Fowey River panorama with Village Hall studio bottom-left
Beautiful, unspoilt Polruan was our location for the latest 'Freedom in Painting' course in Cornwall.
Subject matter was not hard to find: the spectacular diamond-shaped panorama of the busy River Fowey, the intimacy of the small working boatyard and the framed glimpses of river between buildings were the catalyst for the many strong paintings made during the five days.
The course began with demonstrations followed by three group exercises designed to enter painting three different ways: through colour & shape, through mark-making, and after a drawing session on location, through abstraction and extreme reduction. Building on this, from this point on it was up to the artists to explore the relationship between line and colour and decide how much figuration/information their paintings needed or how 'abstract' or 'figurative' they wished their paintings to be.
All nonsense of course to have these labels, but the aim of the course, through the exercises, the response to the landscape, the demonstations, dialogue and a creative environment was for each artist to aquire more knowledge and ideas about painting and its possibilities, hopefully creating a desired shift in their own practice.
And to have a couple of pieces to hang on the wall!
Carol Hayslip's drawings
GALLERY
TESTIMONIALS
'To learn from someone who is passionate about art was fab SUE FRAY
'A brilliant course. It fulfilled all my goals of producing an abstract painting and learning how to loosen up my current way of working' ANITA BONE
'Ashley keeps us on point and spends time to consider and suggest without being emphatic.Great! CAROL HAYSLIP
'Thanks for your dedication and serious honesty' GERALDINE FRANKLIN
'Polruan' 25x35cms ASHLEY HANSON