Experimental Painting and Drawing

The Language of Art

This holiday course aims to provide a variety of playful ways of discovering which part of the language of art you enjoy the most. This course is suitable for complete beginners, but it is also designed for those with more experience, including art students and professional artists seeking new directions and time to think about their work, away from their usual routines.


An experimental approach, particularly to drawing, will be encouraged so that all who attend can discover a form of expression that is suited to them. Exercises will be included that will help to discover ways to bypass the conscious brain creating a more intuitive response.

Each morning there will be a workshop with a different focus, these will include:

• Draw, Walk, Measure, Observe, Record, observational drawing
• Blue Parrot in Blue Sky: Colour exploration, hue and tone
• Symbols and Metaphors: How to invent and use them in painting
• Photography: Different ways of using photographic imagery in a painting
• The Landscape of Greece: an exploration of foreground, mid-ground and infinity
• Narrative Painting: story-boarding a painting

Afternoons will be reserved for the beach.

Student-centred Programme

The maximum group size will be 8, which will allow for the possibility of one-to-one tutorials in the evenings, and a student centred programme for the week. One of the aims of the course is to encourage the participants to discover ways of integrating what they have learnt into their daily lives after the end of the course. The ethos behind this course is a belief that the language of art is innate and that it is open to anyone. As well as art being fun and enjoyable it as an activity that brings a sense of achievement by means of growing a deeper sense of self-awareness.

Materials:

Please bring a small A5 sketchbook and a larger one for painting: A2 or A3 both should be good quality paper, a small set of acrylic paints and brushes, charcoal and anything else you like to use. Also a digital camera!

About Jan Crombie

Jan is an established artist who is based in Oxford (UK). Having trained at Goldsmiths College London in Painting she graduated with a 1st class honours degree in 1975. Jan has since exhibited her work widely in the UK and Europe.

In 1979 Jan completed a postgraduate teaching qualification at Oxford University and has since combined teaching with developing her own work. Her teaching experience is extensive and as well as teaching in Schools she has run a variety of classes for community groups and a yearly Summer School for 60 children aged from 6-16.

Currently Jan teaches Drawing and Painting on the Foundation Course in Art and Design at Abingdon and Witney College, Oxford.

In addition to her College teaching and her own work Jan also is director of a group studio complex in Oxford (see website adjacent). As part of her job as director Jan organizes talks by visiting artists, residencies, and a mentoring program.