Art Courses
About Freedom in Painting
Find your freedom - painting courses in Cornwall, Aylesbury and Kent.
The concept of ‘Freedom in Painting’ is that as artists, rather than being in awe of the subject, to move our practice forward, we need to invent, challenge and surprise ourselves and transform the subject into something that is ours, utilizing all our knowledge and skills in the pursuit of an idea.
Our NEW Loyalty Programme
From January 2023, if you attend four courses or workshops (including online workshops) - with at least one being a course in Cornwall, you will be eligible for a Limited Edition (50) Signed Giclee. You can find out more HERE.
To contact Ashley Hanson, please email or call 01208 77656 or 07534 043845.
at Online ZOOM Workshop
Using the ZOOM online platform, we aim to replicate the format and ambitions of our popular Freedom in Painting workshops. Suitable for artists with some experience. You will need a space to work and a reasonable internet connection and a laptop or tablet.
'Blue, blue, electric blue
That's the color of my room
Where I will live
Blue, blue....'
'SOUND & VISION' David Bowie
A 2 day ZOOM workshop mixing/making/working with the beautiful and evocative colour BLUE...Why blue, which blue, how blue? The colour blue in painting is rich in symbolism, meaning, emotion: working with our own subject, over the 2 days in the workshop we’ll explore the qualities, differences, and uses of blue in our paintings
See HERE for Gallery and report from the 'TREE' online Workshop
See HERE for Gallery and report from 'MATISSE & NOTRE-DAME' online Workshop
See HERE for Gallery of work and report from 'INTERIOR - Painting the Room' Online Workshop.
at The Old Lifeboat House
The unspoilt fishing-village of Porthleven, with its' iconic clock- tower and unique double-harbour, is the setting and inspiration for this 6-day painting course in Cornwall. Our studio is the Old Lifeboat House, dramatically positioned at the head of the harbour. Uniquely on our courses, artists will be working towards a one-day exhibition on the Thursday 11 May. This is an opportunity for artists with some experience to work in a small group – maximum seven - in a wonderful location that has inspired many of Ashley's own paintings.
Click HERE for review and gallery from the Autumn 2022 Porthleven courses
Click HERE for review and gallery from the May 2022 Porthleven course
at Port Isaac Village Hall
Port Isaac is a traditional fishing village set amidst rugged and magnificent scenery on Cornwall's North coast, with narrow winding streets lined with whitewashed cottages that head down to the harbour. Truly inspirational: a rich variety of viewpoints and subject matter, an intoxicating mix of the natural and the man-made coastal landscape.
Click HERE for review and gallery from the 2022 Port Isaac course
Click HERE for review and gallery of the 2017 Port Isaac course
at Online ZOOM Workshop
Using the ZOOM online platform, we aim to replicate the format and ambitions of our popular Freedom in Painting workshops. Suitable for artists with some experience. You will need a space to work and a reasonable internet connection and a laptop or tablet.
Do you have a special tree? A 2 day ZOOM workshop painting your tree: real or imagined, magical, spiritual, symbolic, totemic, in bloom or bare and linear. In terms of painting, the motif of the tree presents opportunities to explore narrative and structure, strength and delicacy, expressive mark-making and abstraction.
See HERE for Gallery and report from 'MATISSE & NOTRE-DAME' online Workshop
See HERE for Gallery of work and report from 'INTERIOR - Painting the Room' Online Workshop.
See HERE for Gallery of work and report from the 'INTERPRETATION' Online Worksop
at Queens Park Art Centre, Aylesbury
'Colour is the only direction for painting'. A 2 -day workshop exploring the power of colour through the vision and extraordinary paintings of Patrick Heron, 'Celebrations of the visible', and a bridge between the European and American traditions of painting.
at Online ZOOM Workshop
Using the ZOOM online platform, we aim to replicate the format and ambitions of our popular Freedom in Painting workshops. Suitable for artists with some experience. You will need a space to work and a reasonable internet connection and a laptop or tablet.
Matisse painted numerous views of Notre-Dame, which he could see from his studio window on the quai St-Michel in Paris. For Matisse, each painting of Notre-Dame was a reinvention; no two of his responses resemble each other. 'I never tire of it,' he said of the view in 1919, at the end of his second stint in the building, 'for me it is always new'. This workshop presents artists the opportunity to work out of and re-invent from Matisse's iconic series.
See HERE for Gallery of work and report from 'INTERIOR - Painting the Room' Online Workshop.
See HERE for Gallery of work and report from the 'INTERPRETATION' Online Worksop
See HERE for Gallery of work made and brief write-up on 'Image & Ground', our first online workshop.
at The Old Lifeboat House
The unspoilt fishing-village of Porthleven, with its' iconic clock- tower and unique double-harbour, is the setting and inspiration for this 6-day painting course in Cornwall. Our studio is the Old Lifeboat House, dramatically positioned at the head of the harbour. Uniquely on our courses, artists will be working towards a one-day exhibition on the Thursday 12 May. This is an opportunity for artists with some experience to work in a small group – maximum seven - in a wonderful location that has inspired many of Ashley's own paintings.
Click here for review and gallery from the Autumn 2021 Porthleven courses
Click here for review and gallery from the Autumn 2020 Porthleven courses
at Port Isaac Village Hall
Port Isaac is a traditional fishing village set amidst rugged and magnificent scenery on Cornwall's North coast, with narrow winding streets lined with whitewashed cottages that head down to the harbour. Truly inspirational: a rich variety of viewpoints and subject matter, an intoxicating mix of the natural and the man-made coastal landscape.
Click here for review and gallery from the 2015 painting holiday where we visited Port Isaac and Trebarwith Strand
Click here for review and report from the 2017 April Port Isaac course.
at The Old Lifeboat House
The unspoilt fishing-village of Porthleven, with its' iconic clock- tower and unique double-harbour, is the setting and inspiration for this 6-day painting course in Cornwall. Our studio is the Old Lifeboat House, dramatically positioned at the head of the harbour. Uniquely on our courses, artists will be working towards a one-day exhibition on the Thursday 29 September, open to the public. This is an opportunity for artists with some experience to work in a small group – maximum seven - in a wonderful location that has inspired many of Ashley's own paintings.
Click here for review and gallery from the Autumn 2021 courses
Click here for review and gallery from the COVID safe Autumn 2020 Porthleven courses
at The Old Lifeboat House
The unspoilt fishing-village of Porthleven, with its' iconic clock- tower and unique double-harbour, is the setting and inspiration for this 6-day painting course in Cornwall. Our studio is the Old Lifeboat House, dramatically positioned at the head of the harbour. Uniquely on our courses, artists will be working towards a one-day exhibition on the Thursday 6 October, open to the public. This is an opportunity for artists with some experience to work in a small group – maximum seven - in a wonderful location that has inspired many of Ashley's own paintings.
View from the studio
Click HERE for review and gallery from the Autumn 2022 Porthleven courses
Click HERE for review and gallery from the May 2022 Porthleven course
