Courses
If you are looking for new and interesting ways to fill winter evenings, we are now running evening courses on different aspects of art practice and appreciation. Each course runs over six weeks, and includes tuition, practice exercises or set tasks for participants, and plenty of opportunity to discuss things over coffee or a glass of wine. Full details will be published in the Calendar
Art Appreciation
Learn how to look at art, understand its messages, and gain confidence in your opinions about, and responses to, key works in western cultural history.
ART THAT CHANGED THE (WESTERN) WORLD: An Introduction to Art History Through Six Revolutionary Works
Each week we look at a particular work from the history of art, and use it as a reference point for the major ideas and values that shaped how we value how things look. Each hour-and-a-half session includes an illustrated talk, set tasks, open discussion time, and refreshments.
Week 1. The Venus of Berekhat Ram: prehistory and the origins of representational art
Week 2. The Discobolus, by Myron: Classical Greek art and the shaping of Western norms
Week 3. St Denis, Paris: the rise of the ‘barbarian’ North
Week 4. The School of Athens, by Raphael: the Renaissance, perspective, humanism, and a return to classicism
Week 5. Judith Slaying Holofernes, by Artemisia Gentileschi: why are there no famous women artists?
Week 6. Fountain, by Marcel Duchamp: the birth of Conceptual Art and beyond
PRICE PER PERSON: €150 (maximum 8 places)
Price includes all materials, instruction, and refreshments
Dates: tba
Art Techniques
Courses for anyone who wants to learn how to draw or paint from scratch, or improve existing skills. We offer a range of subjects and practical techniques to help you build your confidence and get you creating every day!
BASIC DRAWING SKILLS: A beginner's guide to how to see
A 6-week course based on Betty Edwards ‘Drawing on the Right Side of the Brain’. Each hour-and-a half-hour session covers a different aspect of representational drawing, taking you right back to basics so you learn how to translate the world around you into the language of line, shape and form.
Week 1. Introduction: re-learning how to see
Week 2. Contours: finding the edges and learning to see ‘the jigsaw’
Week 3. Space: negatives and positives
Week 4. Perspective: linear perspective (one- & two-point)
Week 5. Light: using value to describe form
Week 6. Bringing it all together: making the finished drawing
PRICE PER PERSON: €150 (maximum 8 places)
Price includes all materials, instruction, and refreshments
Dates: Thursday 8 February, 17.30-19.00, then every Thursday evening until 14 March 2024