Home Workshops, Courses and Talks

Autumn & Winter Term:

Thursdays, 19 September - 24 October & 7 November - 12 December (12 weeks)

£330 | Friends £297

Mary Watts established the tradition of Thursday evening courses at the Artists’ Village. Over 100 years later these continue to take place in our historic galleries and purpose-built studios. Work with professional artists, hone your skills, learn new techniques and make art to take home. Suitable for beginners and improvers.

Pottery

6.30 - 8.30pm

Foyle Pottery Studio

Pre-booking required

Led by Joshua Schoeman

Build your confidence in working with clay with guidance on making pinched, coiled and slab-built forms, as well as handbuilding and surface decoration. Learn more about glazing and firing, and gain experience in throwing on a potter’s wheel. Your finished creations will be fired in our kiln for you to keep.

Autumn & Winter Term:

Thursdays, 19 September - 24 October & 7 November - 12 December (12 weeks)

£330 | Friends £297

Mary Watts established the tradition of Thursday evening courses at the Artists’ Village. Over 100 years later these continue to take place in our historic galleries and purpose-built studios. Work with professional artists, hone your skills, learn new techniques and make art to take home. Suitable for beginners and improvers.

Drawing

6.30 - 8.30pm

 Main Gallery

Led by Jane Allison

Gain an understanding of the techniques, materials and tools for drawing portraits and the human form. Using pencil, charcoal, pastels and different coloured papers, learn more about proportion, shading, expression and capturing facial characteristics.

Unfolding Orientalism in Art & Architecture

Mondays, 30 September - 28 October, 11am - 1pm

£150 | Friends £135

 Old Kiln 

During the artistic career of John Frederick Lewis, many Western artists sought to capture the architecture, landscape and culture of the Middle East. It was Edward Said who later described this approach as ‘Orientalism’, situating it in relation to white European colonisation. This course will examine the ways in which Lewis and his contemporaries encountered, explored and depicted Islamic art and architecture, investigating both the historical and representational issues of British Orientalism.

Unfolding Orientalism in Art & Architecture

Mondays, 30 September - 28 October, 11am - 1pm

£35 | Friends £31.50

 Old Kiln

During the artistic career of John Frederick Lewis, many Western artists sought to capture the architecture, landscape and culture of the Middle East. It was Edward Said who later described this approach as ‘Orientalism’, situating it in relation to white European colonisation. This course will examine the ways in which Lewis and his contemporaries encountered, explored and depicted Islamic art and architecture, investigating both the historical and representational issues of British Orientalism.

Metalpoint

Saturday 11 January, 11am - 4pm
£85 | Friends £76.50

Led by Dr Alixe Bovey

The medieval art of silverpoint - the technique of using a metal stylus to draw on a mildly abrasive ground - was revived in the 19th century by artists who enjoyed the precise quality of its line. Inspired by Old Masters and 19th-century revivalists, this workshop introduces you to the materials and methods of the medium, teaching you to draw with silver and gold.

The Artist & Studio
Painting the Figure in Space

Saturday 18 January,
10.30am - 4.30pm
£95 | Friends £85.50
Includes refreshments

Led by Tim Patrick

From G F Watts to William Orpen, John Singer Sargent to Paula Rego, artists have often painted sitters in their studio spaces. This workshop will help you confidently observe figures in space and produce a finished painting to take home.

3D Paper Portraiture

Two day course: Friday 7 & Friday 14 February,
11am - 4pm
£150 | Friends £135

Led by Louise Grundy

Working with our Artist in Residence, create an intricate papier-mâché sculpture of someone you love, admire or want to commemorate. This two-day workshop will encourage you to tell their story layer upon layer, using recycled materials, as well as copies of family photographs, birth and death certificates and pages from books.

Daring Women Dinner Service
Sunday 8 March
11am - 1pm or 2 - 4pm
£30 | Friends £27

Pre-booking required | Led by Penny Green

Design and decorate a hand-thrown ceramic plate to commemorate a daring woman in history. Drawing on the Famous Women Dinner Service by Vanessa Bell and Duncan Grant – contemporaries of Mary Watts – create a special reminder of the women, past and present, who have inspired you.

Winter & Spring Term: Pottery Course
Thursdays, 9 January - 13 February &
27 February - 2 April (12 weeks)
6.30 - 8.30pm
£330 | Friends £297

Led by Joshua Schoeman

Try your hand at making beautiful objects in clay to take home - with guidance on a range of techniques including throwing, hand-building, surface decoration and glazing. This course also covers modelling sculpture in clay, with the opportunity to create a portrait bust. 

Drawing Course
Thursdays,
Winter Term: Anatomy & Life Models - 9 January - 13 February
Spring Term: Materials & Techniques - 27 February - 2 April
6.30 - 8.30pm
£165 | Friends £148.50 (6 weeks)
£330 | Friends £297 (12 weeks)

Led by Jane Allison
 

From the basics of anatomical drawing to more refined portraiture, gain confidence in drawing the human form. In the first six weeks, learn the essentials, exploring line, tone, anatomy and proportion and working from life models and casts made by G F Watts. In the second term, master the use of different materials and drawing techniques, working in charcoal, pastels, chalk, watercolour and oils and studying from sitters, sketches and photographs.

History of Art Course
Artists in their Studios: History, Images & Art

Mondays, 13 January - 10 February, 11am - 1pm

£150 | Friends £135

for full series of 5 classes

£35 | Friends £31.50

for single lecture

The history of artists’ studios reflects the changing status of artists. From the private workshops of medical patrons to sites of co-production in the early 20th century, artists’ studios are conflicted spaces. Drawing on the significance of William Orpen’s studio in his work, this course will explore the evolution of the artist’s studio, as well as its impact on artistic practice and the many ways in which it has been portrayed.

History of Art Course
Artists in their Studios: History, Images & Art

Mondays, 13 January - 10 February, 11am - 1pm

£150 | Friends £135

for full series of 5 classes

£35 | Friends £31.50

for single lecture

The history of artists’ studios reflects the changing status of artists. From the private workshops of medical patrons to sites of co-production in the early 20th century, artists’ studios are conflicted spaces. Drawing on the significance of William Orpen’s studio in his work, this course will explore the evolution of the artist’s studio, as well as its impact on artistic practice and the many ways in which it has been portrayed.

An Evening with... Edmund de Waal

Thursday 19 December
Doors open 6.45pm | 7pm
£25 | Friends £22.50
Pre-event mulled wine in the Old Kiln

Join internationally renowned artist and best-selling author, Edmund de Waal, OBE, as he explores the relationship artists have with their studios. Examining the interweaving of making and writing in his own practice, Edmund will also reflect on how other artists have used their most intimate and creative spaces, from Cy Twombly and Sally Mann to Anselm Kiefer and Agnes Martin.

Edmund de Waal is best known for his large-scale installations of porcelain vessels housed in minimal structures and his critical engagement with historic archives, architecture, music and poetry.

He has exhibited worldwide, with exhibitions at The Frick Collection, New York; Jewish Museum, Venice; Schindler House, Los Angeles, Kunsthistorisches Museum, Vienna; Turner Contemporary, Margate; and the Kunsthaus, Graz, where he co-curated an exhibition with Ai Weiwei.

De Waal is also renowned for his family memoir, The Hare with Amber Eyes (2010), which won many literary prizes including the RSL Ondaatje Prize and the Costa Biography Award and has been translated into more than 30 languages. His second book, The White Road, was published in 2015. The same year, he was awarded the Windham-Campbell Prize for non-fiction by Yale University. 

Portraiture Now:
The Legacy of William Orpen’s Painting in Portraiture Today

Wednesday 29 January
Doors open 6.45pm | 7pm
£15 | Friends £13.50

In association with the Royal Society of Portrait Painters, exhibiting in Watts Contemporary Gallery from
11 January - 23 February 2020 (pg. 3).

Sir William Orpen was President of the Royal Society of Portrait Painters from 1924 - 1930. During this time, many other of the period’s influential portrait painters also became members, including Sir Augustus John and Ambrose McEvoy. Drawing on the techniques and stylistic changes to portraiture in the early part of the 20th century, this panel discussion will explore the influence of Orpen and his contemporaries on portrait painting today. Chaired by Brice Curator, Dr Cicely Robinson. Speakers will include members of the Royal Society of Portrait Painters and Charlie Schaffer, winner of the BP Portrait Prize 2019.

Women Artists at the Slade

Wednesday 12 February
Doors open 6.45pm | 7pm
£12.50 | Friends £11.25
 

From its earliest days, the Slade School of Art admitted women students on equal terms to their male counterparts - much to the amusement, and even distaste, of many of their male peers. Art historical studies of the most famous of these women abound - Gwen John, Dame Laura Knight, Dora Corrington, and Gluck. Yet comparatively little exists about the women who came before them by barely a generation - Beatrice Offor, Mina Bergson and Annie Horniman. Dr Charlotte de Mille will reconstruct the experiences of these three friends and the possible inspiration they offered to those wishing to follow them.