Spanning painting, collage, photography and sculpture, Eileen Agar transformed the everyday into the extraordinary.

Join us for this Eileen Agar-inspired online course led by Kitty Hillier and learn how her dynamic practice has continued to inspire artists to this day. An avid beachcomber, Agar collected shells, stones, starfish, nets and other detritus from the beaches of Cornwall, where she lived and worked. Learn about this pioneering female surrealist and see your everyday surroundings afresh.  

This new series of online classes, ‘Postcards from …’ will use the places in and around St Ives that inspired an international roster of artists including Wilhelmina Barns-Graham, Ben Nicholson, Christopher Wood, Alfred Wallis, Bryan Wynter and Patrick Heron.  

Focusing in particular on sites which captured these artists’ imagination, Postcards from… will take you on a creative journey to the famous spots around St Ives including its harbour, Porthmeor Beach and its cobbled, winding streets, lined with stone fishermen’s houses. Using films of these familiar landscapes, led by one of our experienced tutors, this series will transport you to these inspiring St Ives locations, wherever you are in the world. 

Friends with Andre Breton, Dora Maar, Lee Miller, Paul Nash and Man Ray, Eileen Agar was an artist with an international reputation but who found her home and inspiration on the shores of Cornwall. She saw surrealism in the unforced and organic world around her writing:

‘Surrealism for me draws it’s inspiration from Nature… you see the shape of a tree, the way a pebble falls or is framed.’ 

For this Agar-inspired online course, Kitty explores the work ‘Bride of the Sea’ (1979), which Agar created aged 80. Combining an abstract approach with cut out effects, female faces, geometrically patterned fish and the outline of trawl nets, the influence of the artist’s coastline meanderings is clear. Agar also saw beauty in the manmade – using cheap items from flea markets or using mass-produced objects.

Following from Agar’s exciting approach to art and practice, join Kitty recorded live from our studio, to see how using everyday objects can form the basis of your own abstract work. A playful course ideal for if you are looking for new ways to loosen your practice.

What will I learn?

1. Delve into the processes and techniques of Eileen Agar, an exciting surrealist artist.
2. Explore integrating found objects into your own abstract work.
3. Learn new ways of working more playfully and intuitively.

Who would this course suit?

Beginners and those with more experience are both welcome to join. If you are looking to learn new ways to expand your drawing and painting practice, or just inspiration by looking to other artists, this course is for you.

Watch Kitty tell us about how Eileen Agar inspired her

How does an online session work?

Once you have booked you will be able to watch on demand immediately. 

You can pause, rewind and watch again as often as you like until the session expires 60 days after purchase

You will also be invited to join our Facebook Alumni group so you can share your discoveries with fellow students from around the world.