The Old Lifeboat House Studio, Porthleven...
Once again, the recent Autumn courses in Porthleven were a great success with our artists producing a fabulous body of work, reponding to the beauty and complexity of the Porthleven landscape. This year we had artists joining us from Paris and Mauritius and on the second week we welcomed the Mays Farm Studio group from Wallingford, Oxfordshire. One of our artists, Jane Crane, took advantage of a cancellation to take part on both courses!
The courses began with visits to galleries in St. Ives including the Terry Frost exhibition at Belgrave St. Ives and the Rothko and Beatriz Milhazes exhibition at Tate St. Ives which gave us inspiration for the group exercise on our return to the studio. My demonstration painting for the exercise, inspired by Rothko's reds in the last room at the Tate, became 'Porthleven 75 (The Last Room)' during the week.
Group Exercise: paintings inspired by Rothko and Beatriz Milhazes. L-R; Jane Crane, Hazel Crawford, Erica Shipley
On Sunday morning we drew extensively around the harbour, a series of rapid sketches, both to get to know Porthleven from all viewpoints and to provide ideas and information for paintings. After lunch, back at the studio, after a talk and demonstration, the artists were encouraged begin their paintings, referencing their drawings, experiences, memory, art history...
Over the next few days, the artists developed their paintings with continuous individual tuition. There were also further demonstations, group critiques, and additional references to art history, seeing other artists' jouneys, how they developed and innovated.
Artists and their exhibition...
Working indirectly from the subject, from memory, from drawings, can release the imagination and encourage innovation. This is the ethos behind 'Freedom in Painting' - a belief that as artists we cannot stand still with our work, we are eternally restless, curious, craving surprise...On the couses we hope to create a fertile, creative environment, where artists are encouraged to embrace challenges in their painting, to take risks, to play, to experiment, to create something new, to understand their painting and do whatever it takes to make it stronger. And be bold with colour!
The finale of the first course was a one-day exhition, where we welcomed a record 178 visitors to the studio!
Work & play...Denise and Trevor waving not drowning...
The Old Lifeboat House in Porthleven is perfect studio, located at the head of the harbour. Imagine - painting to the sound of the sea, with ever-changing light, weather, tides...A great place place for cold water swimming too if you are brave enough!
Sarah Burton's paintings...
As you can see from the galleries below - only a selection of the works - our committed artists produced a fantastic collection of paintings, with many achieving a breakthrough in their practice.
Hats off to the artists!!
(there is also an extensive gallery of larger images on Facebook; https://www.facebook.com/ashleyhansonart
GALLERIES
Clocktowers...'Porthleven 75 (The Last Room/Icon)' and view from the studio
ARTISTS COMMENTS:
'I found Ashley's individual comments very helpful - I particularly enjoyed the structure of painting an individual subject' Trevor Powell
'I found the course very helpful in steering me in the desired direction of moving from realistic painting towards abstraction. I feel I have gained more freedom in my choices as an artist' Vesna Vujicic-Lucassy
'Ashley's presentation was very good and the gallery visits followed by experimental work was great' Diane Oldfield
'I always find a course with Ashley helps me move my art forwards.' Hazel Crawford