I had booked up a three day course called 'Watercolour Painting in St Ives' with the St Ives School of Painting and had chosen to stay in a little hotel called ‘The Nook’ which was absolutely wonderful.
This was the first time I had decided to book myself on a 3 day course away from home and I was really looking forward to it.
St Ives is a wonderful little town on the south coast of Cornwall and has the most extraordinary ultraviolet light which artists flock to see and to try and capture. The town itself is full of art galleries, lovely quaint shops and plenty of restaurants as well as having The Tate, St Ives overlooking Porthmeor Beach.
The course I attended was run by Hilary Gibson and it was just great. She had us trying out some paint techniques in the studio before heading out to town with our paint, pads and stools to try it out for real. We painted on the cliffs, on the pier, and in the harbour. We were able to try out various techniques and in some instances had to use just one colour and paint in various tones. For some of the exercises we were only allowed 20 mins to paint a picture. Hilary was always around to give expert advice and tips on ways to develop your painting and as there were only 8 in the class she had plenty of time to spend with us.
Each day she introduced some more techniques to us and by day three we were able to spend more time painting a single picture.
It was a brilliant course, the other students got on really well and to top it all the sun shone every single day…..which compared to the rest of England was a miracle. Mind you, we did have a two minute freaky hailstorm which not only drenched us, but also soaked our paintings if we weren’t quick enough to hide them…..although for those that didn’t have time, the effect of the hail on the pictures was quite dramatic!
Here is one sketch I did on my final day of the boats in the harbour.
Here are some of the pictures I took as I walked around the town:
St Ives School of Painting
St Ives School of Painting
The Tate, St Ives
I came away from St Ives with lots of lovely memories, lots of inspiration for more pictures and very sunburnt shoulders !!!!!
For more information, please find links below:
St Ives School of Painting – contact James Barry on info@stivesartschool.co.uk
Web: http://www.stivesartschool.co.uk/
Tel: 01736 797180
The Nook Hotel – contact John on http://www.nookstives.co.uk/
Lovely hotel, very friendly – thoroughly recommend it.
The Tate St Ives http://www.tate.org.uk/stives/
