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Our next 'Freedom in Painting ' workshop will be held once again at the Augustine Art Centre at Canterbury Christchurch University. On this workshop, using the life-model, the challenge for all participants is to explore the idea of '2 Figures' in a painting, with it's possibilities of narrative.....
We will spend the first morning drawing extensively from our first model building on our observational skills before starting on our painting and as usual Ashley will have a few surprises for you! On Day Two, we will introduce our second model into the composition.
To book and guarantee your place: email or call 01208 77656
Comments from our last workshop
As always, stimulating, challenging, exhausting! I look forward to more.
Teddy Kempster
Ashley's very approachable, gentle and sensitive while being a clear and dynamic tutor and workshop leader. Thoroughly enjoyed my journey! Big Thank-you and to Denise for exceptional admin skills.
Selina Firth
Very supportive approach and good teaching style. I feel more confident.
Katrina Jean Dallamore
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- Ashley Hanson
The Life Boat Art Studio - Porthleven
The artists had a fantastic week, (weather included) and this year our exhibition days coincided with the Porthleven Food and Music Festival bringing many more visitors to the town and the studio to view the work. Most of the artists had worked with Ashley before but as always he came up with some new challenges and surprises and the end result was some really exciting work! Porthleven is an extraordinary place with its iconic clock tower, double harbour and beaches and its ever changing light, weather and tides - it never fails to inspire.
Far left -the Lifeboat Art Studio , The Ship Inn, in the foreground
The artists gathered at the studio Sunday afternoon to set up their space, followed by an introductory talk where Ashley discussed the aims and principles of the course.A perfect opportunity for the group to meet each other before visiting the Ship Inn (which became known as the unofficial office!) for a bite and a pint.
Jane Crane's drawing
The first morning was spent drawing around the harbour from a variety of viewpoints, collecting information and finding inspiration and ideas. After lunch the artists returned to the studio and took part in a series of drawing and colour exercises before Ashley let them loose on their paintings.
Helen painting outside
Bruce drawing outside the studio
Day two was structured in a similar way but then the studio became the focus as the artists pushed their paintings further. Ashley was on hand to give individual mentoring and there was lots of opportunities for groups discussions and critiques which the artists found invaluable.Once again everyone enjoyed seeing Ashley develop his own painting, giving an insight into his working process, demonstrating tips and techniques along the way. With the exhibition looming the artists were totally committed, often working into the early evening before retiring to the office for some well earned food, drink and laughter!
Ashley with Mitzi
Studio Shot
This year the group benefited from an additional half day on Friday morning to finish their paintings and a full day exhibition on the Saturday. Friday afternoon was spent transforming the studio into a gallery in preparation for the Preview on Friday evening and what a transformation! Colour and strong line filed the room, the paintings complimented by the drawings and studies. It looked amazing. Ashley's working painting 'Porthleven 20' was also exhibited but he is still not sure if it has been resolved..., what do you think?
Bruce Campbell's Painting
Helen Herbert's Painting
Ashley Hanson's Painting
John Robson's Painting
Jane Crane's Painting
Mitzi Delnevo's Painting
A BIG thank-you to the Porthleven Food and Music Festival for supporting us and helping to spread the word about the exhibition via the website , Facebook and Twitter and it was great to meet you.
Friday night Preview
Gallery Ready for Opening
Dinner at Amelies
After the Preview we celebrated the week's achievements, together with the younger Hansons at Amelies Restaurant , thank-you to Paul James (who was one of the performing chef's at the Food Festival) for a lovely dinner.Before the opening on Saturday, Ashley brought the artists together for a final critique of the work. The exhibition was very well received and the artists enjoyed their many conversations with visitors to the show.
As well as the increased numbers to the exhibition an added bonus was that all the group got to see and participate in the festival during the weekend.
Well done to everyone, the quality of work produced in just one week was exceptional. From your comments , we are so glad you enjoyed it and hope you are not left too exhausted! As soon as we have the dates in place for next year, we will let you know!
Ashley was interviewed by the Porthleven Food & Drink Festival organisers. Here he speaks about the Art Exhibition, the artists work made during the week and their commitment to the course and their art practice.
Our October Porthleven 'Freedom in Painting' course for this year is now fully booked but if you are interested in joining us next year or finding out more about our courses and holidays see courses or would like to join our mailing list email Denise here.
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- Ashley Hanson
You can feel the excitement in the air already down in #Porthleven as they prepare for the Porthleven Food & Music Festival. We are really looking forward to it - especially with our exhibition coinciding on the same weekend. Hope you can get to both!Come along to the Friday night Preview 5-7.30pm (just before the Hayseed Dixie band are live on stage 7pm ) or the next day, Saturday 10-5pm. Ashley and our experienced artists will be working extremely hard all week - looking forward to showing their work in the exhibition.
The exhibition is in the Lifeboat Art Studio, next to The Ship Inn on Mount Pleasant Road by the harbour.
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DAY 5
The stars went in, an Alizarin glaze on the pink block, a couple of additional lines, tried and discarded, and it was done. This magical moment, when the painting says STOP! is unexplainable, intuitive, based on knowledge only up to a certain point because this is a new thing. Ideas, process, probing, testing, melt into pleasure, the senses.
Familiar themes of the grids of architecture and the street interlocking, a building 'there but not there', now you see it , now you don't. A rare sky, both inside and outside Grand Central station...fake sky, fake constellations, fact & fiction. The curve of the sky is the new thing, echoed by curves within the painting. The stalagmite orange line pulsates, the proportion and arrangement of the rectangles feel right, glowing with colour, one with light. A window? I love the strength of the intersection of the long horizontal and vertical,(42nd St & Lexington Ave), almost making a painting within a painting but then not. The eye is led upwards. The familiar figure of Stillman from 'The New York Trilogy' * appeared at one point, two Stillmans, blue left, brown right: there are few traces, edited out, but they forced the issue and moved the painting forwards- this painting is about something else.
DAY 4
Colour is happening and a more complex space. None of the usual colour horrors bringing it into the daylight. The dominant vertical that emerged - (Lexington Avenue) is on the Golden Section, as is the 'horizon' line. Over 30 years, I can't remember ever using these proportions deliberately/consciously, though I guess they have appeared. Together with the curve of the sky, the painting makes me think of ' The Baptism of Christ' by Piero della Francesca, with the weird hovering bird. Looking at the two paintings, there is also the strange co-incidence of the angled leg of the figure on the right and the diagonal in my painting- spooky, almost a reverse image.
The constellations/letters are going back in tomorrow and refinements adjustments of the verticals and horizontals.
Early days...the sky will be the deepest blue, letters hidden among the constellations in the vaulted ceiling of Grand Central Station....ghost avenues.....the 'scaffolding' of the streets still raw.. the dual carriageway of Park Avenue pointing to the heavens, also the radio tower atop a half-hidden building... * a novel by Paul Auster
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'City of Glass 29 - (Babylon)' 100x75cms
TUES I've had a change of mind- 'Babylon' is the title of the painting.
MON I have been looking for hours at this piece- I think it is resolved. Denise is not sure but Ollie says it's his favourite.
Any more additions/complications will detract from the strength of the bricks running through the image of Manhattan. I've simplified the yellows and Central Park and put in the rivers of New York, adding a curious drawn, linear element to the painting. Now I have, like the novel*, a mix of the ancient and the present day. Manhattan sits, like Babylon, between two rivers, the bricks/canvases and image within reminiscent of the friezes of the Ishtar Gate. The shape of the canvas relates to the ziggurat-shape of the Tower of Babel, which is, of course, made of bricks. The only dilemma is the title: 'Babylon' or 'Tigris and Euphrates'.
The usual horrors when I took it out of the studio into natural light. The yellows are crude and the surface too knobbly and complicated. The bricks/canvases must be more prominent - I'll gouge out the paint in the cracks. Am liking how the Manhattan shape site in the shape of the piece, the pinks are doing something and colours and paint in the Lower East Side. It's not enough- back we go.
Day 2I had to go to work today- so just a couple of hours in the studio. Colour is starting to happen and bricks/canvases more prominent. Manhattan image emerging. The larger bricks will be broken down into smaller bricks with the proportions of a New York city block. Manhattan will be covered with a brick pattern instead of blocks- made of bricks like the Tower of Babel. I think the scale is going to be 1 brick = 6 blocks, hence the new title. The painting takes on the idea of the enormous scale of the new Babel, where every inhabitant of North America will have their own room...... Think again of the words: 1 brick is the size of 6 city blocks... My daughter Faye likes the colours.
Day 1
* 'The New York Trilogy' by Paul Auster.