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Stay up to date with the latest content on our Instagram page @stivespainting. Share your artwork and hashtag #stivesschoolofpainting for your chance to be featured.
Gallery
Where do you feel inspired? 💫
From a 1900s lighthouse in West Cornwall to the expansive dunes of Hayle, through a series of webinars, learn why our artists are inspired by these incredible locations.
Where shall we go next?
📍Zennor with Hilary Gibson, available now
📍Pendeen Watch with Gary Long, 11-12 Oct
📍Hayle Dunes with Victoria Gillow, 8 Nov
#cornwall #cornwallcoast #cornwalllife #cornwallliving #westcornwall #pendeen #pendeenlighthouse #zennor #zennormermaid #hayle #haylebeach #landmarks
Find your own visual vocabulary 💫🎨
Explore the possibilities of abstraction with artist Camilla Dixon, drawing inspiration from your direct surroundings, learn new ways of working from figuration to abstraction.
📆 Observation + Abstraction, 4-6 November
📆 Art + Message, 25-27 November
📍St Ives, Cornwall
🔗 Visit the links in our bio to book your place
#abstractart #abstractartist #abstractpainting #abstraction #observation
Apply now for Porthmeor Programme 2025 🔔
Applications are open for our extended development programme, a 10 month intensive course aimed at developing you as an artist.
If you previously registered your interest or if you think you would benefit from this unique opportunity, follow the link in our bio to find out more and for details on how to apply. First tier applications will be reviewed from 16 September.
📅 Porthmeor Programme online: 17 Jan - 19 Oct 2025
Lead Tutors: Kate Southworth + Greg Humphries
📅 Porthmeor Programme studio: 21 Mar - 7 Dec 2025
Lead Tutor: Kate Southworth
🔗 Links in bio or visit our website
The Art of Unlocking Your Creativity 🔓
Looking for the space to explore your approach to making art? Learn new exercises for generating ideas as an artist, and help to silence those doubting gremlins.
During this transformational course, Ilker will share exercises including automatic drawing and dream boxes, giving you the framework to play, experiment and help reignite the artist in you.
📅 7-9 October
📍 St Ives, Cornwall
🔗 Find out more via the link in our bio
In our longer film with artist Tom Rickman, he shows us around his studio in West Penwith and tells us about his multidisciplinary artistic practice.
Visit our YouTube channel to watch the full film or view Tom’s upcoming course this November: Still Life - Surface + Space 🕰️
📆 29 Nov - 1 Dec
📍St Ives, Cornwall
🔗 Follow the link in our bio
#landscapepainting #artstudio #landscapepainter #contemporaryart #landscape
#throwbackthursday
We`re taking you back to the late 1930`s, to a time when two young navel officers, Leonard Fuller and Borlase Smart opened St Ives School of Painting, fulfilling a vow they once made; to one day live and paint in St Ives.
You can read all about the rich history of the School, our founders and our principles, on our website.
Pictured:
🔹 Portraiture class with Fuller & Smart in 1938
🔹 Leonard Fuller teaching on Porthmeor Beach, St Ives
🔹 Fuller & Smart pictured outside the School
#stivesartscene #stives #arthistory
Are you inspired by Modernist artists? 👨🎨
See how renowned British artists like Ben Nicholson created innovative, powerful works by reducing subject and content to its bare essentials. Our course, The Art of Keeping it Simple, is ideal if you are looking for new ways to free-up your painting practice and create rich work
If you are looking for working in a way between figuration and abstraction, this course is for you.
📅 27-28 September
📍 St Ives, Cornwall
🔗 Follow the link in our bio
Find new ways to access your own creativity 💥
Join artist Victoria Gillow, as we visit the expansive Hayle Dunes & Beach for our next Artist Landmarks webinar. Victoria will visit this extraordinary landscape, absorbing her surroundings, making marks and taking notes.
She will then re-immerse us into a sense of place through exercises and techniques during the live studio session. Learn to transform colour notes and ideas into larger format pieces.
Book in advance to make the most out of the session, giving yourself chance to watch the pre-recorded material.
🎥 Live broadcast, 7 September
⏯ Pre-material available to watch now
🔗 Book your place via the link in our bio
St Ives September Festival Countdown 🥁
In a month`s time, we will be mid-festival, celebrating the vibrant arts scene of St Ives.
Our next featured tutor is Steven Buckler, who will be running two classes during both weeks of the festival. Falmouth based artist, illustrator and animator, Steven, encourages all of his students to adopt a creative and experimental mindset; not just how to “loosen up your work” but how to “loosen up your thinking” as well.
Through his mixed media workshops, he will guiding you through as you explore a combination of a range of media; including pencil, charcoal, ink, paint, collage.
✏ Everyone Can Draw
📅 17 and 24 September, 09:30-12:30
💭 Discover Mixed Media
📅 17 and 24 September, 13.30-16.30
🔗 Find out more via the `September Festival` link in our bio!
A week of possible sunshine + showers 🌦
Hoping to dodge the rain this week? We have limited places left on our courses so there`s still time to book and then escape to our peaceful studios!
💭Experimental Abstract Landscapes
📅Tuesday, Wednesday + Thursday
🖼 Keeping it Simple
📅 Wednesday, 10.00-13.00
🐚 Abstract Coastline
📅 Thursday, 10.00-13.00
🌀 Printmaking: Repeat Patterns (Kids)
📅 Friday, 10.00-12.30
🌊 Where Sea Meets Land
📅 Friday, Saturday + Sunday
🔗 Visit our website to browse all courses
Do you ever think about how we spend the majority of our time walking, simply to get from A to B? 🚶🚶🏼♀️
Landscape + Psychogeography, with @greghumphriesart, explores theories such as the example ‘Dérive’; or walking without purpose. The ‘Dérive’ allows us to take our time, absorb and examine elements of the landscape, and record their effect on us through the artwork we produce.
During this three day course, visit special locations in Cornwall, including the enigmatic Rosewall Hill (pictured). Take this chance to deepen your relationship to this unique landscape and capture a ‘sense of place’.
📅 9-11 September
📍 St Ives
🔗 Book now via the link in our bio
Did someone mention 2025? 🌅
It may only be August, but we are well underway with planning and programming our 2025 studio courses!
📧 To make sure you’re the first to hear about our full programme, sign up to our newsletter and we’ll be in touch with all the details you need to plan your next creative break.
🔗 Sign up to our newsletter today via the link in our bio
NEXT WEEK 💫
There’s a final chance to join our course ‘Experimental Abstract Landscapes’ with artist Natalie Day. This is an opportunity to experiment with new ways of working and materials, as well as learning from other people’s approaches and practices.
Most importantly, this will be a chance to explore and experiment without judgement.
🔗 Find out more via the link in our bio
📅 27-29 August
📍 St Ives, Cornwall
LIVE WEBINAR THIS SATURDAY ✨
Hear why Hayle Beach and its surroundings are so special to artist Victoria Gillow during our visit to the unique, expansive dunes, as part of our Artist Landmarks series.
In the run up to and during Victoria’s live webinar, she will share exercises and techniques to help you fully immerse yourself in your chosen place - and show you how going through a process of absorbing your surroundings can help you to move a painting forwards.
🎥 Live broadcast: Saturday 7 Sept
🔗 Book via the link in our bio
#landscape #landscapes #landscapepainting #landscapepainter #paintings #painting #artist #art
A day of sun, cyanotypes and showers ☔️
Come with us as we followed our one day Cyanotyping workshop with @annabelwilkesprintmaking
Students learnt the process of exposing chosen found objects onto pre prepared photographic paper using the sunlight - leaving them with their very own recordings and images of the day at the studio!
#printmaking #cyanotypes #printmakersofinstagram #printdesign #printmaker #imagemaking
We`re counting down to St Ives September Festival, and in doing so we`re highlighting a featured tutor each week! Next up, environmental artist Greg Humphries.
Alongside his practice, @greghumphriesart specialises in outdoor education and woodland management, and a core part of his teaching includes going out into the landscapes and connecting with those environments on a different level. And that`s exactly what he`ll be doing during his two upcoming enchanting classes, which are centred around the Spirit of Place.
🔮 Surrealism, Magic + The Spirit of Place
📅 23 September, 09:30-12:30
🌱 Mondrian, Landscape + The Roots of Abstraction
📅 23 September, 13.30-16.30
🔗Find out more via the `September Festival` link in our bio!
Featured: Piet Mondrian, Tableau No. 2/Composition no. VII, 1913, oil on canvas © Mondrian/Holtzman Trust
Tutor, Gary Long, takes a trip down memory lane! 💭
Watch the full film on our YouTube channel or browse some of our courses coming up with @garylongartist. From painting flowers in oils to contemporary figure painting, learn from one of our most experienced tutors.
🔹Where Sea Meets Land, 30 Sept (one place left)
🔹Artist Landmarks - Pendeen, 11 Oct (online course)
🔹Contemporary Figure Painting, 25 Oct
🔹Painting Flowers in Oils, 11 Nov
🔗 Follow Gary Long via the link in our bio
#oilpainting #figure #painting #artstudio #comtemporaryart #contemporary
In the studio this September 🖼
Learn to create dynamic paintings by focusing on simple forms through `The Art of Keeping it Simple` with Marion Taylor or explore how to deepen your connection with the environment on our course with @greghumphriesart, Landscape + Psychogeography.
Plus, we have a brand-new figure course with new tutor @erobertsarts called The Realistic Portrait; with step-by-step guidance in painting head studies using oils.
So much to look forward to!
🔗 Follow September courses via the link in our bio
🖼 Featured, Emily Roberts
Last chance to join 🎬
Don`t miss your last chance to join our first of three live webinars, as part of our `Artist Landmarks` online series. Tomorrow, we will be exploring the historical location of Zennor in West Cornwall.
From the comfort of your home, guided by Hilary Gibson, discover the landscape that inspires her, and learn how to capture the essence of place, both in the landscape and back in the studio.
⏯️ Pre-course material available now
🎥 Live broadcast, Saturday 10 Aug, 16.30
🔗 Book your place via the link in our bio
Next week: Printmaking, Mixed Media & Milhazes ☀
We`re looking forward to a jam-packed week of exciting courses with a mixture of printmaking, mixed media exploration and oil painting essentials.
Plus, children get the chance to discover the vibrant and exciting work of Beatriz Milhazes! Here`s what`s coming up...
🐚 Coastal Cyanotypes (Printmaking): Tues 13 Aug, 10.00-16.00
🌿Botanical Relief (Printmaking): Weds 14 Aug, 10.00-16.00
🏔 Mixed Media Landscapes: Weds 14 Aug, 10.00-13.00
🎨Oil Painting Essentials: Thurs 15 Aug,10.00-13.00
🌲 KIDS: Nature Patterns: Fri 16 Aug, 10.00-12.30
🌊 Pastel Painting Seascapes: Fri 16 - Sun 18 August
🔗 Visit the links in our bio to find your preferred course!
NEW: The Art of the Sun + the Moon ☀🌙
In our brand new upcoming webinar, explore the process of creating art inspired by the sun and the moon through techniques guided by abstraction, surrealism and symbolism.
Explore how to connect more deeply with the sun and moon, and move beyond an illusionistic representation of them in painting, and discover how artists in the past have dealt with these subjects.
🎥 Live broadcast with @greghumphriesart,18 October
🔗 Find out more via the link in our bio
🖼 Credit: Rising Sun on the Plaza, Georgio de Chirico, 1976
With just over a month to go until the St Ives September Festival, we`ll be highlighting a featured artist per week in the run up! We`re looking forward to two week`s of inspirational art classes, led by our team of brilliant tutors.
First up is Kitty Hillier, teaching on 25 September ✨
Kitty`s work is rooted in what’s above and below the surface, with a belief that all things are connected. Her approach encourages play, experimentation and trust in our gut intuition.
Kitty will help you to look at your everyday surroundings afresh and create experimental and abstract compositions from a process of close observation, slow-drawing and playful mark-making.
🐚 Abstract Coastline
📅 25 September, 09:30-12:30
🧘♀️ Mindful Ways to Paint
📅 25 September, 13.30-16.30
🔗 Find out more via the `September Festival` link in our bio!
THIS SATURDAY 🧜🏻♀️💫
Escape to the magical, historical village of Zennor, without leaving your home or studio.
Join us for our first Artist Landmarks webinar, as Hilary Gibson takes us to Zennor and shares her techniques to help you capture the essence of place, both in the landscape and back in the studio.
⏯️ Pre-course material available now
🎥 Live broadcast, Saturday 10 Aug, 16.30
🔗 Find out more via the link in our bio
#landscapepainting #landscapepainter #landscapeart #sketching #painting #zennor #cornwall
"It was a very empowering morning. Positive guidance helped the whole class achieve an enormous amount of wonderful work together." - Louise
We are part way through a summer of wonder & creativity in the studios, after a number of fantastic classes - with students visiting from around the world!
Don`t miss your chance to secure your place for our upcoming August classes:
⚓Abstract Coastline: 7 Aug, 10.00-13.00 (2 places left)
🐚 Coastal Cyanotypes: 13 Aug, 10.00-16.00
🌿Botanical Relief: 14 Aug, 10.00-16.00
🏔Mixed Media Landscapes: 14 Aug, 10.00-13.00
🎨Oil Painting Essentials: 15 Aug,10.00-13.00
🌲 KIDS: Nature Patterns: 16 Aug, 10.00-12.30
🔗 Book via the `Summer Art Classes` link in our bio.
Welcome to our new tutor, Holly Razavi! 🌼
We`re thrilled to welcome Cornwall based, self taught artist @hollyrazaviart who will be teaching a brand new online webinar in November; `The Art of Painting the Ordinary`.
Holly`s playful oil paintings showcase delightful characters engaged in their daily activities, in various coastal and city landscapes. During the webinar, Holly hopes to help people to notice the often-overlooked details in their surroundings, encouraging a deeper appreciation of the world around them.
🔗 Find out more about Holly and her upcoming course via the link in our bio!
"You have opened up my love of art and given me the confidence to start" 💓
Our Approaching Painting studio course is ideal for beginners and provides a solid grounding in drawing and painting, learning simple and dynamic approaches to build your confidence.
Plus, with not one but two professional artists guiding you through the four days, this course is guaranteed to inspire and delight.
📅 28-31 October
📍 St Ives, Cornwall
🔗 Find out more via the link in our bio
🖼 Artwork by Steven Buckler
Learn from local printmaker, Annabel Wilkes ✨
This summer, reconnect with nature and discover new approaches to image making using materials found on our coastline.
Our upcoming one-day workshops with Annabel are perfect if you`re looking to loosen your approach to image making or simply looking to try out new and exciting ways of producing unique prints.
🐚 Coastal Cyanotypes
📅 13 August, 10.00-16.00
🍃Botanical Relief Printing
📅 14 August, 10.00-16.00
🔗 Find out more via the links in our bio!
@annabelwilkesprintmaking