.
Day2
The medium itself, composition, keeping it simple & brushwork
Watercolour is such an exciting medium with a lot of scope for letting it do its own thing. However, it still has its limitations and plenty we need to know in order to get the best out of it, and best express ourselves with it.
We will cover all materials, all the paint properties, paint consistency and the different effects it can give, as well as many different techniques and processes.
We will look at what watercolour can and can't do, along with the various pitfalls we need to avoid. We will also play around with the different pigments and what they do, as well as exploring more unusual special effects.
A mixture of practical theory, exercises, play and plenty of actual painting.
Day3
Colour Mixing
This will be a very thorough and quite intense day, but hopefully good fun too!
Colour is such an exciting part of painting, but it can also be the area that people find the most frustrating.
However, with some solid theory and a some good pointers we can take the mystery out of colour mixing and as a result open the wonderful world of colour to everyone.
We will be really looking at the colour wheel and how to use it, as well as plenty of colour theory and it's practical application. (not too heavy going, I promise!)
How to see colour and how to mix any colour you want.
Limited palettes with at least one limited palette painting.
How to choose colours for specific paintings and coming up with colour schemes.
Time and weather allowing we may go for a quick wander at a nearby beach to look at colours.
Day4
Mindset & finding inspiration
This day should be really fun, still plenty of painting but we will also be focusing the slightly less tangible, but equally important part of painting...our mindset!
We will cover:
How to deal with the ups and downs that come with painting. On both the smaller level during a single painting and over a longer period of time as your painting progresses and involves.
Ideas around "failure" and finding inspiration and motivation.
We will look at breaking through any particular barriers you may have with your painting and learning to let, embracing the slightly wild side of watercolour and finding that wonderful carefree zone.
We also cover finding your own artistic voice and how to develop your own style - and don't worry, this may all sound quite advanced but we keep it light and fun.
As well as this, we will look at how to choose a good subject and finding inspiration, even in unlikely places.
All of the above is equally valid and important for someone just starting out as it is for someone with more experience.
Days 5 - Bringing it all together
Although we will have completed a good number of paintings throughout the week, the final day will be focused on painting two finished pieces.
£425 per person
£370 early bird price if booked before the end of 2021
£50 extra for all materials if needed
9:30am - 4:30pm everyday (we will be taking structured breaks throughout the days)
Oriel Y Parc, St Davids, Pembrokeshire
Max. 11 students with plenty of one on one time
Materials needed:
Normal watercolour gear. Paints, brushes, palette, a selection of papers/gummed blocks, sketch book/notebook, iPad or phone for reference photos (or printed out), plus all the usual sundries.
I am happy to advise further so please feel free to email or call at the details below.
Friendly but productive and focused atmosphere.
Plenty of one on one tailored tuition. We can really focus in on the individual needs of each student, and what they are hoping to achieve.
I encourage people to paint whatever subject they like, although I will advise on most suitable. I will provide plenty of reference photos for specific times but will encourage students to bring their own as well.
There will always be both exercise and full painting demonstrations to illustrate points.
Bring your own lunch. The venue is literally seconds walk away from the wonderfully City (albeit the size of a very small town), of St Davids, where there are a wide selection of options for lunch to either eat-in or takeaway.
Drinks & biscuits provided.
Bookings re taken as non-refundable securement of a place. Please see below for cancellations and COVID policy
The Venue & Accommodation
The Oriel Y Parc Venue has a lovely big and well lit room to work in.
It is a beautiful visitors centre and gallery in the stunning City of St Davids.
St Davids itself is full of independent shops, galleries, pubs, restaurants and cafes etc, and within very easy distance of a huge array of some of the most beautiful parts of the Pembrokeshire National Park Coastline. Not to mention of course, the wonderful Cathedral!
Parking for the venue is Pay & Display at around £5 per day. However we can leave all of our gear in the venue overnight and there is plenty of free parking in and around St Davids for those who don't mind a 5 minute walk.
Pembrokeshire is full of options for accommodation. There is so much choice I have chosen not to specifically recommend anywhere. However, get booking as places get booked up quickly and way in advance.
St Davids itself is a great choice with easy access to everything. Nearby villages of Solva and others a touch further North or inland are also a great option.
Whilst out of school holidays, September and October are still very popular times to visit.
There are a huge array of attractions, beaches and walks so it is the perfect place to bring along a non-painting partner.
COVID cancellation policy
Things still seem a little uncertain moving forward. It seems sensible to have a cancellation policy in place.
The bookings once made are non-refundable if people choose to pull out for any other reasons (aside from accidents and family bereavements).
However if I have to cancel a workshop due to COVID restrictions I will do my best to re-book the week within the next 8 months. If this does not happen then I will issue a full refund.
If a workshop can still run but restrictions increase and any individual does not feel comfortable attending. Rather than simply forfeiting the booking, I will be happy to roll it over onto another future workshop. If a suitable workshop cannot be attended within 6 months of the original date, then a full refund will be issued.
I reserve the right to fill the cancelled place.
If track or trace, recent contacts, positive tests etc etc (in alignment with regulations at the time of the workshop) mean you cannot attend: I cannot give refunds so close to the date, however I am happy to roll over the booking to another date as these are unusual times with unusual circumstances. If a suitable replacement or replacements is not found within 6 months of the original date, then a full refund will be issued.
Masks to be worn at the discretion of attendees once in the room. Use of masks in the public areas may be subject to regulations of the individual venues, and overall regulations, with normal exemptions applying of course.