The 2024 line-up of Suffolk SketchFest’s inspiring artist tutors are:-
Mary-Anne Bartlett, Claudia Myatt, Mark Boyd, Maxine Relton, Alice Angus, Roger Dellar, Karen Pearson, Julia Cassels, Tom Shepherd, Ian Sedge and Hilary Geelan.
We’re here to share our knowledge, experience and skills of drawing and painting outdoors.
Please check your timings as you book so your events don’t clash.
Registration £100: includes one art workshop, one artist demo and one guided sketching walk that you will need to select when booking! The price will then be automatically deducted at checkout. You can then add as many other events to your booking as you like.
Prices and length of sessions:
£18 – Workshops – 50mins
£12 – Demos & Appreciation Sessions – 30min
£18 – Guided Sketching Walks – 50mins
£50 – Half Day Workshop – 2.5-3hrs
£30 – Boat Trip – 1hr
£27 – Al fresco vegetarian supper on Friday night
Please add one workshop, one demo and one guided sketching walk to your booking.
All prices include VAT.
09:00 – Welcome and Registration
Included in your registration fee is one demo, one workshop and a Guided Sketching walk with one of our tutors. There is also a free storytelling and music event Friday and Saturday evening.
09:30 – Demo: Watercolour Tools (to take out sketching) – Claudia Myatt
Picking up an unfamiliar drawing tool leads us to make exciting new marks. This demo introduces a range of unusual tools to broaden your expressive mark-making. The intrigue of new pens, quills, feathers and sticks will take you into a new world of landscape sketching.
09:30 – Demo: The Drawing Apprentice – Mary-Anne Bartlett
In this introduction to drawing, you will find your own artistic voice and grow in confidence sketching outside from life, learn exciting new techniques and improve your drawing skills.
09:30 – Demo: Intro to Drawing and Seeing – Mark Boyd
Learn a few practical techniques to get you started and boost your confidence for painting outdoors.
09:30 – Workshop: Ink and Pen: Sketching on the move – Karen Pearson
Bring your sketchbook and join Karen to explore our beautiful surrounding area, capturing quick moments in time can be challenging when there is so much to see! Learn how to use ink and pen to create dynamic sketches and build your confidence in using materials that can’t be erased.
10:00 – Demo: Café Culture – Claudia Myatt
If you’ve had a busy morning and are in desperate need of a coffee break, then join Claudia Myatt for Café Culture. This is a lovely time to talk over your morning sketches with one of our tutors, reflect on what is working well and maybe finish off some half-drawn sketches with them on hand for any tricky questions or troubles you might have encountered.
10:00 – Workshop: New Horizons and Perspectives – Alice Angus
Lead with intuition and discover your painting style within our beautiful Suffolk landscapes, using perspective and horizon lines you will create a beautiful scenic painting with Alice’s expert tuition.
Discover an emotive way of painting to create atmosphere and landscapes full of depth!
10:00 – Half Day Workshop: Brushstroke Mastery (in a sketchbook) – Maxine Relton
A full morning of exploring various brushstrokes, with one-to-one tuition with Maxine guiding you through different gestural marks and general stroke vocabulary.
We will use Indian ink and a wide range of brushes on both sides of a large sheet of paper which is then folded into a book. Materials supplied.
10:00 – Half Day Workshop: Rising Tides Oil Painting – Roger Dellar
Get ready for a dynamic oil painting workshop! You’ll be capturing the rising Deben River. Roger kicks things off with an hour-long demo, showcasing his approach to this ever-changing scene.
Watch as he skilfully captures the morning light, ripples, and reflections, then embark on your own painting journey.
Roger will be by your side, offering guidance to help you portray the tranquil morning glow with bold brushstrokes and expert colour play.
10:30 – Demo: The Big Impact of Small Thumbnails – Mary-Anne Bartlett
Framing your focus is a huge factor when it comes to painting outside.
When we’re surrounded by vast landscapes with busy foregrounds and different points of interest, small thumbnails can give us a powerful snapshot that hints to the bigger picture of the scene.
In this demo Mary-Anne will show how a small thumbnail can have a big impact.
10:30 – Demo: Tide Mill and Atmosphere: sketching with watercolour – Karen Pearson
Enjoy watching Karen paint the iconic Tide Mill in watercolour, learn how she approaches composition and leads with intuition to create a painting full of atmosphere!
10:45 – Boat Trip: Sketching Afloat – Claudia Myatt
An opportunity to sketch afloat and see the river Deben from a different perspective! Departs from Robertson’s Boatyard (allow 10mins to walk there).
Please note we have a second boat trip on Saturday at 11.30am with Mary-Anne.
11:00 – Guided Sketching Walk – Mary-Anne Bartlett / Alice Angus
Join us for a 50 minute stop-start walk (less than one mile) along the river wall and learn sketching techniques that you’ll use forever. With the guidance of your art tutor, you’ll have pages of sketches and enjoyed this area of natural beauty.
11:00 – Workshop: Nature Journaling – Mark Boyd
Nature journaling is a wonderful way to connect with nature as you create beautiful pages of interesting descriptions and colourful illustrations. Mark will guide you through a process of questioning and observation, to build detailed pages with insightful notations. By the end, you’ll have vibrant, inquisitive pages filled with nature notes, drawings, and details.
11:30 – Demo: Skies the Limit – Karen Pearson
People are often scared when it comes to painting dramatic skies, as you must be brave and use bold sweeping brushstrokes to create a dynamic atmosphere. Our tutors will demonstrate how they approach these colourful Suffolk skies, and how they use clouds to create atmosphere and perfect their perspective. Soon enough you’ll be able to sweep any sunset straight onto your page, without a moment’s hesitation!
12:00 – Workshop: Creative Doodling, towards abstraction – Claudia Myatt
Take an exciting approach to looking at the river and its nature – being bold with your marks and your painting style. Using innovative approaches to make your sketches of this natural environment more contemporary, fun and full of character, you will come back with a series of ideas and sketches.
12:00 – Workshop: Setting the Scene in Colour – Karen Pearson
Engage in the process of colour mixing and learn how to make the most bright and complementary colours to paint the natural world around us – our grey mullet are not as colourful as this, but we have so much colour here along the river, let’s be brave with it!
Join Karen to pick up amazing colour theory tips, and enjoy new control over the rainbow in your paintbox.
12:00 – Workshop: Riverside, Wildlife & Atmosphere in Watercolour (Atmospheric Nature) – Alice Angus
Alice will share traditional and experimental approaches to drawing and watercolour techniques that will enable you to capture the atmosphere and thrill of the riverside.
She will encourage you to push your boundaries, sharing her enthusiasm for sketching outdoors, and her techniques for creating free and expressive paintings.
12:30 – Demo: Collage Creations: Drawing with Scissors – Mark Boyd
Unlock the secrets of collage with Mark’s expert techniques—transforming what may seem like a sticky situation into a captivating cut-and-stick masterpiece. Mark will show you how to create a quick scene whilst out and about, by simplifying the shapes and observations, building, and layering, to make a great collage creation.
13:00 – Workshop: Backgrounds for Expression – Mary-Anne Bartlett
Tuning into the landscape to hear its depths and resonances is part of this workshop, but it’s also about finding our own responses and our own favourite mark-making methods. It’s freeing and makes you even more engaged in the landscape and the wildlife that inhabits it.
13:00 – Lunchtime and Paper Demo with Two Rivers Paper
Enjoy some lunch, chat, sketch, share your drawings and enjoy a paper demonstration from Jim Patterson of Two Rivers Paper.
13:30 – Workshop: Concertina Sketchbook: Visual Storytelling for Creative Sketchers – Maxine Relton
On this creative exploration we will develop striking paintings on the go, developing images of the river in a flowing concertina sketchbook. Create visual stories in colour or in black & white to form a new narrative of the river, filling your pages with simplicity of line and monochrome, rich in story once the sketchbook is fully open.
13:30 – Workshop: Spellbinding Simple Sketchbooks – Hilary Geelan
In just under an hour you can create your own unique sketchbook, perfect for small works of art and expressing your individuality.
Learn this new skill – it’s great fun!
14:00 – Half Day Workshop: Riverside Summer Botanicals – Karen Pearson
Explore the wild reeds and grasses of our river landscape and illustrate their diversity in form, colour and details. Join us for a lovely summer afternoon to observe and sketch sea lavender, seaweed and salt plants to name a few!
14:00 – Half Day Workshop: Reflections and Tide Mill in Oils
Embark on a creative journey with Roger as he shares his approach to capturing the iconic Tide Mill structure and its mesmerizing reflection in the river.
In this engaging hour-long demonstration, Roger will showcase the use of alla prima oil paints, revealing insights into colour mixes, perspective lines, and expressive brush strokes.
Following the demo, you’ll have the opportunity to create your own oil painting of the scene, with Roger providing guidance and advice to help you craft a wonderful masterpiece.
14:00 – Workshop: Watercolour Tips and Tricks: Happy accidents (Fixing Mistakes when it all goes horribly wrong!) – Alice Angus
All is not lost!
One of the joys watercolour is the wonderful effects made by pigment and water. Sometimes it can be hard to control but results in beautiful “accidents”. Learn some great tips to make these effects work for you and your painting and how not to give-up when everything seems to have gone wrong.
14:00 – Workshop: Frequent Flyers: Birds of the Deben – Mark Boyd
Discover the fundamental techniques for sketching birds with ease. Our rivers and shores host a delightful variety of birdlife, from redshanks and oystercatchers to elegant swans and charming ducks. Learn how to capture their basic shapes, with sweeping lines and animated marks.
14:30 – Workshop: All Aboard! Watercolour Sailor – Claudia Myatt
All aboard to learn how to capture the shape, form, lines, details, and rhythms of a brilliant shipshape sketch.
Claudia will fill you with enthusiasm and share her nautical passion for sea sails, boats, and harbours.
15:00 – Guided Sketching Walk – Mary-Anne Bartlett / Mark Boyd
15:00 – Workshop: Energy of Line and Elements of Colour – Maxine Relton
Combine pen lines and watercolour washes to create lively and effective sketches. Sketching pens will be available to borrow and to buy as you learn a few tricks of the trade.
15:00 – Workshop: Big Chinese Brush Landscapes – Alice Angus
Enjoy experimenting with the stimulating power of a Chinese brush. Learn how to mix colour, create washes and fall in love with plein air painting without pencils! Embrace the spontaneity of watercolour and feel confident capturing the landscape quickly using this magic brush.
15:30 – Workshop: Sketchbook Secrets – Claudia Myatt
Skills and methods you never thought could be part of your toolbox! Discover sketchbook secrets to make your pages come to life, becoming a place to play, record, observe and plan. Learn how to use your sketchbook to develop your ideas, record observations and track your progress.
16:00 – Demo: Think Ink – Maxine Relton
Widen your brushstroke repertoire by watching the techniques of Maxine as she handles the richness of Indian ink with a wide range of brushes. Watch their demonstrations to uncover fresh approaches in mark-making and grasp the nuances of working with ink.
16:00 – Demo: Sketching Swallows and Swifts – Mark Boyd
The summer skies are alive with Swallows. Learn how to capture the graceful curves of their wings and distinctive forked tails. Mark will demonstrate how he captures their swift, agile flight and the intricate details of their sleek, streamlined bodies.
16:00 – Demo: Three Colour Painting – Alice Angus
Learn how to create a painting using just three colours, start with a dot of ultra-marine, burnt sienna and yellow ochre and mix the colours of the natural world around us.
Enjoy the way colour affects composition and appeal to create a painting full of life!
16:30 – Free Event: Throwdown
Bring your sketches and a cup of tea. Show others, share ideas and to talk about what you have seen and picked up today. This is an untutored session, though our tutors will try to be around!
17:00 – Free Music Event at Deben Yacht Club: Local Musicians – if you have an instrument, bring it too!
Enjoy listening to local musicians on this summer evening. You may know some of them already!
18:00 – Al Fresco Supper at Deben Yacht Club: All Welcome (please book in advance)
Join us for a delicious vegetarian dinner in the open air and enjoy a glass of something lovely/bubbly.
We will be at the Deben Yacht Club (near to the Bandstand) to enjoy sweeping views of the River Deben while we reflect on all the activity of the day
Please arrive any time from 5pm for the music.
09:30 – Demo: Direct Watercolour: Wet-in-wet and dry brush – Ian Sedge
Start your day with a demo!
Exploring the different wet and dry techniques with paper and brush to achieve multiple effects in our sketchbooks.
09:30 – Demo: Backgrounds for Expression – Tom Shepherd
Tuning into the landscape to hear its depths and resonances is what this demo is all about, but it’s also about finding our own responses and our own favourite mark-making methods.
It’s freeing and makes you even more engaged in the landscape and the wildlife that inhabits it.
Tom Shepherd’s approach will help you find new colourful expression to help highlight your subjects.
09:30 – Demo: Capturing People in Landscapes – Julia Cassels
Place people in landscapes and add narrative to your paintings, learn composition and perspective using all the inspiration we have on the river, from walking, sailing, swimming and kayaking!
10:00 – Demo: The Power of Monochrome – Ian Sedge
We take you through the simplification of creating an image in black and white, learn tone and value and create graphic paintings.
This is such a useful technique for any of us – and the results are really striking.
10:00 – Workshop: Exercises for Impactful Observation – Mark Boyd
These intensive exercises will loosen your drawing hand and open your eyes to capturing quick impressions of your surroundings – the river will never look the same again!
10:00 – Workshop: Quick and Simple Sketchbooks – Hilary Geelan
Making your own sketchbook is quick and simple!
Join Hilary and learn from her expertise and craftmanship, she’ll teach you how to create simplified sketchbooks using lots of various techniques!
In just one hour, you can learn to create personalised sketchbooks and sketchbook covers.
10:00 – Workshop: Chinese Brush Landscapes – Karen Pearson
Revolutionize your outdoor sketching with a watercolour brush. You will learn how to mix colour, create washes, find interesting defining lines so you can enjoy a new way of working outdoors – without pencils! We’ll concentrate on a Deben landscape with wild botanicals.
10:00 – Workshop: Gestural Figure Drawing (on the river wall) – Alice Angus
Join Alice to explore capturing people quickly in sketch as they stroll along the river’s edge. Learn invaluable tips on how to compose your figures, quick-handed techniques for on the go and also longer compositions adding colour to your characters.
10:00 – Workshop: Finding my feet in a new place – Tom Shepherd
Welcome to the Deben! Choose your subject and paint. There are boats, people, birds, dogs and all sorts to focus on – but which one? Make a landscape painting come to life without the fear of not being able to capture the moment.
Tom’s fearless paintings are so vibrant with colour and confident brushwork. You will be amazed at how he will help you see the points of interest and portray them with aplomb.
This is Tom’s first visit to Woodbridge, so there is a lot of truth in the title!
10:00 – Half Day Workshop: Watercolours: An oil painters technique – Roger Dellar
In his demos and tutorials Roger gives tips on how to compose and how to handle aspects of a watercolour painting from the perspective of an oil painter, sharing his techniques for colour mixing, paint application, brushwork, tone, capturing light and reflections. The immediacy of oil painting is exciting and rewarding, and Roger shows us how to transfer these skills to watercolour.
10:30 – Workshop: Skies for Perspective (towards the sea) – Julia Cassels
Join this workshop to discover Julia’s techniques for creating striking horizon lines over the sea. You will create stunning sky-drop backgrounds with watercolour and learn how to blend your sky into the ripples of the tide, preserving light and lustre.
11:00 – Demo: Waders and Waddlers – Mark Boyd
Learn about the wading birds we have along the River Deben, such as redshanks, swans and oystercatchers! Gain invaluable tips and tricks for sketching these birds and learn how to place them within our beautiful riverscape.
11:00 – Guided Sketching Walk – MAB / Ian Sedge
11:30 – Boat Trip: Sketching Afloat – Mary-Anne Bartlett
11:30 – Demo: Café Culture – Karen Pearson
If you’ve had a busy morning and are in desperate need of a coffee break, then join Karen Pearson for Café Culture.
This is a lovely time to talk over your morning sketches with one of our tutors, reflect on what is working well and maybe finish off some half-drawn sketches with them on hand for any tricky questions or troubles you might have encountered.
11:30 – Workshop: Paint with Purpose – Tom Shepherd
Join us for an engaging hour to explore our palettes and brush strokes with Tom Shepherd while we also think about the conservation issues impacting our UK rivers.
Choosing colours and themes is one thing, but the title of a painting can create even more resonance.
Use Tom’s thoughtful approach to paint and his love of being outdoors in beautiful areas like the River Deben will help channel your thoughts onto sketchbook pages.
You might be focusing on the wildlife, water levels and quality, mud flats, and reed beds to infuse your paintings with a deeper, more meaningful context.
Or you might use this as a way of creating more definite brushwork alongside a titled piece.
Let’s paint with purpose!
12:00 – Workshop: Nature’s Palette (watercolour) – Karen Pearson
Now’s the time to seek new playful and expressive ways of making your page come to life, responding to nature with all its sounds and rhythms. Learn how Karen creates the earthy colours of our natural environment and create wonderous paintings!
12:00 – Workshop: ‘Masts and Water’ with transparency and opacity – Alice Angus
Paint with confidence and discover useful tips and tricks for drawing boats in situ. Tackle all the common problem areas, such as perspective and 3D drawing. Enjoy the spirit and inventive nature of watercolour transparencies to create various depths in your paintings, exploring mast reflections in the water and how to set the scene.
12:00 – Workshop: The Play of Light on Water – Julia Cassels
Expressively paint these ever changing illusions of light and water. Learn how they work together and approach this appealing subject in lines, tones and shades.
Overcome the challenges of watercolour with this exciting and intuitive workshop.
12:00 – Workshop: Printmaking Outdoors – Mark Boyd
Printing is exciting, totally involving and so very satisfying! Come and learn all about simple print techniques and be amazed at how you can print mini-editions of the world around you. With Mark’s humorous energy and expert tuition, you’ll have fun and gain an inventive way of creating sketches using printmaking!
12:30 – Demo: Pencil Simplicity and Mark Marking – Ian Sedge
Express yourself with mark-making using the humble pencil, explore the quality of line and the strength of tone, learning how to best use your pencils for shading and dynamic drawing.
13:00 – Lunchtime and free paper making talk / demo by Jim Patterson of Two Rivers Paper
Enjoy some lunch, chat, sketch, share your drawings and enjoy a paper demonstration from Jim Patterson.
13:30 – Appreciation Session: Taking Your Sketches Further – Mark Boyd
Gain valuable insights from our experienced tutors to help you progress with your artwork.
13:30 – Workshop: Dialogues Between Line And Colour Wash – Karen Pearson
The combination of line and wash is an inspiring mix, creating art with a lustrous and illustrative style. Learn a few tips about how to combine vibrant watercolour washes with dynamic pen lines and form your own unique lively paintings.
13:30 – Workshop: Surreptitious Sketches – Tom Shepherd
Learn how to sketch inconspicuously whilst out and about in busy locations, capturing moments when others aren’t looking.
13:30 – Workshop: Marker Pens for Impact – Ian Sedge
Sharpen your drawing skills and observe the countryside in a new way! Learn to simplify individual objects by ignoring all light values and half-tones using a single broad black marker pen (supplied). Isolate only the darkest shapes, connecting them to form exciting compositions, this workshop is set to give your brain an inspirational workout!
13:30 – Half Day Workshop: Everyday People – Roger Dellar
It’s a revelation to watch how Roger Dellar teaches portraiture, treating the face as a landscape to be discovered and revealed. His gentle teaching manner will encourage you to tackle portraits. He’s a master in helping others develop painting skills.
Under Roger’s practical guidance you find poise and assurance in your painting as well as new creative observation. Following the progression of a painting through the duration of the workshop means that you will have a firm understanding of oil techniques.
14:00 – Half Day Workshop: Unexpected and Dynamic Perspectives on the River Deben (wildlife, tides and manmade in watercolour) – Alice Angus
The Deben is a wonderful landscape of wild nature and manmade; tides, birds, plants, mudflats, hand built boats and modern structures with a rich history. The dynamic visual relationships, textures and details between these different elements can used to create exciting paintings.
In this workshop we will experiment with contrasting shapes, textures and colours, think about perspective, composition and atmospheric effects to bring energy and excitement.
Alice’s tuition leaves you with a wonderful freedom.
We will form several thumbnail sketches with different perspectives and craft a longer composition.
14:00 – Half Day Workshop: Transparent Layer on Layer – Julia Cassels
Unearth the fundamentals of watercolour layering in this thorough afternoon of painting! Learn the skills needed to keep your colours fresh and full of depth, allowing your layers to increase the vibrancy and light in your paintings.
14:00 – Demo: Water-soluble Pencil Play – Mark Boyd
Dive into the vibrant world of water-soluble pens and pencils as your go-to companions for outdoor sketching! In this lively demo, we’ll breeze through exciting techniques, unleashing the magic of playing with edges, shapes, shadows, and a medley of colours.
14:30 – Workshop: The Magic of Colour – Ian Sedge
Ian’s painting’s are packed full of colour, join him on this exciting workshop exploring how you can use colour to inject personality into your artwork. You will discover your own artistic style by experimenting and playing, gaining knowledge about colour theory and which colours to use to illustrate different moods.
14:30 – Workshop: Miniatures Made Large – Tom Shepherd
In this inventive and exciting workshop to commemorate the 50th Anniversary of Dungeons and Dragons, Tom will explore ways in which you can place small objects within large landscapes – allowing narratives to unfold.
You will learn how to retain points of focus and interest in your paintings by learning all the various ways we can use this technique.
Perhaps we’ll have time to visit the Aardvarks & Dragons shop close by and let our imaginations run wild! Tom joins Mary-Anne in Zambia this September for hippos and more… there are no hippos on the Deben…
15:00 – Demo: People in Motion – Karen Pearson
Drawing people can be daunting and many will avoid sketching them altogether! Learn how to capture impressions of figures in motion, the tips for painting people quickly and placing them within the landscape.
15:00 – Guided Sketching Walk – Mark Boyd / MAB
15:00 – Workshop: Big Chinese Brush Landscapes – Mary-Anne Bartlett
Enjoy experimenting with the power of a Chinese brush. Learn how to mix colour simply with this large brush. Fall in love with plein air painting without pencils!
With large washes and layering you can embrace the spontaneity of watercolour and feel confident capturing the landscape quickly using this magic brush.
We have brushes for you to borrow!
16:00 – Demo: Let the Painting Speak – Ian Sedge
Paint more than what your eyes see alone and start creating passion paintings full of your own artistic expression. Embrace the exchange between you and the painting and learn to lead with intuition, confidence and spontaneity. This workshop will rid self-doubt and you will have unique, soulful artwork by the end of it!
16:00 – Demo: The Spaces Between The Boats – Tom Shepherd
We look at playing with negative space between the boats on the quay to better understand their shape and form, and how we can bring them to life in our sketchbooks.
17:00 – Free Storytelling Event: Suffolk Stories and Legends – Anne Pitcher
Put down your brushes and join professional storyteller Anne Pitcher, as she weaves a tapestry of tales, capturing the ebb and flow of the river’s wildlife and people, past and present through story!
17:00 – Free Paper-Making Talk/Demo – Jim Patterson who makes superb handmade paper for watercolour artists.
18:00 – Al Fresco Supper: All Welcome
Join us for fish and chips on the River Wall. Please place your order in cash and pay before 13:00 at the front desk – we’ll have a menu! We will fetch it for you.
08:30 – Welcome and Registration
08:30 – Workshop: The Early Bird Gets The Worm – Mark Boyd
Join us to enjoy the early morning tranquillity of the river and absorb the sounds, smells and sights that we’re blessed to marvel at on the quay.
We will focus on short drawing exercises for loosening you up and preparing you for a whole day of sketching!
The swans found on the Deben are Mute, not Bewick or Whooper swans that Mark finds on his bird sketching workshops in Norfolk during the winter.
09:00 – Workshop: Creative Chaos – Ian Sedge
Ian’s lively and enigmatic approach to painting will inspire you to loosen you style and unleash pure creativity and chaos.
Sometimes a river scene can be full of chaotic colour, masts, water, clouds and so many things to entice or distract the eye. We’ll navigate this chaos and create.
Together, we’ll explore vibrant techniques for capturing the scene, with oojects, figures and landscapes, discovering how to respond to them in a way that infuses your work with movement and energy.
09:00 – Demo: Simplicity in Watercolour – Julia Cassels
Complicated riverscapes, boat clutter and a confusion of colour can be simplified. Watch how Julia whittles down a busy subject to a clam scene that captures the serenity of a beautiful place.
09:00 – Half Day Workshop: The Outdoor Artist – Maxine Relton
Enjoy a guided sketching walk through an area of outstanding natural beauty, admiring the riverscape and estuarine wildlife, you will be immersed in inspiration and sketches. We will locate a serene painting spot where you can create a plein-air sketch with the support of your art tutor, and uncover valuable tips for painting outdoors during this enriching experience!
09:30 – Demo: Measuring Proportions in Drawing – Claudia Myatt
Watch Claudia measure scale and learn how to correctly depict proportions when sketching on a time limit, she will show you how to best to capture the landscape using a few simple methods of measuring distance and perspective.
09:30 – Workshop: Sutton Hoo Ship – Julia Cassels
A re-development of an Anglo-Saxon King’s burial ship is being built in The Longshed, ninety-foot long and full of past-time history! Join Julia to discover this resurrected ship, learning how to tackle it’s challenging perspective and capture it’s magnificent grandeur on paper.
We have special permission to sketch this amazing ship and are treated to a behind the scenes experience!
10:00 – Workshop: Big Chinese Brush Landscapes – Mary-Anne Bartlett
10:00 – Workshop: Nautical Patterns and Knots – Claudia Myatt
Discover the delightful world of patterns surrounding you – from the spirals of a seashell to the rhythmic waves along a shore.
Claudia invites you to spot patterns everywhere, focusing on the intricate details of vessels and a plethora of knots along the quay!
It’s all about quick drawings and the joy of observation.
10:00 – Half Day Workshop: The Power of Backgrounds – Tom Shepherd
Creating a powerful background that exudes impact can take your paintings to new levels.
Enjoy a full afternoon with Tom to experiment with mixes of colour, watercolour washes and dynamic compositions.
You will create stunning landscape backdrops and emotive sceneries.
By the end of this workshop you will fall in love with the spontaneity of watercolour and feel confident capturing magnificent backgrounds full of life!
10:30 – Half Day Workshop: The Outdoor Artist – Mark Boyd
Enjoy a guided sketching walk through an area of outstanding natural beauty, admiring the riverscape and estuarine wildlife, you will be immersed in inspiration and sketches.
We will locate a serene painting spot where you can create a plein-air sketch with the support of your art tutor, and uncover valuable tips for painting outdoors during this enriching experience!
10:30 – Workshop: Creative Chaos – Ian Sedge
A second chance to join Ian for Creative Chaos!
Ian’s lively and enigmatic approach to painting will inspire you to loosen you style and unleash pure creativity and chaos. Together, we’ll explore vibrant techniques for capturing figures and landscapes, discovering how to respond to them in a way that infuses your work with movement and energy.
11:00 – Workshop: Sutton Hoo Treasure – Claudia Myatt
Discover the treasures of Sutton Hoo!
Exploring our Anglo-Saxon heritage and enjoying the colours and patterns that are on some of the treasures found less than a mile from here.
Claudia will guide you through a simple process of making patterns.
Anglo Saxon knot-work is so satisfying.
11:00 – Demo: Café Culture – Mary-Anne Bartlett
If you’ve had a busy morning and are in desperate need of a coffee break, then join Mary-Anne for Café Culture. This is a lovely time to talk over your morning sketches with one of our tutors, reflect on what is working well and maybe finish off some half-drawn sketches with them on hand for any tricky questions or troubles you might have encountered.
11:30 – Demo: River-bank Restfulness – Julia Cassels
Kick back and relax by the river’s edge as you watch how Julia works her watercolour magic.
You’ll have front row seats to see how she puts together a beautifully refined watercolour scene in just half an hour.
12:00 – Workshop: Kingston Water Meadows – Julia Cassels
Spend time sketching scenes straight out of a Constable painting. The Kingston water meadows are an enchanting wetland full of inspiration to paint, inhabited by cows and birdlife, full of interesting plants and flanked by willows on one side. Join us to paint with vigour and add atmosphere in your paintings.
12:00 – Guided Sketching Walk – Mary-Anne Bartlett
Join us for a 50 minute stop-start walk (less than one mile) along the river wall and learn sketching techniques that you’ll use forever.
With the guidance of your art tutor, you’ll have pages of sketches and enjoyed this area of natural beauty.
12:00 – Workshop: Vibrant Colour and Line Drawing: Urban Sketching Style – Ian Sedge
A sketchbook is not supposed to be a flipbook of masterpieces. It’s your personal place to play, plan, experiment, record and observe your artistic adventures. Ian will show some of his favourite tips and tricks for creating vibrant urban sketchers, full of life and energy! Graphic and illustrative, this is a style that tells of being present! Use inks or watercolour.
12:30 – Demo: Simplicity in Watercolour – Claudia Myatt
Watch how Claudia whittles down a busy subject to a clam scene that captures the serenity of a beautiful place.
Complicated riverscapes, boat clutter and a confusion of colour can be simplified.
13:00 – Lunchtime and talk about Paper with Jim Patterson from Two Rivers Paper
13:30 – Appreciation Session: Taking Your Sketches Further – Claudia Myatt
13:30 – Demo: Water-soluble Pencil Play – Maxine Relton
13:30 – Demo: Relaxing Colour and Contrasting Lines – Mary-Anne Bartlett
The tideline is ever-changing, much like the subtle and relaxing colours of nature. Learn to mix the colours of the salt marsh and muddy shoreline using watercolours and discover all the tips needed to paint without your palette turning into the wrong kind of mud. Learn how to add contrasting lines of manmade objects along the river to enhance your artwork into dynamic paintings.
13:30 – Demo: Expanses of Sky: Big Brush Watercolour – Ian Sedge
Our summer skies are wonderous to paint, vivid with swifts and deckled in puffy clouds. Paint our expansive sky with beautiful big strokes of watercolour. Absorb some of Ian’s blue-sky mind and learn how to create the right tones of colour, perspective and techniques for an energetic painting.
13:30 – Demo: Tide Mill Drawing and Planning – Julia Cassels
Learn how to capture the iconic Woodbridge Tide Mill, watch and learn from Julia as she figures out composition and sketches perspective. Tackling any common problem areas artists may face when drawing architecture.
13:30 – Workshop: The Joy of Exploring – Tom Shepherd
The Deben’s area of outstanding natural beauty gives inspiring subjects for nature sketching and there is so much to explore!
Join Tom Shepherd to create playful and inquisitive sketches of our surroundings, witnessing the ebb and flow of the tide, the gentle rise and fall of the water, and the mesmerizing dance of sunlight transforming the landscape.
Capture the ever-changing moods that make the riverscape an enchanting canvas of continuous exploration.
14:00 – Workshop: Embellishing: Creating narratives with words on sketches – Claudia Myatt
A sketchbook journal may contain words to describe the place, mood, colours, and smells of a place you’ve visited. Join Claudia as she explores different ways of enhancing your sketchbook pages with words! You will add to the narrative and enhance the ingenuity of your artwork, discovering a new way of playing with your pages.
14:00 – Demo: Simplify your Scene – Mark Boyd
Sketching from life can be daunting when looking at the intricacies of our landscape. Mark will make you feel comfortable sketching a scene in bite sized chunks, using techniques and tips his developed over the years. You will gain insight of how to simplify the landscape using shapes, lines and impressions.
14:00 – Workshop: Memory and Imagination – Ian Sedge
Join Ian to explore innovative approaches to painting from our memories and imaginations, let’s be wild and unleash our creativity with a big bold painting style!
You’ll have lots of fun and return with a series of expressive artworks.
Playing with imperfection and creating happy accidents can free you up from yourself, if you’re a timid sketcher then this workshop is for you!
14:00 – Workshop: Watercolour Tide Mill – Julia Cassels
Step into the charm of Woodbridge’s landscape with this iconic building as the subject of your canvas.
Countless artists have painted its beauty, and now it’s your turn! Julia will show you the best way to approach this much-loved building and capture its bright white allure with beautiful watercolour.
14:30 – Demo: River Birds – Tom Shepherd
Join Tom as he captures some of the shorebirds we have on the river, such as oystercatchers, redshanks and swans. By tuning into nature you will learn how to capture moving birds quickly, focusing on the stand-out features that identifies each bird and adding strokes of colour to make vibrant paintings.
15:00 – Final Gathering & Prize Giving
Let’s spread out our art work along the tables and share the stories of the festival.
Two Rivers Paper’s prize: £100
Rosemary’s Brushes prize: £50 voucher
Rosemary’s Brushes prize: £25 voucher
Art Safari’s prize: A print by Mary-Anne Bartlett
Art Safari’s prize: Art Safari A3 sketchbook
Travel Africa’s prize: A year’s subscription to Travel Africa
Miller’s prize: Bag of Tide Mill flour
BOOKING FORM – click here!