Transformation: Painting through Form, Colour & the Imagination
This five-day course explores the transformative possibilities of painting through the teachings and spirit of Cecil Collins RA Rather than copying the visible world, we will explore how form, colour and imagination can become vehicles for something more inward and symbolic.
As Cecil Collins said, ‘We are here to interpret form not to copy it.’
The course will begin with drawing from the imagination, exploring mark-making, tonality, and rhythm. Using the traditional drawing instruments - reed and quill pens, Chinese brushes and ink, charcoal, Conte red crayon and pencils - participants will discover how harmonious marks can suggest movements, atmosphere, weight and form without describing a particular object.
Form is not something to be copied, but something to be discovered and transformed, then colour harmony can grow naturally out of the tonal drawings - moving from black, white, and grey into colour, from mark and tone towards the imaginative paintings.
Alongside the drawing, we will make colour harmony studies, exploring relationships between colours, creating atmosphere, light and seeing with an emotional response. These studies will become a foundation for the paintings developed throughout the week.
Each day will centre upon a different theme:
The Head - exploring the human form beyond portrait likeness, allowing the head to become a vessel for character, spirit and imagination.
The Sky and the Sea - responding to elemental movement, atmosphere and the infinite
relationship between earth, water and sky.
Landscape - moving from the observed landscape towards the imaginative landscape,
where hill, valley, tree, river and horizons may become symbolic forms.
Flowers - exploring organic form, rhythm, colour and transformation, allowing flowers to
move beyond botanical description into something poetic and symbolic.
Temenos - from the Greek meaning a sacred enclosure; an enclosed or set-apart space.
The final painting will bring together the week’s explorations, creating an imagined place of stillness, mystery and contemplation.
Booking Options
This five-day course explores the transformative possibilities of painting through the teachings and spirit of Cecil Collins RA Rather than copying the visible world, we will explore how form, colour and imagination can become vehicles for something more inward and symbolic.
As Cecil Collins said, ‘We are here to interpret form not to copy it.’
The course will begin with drawing from the imagination, exploring mark-making, tonality, and rhythm. Using the traditional drawing instruments - reed and quill pens, Chinese brushes and ink, charcoal, Conte red crayon and pencils - participants will discover how harmonious marks can suggest movements, atmosphere, weight and form without describing a particular object.
Form is not something to be copied, but something to be discovered and transformed, then colour harmony can grow naturally out of the tonal drawings - moving from black, white, and grey into colour, from mark and tone towards the imaginative paintings.
Alongside the drawing, we will make colour harmony studies, exploring relationships between colours, creating atmosphere, light and seeing with an emotional response. These studies will become a foundation for the paintings developed throughout the week.
Each day will centre upon a different theme:
The Head - exploring the human form beyond portrait likeness, allowing the head to become a vessel for character, spirit and imagination.
The Sky and the Sea - responding to elemental movement, atmosphere and the infinite
relationship between earth, water and sky.
Landscape - moving from the observed landscape towards the imaginative landscape,
where hill, valley, tree, river and horizons may become symbolic forms.
Flowers - exploring organic form, rhythm, colour and transformation, allowing flowers to
move beyond botanical description into something poetic and symbolic.
Temenos - from the Greek meaning a sacred enclosure; an enclosed or set-apart space.
The final painting will bring together the week’s explorations, creating an imagined place of stillness, mystery and contemplation.
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