Maybe it’s time to liberate yourself from anxieties about what you should paint and how you should be painting it? This series of webinars with artist Naomi Frears will look at various ‘rules’ in art making and explore how we might either adopt them or ditch them in our work. We will explore some of the established ‘rules’ for making a painting and ask how useful are they?

There seem to be so many rules for making paintings out there – some are traditional and some come from the experience of artists or critics. Which are the helpful rules you can enjoy working with and which rules might be rather unhelpful and could be questioned?

Do you have a voice telling you what you should or shouldn’t be doing in painting? Does it sometimes confuse you or hold you back? We explore some of these rules and traditions of painting. We ask where they come from and question which ones are worth taking with you into the studio.

We will think about rules around the use of colour, composition, and even the rules around what we let ourselves make work about. After each session take away an exercise to do at home that will use these discoveries to trigger new confidence and enthusiasm. Share your work and ideas in our private Facebook group with other students.

We will record sessions and make them available for two weeks after each webinar for you to revisit.

Enjoyable for beginners who are curious to know what the ‘rules’ might be around painting but don’t want to feel intimidated by them. Equally you might be keen to liberate yourself from restrictions that might be stopping you working productively. It will also be a boost for people who are looking into fresh insights into how to appreciate and enjoy looking at art.

How does a webinar work?

Once you have booked a session, we will send you an invite to the session so you can register with Zoom and join us. You can put questions to Naomi during the session using the question and answer function during the webinar. We plan to record them so you can revisit the session to refresh your memory for up to two weeks after. You will also be invited to join our new Facebook Alumni group so you can share your discoveries with fellow students from around the world.

Who would this webinar suit?

These will be a great for beginners who are curious to know what the ‘rules’ might be around painting but don’t want to feel intimidated by them. Equally you might be keen to liberate yourself from restrictions that might be stopping you working productively. It will also be enjoyable for people who are looking into fresh insights into how to appreciate and enjoy looking at art.

What to Bring

You will need access to the internet and ideally a PC or laptop or a tablet with audio. Phones are not really suitable to watch a webinar on as the presenter will be hard to see when she shares her screen with you. You don’t need to bring any materials with you to the webinar, perhaps some paper to make notes. But we will be sending you a recording of the session so you can revisit it. The exercise to do at home we will also email to you afterwards.

Timings and Breaks

Follow the link Zoom will send you at about 4.20pm. As soon as we open the webinar at just before 4.30pm you will then automatically connect. We expect each session to last about one hour. If you have any problems receiving your link email from us and Zoom email us and we can get that sorted before the start time. In the session if you have questions you can use the chat function and we will do our best to advise.