Working both en plein air and in the studio create landscape paintings that are authentic, evocative and original, in the unique surrounds of the coast in St Ives.

This illuminating course will combine en plein air response to landscape with in-studio reflective practice to hone your skills and personal approach to painting. Victoria Gillow will help you to harness a sense of place and your relationship with it to create paintings that are authentic, evocative, and original. 

Engaging with other acclaimed artists’ work including Sir Terry Frost, Patrick Heron, Alfred Wallace and John Constable, you will learn about composition, colour, tonality and upscaling during three days of immersive and mindful practice. Time will be spent outside, working in sketchbooks, creating thumbnail drawings and making paintings that capture the weather and energy of a place. Then moving in to the studio, you will start to upscale work into larger pieces and explore a variety of materials such as pitt pencil, graphite stick, soft pencils, charcoal, pen, ink, acrylics and mixed media.

Victoria will expertly help you to navigate the entire process from idea progression and line drawing to colour mixing and paint layering, through a combination of demonstration and individual guidance. Focusing on these technical aspects while also facilitating connection and free flow will result in unique and personal paintings, as well as the ability for you to continue with your work as progressive pieces once the course is completed. 

From drawing exercises and studies on the spirit of place to visual mapping, thumbnails, and equipment guides, you’ll develop a toolkit for developing your skill, knowledge, and confidence.

Quotes from past students on the course:

‘The course has been full to brimming with ideas and techniques. Wonderful. I shall carry on experimenting !’ Amanda

‘I had an amazing opportunity last month to paint in St. Ives on the Cornwall coast in England. I took a fantastic workshop with Victoria Gillow at St Ives School of Painting and had the surreal experience of painting on the same beach as many early modernists. The weather was wild and exhilarating. I already want to go back!’ Lisa

What will I learn?

• How to liberate your ideas, begin your work, and fine-tune your decision-making 
• How to work outside e.g. framing techniques, abstracting, refining, and an equipment guide 
• Develop drawing exercises in mark-making, tonality, constraints (eg use of negative), and free, continual line drawing. 
• How to use sketchbooks and drawing materials to capture your interests and develop ideas  
• Work with colour: mixing and usage 
• Discover how to upscale and develop your work  

Who would this course suit?

This course is suited to all levels, from beginners to those with experience. An interest in landscape/seascape painting would be beneficial (but is not essential), though the emphasis is on enabling reverie and access to creativity through artistic practice – so is the perfect fit for anyone wishing to experience this. 

Participants must have some mobility to manage some basic walking and working on the beach or headland.  However, working from, or through a window or from a comfortable place alongside Porthmeor beach may be possible by prior arrangement.  

What to Bring

Timings and Breaks