The extensive walled gardens and orchards at West Dean provide a large harvest, from ornamental gourds to edible vegetables, beautiful fruit and intricate seedheads.

The aims of the course are to:

• Improve your skills in watercolour techniques
• Increase your confidence in botanical painting
• Develop your knowledge and understanding of colours and colour-mixing theory
• Enable you to use light and dark to paint three-dimensional looking subjects
• Show you how to use blemishes and other features to make the fruits and vegetables look realistic and to give them personality

Your tutor will teach you techniques in sketching, wet-in-wet watercolour painting, dry brush painting, colour mixing, composition, tone and shadows, planning a painting and keeping a sketchbook, and creating volume. She will support you with demonstrations and lectures on the techniques, as well as one-to-one support.

During the course, you will become more familiar with the watercolour painting process, gain theoretical knowledge, as well as practice, be able to paint better looking fruit and vegetables, improve your identification of colours and be able to reproduce them, and produce one or several finished paintings. There will also be a session on Harmonic Shadows, a method by which local colours are used to create shadow colours in harmony with the subject.

At the end of the course, you should be able to take home some sketches and at least one finished painting.

Included

• Fruit, vegetables and seedheads from the West Dean orchards and walled gardens are provided, as well as additional Fruit and vegetables from the tutor’s garden
• you are welcome to bring some subjects if you would like to paint Something specific

What students need to bring

• If you like working on stretched paper, you might like to stretch a couple of sheets on board, ready to start painting.
• Brushes
• Watercolour paper (at least 300 gsm, Hot Pressed or NOT)
• Tracing paper
• Cartridge paper or sketchbook
• Watercolour paints (artist’s quality preferably) - in all the colours you have
• Palette
• Drawing equipment (pencil, putty rubber, plastic rubber, etc.)
• Water pot
• Cotton cloths
• Transfer paper
• Any equipment you usually use
• Optional: Gummed tape (if you stretch your paper)

Available to buy

Available from shop: A good variety of art materials, including:

• Brushes
• Watercolour paper
• Tracing paper
• Cartridge paper
• Sketchbooks
• Watercolour paints
• Palettes
• Gummed tape
• Drawing equipment, including pencils, putty rubbers, plastic rubbers, etc

Available from tutor:

• Some paints
• Heavyweight paper
• Some art materials

Additional information

Please wear appropriate clothing/aprons for the workshop or studio, this includes stout covered footwear (no sandals or open toes).

Arrival day - first date of course
Residential students can arrive from 4pm, non-residential students to arrive by 6.45pm for registration  
Student welcome, followed by dinner: 6.45pm (dinner included)
Teaching session: 8pm-9pm (attendance is essential)

Daily timetable
Course teaching: 9.15am-5pm  
Morning session: 9.15am-12.45pm including coffee/tea break  
Lunch break: 12.45pm-2pm (lunch included)  
Afternoon session: 2pm-5pm including coffee/tea break  
Teaching finishes: 5pm    
Evening working: students may have access to workshops until 9pm, but only with permission from the tutor and provided any health and safety guidelines are observed.

Departure day - last date of course
Course teaching: 9.15am-3pm (lunch included)  
Teaching finishes: 3pm  

Residential students will need to check out of rooms by 10am.
Please note, the tutor may make slight variations to the daily timetable as required.

Terms & Conditions