Our Tutors

Adrian Holmes is a print maker devoted to Japanese printmaking. He fell in love with this medium whilst living in Japan and began to study this beautiful craft and its techniques. He divides his time between his art practice, teaching woodblock printmaking in the Southwest and continuing his dedicated study of woodblock printmaking in Japan….

Teaching is an opportunity to pass on the wonderful sense of being part of a bigger ‘family’ of painters.

My approach to teaching is to share all, to demonstrate my unique way of painting in layers and share my love for paint and it’s never ending possibilities. It’s all about the process, experimenting and those happy accidental discoveries. St Ives School of Painting is very special, with stunning inspiration on the doorstep and an aura of creativity in the studios that is contagious.

Landscape painting in Cornwall, Andrew Barrowman paints en plein air and in the studio using oils as his chosen medium. He tries to convey the feeling and atmosphere of a landscape onto canvas for the viewer to have an idea of what it was like to be there. His paintings often start with ideas found whilst walking his dog.

I have been teaching drawing and painting for over 13 years, from secondary school level to undergraduate and postgraduate level. I have observed how students struggle with certain aspects of drawing and painting and have developed my teaching practice to deal with these ‘obstacles’ to learning. My artistic practice and my teaching practice are bound together in a symbiotic relationship.

My tutoring is a constantly evolving project. It supports my creative work as it requires that I not only understand my processes but can apply them in a way that is useful to other people in their quest for creative flow. Harnessing a fluid and responsive working method, can address all sorts of practical or emotional obstacles that students face. It can be quite literally life-changing.

As artist/tutor, a strong, professional empathy is essential to the courses I ‘build’ for those already engaged in their creative thinking and practices. Teaching is more a dialogue, an inclusive process of respect for each artists’, individual communication, development and talents in visual art.

David was past President of the Royal Watercolour Society and studied fine art at Hornsey College of Art. His distinctive watercolour technique is founded in oil and tempera painting with an emphasis on drawing. Intrigued by still life groupings seen on streets and waterways, his work is characterised by detail, clear shadows, controlled tone, decisive…

Watercolour is my medium of choice. I love its fluid nature and the way it can be pushed around and mixed on the paper to create transparent washes. To maintain that transparency, I endeavour to complete my paintings in no more than three washes, building up the layers from light to dark, whether I’m painting…

After many years as an illustrator I taught on the BA Illustration course at Falmouth University. In 2011 I began teaching at St Ives School of Painting. I deliver courses involved with the figure, still life and landscape. My practice as a painter feeds into the teaching, often through demonstrations. The school is wonderful – the history the ethos and most of all the people.

I try to connect people to their environment with my art. I started out as a landscape painter, but it was only through undertaking a masters degree in 2009 that I realised the best way to connect people to their environment was to take them into that environment and get them to make the art! This is now the core of my practice and through my work I specialise in outdoor education and woodland management.

In 1995 I became a tutor at St Ives School of Painting. Offering inspiration through my passion for drawing, water-based media and art history I strive to liberate a creative vision through direct observation and en plein air. My fascination in old buildings with a story to tell connects me to the studio’s historic narrative. Working in the space can feel like being inside one of my own drawings.

As an Artist/Tutor creating courses for the School, I draw from my own experience and questioning of my own practice. I try to open up a way into contemporary abstraction for practitioners who come prepared to engage with sometimes difficult concepts and hopefully take away ideas and more questions for their own practice. We can all benefit from being in this space together.

I love sharing my knowledge and life experiences with others. My unique approach is to try to create individual, authentic voices in the curriculum within a conceptual and non conceptual framework. It’s great to be part of an historical, internationally renowned school.

I have taught in the UK and the USA, and have painted and drawn for my entire adult life. It is both humbling and inspiring to be part of St Ives School of Painting’s community, with its exceptional artistic heritage and extraordinary location. Teaching has been an invaluable opportunity to share knowledge and techniques and to create with others. It is a privilege to create an environment where students are stimulated and encouraged in their own artistic journeys.

“My creative and teaching methods are supported by universal principles of composition and colour. Inspired by the masters of the past as well as painters of the early 20th Century, I encourage my students to use their imagination, blending reality with experiment.” When teaching my students to paint, I encourage them to use a process…

‘Giving permission’ and ‘making transparent’ is what I try to do every time I teach. This inevitably leads to the reward of witnessing a small epiphany or pivotal direction change in a student’s approach. I enjoy teaching at the school as it has no set ‘school’ approach, each course is put together and taught from the tutors own practice. This has the benefit of enabling me to be both tutor and student within this process.

Through my teaching, especially mentoring on the year long Porthmeor Programme, I have made my own connections with the inspirations that come from St Ives. The School of Painting helps students develop their own practice with the emphasis on finding their own voice.

Linking my method to the landscape, I take students on Porthmeor Beach to make experimental drawings in the sand, bringing them back to some of man’s first marks and symbols. My teaching is grounded in an understanding for people and their desire to learn. I feel I have a genuine understanding of how nervous and apprehensive prospective students can sometimes be and am able to help them relax and enjoy being creative.

I have enjoyed tutoring at the School of Painting, to all ages and abilities, for about 27 years. Teaching has always gone hand in hand with creating my own work, as I find sharing ideas and techniques stimulating and rewarding. My approach has been to give students the confidence to develop their skills, to think for themselves and so extend their visual language and find their own path.

I have been teaching for over twenty years and enjoy seeing people’s excitement when they can make printmaking their own. I teach by demonstrating techniques. I think this is the most direct way to pass on practical skills. Teaching for the school is satisfying because print can be treated as part of general practice, not as a separate entity.

Naomi Frears is a visual artist and filmmaker based in the Porthmeor Studios in St Ives. She works across multiple platforms including painting, printmaking and film and is well known for her enigmatic and subtly haunting paintings. Naomi led our very first Porthmeor Programme and designed the popular course ‘Sketchbook to Studio’ that she ran…

I enjoy the intensity of the workshops that I’m invited to run here at the school. A group of artists can produce such an incredible body of work in just a few days. This really inspires my own practice. The energy helps me to see and notice more when I’m out and about in Cornwall to bring these observations back to the studio.

Due to the nature of printmaking, the courses I run are for relatively small groups. This allows for a high level of support so I can tailor the processes to suit individual artists’ ideas. I am very hands on, teaching through demonstrations, but within this structure, encourage students’ freedom in the way they apply these techniques to their own practice. I’m dynamic in my teaching methods and always have lots of fun. I find it incredibly exciting and enjoy the adventure of such a productive and creative environment.

As a tutor in the art of drawing I guide a student to find their unique physical and psychological line as well as learning to look and see clearly and meaningfully the visual elements around them. With these skills, the act of observation, memory and attitude are transformed via the eye, mind and hand into original, graphic images.

The process of learning a practical discipline such as painting, can seem both daunting and frustrating. In the landscape and the studio I assess each individual student’s ability and use this as a starting point, trying to keep the teaching just beyond the curve of what they can and want to do. As much as…

A past Vice President of the Royal Society of Painter Printmakers, and with his work in numerous collections including the V&A, the Fitzwilliam Museum Cambridge, and The Ashmolean Museum Oxford,   Trevor has a knowledge of printmaking that spans more than 30 years. “Printmaking has gripped me my whole adult life, but undoubtedly I have…